This one’s a standout. A masterclass in tonal balance – tension and tenderness, absurdity and ache. Tony Stark shrinks himself to save Hawkeye from spinal trauma, and the journey inside his teammate’s body becomes a metaphor for everything the show’s been building toward: trust, vulnerability, and the cost of connection. It’s dramatic, yes, but also hilariously offbeat. Stark’s quip to Julia – “tie him up like one of your old boyfriends” – lands with perfect timing, and the emotional payoff hits harder. Julia admits her love. Stark drops to his knees. The armour cracks.

The villain is barely out of adolescence – a teenager in his room, hacking into Stark Enterprises not for money, but for meaning. He wants to be noticed. To matter. To leave a mark. It’s tragic, not because he fails, but because he chooses the wrong path. Ultimo becomes his voice, his proxy, his mistake. And when it all collapses, juvenile detention awaits. A life misdirected. A cry unanswered.

HOMER steals scenes with manic brilliance – rebranded as “Tina the Ballerina,” veering between comic relief and unsettling glitch. It’s just unhinged enough to be funny, just sharp enough to be dangerous. The ensemble holds, barely, and the emotional rhythm never falters.

Iron Man, On the Inside is by no means an original idea. But this episode isn’t just clever. It’s intimate. It’s the episode where the jokes land, the stakes rise, and the relationships finally break through the static. One of the best in the run – and one that never forgets the cost of being seen.

Oh, and for those interested, Tony is quite right: peppered popcorn is AMAZING.

Clint Barton returns to Stark Enterprises to clear out his locker, but the reunion is short-lived. Ultimo strikes, and the trio – Tony, Julia, and Clint – are pulled back into combat. Julia’s jet crashes into a control tower mid-fight. Iron Man saves her, but Hawkeye is struck by debris. The injury is severe. HOMER confirms spinal trauma with the risk of paralysis. Stark proposes a solution: a microchip, newly developed, that could reverse the damage. But the procedure requires precision – and proximity.

At the crash site, Ultimo recovers a module linked to HOMER, allowing a tech genius known as the Hacker to seize control of Stark’s systems. The facility is compromised. Stark makes a decision: he will shrink himself, enter Hawkeye’s bloodstream, and implant the chip directly. HOMER warns of a two-hour limit. Stark proceeds.

Inside the bloodstream, the clock accelerates. Julia discovers the virus and the truth – Iron Man has only nine minutes before returning to full size. Ultimo shrinks and follows, initiating a battle within Hawkeye’s body. Stark fights through, plants the chip, disables Ultimo, and extracts both himself and the intruder. The scale shifts. The stakes remain.

Back at full size, Iron Man and Hawkeye confront Ultimo once more. HOMER locates the Hacker – a youth, bitter over rejection, now wielding stolen access. The confrontation ends with an arrest. But the emotional fallout lingers. Hawkeye, healed but wary, walks away again. The trust isn’t broken – it’s bruised.

Far from the chaos, at an auction, a bidder is beaten to the rare ring on the itinerary. When he’s alone afterward, the eventual winner is knocked unconscious… the Mandarin has secured another ring…

Ultimo has been sleeping since his first appearance in season one. Quite how the Hacker breaks into his systems is unclear, as Ultimo was in the custody of Stark Industries when we last saw him in Rejoice! I Am Ultimo, Thy Deliverer. Quite how he fits in there is a whole different question, but at least this episode gives us a possible answer in Stark’s Reducto-ray.

The Hacker is an original character, created for the episode.

HOMER is hilarious when hacked; when he’s not Tina the Ballerina, he’s chanting “Peter Parker picked a peck of pickled porpoises.” Note Spidey’s real identity in the rhyme.

Julia admits she loves Tony in this episode. She also brings up their failed wedding again. From this point on, they can be considered a couple. Her Pepper Potts transformation is complete.

Armour Watch: A good episode for those using this as a game. He starts in his Hydro armour, and uses Magnetic mode, Lava armour and a Radiation armour whilst inside Hawkeye.

Beauty Knows No Pain | Distant Boundaries