i want to talk about the significance of the song that plays during mark and ambers break up scene in s2 ep 7 of invincible: televangelism by ethel cain
Firstly we need to quickly summarize the story behind where this song comes from. Preachers daughter is a concept album follows the story of the character of ethel cain, a religious girl from the south as she experienced her first love die, becomes entangled with dangerous men, gets sold into sex work and eventually ends up getting killed and cannibalized by her lover.
that’s a very brief summary and I encourage you to listen to the full album because it’s better understood that way!
How does televangelism relate to mark and amber? It’s just a sad somber song that fits the mood of the scene right?
While yes it does fit the somber mood of the scene it has much deeper meaning to what’s happening, the songs chosen in invincible are done so VERY deliberately! In preachers daughter televangelism is track 11 and comes after august underground and ptolemaea. In accordance to the story of the album this is when the characters body has already passed (in august underground) and televangelism is the acceptance of that death with presumably the character of Ethel’s soul moving on during this song.
Back to mark and amber;
while they had been together for most of the season it clearly is a relationship that has been dying from the moment they got back together. It’s a painfully relatable situation to many, loving someone so much and wanting to be there for them but life getting in the way over and over.
You see it in their coffee date when mark returns from thraxa and how mark remarks how “this feels like a bad first date”. And mark missing being there for amber when her grandfather passed, and amber wanting to reach out for him but choosing to hold it in because she knows what he’s been through. This does neither of them good and simply adds to the internal strain and turmoil of their already strained relationship.
Then episode 7. Mark comes to her triumphant about how he has very very little time off that’s been barely allowed by cecil. To celebrate they have their iconic scene set to feel it by d4vid. It is the highest point of their relationship no doubt and incredibly sweet, which is them immediately undercut by anissa and her threatening to kill amber.
Mark and her fly off to fight and then mark returns to amber in her dorm. Who is understandably freaking out over what just happened.
I’ve seen imbeciles paint her reaction as “weakness”. Tell me quickly how you would react to a god human who could severe your head from your body with only a twitch of their fingers while you were on a date with your s/o? It’s a miracle she didn’t have a heart attack, amber is an undoubtedly strong willed individual so I will see none of that bullshit here.
Back to their breakup when televangelism begins to play. This scene is them not just ending their relationship but also the acceptance of the death of it. How even if anissa didn’t attack and threat amber, this was never going to last in the long run. They’ve been in denial for a while about their own feelings about being together but this is the acceptance of those feelings. They can’t be involved with each other like this without ultimately hurting one another, it will hurt but the pain will be less to let go than to hold on.
I won’t even lie the scene itself made me cry because at the time of it airing it hadn’t been very long since going through a break up of my own with a long term partner. It hit very close to home
This is an ultimately beautiful scene that I’m so glad had this song as a backing track to it. One of my favorite albums ever in one of my favorite shows ever. I truly do hope we see more of amber in the future and have more Ethel Cain songs in the future too
if you read this far u get a ghost shaped cookie 👻🍪