S4 E6: You Look Horrible

The Coalition's war against the Viltrum Empire begins as Nolan and Oliver wait for Mark to heal.

Tropes:

• Adaptation Deviation: Nolan attempts to explain to Oliver that, despite everything Conquest did as a villain, he at least deserves a proper burial as a Viltrumite warrior. Unlike the comic, Oliver doesn't let him finish, saying that Nolan just doesn't realize how much damage he did on Earth. 
• Alien Blood: The Data Twins have green blood, as shown when Twin 2 is shot in the head.
• Armor-Piercing Question: During the confrontation with his father, Oliver tearfully asks if he was a mistake just like how the latter insulted Andressa about being a mistake during his previous argument with Debbie.
  Oliver: Am I a mistake too?
• Asleep for Days: Mark spends a couple months in a coma as his organs heal.
• Bait-and-Switch: The Stinger returns to Conquest's grave as the music begins to ominously build. The camera draws in closer as the music swells, invoking the potential of a Raised Hand of Survival... only for the music to abruptly cut out and the camera to return to a distant shot as dust blows by, confirming that he really is dead this time.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Allen is being tag-teamed by Lucan and Kradd when Zoe returns with Space Racer, who blasts a hole through Kradd, killing him instantly.
  • Thragg's attack on Talescria is going poorly for the Coalition, as their heavy-hitters are outnumbered six-to-three, but the arrival of Nolan, Oliver and Mark evens the odds and Thragg orders a retreat when his ship is destroyed.
• Big "NO!": Thragg lets out one as Argall's skull falls out of the ship Mark and Oliver destroyed. He manages to grab it, however.
• Bizarre Alien Biology:
  • While bonding with Nolan, Oliver tells his father about a lobster he once saw at a seafood restaurant, which he describes as being "beautiful" and that it made him feel "fizzy" inside, implying Oliver is more sexually attracted to arthropods than he is to humans, which is likely due to his Thraxan DNA. He still ate it though.
  • Headshots are evidently nothing more than a flesh wound for the bulbous-headed Data Twins' species.
• Boom, Headshot!: Data Twin 1 shoots his brother in the head for his betrayal, though this is treated as an annoyance rather than a serious wound.
• Call-Back: When explaining to Nolan how Earth doesn't feel like Home to him, Oliver mentions the friends he had last season but he has since aged so much they can't relate to each other anymore.
• Calling the Old Man Out: While training, Oliver calls out Nolan over what he said about Andressa to Debbie, revealing he was eavesdropping on them. Nolan can only explain that he wants to at least try to be a father to Oliver, though he doesn't feel the same way. Nolan later gets the chance to better explain that he didn't consider his time spent with Andressa a mistake, and was just trying to not hurt Debbie even more when they met again.
• Colony Drop: After Mark and Oliver destroy Thragg's Viltrumite Warship, it begins to slowly fall onto Talescria. When Mark and Oliver are unable to stop it from falling, the remaining six Coalition members come in to help them throw it into space.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Oliver's first practice bout with Nolan is about as one-sided as one would expect. What truly highlights the gulf however is that Nolan fights almost completely defensively, doing little beyond blocking and evading Oliver's attacks with minimal effort despite the latter giving his all. The only thing Nolan does that can even be considered an attack is throwing Oliver after a Punch Catch, and the best Oliver is able to do in return is give Nolan a shove when his guard is down which only sends him skidding a short distance without knocking him off balance.
  • Tech Jacket gets her butt thoroughly handed to her by Anissa and would have been killed had Mark not punched the Viltrumite away before she could deliver the killing blow.
• Decapitation Strike:
  • With the war turning against them, Thragg gets the idea to strike at Thaedus on Talescria, wiping out their leadership to turn the tide. If not for the timely arrival of Nolan, Oliver, and Mark, it might have worked.
  • Upon learning that Thragg is calling all Viltrumites back to Viltrum, Thaedus suggests they travel to Viltrum and kill Thragg before his forces can rally, which will leave the Viltrumites aimless and easier to pick off.
• Didn't See That Coming: One of the Empire's Slave Mooks is shown looking up in absolute shock when the Viltrumites flee and leave all their slaves behind with their enemies.
• Didn't Think This Through: Mark and Oliver disable the Viltrumite ship by cutting it in half, only to realize after Thragg's retreat that it's now falling toward the city. Fortunately, there's enough strength between the six heroes to push both halves into space.
• Dirty Coward: The fat Data Twin sold out the Coalition to the Viltrum Empire all to save himself, believing they would lose the war.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: With the Graysons recovering, the Coalition's strongest assets are spread thin against the Empire's soldiers, and while they make some inroads, the Empire also manages to take some territory in turn. Things become more dire when Thragg and his elite soldiers show up on Talescria. Luckily, the Graysons arrive at the eleventh hour to repel the attack.
• The Dreaded: Once Thaedus gives Kregg a good thrashing, Kregg and his cohorts begin giving the Betrayer a notably wide berth.
• Dwindling Party: A few more of the Viltrumite's already critically low numbers are slain in this episode, most notably the one killed by Space Racer and the one whose neck Thaedus snaps. The Empire makes up for it with their vast legions of enslaved soldiers.
• Due to the Dead: Nolan buries Conquest and sets up a crude Viltrum symbol over his grave to honor him for his service, as he believes the old man deserves that much regardless of his deeds. Oliver disagrees, as he was witness to Conquest's rampage on Earth and nearly died at his hands, not to mention what he did to Mark in his dying moments.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Oliver is still cross with Nolan for trying to avoid him the previous episode, but when Nolan is visibly hurt by his protests about being stuck on the planet with him until Mark recovers, he backpedals and expresses that his frustration is more about that he's never seen Mark this grievously injured before than being stuck with Nolan specifically.
  • When Nolan is about to kill the mother insect alien, he is stopped by Oliver. When the incredulous older Viltrumite asks why, citing the alien as "just an animal", Oliver reminds him that the mother is only protecting the eggs. While Oliver himself has urged Mark to put down greater evils and existential threats in the past, an animal acting on its survival instincts isn't one of them. After a moment of thought, Nolan decides Oliver is right and lets the alien go. One of the scenes from the flashforward montage shows a subsequent visit where Oliver lures the creature out of the nest and keeps it occupied while Nolan retrieves a few eggs, demonstrating their commitment to taking only what they need for survival and nothing else.
• Foreshadowing: When Allen and Zoe finally arrive at Talescria, the fat Data Twin looks shocked over Allen still being alive, as opposed to everybody else being happy or at least glad to see him again. Later, said twin deactivates the planetary defenses, revealing himself as the traitor.
• Gilligan Cut: While playing video games as stowaways on a Viltrumite Cruiser, Zoe proclaims "Look Out!" This transitions to the next scene of Nolan punching a giant bug on the alien planet that he and his sons stranded on.
• Good Parents: Nolan showcases a lot of his Character Development through his treatment of Oliver throughout the episode. He never raises his voice at him when his son is airing out his grievances, does his best to reassure him that neither he nor his relationship with Andressa was a mistake, is much gentler with training him compared to how he was with Mark way back in Season 1, and they spend a good deal of time bonding while hunting for food. By the time Mark wakes up, pretty much all enmity between them has evaporated as Oliver is fully convinced that Nolan really does love him.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment: When Mark, Nolan, and Oliver show up, Tech Jacket gleefully tells the Viltrumites that they're screwed.
• Honesty Is the Best Policy: Oliver is finally convinced to open himself back up to his father when Nolan tells him the whole truth about Andressa; that his time with her and the Thraxan was brief but helped teach him that he needed to take action if he wanted to make amends for his past transgressions, and he doesn't truly believe that his relationship with her was a mistake, with that comment being something he spat out in the heat of the moment thinking it would help Debbie feel better about him seemingly moving on from her so quickly.
• Hypocrite: Oliver protests Nolan's burial of Conquest by bringing up the atrocities he committed on Earth that Nolan wasn't there for — atrocities similar to those Nolan himself committed that Oliver wasn't there for and left him unable to reconcile the Earth's image of Nolan as a treacherous mass murderer from his own image of Nolan as a loving father. Downplayed as he does acknowledge that people hate Conquest almost as much as they hate Omni-Man, and while it's not the primary source of Oliver's anger towards his father it's clear that at the moment it's not improving his opinion of him either.
• Ignored Expert: Kregg actually outright warns Thragg that invading Talescria is a bad idea due to their defenses, though he's still subservient to him enough that he doesn't protest when Thragg all but dares him to contest the decision. Granted, the assault initially goes well for the Empire due to sabotage from The Mole, but the moment the Graysons reinforce the Coalition, the Viltrumites are forced into retreat, their weakness now exposed.
• I Lied: When Oliver reveals that he eavesdropped on Nolan's conversation with Debbie, including how he called Andressa a mistake and asks if he's a mistake too, Nolan eventually says he didn't mean what he said and just trying not to make Debbie any madder than she already was.
• Killed Off for Real: Double Subversion. Conquest is buried at the beginning of the episode, but The Stinger starts implying he's going to emerge from his grave... only for nothing to happen.
• Kill It Through Its Stomach: A giant alien bug that Nolan was fighting manages to overpower and gulp down the Viltrumite in one go. As it prepares to leave however, it starts coughing out blood, before its neck bulges out and bursts as Nolan breaks himself free, killing the animal.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • Lucan, after Kradd is unceremoniously killed by Space Racer alongside their ship of enslaved reinforcements, rightfully abandons his task knowing he is vastly outnumbered by three warriors who can each hold their own against a lone Viltrumite, to say nothing of the entire Coalition fleet backing them.
  • Thragg retreats when Mark and Oliver destroy his ship, as the odds are now even and his defeat would spell the end of the Empire.
• Neck Snap: Thaedus kills one of the invading Viltrumites this way. He got off easy compared to how Kradd died.
• No Endor Holocaust: Subverted hard. After Mark and Oliver destroy the Viltrumite ship, it seemingly disappears as the survivors all cheer, until they realize that its debris is still raining down on the city, causing damage. It takes Mark, Nolan, Oliver, Zoe, Allen, and Thaedus to be able to push the ship ruins into space to stop the debris from crashing down on Talescria's citizens.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Apparently the Data Twins' species can survive having a good chunk of their head blasted away without much issue, seeing as the fat one gets a Boom, Headshot! wound that would definitely have been fatal in most humanoid species and just seems spooked for the most part.
• Orbital Bombardment:
  • The Coalition fleet is shown bombarding a planet when Allen and Zoe first meet up with it.
  • Thragg has his ship sweep Talescria with its underbelly beam weapons to inflict maximum casualties. 
• Paper Tiger: The Viltrum Empire is a terrifyingly powerful regime because one Viltrumite alone can destroy entire worlds, but only by the Viltrumites themselves holding it together. Their subjects are merely comparable to standard Coalition forces, which becomes a massive problem due to the Viltrumites being a Dying Race with less than fifty pure-blooded members. Trying to maintain control over hundreds of thousands of worlds stretched across hundreds of light years from each other still requires ''travel time'' to reinforce their besieged territory on multiple fronts of a full-scale galactic war, leaving them only able to send a handful at best to any given battle. Since the Coalition now has forces and weapons that can actually match Viltrumites it becomes clear from the rate of attrition that the Viltrum Empire would actually lose any real war, even if the price of victory is higher than the Coalition would like. With their chances of victory dwindling, they try an extremely daring attack to cut the throat of Coalition leadership, which fails because Mark, Nolan, and Oliver arrive as The Cavalry.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Thaedus, as the leader of the Coalition, has a chance to show off his combat prowess, and provides an excellent demonstration of how age generally enhances the strength of Viltrumites. Thaedus is able to overpower the likes of Kregg (Thragg's right-hand man) and Anissa (who had easily curbstomped Mark and was described as being faster than Nolan) fairly easily, and snaps the neck of another without much fuss.
• Rebuilt Pedestal: It takes 2 months and a very long time of mending the damage from Nolan's Digging Yourself Deeper moment, but Nolan does rekindle a promising relationship with Oliver while waiting for Mark to heal after initially treating him with animosity for his return to the point that Oliver ends up wishing they could stay longer to continue bonding even more with his father.
• The Reveal:
  • Oliver had eavesdropped on Nolan's conversation with Debbie, notably the part where Nolan said that his love for Oliver's birth mother Andressa was a mistake and furiously calls him out on it.
  • The fatter Data Twin was the mole, as he determined the Viltrum Empire would ultimately triumph and didn't want to die, so he sold out the Coalition to save himself.
• Rousing Speech: Both Thaedus and Thragg give one to their respective armies to mark their declarations of open war against each other.
• The Short War: The Viltrumite War. The Viltrum Empire themselves is far too thin to actually reinforce their thousands of conquered worlds, and faces opponents and weapons that can actually match them. They lose ninety-percent of their galaxy-spanning reign in less than two months. They're very clearly on the losing side despite the Coalition's heavy losses, as the entire universe is now aware they are Not So Invincible After All, and defects in droves. Because there are way too few Viltrumites to punish them.
• Shadow of Impending Doom: A shadow moving across the city provides Five-Second Foreshadowing of Thragg's attack.
• Shout-Out: Peter Cullen has avoided using his voice he saves for his signature role while playing Thaedus despite him being a rather similar character archetype. The end of his declaration of war, "let the war begin", however, is unmistakably Cullen deliberately reminding the audience of the hero strong enough to be gentle that he is known for.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Nolan decides to give Conquest a proper burial and grave after the latter's gruesome demise, believing that despite all of the horrific atrocities that he had committed, he was still a very loyal Viltrumite warrior who carried out his mission for as long as he lived and thus is deserving of some respect and honor for his legacy. Oliver disagrees.
• Tell Me About My Father: After implicitly accepting his father's apology for calling Andressa a mistake, Oliver asks Nolan to tell him more about her.
• The Talk: Nolan realizes with absolute horror that he may have to give this to Oliver once he tells the story of how he felt attracted to a lobster in a restaurant. Thankfully, Oliver says he still ate the lobster and Mark distracts them, giving Nolan an out.
• Time-Passage Beard: Stuck on an alien planet with no ability to shave, both Mark and Nolan have grown beards (mid-teens Oliver has some basic mustache and chin hairs) by the time the former awakes from his months-long coma.
• Turn the Other Cheek: As Nolan exposits to Oliver, Thraxans live such monumentally short lives that they don't really dwell on past transgressions the same way humans or Viltrumites do, since they have more pressing things to do with what little time they have. This greatly changed Nolan's perspective on his desire to atone, as he came to believe that there was much more he could be doing with his countless years of life than simply hiding from the people he wronged.
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • Oliver ends up on the receiving end of this in his first sparring match with Nolan, dismissing his comments and angrily attacking him thinking he has nothing to teach him. Nolan ends up calmly parrying all his attacks and gently throwing him aside in the end, proving how wrong he was.
  • The Viltrum Empire, under Thragg's rule, truly thought themselves unstoppable despite how few of them are left and believed they could crush the Coalition in open war — only to find the Coalition's forces are roughly equal to their own and their already dwindling population further reduced as the Coalition picks off lone Viltrumites in a mere two months because they are simply too stretched thin. Thragg has to make a ballsy Decapitation Strike on Talescria to cripple their war effort, and even that fails when Mark, Oliver, and Nolan rejoin the fight and push his advance back.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: When Mark finally awakens after two months and learns from Nolan and Oliver that he had successfully killed Conquest, rather than feel pleasure that the old psychopath is dead, he seems hollowed out that he did kill him again showing that the weight of actually taking a life — no matter how vile in his mind — still is a tall order for the young man.
• What the Hell, Hero?: After the Viltrumites' attack on Talescria is repelled, Thaedus calls the invasion a "minor setback". Allen, who's in earshot and always looked up to him, calls him out on minimizing the hundreds of innocent lives that were lost today.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: Nolan informs Oliver that the soldiers they're fighting are mostly slaves of the empire, and advises him to deal with them non-lethally so they can join them and take revenge on their former masters. Oliver tries, but the dismembered corpses near him when Mark takes him to attack Thragg's ship suggests that he either Does Not Know His Own Strength or was forced to kill them.
• White Man's Burden: Thragg again restates the Viltrumite perspective that their ruthless Might Makes Right philosophy is Necessarily Evil to reign order into a chaotic and cruel universe, with it being a sacrifice they are shouldering for the "ungrateful lesser races" who are daring to raise their hands against them in a "spiteful tantrum" that will only get them all killed despite the fact their Darwinistic rule is vastly brutal and cruel even to the few worlds that do thrive under their reign. Thragg even hammers home their self-righteous point-of-view by addressing the Coalition's liberation of conquered planets in a disappointed, morose fashion which implies that freedom from them is a Fate Worse than Death for the weaker races.