I feel like Nolan’s switch to being an apologetic father should have been set up more. His behavior in S2E4 felt very abrupt despite not seeing him for 3 episodes. We had ONE scene of him remembering Mark as his son and then he peaces out into space. But before that he killed thousands of people in less than an hour and he didn’t show any pause while he was doing it. It didn’t seem like he felt any pause before doing any evil deed for all of season 1 in fact. But all of a sudden he’s remorseful and thinks he made a mistake. Maybe the show wants us to believe that his fight with Mark was so traumatic it instantly switched something in his brain and made him a new man.
He was more conflicted during his fight with Mark than you’re realizing. Nolan started changing before the series started. It’s not as abrupt as you think if you consider that the changes were already happening in season 1. His actions in EP 7 and 8 definitely blurred the lines a bit, but the moment with Mark was supposed to demonstrate that these were feelings he had been trying to bury for a while
Exactly this! Nolan has been putting off his mission for 18 years and genuinely became a superhero. Him killing those people in episode 7&8 I felt was him lying to himself about the changes he went through since coming to Earth. its traumatic for him to come to terms with the fact that he is not thinking like a viltrumite anymore. And Nolan did not mention Debbie or apologize once in season 2 episode 4. He says what he did is unforgivable but he is kinda brushing off Marks comments because it hurts too much to acknowledge what he did. In the recent episode he has come to terms with the fact that he is not who he thought he was but he still doesn’t understand why he changed or why he cares. Man is still going through a lot of internal turmoil, his arc isn’t done yet and he can’t be redeemed until he comes to terms with who he is, acknowledge his actions and seek forgiveness from the people he wronged.