Invincible Season 3, Episode 2 Review – “A Deal with the Devil”

After a scattered first chapter, the second episode of Invincible’s three-part season premiere (titled “A Deal With the Devil”) makes for a wonderfully streamlined addition to the series’ backstory. It lays out the cards for the show’s third season in surprising ways, as a rare flashback-heavy episode that adds layers and dimensions to GDA ringleader Cecil Stedman. And it does so in a way that finally makes Walton Goggins’ restrained performance click.

After a young, fresh-faced Cecil comes face to face with a pair of supervillain doomsday cultists, stopping them to save the world leaves him wounded, emotionally and figuratively. It turns out the scar on his right cheek is actually the last remnant of his real flesh; a toxic chemical (that would’ve killed thousands without his interference) practically skinned him alive. In an echo of themes that are, at this point in season 3, still starting to emerge, the GDA pieced Cecil back together, the same way he would eventually do for others.

This idealistic version of the character is not unlike Mark/Invincible in his refusal to work alongside vicious killers. But after a stint in prison, he’s convinced otherwise by his boss, who sees in him the potential to set things right. “We can be the good guys, or we can be the guys who save the world. We can’t be both,” he’s told ­– advice that goes on to become his mantra, illuminating his extreme worldview in the process.

Back in the present, the episode picks up where the last one left off, with Cecil and his cyborg ReAnimen confronting Mark after the GDA’s employment of the murderous Darkwing and Sinclair comes to light. Mark won’t stand for re-purposing villains and weapons, a perspective that would’ve seemed like perfectly logical and acceptable just an episode prior. But “A Deal With the Devil” complicates things.

A fight ensues and Mark runs to the other Guardians for help, revealing that Cecil – in addition to resurrecting fallen soldiers as androids – has also implanted Mark with a debilitating sonic beacon. Then again, given the aggression with which the uber-powered Mark confronts Cecil, can you blame him? It’s hard not to sound like a megalomaniac when discussing this episode (or at least, a megalomania apologist), but its POV reversal is nothing if not effective. In fact, it even has subtle callbacks to earlier seasons that assist this. Mark goes apeshit on the ReAnimen, slaughtering them left and right, in a scene reminiscent of his father, Nolan/Omni-Man, viciously murdering the original Guardians of the Globe. It’s hard not to be at least slightly afraid of what he might do.

Nolan and the Viltrumite war are still a ways away (in the storyline and astronomically), but this episode imbues the oncoming challenge with dramatic heft by separating the Guardians along ideological lines. There are those who side with Mark and believe Cecil has gone too far, and there are those that forgive the mechanics of the GDA, and its evil (or imperfect) actions for the greater good. The supporting cast (i.e. Atom Eve and Mark’s family) only factor into a handful of scenes, but they pertain to this very same ongoing debate, and the question of how Mark should proceed.

Continuing to work with Cecil is, as the episode’s title suggests, a deal with the Devil, and it’s a deal a number of the Guardians take. But the title is revealed to have an even deeper and more tragic meaning: The episode’s final flashback depicts the pivotal meeting between Cecil and Nolan when the latter arrives on Earth, claiming to be its altruistic new protector. The truth of his fascistic intent wouldn’t be known for decades, but it turns out Cecil had actually sussed it out early on, and still allowed Nolan to help the GDA. The episode’s flashback structure seems to imply that selling his soul in this fashion is why Cecil (and Goggins’ portrayal of him) maintains his dead-eyed tone. He’s a husk of the person he once was, having learned what it takes – emotionally, physically, and ethically – to get the job done.

The episode may have a one-track mind (the question of Mark and Eve’s romance is relegated to a mid-credits tag), but it’s among the most effective bits of drama across all of Invincible. It may have taken a while, but Cecil has suddenly become one of the most complex characters in the entire show, making the promise of season 3 all the more exciting.