That Actually Hurt

That Actually Hurt is the fifth entry in the first season and the fifth overall, airing April 9, 2021, from a script by Christine Lavaf and directed by Jay Baker. Riding high on his new powers, Mark accepts a risky alliance with the local villain Titan to topple the crime lord Machine Head, all while trying to balance school and his budding relationship with Amber. The episode weaves Titan's double life, Mark's chronic tardiness, and Eve's growing independence into a story that ends with Invincible gravely wounded and a hidden schemer coming out ahead.

Titan approaches Invincible on a rooftop and convinces him that toppling Machine Head would mean genuinely helping ordinary people. Against Nolan's warning that he is being used, Mark agrees, and the two break into Machine Head's building only to find the crime lord waiting for them. Isotope teleports in a small army of supervillains, including Battle Beast, who overwhelm Invincible and Titan as Omni-Man silently watches from the sky. The newly formed Guardians of the Globe arrive after an anonymous tip, but even they are battered, with Invincible left bleeding out and rushed into GDA care.

The episode closes on a twist: Isotope actually answers to Titan, who orchestrated the entire operation to seize control of the city for the sake of his family. Elsewhere, Debbie discovers Damien Darkblood's notebook and confirms her mounting suspicions about Nolan, Eve walks out on her disapproving parents, and Robot recruits the Mauler Twins for their cloning expertise. A final lab scene notes that Viltrumite cells simply refuse to die. The title nods to a line Invincible speaks in the nineteenth issue of the comic after taking a hit from the Tether Tyrant.