At the end of Invincible Season 2, Episode 5, “This Must Come As A Shock,” Rex-Splode (Jason Mantzoukas) was about to be executed at point-blank range by King Lizard (Scoot McNairy). And then in this week’s episode, “It’s Not That Simple,” he was shot right in the head. So how did Rex survive in Invincible?
Great question, and one that’s perhaps a little clearer in the comic book pages, from the Image Comics book by Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley, than it is on TV. So let’s get all Zapruder tape on this one and explain just how Rex survived this traumatic experience.
How Did Rex Survive In Invincible? Here’s What We Know From The Comics And TV Show:
Look, let’s get this out of the way. It’s pretty clear Rex is in very bad shape after his experiences with the Lizard League. He led a mission along with Dupli-Kate (Malese Jow) and Shrinking Rae (Grey Griffin) to take them down, not realizing the villain team had leveled up.
As we’ve already detailed on this site, Dupli-Kate was murdered by Komodo Dragon (Jay Pharoah), who smushed her final two dupes together in a disgusting mass of flesh. Trying to avenge Dupli-Kate’s death, Shrinking Rae attacked, only to get swallowed and seemingly consumed by the baddie (don’t worry, she survived). And then Komodo Dragon bit off Rex’s hand… But not before he could charge it up, blowing up Komodo Dragon’s head.
With bone protruding and massive loss of blood, Rex seemingly had no fight left in him. He was cornered by King Lizard, who put a gun to his head. And as noted, in this episode, KL shot RS in the head.
However, here’s the key thing here: turns out King Lizard is a very bad shot. Let’s take a look at it from directly on, from the Prime Video series:
From this angle, things look pretty bad, right? King Lizard shot Rex through the back of his head and brain, straight through the front of his head. That’s some very specific direction — or misdirection — so you don’t know what’s really going on.
Let’s instead take a look at another angle from the show to see where and how King Lizard is holding the guy right before he shoots Rex:
The show avoids this angle for the most part because it would tip their hand too much. But there, you can plainly see King Lizard isn’t holding the gun right to the back of Rex’s head. Instead, he’s pointing at an angle. So when he shoots Rex, it goes through the side of his head, instead of right on.
It’s a little clearly in the comic book page, by the way, from Invincible #41:
How Did Rex Survive A Head Wound? It’s More Likely Than You May Think
Now, I’m no doctor but clearly, this is a traumatic wound. But it’s also not necessarily a deadly one. Plenty of people have survived head trauma like this, the most famous of whom is Phineas Gage, a railroad man who had a spike shot through his head and survived. Gage took a long time to recover, and the wound impacted his memory and personality — afterward, he was often prone to fits of rage and crying jags — but he lived the rest of his life with a hole in his brain.
As for Rex, same thing, albeit he’s also a cartoon and a superhero with future tech able to help him heal. He’s already showing more humanity and remorse in this episode’s conversation with Invincible (Steven Yeun) than he has in most of the series so far. Whether that’s a normal emotional response or a side-effect of his traumatic brain injury, TBD. But as is, he’s going to be mostly fine. Up until he dies.
Invincible Season 2 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
Invincible Season 2 Part 2 officially premiered on Prime Video on Thursday, March 14 at 3 am ET / 12 am PT. Though Season 2 is eight episodes long, only one episode will premiere on Thursday, followed by the next three Thursdays.
Here’s the full list of episodes in Invincible Season 2:
- Thursday, November 2, 2023: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 1 – “A Lesson For Your Next Life”
- Thursday, November 9, 2023: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 2 – “In About Six Hours, I Lose My Virginity to A Fish”
- Thursday, November 16, 2023: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 3 – “This Missive, This Machination!”
- Thursday, November 23, 2023: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 4 – “It’s Been A While”
- Thursday, March 14, 2024: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 5 – “This Must Come As A Shock”
- Thursday, March 21, 2024: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 6 – “It’s Not That Simple”
- Thursday, March 28, 2024: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 7 – “I’m Not Going Anywhere”
- Thursday, April 4, 2024: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 8 – “I Thought You Were Stronger” *Season Finale*
