It's Been a While

After abandoning Earth, a guilt-ridden Nolan drifts through space and nearly lets a black hole take him, until a doomed passenger ship changes his mind. He rescues its people, returns them to the world of Thraxa, and is made their ruler. In the present, Mark arrives on Thraxa expecting a threat and instead embraces his father, then reels to discover Nolan now has a new wife, Andressa, and an infant half-brother. On Earth, a hollowed-out Debbie visits Nolan's empty grave and questions whether their marriage was ever real, while Donald uncovers strange evidence about himself at the ruined site of Nolan's last stand.

Father and son argue bitterly before three Viltrumites descend to raze Thraxa's cities. Mark shelters Andressa and the baby, apologizing for his harsh words, then is nearly killed by the warrior Lucan until Nolan intervenes and impales him. When the Graysons return to a palace filled with Thraxan corpses, Nolan finally grasps the horror of what he once planned for Earth. Two more Viltrumites, Vidor and Thula, arrive, forcing a brutal two-on-two fight in which Nolan urges Mark to embrace his heritage. The tide turns until a recovered Lucan flies in and shatters Nolan's spine, declaring the mission complete.

On Earth, Art lifts Debbie's spirits, and she meets with Cecil to have her memories of Nolan removed and to cut ties with the GDA's support, though he warns her against it. Meanwhile Eve battles Killcannon on a crowded bridge, and Donald discovers he is neither fully human nor truly the original. As Nolan is dragged away for execution, he begs Mark to read his books. Later, General Kregg installs Mark as Earth's new Viltrumite agent, threatening mass slaughter if he refuses, and a returning Mauler Twin coldly murders his own newly-grown clone.

It is revealed how Nolan reached Thraxa and became its monarch, and Mark meets his infant half-brother Oliver for the first time. The Graysons fight a squad of Viltrumites, and Nolan is defeated, crippled and taken to a Viltrumite prison to await execution.

Debbie decides to have Nolan erased from her memory and refuses further GDA funding. Kregg appoints Mark as the empire's agent on Earth under threat of extinction-level reprisal, and Donald learns he is not the person he believed himself to be.

The title references a line Omni-Man speaks in the comic's twenty-fifth issue when he confronts his son again. This chapter closes the first half of Season 2 and marks the final appearance of Nolan in his classic Omni-Man costume. General Kregg, first heard in the Season 1 finale, returns voiced by Clancy Brown.

Nolan's books, which Debbie gives away, hint at future story elements including Space Racer and the beast-like Rognarrs. A moment where Nolan tells Mark to act rather than think calls back to the finale's famous line, and Kregg's warning that the empire will check on Mark's progress foreshadows Anissa's later arrival.