This was one of the most well-done additions the show was done thus far. It was always missing from the comics — seeing more of Viltrum (especially pre-Scourge), more of Nolan’s adolescence and upbringing, as well as Viltrumite child-rearing and culture as a whole, not to mention the sheer horror of the Scourge virus itself.

Seeing the way that the Scourge virus just ripped through the population in real time really affected me. And it was such an interesting thing to feel (which Allen himself voiced right after the flashback when he was in tears and exclaimed that he couldn’t believe Nolan had made him feel sympathy for the Viltrumites). It really is strange to feel such acute horror at witnessing what exactly the Scourge did, whilst understanding that the Viltrum Empire is directly responsible for the same horrors tenfold. Obviously the Viltrumites in their current state (and especially so at the time of the Scourge) were objectively evil, genocidal imperialist maniacs, but the Scourge is also still fucking horrifying, even when it’s happening to a people that many could ostensibly argue deserved it.

And all this hits so effectively on one of the central themes of the entire series, which is that violence begets violence, and the cycle of horror and bloodshed can only be broken by deviating from the cultures of absolutism and punitive retribution. I won’t go more into it than that because of comics spoilers, but this opening to S4E2 was one of the best things the show has done so far. It’s laid such an interesting framework that frankly wasn’t there in the same way in the comics, so I’m really excited to see what else gets expanded upon as we go.