The second season of Prime Video’s ‘Invincible’ brings many shocking twists and turns for the audience, one of which is in the form of Donald Ferguson. In the first season, the GDA agent was killed at the hands of Omni-Man when the superhero discovered that the agency was keeping an eye on him. In an attempt to slow down Omni-Man, knowing that his next target would be GDA headquarters, Donald blew up the house, the intensity of which leaves no doubt that Donald died. However, his return in the second season opens Pandora’s box of GDA’s secret and leads Donald to a life-altering revelation.
Donald is Not a Clone But Something Much More Powerful
The only people to have the technology to clone someone in ‘Invincible’ are the Mauler Twins. Cloning is their thing. It is the only way they have continued to survive all this time. If one of them dies, another clone is made to fill his place. The thing about being a clone is that it’s not very different from its original. Having or being a clone is not exactly a superpower unless you already have powers that your clone will inherit, too. This is why there is little to no possibility of Donald being a clone.
In the fourth episode of ‘Invincible’ Season 2, Donald decides to find the truth behind the secrets hidden from him at GDA. He was alarmed when Debbie was shocked to see him. He didn’t understand why she would have such a reaction, and when he tried to ask Cecil about it, his concerns were rebuffed. When Donald visits Debbie’s house and sees the wreck across the street, he discovers a pair of glasses that are identical to the one he uses. This convinces him that something fishy is going on that he is not in on.
Donald uses Cecil’s password to get access to the videos of the house and sees exactly what the audience sees in the first season. He sees himself confronting Omni-Man and then blowing up the house with himself in it. There is no doubt in Donald’s mind now that he died, but if that’s true, how is he alive? He looks at himself in the mirror, trying to find an answer. Part of him wonders if he is a robot, so he cuts himself with a knife and is relieved to see blood flow from the wound. But the twist arrives when he sees the bend in the knife’s tip after that. This proves that Donald is not a normal human or even a human clone, for that matter.
In the ‘Invincible’ comic book, Donald eventually discovers that he is actually a cyborg. This comes with a lot of perks, one of which is his ability to turn his limbs into any weapon he desires. He also has super-strength, which makes him a truly indispensable asset to GDA. All of this explains why the knife was damaged after Donald tried to cut himself with it. However, this answer also raises a lot of questions. When did Donald become a cyborg, and how?
Considering that Donald was killed in the explosion that barely left anything in the house, it is difficult to imagine how he could have been cloned or turned into a cyborg. But then, if his glasses could survive the blast, there is a possibility that he also lived long enough for the GDA to arrive on the spot, find him, and secure parts of his brain so that he could be given a new life. It’s a long shot, but it’s viable enough to be considered seriously.
A more interesting possibility is that the last Donald wasn’t human, either. Working for the GDA is a risky job, and people like Donald must find themselves confronting dangerous and powerful-beyond-measure superheroes. Life-or-death situations must be a common thing for them, and perhaps death itself would be more common than imagined. In that case, perhaps, the last Donald was a cyborg, too. This would increase the probability of him surviving the blast and being patched up to get to work again. It would also explain how GDA was able to get him back so quickly.
Considering everything, it is clear that Donald is a cyborg, not a clone. What remains to be seen is how he got to be a cyborg and how long he has been so. Who was the human Donald, and what happened to him? Or was Donald always a cyborg to begin with?
Read More: Invincible: Does Allen Die? Why Did Thaedus Kill Allen the Alien?