Check out my previous recap here!

Episode 7: “We Need To Talk”

There is just so much to unpack here…

(Warning: Spoilers Below!)

This episode really caught me off guard, much the same way Mark is caught off guard by the revelation that his dad is a murderer. I’ve mentioned before how I’m a big fan of the comic and I’m really enjoying the way they’re adapting Kirkman’s original stories by condensing some plot threads and fleshing others out. This episode takes that to a whole new level.

Oh and I love how the episode starts with Atom Eve making french press coffee with her powers. It’s not important, but it’s a nice touch. Although this one ends with a similar cliffhanger to Issue 9 of the comic, A LOT of this episode was completely fresh! Let’s just say, they turned up the intensity to 11! (As if this wasn’t intense enough!)

But before we get into that, let’s first focus on the B-Story: Robot (revealed to be anything but) has hired the Mauler Twins to clone him a new body (from Rex Splode’s DNA) so that he can trasnfer his conciousness from his tragically deformed test tube state.

The procedure is a success and we get a heartfelt, if not disturbing, fairwell to Robot’s… err Rudy’s original form. Soon after however, the Mauler’s expect their compensation and Rudy turns the tables on them, telling them matter of factly that they’re going back to prison. Naturally, fight ensues, but Rudy is ready with a few drones up his sleeve, including his own personal Optimus Prime style mech that transforms from a truck!

But before Robot can capture the Maulers, he gets an “apocalyptic” level alert and flies off to Guardians HQ!

Meanwhile, Mark tries to come clean with Amber about his secret identity, but unfortunately, it’s too little too late – because she already had figured it out and was mostly pissed that he didn’t trust her.

After talking things over with William (who sides with Amber), he flies to see Atom Eve, who also says that he’s being selfish.

However, while Mark’s caught up in his own personal melodrama, Nolan and Debbie’s confrontation reaches a breaking point: Debbie tells him to “Get out of her f#$%ing house” and Nolan does just that by flying through the rood and destroying said house!

Suddenly, Cecil Stedman appears and reveals that they’ve been monitoring the situation and extracts her to safety back at GDA command. We watch helplessly as the agency tracks Nolan, ripping through their forces with gruesome ease in search of his son.

We get a really tense moment between Nolan and William, where Nolan (in his full Omni-Man suit) asks him where Mark is, without any concern over his identity and all but threatens him, denting his car with his bare hands! William nervously explains that his cellphone died in the last episode and Nolan flies off.

As Nolan’s heading towards Mark and Eve at Mach 5, Cecil attempts to intercept him to buy some time by first blowing up a whole suburban block, before unleashing an Akira style laser satellite weapon! “$400 billion for the world’s most expensive nosebleed.” He then teleports in to confront Nolan face to face. I swear I was biting my nails during this entire scene, especially when he teleports away just in time as Nolan snatches his tie! That’s when Cecil unleashes a platoon of “Reanimen” – the cyborg zombies from the last episode! Reanimated soldiers serving their country one last time…

When that doesn’t work, the GDA throws a freaking kaiju at him! During all this, the New Guardians find out that they’re “The last hope against Omni-Man”. Unfortunately, Mark didn’t get the memo, so when he sees his dad getting demolished by a giant Cthulhu monster, he rushes in to help him. If it wasn’t for his dad being a murdering psycho, this would be an awesome father/son superhero team up, but we all know this isn’t going to have a happy ending. That’s when Eve gets a call from Cecil warning her to stay back. This whole time, Debbie is forced to watch helplessly from the sidelines as this giant monster threatens to kill her husband and son.

Elsewhere, we see the Mauler Twins putting The Immortal back together and he lives up to his name when he comes to. We get my favorite moment in this entire episode when we see a montage of flashbacks to The Immortal’s backstory – he’s thousands if not millions of years old and we even get a reference to the fact that he was Abraham Lincoln! Just like in the comics, it’s handled like a minor detail, but I love that they kept it in, it’s just such a cool, weird throwaway reference. Anywho, Super Lincoln is pissed and immediately yells “Where’s Omni-Man?!” before flying off in a rage.

The Immortal (Ross Marquand aka Aaron from The Walking Dead) tackles Nolan and the two have a pretty epic aerial battle that ends with Omni-Man thrusting his fist through his chest, before chopping him in half, killing him again! – But this time, on live TV, in front of the whole world, including his son…

And it ends just like Issue 10 with Nolan turning to his son, covered in blood and just says “We need to talk…”

TO BE CONTINUED… Click here for my review of the Season 1 Finale!

Erik Slader is an author, podcaster, and full-time nerd. He’s the co-author of the “Epic Fails” book series (The Wright Brothers: Nose-Diving Into History, The Age of Exploration: Totally Getting Lost, etc) and the creator of Epik Fails of History, a podcast and blog about the most epic fails… of history. He’s also a co-host on 2 Young 4 This Trek: A Star Trek Podcast, and an editor / frequent contributor on Podcasters Assemble. ErikSlader.com