Well, that was certainly one way to end a show.

Episode 6 of Secret Invasion left some things to be desired as the ending didn’t exactly go as many planned or hoped. No, I’m not talking about a possible cameo fest either or certain SHIELD agents making an appearance. The Super Skrull showdown went in a slightly different direction than I have to say I anticipated and, well, that was really the biggest part of the episode. Beyond that, Fury’s character development was mediocre at best and we got our real Rhodey and Ross back. So it wasn’t all a bust, but for a show doing as well as Secret Invasion was, it was definitely disappointing. We get into some of the big reasons we felt a little let down in our latest podcast episode, which you can start listening to by clicking the button below or hitting play on the link provided.

Super Skrull vs. Super Skull

Starting with the final ‘battle’ of the series, well, what is there to say. It for sure happened. We watched something. What exactly we saw, you know I’m not quite sure. It was expected that G’iah would take on Gravik, as this is something even I have been predicting, especially since she became a Super Skrull herself. Although I’m not sure my prediction envisioned them both receiving the Harvest and becoming some really intense mega Super Skrulls. Honestly, I think I want to go back to my predictions and pretend that happened instead. Taylor and I will do a whole episode dedicated to G’iah and her future, so I won’t get too much into that here, but let’s get into this fight a little more.

Strategically, sending G’iah was definitely the right call. Her Super Skrull abilities were going to keep her alive against Gravik, as Fury would never have survived or beat him. She also was the heart of the people while he was their leader, so it made sense for her to represent the Skrulls and to fight against their general that has gone off his rocker. However, I will say, Fury, not actually being there to have the heart-to-heart with Gravik and face the monster that he created, left sort of a bad taste in my mouth. We will get to Fury’s character development in a moment, but facing one of his biggest mistakes personified into Gravik was something that this show kept leading up to, only for Fury to not actually be there.

As for the fight itself, the best part was trying to guess who the Super Skrulls were mimicking and morphing into. That was pretty much it. The strange morphing was not what I anticipated, as I expected more of the internal enhancements, such as the extra strength, not a physical Hulk arm. To shout out someone on Twitter who made a great point, they pretty much made the final fight of this show exactly what She-Hulk was making fun of. It was sort of ridiculous if you ask me and was not the way this show should have wrapped up, at all.

The Fate of the Harvest

My feelings on what happened with the Harvest are definitely mixed. On one hand, I’m not upset that it’s technically out of play. On the other, I’m not really sure I saw it being used the way it was. As Taylor said in the podcast episode, letting G’iah and Gravik both take it and become mega Super Skrulls was a huge risk on Fury’s part. He was gambling that G’iah would be able to take down Gravik, which luckily she did. Yet there wasn’t a guarantee. Now we have one mega Super Skrull that we don’t exactly know what to do with. So what comes next?

As I said, I would have definitely preferred the Harvest to become part of a different chess game later on down the road. TFAWS was driven mainly by the prospect of more Super Soldier serum being created and I have to say, an arms race for the Harvest I think would have been a pretty interesting plotline for a future show. Either that, or we see it get destroyed in the final episode, although I think that would have just annoyed me that we brought this biological weapon into the mix for a whole of two episodes. It was a really cool possible storyline for the future that has morphed into something totally different.

Instead, we now have a Skrull who physically has the abilities of about 20 different super powered beings coursing through her DNA. And, well, it was sort of just underwhelming. I think a lot of people had thoughts for G’iah’s future in the MCU, but this definitely wasn’t in their cards. What do you do with a character like her? You just created one of the most powerful beings in the universe solely because you combined the DNA of super powered people and now we once again have to sit here and go “well, where’s G’iah when you need her?” Has this not been the problem with Carol all these years? Everyone, including us, have asked why she wasn’t around for some of the other big moments, even including this part of the Skrull invasion. Now we have G’iah who is arguably more powerful as she has Carol’s powers on top of others, and we have to ask what the heck are we supposed to do with her?

I genuinely thought the Harvest would cause Gravik to blow up essentially and meet his demise due to his own ego and power need. Easy, off the board, and accounted for, the Harvest story would end. Now, it lives on with G’iah, so we are going to be patient and see what side effects it may bring and how G’iah learns to use the powers she’s been given. I also can’t wait to see the Avengers react to this, it’s going to be so good.

Fury’s Questionable Character Development

Throughout the series, we continued to come back to the fact we might actually see Fury go through some real character development for the first time ever. As a side character in all of his other appearances, he was never really able to have one moment in which we as an audience could see him grow. I would say in this series, the growth remained relatively minimal, as Fury, even when faced with his past mistakes, really didn’t show much growth.

Starting at the beginning, Fury comes down from SABER because he recieves word from Talos that things on Earth have taken a turn for the worst, which we find out is because of Gravik. As the show goes on, we learn that Gravik essentially was made out of Fury’s mistakes, being a soldier for Fury at a young age and seeing graphic things so that Fury would help his people and give them purpose. Gravik idolized Fury, something that Fury of course had to know and realize, yet he seemed shocked when Gravik began his attempt to start war among the humans to free the Skrulls once Fury abandoned him. Of course, this is all old news, as we learned this throughout the series. But for someone who preached he had to do this all alone because he could recognize he created the problem, Fury never actually went and faced Gravik. The needed conversation that happened between him and Gravik in this final episode never actually happened, as it was instead G’iah disguised as Fury. Fury again had to call in someone more powerful to fight his fight and wasn’t even there to put an end to Gravik himself or at least witness it. Growth rating: 1/5

Then regarding the Skrulls and his promise to find a new home, Fury actually managed to make life worse for the Skrulls on Earth, believe it or not. Now, we can theorize that Fury made sure Sonya was there to intercept G’iah and help support the Skrulls in the war being brought upon them by humans (more on that momentarily). If that theory is true, at least Fury wouldn’t have left them completely screwed. However, if that isn’t true, Fury completely exposed the Skrull people, good and bad, to the president who then went trigger happy, ready to destroy the whole alien race. After years of using the Skrulls and not actually trying to find them a real home, Fury exposing them fully is almost the icing on the cake of disaster. We know it wasn’t Fury’s intentions, but regardless his actions have only hurt the Skrulls more, and then he left again. Growth rating: 1/5

Finally, the most personal piece of growth, Fury’s relationship, he actually does improve in. Maybe this is a way to hope that moving forward Fury can make up for his mistakes and try again, as we do actually see character growth within his relationship with Varra. We talked extensively about how almost fake that relationship was. Fury was able to grow within their relationship, not only giving the relationship another chance, but giving it a chance with Varra, not Priscilla. As Fury said in the show, Priscilla being a Skrull was always a blindspot for him, a weakness he knew would bite him in the butt eventually. He is allowing himself to give into the weakness and give a shot at being with her, something Fury before this ordeal likely wouldn’t have done. So in that sense, we do see a change in Fury, even if it is just a start. Growth rating: 3/5

The War on Skrulls

Arguably the best part of this episode is that it set up another phase of Secret Invasion. For right now, we don’t entirely know what that’s going to look like, whether it comes in the form of a second season, a movie, or is plastered onto another property such as The Marvels. Our August newsletter took a stab at theorizing more deeply into this, but let’s focus on the fact that the idea of Secret Invasion is only catching fire as Skrulls have now been outed to the entire human population.

It’s almost ironic how close this storyline is to the one the Inhumans faced in Agents of SHIELD, obviously a show that we have yet to confirm if it is canon or not. But the parallels are extreme, including the mass fear that I’m sure is going through the population over not knowing who may or may not be a Skrull. With this parallel, it is leading me to believe I should be expecting mass hysteria in some upcoming works and that the Skrulls being on Earth should definitely eventually become a bigger problem. I think of how the Inhumans storyline on AoS should have ended up as a bigger Avengers threat, all things considered, but was instead constrained to the show itself. Secret Invasion did a great job setting up the invasion further, although it did once again make the Skrulls sympathetic and more the victim of just terrible luck. We will have to do another 180 to reach how the Skrulls are once again a threat, but if you corner an animal, it will attack. Putting the Skrulls on blast might finally crack them to the point of full invasion and revolt.

Secret Invasion Connecting to The Marvels

It was clear going into Secret Invasion that there was going to be a direct correlation between the show and The Marvels coming out later this year. For a while, the debate stood around the question of whether The Marvels might actually come before Secret Invasion. I think it’s safe to say we can confirm it to be the other way around and that Secret Invasion is going to flow directly into The Marvels. This being said, understanding what ways this is going to happen is how we are going to most likely figure out part of the plot for The Marvels and where the Skrulls fall into it all.

In the final episode of Secret Invasion, we are made aware of the fact the Kree are willing to have peace talks with the Skrulls. However, we also know that the biggest antagonist in The Marvels is Kree and holds the sister bangle to Kamala’s. It’s possible the peace talks are a way of targeting the Skrulls into an ambush to help kill more of their people. The discrepancy between what we’ve been told and what we are seeing in the trailers shows that something is going to go wrong during these talks. It is also a possibility that Dar-Benn, the Kree antagonist, is similar to Gravik in the sense that she is an extremist who wants all the Skrulls gone. So maybe peace talks from the empire are trying to happen, but Dar-Benn will ensure that doesn’t take place.

We also know Fury has returned to SABER with Varra, where we can seemingly confirm Monica is as well. This is what we believe starts The Marvels film and how Fury once again ends up wandering around on Earth as seen in the trailers. As we have also gotten confirmation in the show that Nick hasn’t returned to Earth since he left after the Blip, we know his second return is in fact, his second return and not his first.

But where do the Skrulls fit into all of it, specifically the ones on Earth? As mentioned before, there’s a possibility that Skrulls like G’iah may be summoned to the peace talks, as she is going to be the closest to a leader the Skrulls have and is now a mega Super Skrull. It would also be insanely fitting for her to meet up again with Captain Marvel and Monica, although G’iah’s fate in the MCU is a little blurry. It’s also very possible the Skrulls we see in The Marvels are the group Talos mentioned that set up a new colony elsewhere and didn’t come down to Earth. Considering the Skrulls on Earth now have a war with the humans to worry about too, I put my money on the other colony being the ones working to negotiate the peace talks. That doesn’t mean it won’t affect the Skrulls on Earth, but I do think there’s a strong likelihood that we’re dealing with an entirely different group. We will keep up with this connection as we receive more footage and confirmations coming from The Marvels as we move closer to its’ release in November.

Conclusion

While the ending might not have gone the way we expected it to, we have finished another MCU Disney+ show that has opened more doors to future content. We will be keeping up with any updates that come our way regarding this show and characters from it, but for now, we should all prepare for The Marvels and Loki, both coming towards the end of the year. Next week, our podcast episode will be all about G’iah and her powers, limitations, and where her story might go. Make sure you don’t miss out as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Secret Invasion Episode 6”, Lukas Abramovich, Comic Basics

Did we just see Nick Fury suit up? Was it kind of epic?

Even though the episodes have gotten shorter, they have left no stone unturned in their delivery of important plot points. In fact, I have to say I enjoy having the important things in less time than having lulls in the story just to make longer episodes. Yet, the important things keep growing in this show, as we see more team-ups taking place between G’iah and Varra and Fury and Sonya, both in an attempt to go against Gravik’s will. Then we have Gravik himself, who appears to be losing control not just of his people, but himself. We have a lot to discuss here, but as always, start with our new podcast episode with all our initial reactions. You can find your listening platform of choice by clicking the button below or start listening live by hitting play on the link provided.

Gravik Loses Control – What Now?

Very early into the episode, we see Gravik murder his right-hand man, Pagan. I think this is the moment, right from the get-go, that we all knew something was going wrong with him. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way rooting for Gravik, but he has been relatively collected and calm the past times we’ve seen him. He has been a force that Fury honestly wasn’t likely going to beat alone, as Fury himself accidentally created this perfect storm of a person. Yet, it didn’t take much from this episode for most fans to start throwing out theories that Gravik is losing control due to his super enhancements, yet it is a twist we didn’t see coming.

Extremis alone is known to be fairly unstable within the human body and about 90% of those we’ve seen with Extremis before have lost control of it. I highly doubt that the Skrulls were able to stabilize it fully and that doesn’t factor in the Skrulls having different DNA than humans. This being said Extremis alone could be creating this new level of violence in Gravik and enhancing whatever feelings he’s been having but pushing down. On top of this, he has another super enhancement and knowing him, is going to attempt to have a third, which is actively making changes in his DNA and making him more volatile. But what does this all mean for the story?

As I said, Fury’s chances of beating Gravik before were genuinely low. Gravik remained too many steps ahead of him. Yet, not only is Gravik no longer playing the long game, he is losing control of himself and his people. We see the Skrulls attack him, a solid attempt although definitely futile, as they are tired of Gravik’s lack of care for their lives. From the beginning, Gravik didn’t appear to care much about the Skrulls themselves, just achieving his mission of taking out the humans. But now Gravik is a threat himself, killing those who question him and giving his people up to be murdered. His ego and the power he feels now are what are making the choices for him and his people no longer worship at his feet. All this being said, not only has it now shown Gravik’s weakness, it has left him standing alone, as the Skrulls won’t defend him. In fact, I theorize that G’iah will come back to the Skrull people and they will instead stand with her as they watch their old leader destroy everything he built himself and self-destruct (possibly literally).

An Adventure with G’iah and Varra

As we are on the topic of G’iah, let’s discuss her scenes from this episode. We know she communicated with Fury, as he directed her to Varra for a proper Skrull burial of Talos, which also yes, confirms our bestie is dead dead. The burial itself was quite beautiful and once again enforced how the Skrull people have begun to lose some of their customs in the process of trying to acclimate to Earth. This is what I have been saying drives G’iah, the desire to keep things like this alive and so I think it makes sense to see her show that there are things she was either never taught or has forgotten as her people scattered. It also goes to show how many Skrulls have been killed in the fight for Gravik’s cause and how few, if any, have gotten an actual burial.

What comes out of this is that Varra and G’iah both have crossed Gravik and that means Gravik must cross them off, literally. He sends people to take out Varra, clearly not knowing G’iah would be there as he believes she is dead. I had thought we might be fairly done with Varra, but as she is now with G’iah, I believe she may play a key role in the finale. I wouldn’t be entirely shocked if she gave her life to save someone else’s, a theory I believe I had from pretty early on. G’iah is going to play a key role in taking down Gravik, as she is his biggest competition among the Skrulls and is also so far the only Super Skrull besides him on the board. It’s only fair to assume Varra will then follow her into that battle, with the possibility of backing Fury in the end.

The Harvest

Some may be surprised I waited this long to crack into the worst part of the episode. And by worst, I mean just not fun to think about or know exists. The Harvest could have been anything and naming the episode after it meant that whatever it was it would be important. However, never could I imagine that Nick Fury had Avengers blood collected after the Battle of Earth and stored away. It has given us a few answers, but has mostly left us with more questions, mainly: why?

The one answer provided by sharing this information is that we have a little more confirmation of the timeline of events between Gravik and Fury. Their estrangement is relatively recent, as Gravik was one of the Skrulls Fury had collect the blood samples. Not only did Fury clearly trust him enough, but it also confirms that their relationship was still in a positive spot post-Blip, which makes sense. The tear in the relationship took place 100% then when Fury left for SABER, which is when we can now say Gravik began to start his revolution.

Yet as I said, we’ve been left with a lot more questions than answers on this one. Why would Nick Fury collect the Avengers’ blood? Are all of their blood samples in that one bottle or are there other vials? What was the intended use of the blood? How did they even collect it? What was the thought process in thinking that this would be okay? Unfortunately, we don’t have answers right now but we can make some theories out of it. First and foremost, from the looks of it, all the blood is in that one vial, which is why they’re calling it the Harvest and why Gravik wants it so bad. There’s a strong likelihood that if Gravik were to take it, he would end up pretty much imploding himself, his own ego and need for power being his eventual downfall. As for why Fury did it in the first place, it wouldn’t be too far out of the wheelhouse of the MCU to be considering cloning or at least recreating heroes who may have fallen. I mean, I think the world would love to have Tony Stark back up at the plate. It could also be pretty much a massive surge of power to heal Avengers, something that could really be intriguing considering in Agents of SHIELD, Kree blood is what Fury was experimenting with in the hopes to revive a fallen Avenger. It could be a really solid way of bringing in/picking up that storyline.

My main hope is that this show ends with the Harvest being destroyed, although it being brought in on episode 5 worries me that it could become a bigger player moving forward. Keep in mind, shows like TFAWS dealt heavily with Super Soldier serum made from Steve’s blood, so something like this isn’t far out of the wheelhouse of a future plotline.

Fury and Sonya Make Buddy Cop 2

It’s not fair to say that Fury has replaced Talos already, but he definitely has made up with his friend Sonya and has recruited her for his next Buddy Cop adventure. We see the two of them begin their journey together after Sonya takes down several Skrulls herself. As a girl boss, she followed the lead on the doctor who was helping to create the Super Skrulls, while Fury had the Harvest and the other piece of the puzzle. It’s not hard to see how the two of them are cut from the same cloth, so their official team-up shouldn’t be too surprising to anyone. But the larger question at hand is how will Sonya continue to be involved and where might we see her again after all this is said and done?

Taking down Gravik is too personal for Fury to allow too many people in on that part of his mission, but we’ve seen that Sonya is quite skilled at finding and taking down Skrulls on her own time. That’s where I think we will see her mostly in episode 6, helping to stop the Skrulls who still passionately believe in Gravik and his cause. While some have chosen to fight against him, we know not every Skrull is going to disagree with his new way of doing things. Otherwise, this won’t be the end of Sonya in the MCU, since I actually think she would make and probably already is good friends with people like Valentina, head of Sonya’s sister agency, the CIA. Valentina is still rumored to be in this show and as she hasn’t appeared yet, it seems episode 6 is going to have to be it. We will have to see what the final episode brings, but Sonya will appear again and I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if it’s in something like Cap 4 or the Thunderbolts.

Nick Fury Has Suited Up and Maybe Even Called Help

The final few scenes of the fifth episode were pretty awesome, as we saw Nick Fury officially suit up. Now some people might have not been impressed, but there’s something really cool about watching Nick Fury become the version of himself that we know best. We just spent 5 episodes seeing Fury be told that he isn’t at the caliber he used to be and lose two of his closest friends in the process of finding himself again. So the suit-up wasn’t just a suit-up, it was his official return and helps us to know Nick Fury isn’t going anywhere. Which is definitely good to know, as he makes his next appearance in the Marvels already this November.

Yet the suit-up may have been overshadowed by the fact Fury makes a call in which he says “It’s time. Let’s finish this,” which has left fans in a frenzy. If you are anything like Taylor and me, you just assumed he was calling Gravik to tell him it was time to finish this little back-and-forth they’ve been doing. However, it wasn’t until I went on Twitter after the fact that I saw many fans throwing out theories about who Fury might be calling in. So since I’m not one to shy away from a good theory debate, I am beyond happy to go down that rabbit hole and throw some names into the mix if Fury was in fact calling someone other than Gravik. There are three options as far as I’m concerned:

• Daisy Jones aka Quake – If Marvel wants to bring in Agents of SHIELD to their official roster, this show would be one of the better options to do it with. Daisy is an Inhuman and is one of the more prominent characters in the show who packs quite the punch. She would be a solid ally to have going up against Gravik the Super Skrull.
• One of the Marvels – We’re throwing this out for the main purpose of connecting this show directly to The Marvels. The show is likely going to connect regardless in other ways, but Kamala, Monica, or Carol showing up would greatly solidify it.
• G’iah – If it’s not Gravik that Fury is talking to, then I think the most likely option is G’iah. He is likely telling her that it’s time they go after Gravik together as Fury probably knows the same thing we do, which is that the Skrulls respect G’iah. She is the most natural leader for them and taking down Gravik would solidify that position for her.

Conclusion

Rarely have the MCU shows so clearly lined up an ending for us, or at least a solid battle won before the next one needs to be fought. It makes me eat my words from episode 4, where I pretty passionately didn’t think Fury would be able to defeat Gravik. Although to be fair, Fury is only going to be able to defeat Gravik because Gravik has allowed himself to get out of control. Either way, the finale is sure to bring some new crazy things for us to talk about, so don’t miss it, this Wednesday. Our episode breaking it down will then follow on Friday, so keep up with it all as Marvel just blew our mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Secret Invasion Episode 5,” Matt Purslow, IGN

Once again, Marvel isn’t playing with their chaotic Episode 4s.

We just had one of the most stressful and important episodes of Secret Invasion take place. Beginning with G’iah not only faking her death but the fact she became a Super Skrull to do so and then ending with Gravik taking the life of Talos in front of Fury himself. Between these two moments, a whole lot of other insane confirmations were made, including Rhodey genuinely being a Skrull and Gravik showcasing yet another Super Skrull ability. We have quite a bit to break down here, with Marvel keeping us busy. If you are looking for our full podcast episode to listen to, look no further. You can find it on your podcast listening platform of choice by clicking the button below or listen live by hitting play on the link provided.

G’iah, the Girl Who Lived

Episode 4 didn’t skip a single beat from where we ended last week, quickly providing the answer to a major question fans had been left with, which was whether G’iah was dead or not. If you were hanging out with us last week, you know we were pretty strongly on the “G’iah is dead” train, or at least up until I did the blog post when I had a change of heart and was more on the “She faked her death” train. Well, turns out, the latter was right, as she has become the girl who lived. Yet the bigger implication isn’t that she just faked her death, but that she did it by turning herself into a Super Skrull with Extremis, which allowed her to heal from her gunshot wound.

As far as we have seen in the show, G’iah is now only the second Super Skrull to have been created. Yet, the best part about her doing it is that Gravik has no clue that she did and that she is still alive. This is currently the only thing that she has over him and once she joins up with Fury, it’s the only leverage above Gravik. As G’iah is now on the good side, her having Extremis shouldn’t be a problem in the long run, although it will make her life a lot more interesting in my opinion. As a Skrull, who already has enhanced abilities, she now has made herself almost unkillable. Especially if they were able to stabilize the Extremis formula and make it safer for the host, then the options of how to take out Extremis-powered beings have become greatly limited. However, I’m starting to think this is going to end in a Skrull on Skrull fight, G’iah fighting Gravik as so far, she seems to be the only one truly capable of forcing his demise.

Otherwise, G’iah living also confirms that we should expect to see her with Fury in the next episode, as I’m sure she’ll be seeking him after the events of the final moments in episode 4. This will be the next team-up of the series, and I actually think if Secret Invasion does have a conclusion rather than leading to something bigger, then I think there’s a good chance G’iah is going to force Fury into making everything right again. The Skrulls in Gravik’s refugee camp have yet to be told G’iah betrayed them and many appeared to look up to her as a saving Grace. She would be perfect for mending the bridges between parties but is also just angry enough that she would force Fury’s hand. Now that she has ‘died’ and returned with enhancements, I expect a lot more from her character in both this show and whatever comes next.

A Skrull, Extremis, and Groot Walk into a Bar

As predicted in our episode 3 reactions, Gravik does in fact have at least two of the Super Skrull abilities. The thought did dawn on me though that it’s very possible he doesn’t have them all yet, as this is something we also talked about. He may need to allow his body to adjust to the enhancements and the reason I say this is primarily because the final two abilities, invisibility/something freezing-related and extra strength, probably could have helped him in his fight to get the president. Instead, we only saw his Groot stretching abilities and then later Extremis was used to save his life from Nick’s gunshot, leading me to believe he’s upgrading abilities as time goes on. With two more episodes left, the timing checks out rather perfectly with one more ability upgrade for each episode.

However, the most crucial part of Gravik’s new abilities isn’t that he has them, but that Fury now knows and looks absolutely terrified at the mere thought of Super Skrulls. That look on Fury’s face is what leads me to believe that the chances of Fury actually stopping Super Skrulls are super low. As I mentioned, we have two episodes left to nicely wrap up this story and Fury has been struggling enough to outsmart the Skrulls just because of their shapeshifting abilities. On top of that, he had an inside man and a Skrull bestie to help him infiltrate and get intel. Now that he’s lost Talos (more on this soon) and G’iah was exposed, Fury is even less equipped to deal with regular Skrulls, let alone enhanced ones. To those on Twitter begging for heroes like Quake to show up, I have to say, I’m starting to get closer and closer to jumping aboard that ship. Fury has very few options now without calling for some sort of help, and while I’m not sure the big Avengers are the answer in this show itself, smaller groups like friendly Inhumans might be.

Confirmed: Rhodey is a Skrull

We never were able to say it about Mephisto, but we do get to say it about Rhodey and it’s that the fandom, as a whole, was right. It honestly shouldn’t have come as too much of a shock to anyone and quite frankly, I think it would’ve been more shocking if he ended up not being a Skrull. But let’s get into the lackluster reveal and the bigger implications of Rhodey being gone.

As far as reveals go, this one felt pretty meh if I’m being honest. I think it would have a little more power behind it if the scene in the bathroom where Skrull Rhodey shifts forms as the hand wipes across the mirror was the main reveal. Instead, we all saw the reveal take place when Rhodey confronts Priscilla at the church and orders her to take out Fury. While we never saw Rhodey morph, that moment was confirmation alone that Rhodey had been taken over and was working with Gravik. Again, is anyone shocked? No.

What makes this reveal more important is the same reason Ross’ was so important, which is: how long has Rhodey been missing and replaced? I can positively say it was definitely Rhodey in Endgame, but his appearance in TFAWS was likely not him. Keep in mind, one of the reasons we had for thinking Rhodey wasn’t really himself is the job he took in the US government. That job didn’t just appear for Skrull Rhodey one day, he worked to get himself into that position and be trusted by the president, meaning it hasn’t been Rhodey for quite some time, as Endgame Rhodey wouldn’t have taken that job. Yet, with Armor Wars on the horizon, we have to think Rhodey will be back, the real one, for what is supposed to be one of his big moments. Quite frankly, Armor Wars is likely going to be our Rhodey picking up the pieces of going missing for years and playing government with the president rather than taking over for Tony and his legacy. At this point, the question is how we will get our Rhodey back and not so much when, as I theorize it will have to be by the end of this show for Armor Wars to get set up properly. Nothing else on the slate will likely tie too much into those characters and the storyline, at least the content that has been confirmed.

Is Talos Really Dead?

I might have been pretty wrong about G’iah initially in our podcast when I said she was definitely dead. However, I don’t think I’m going to be quite as wrong in saying the chances of Talos really being gone are quite high. Putting aside the obvious reasons of him turning back into Skrull form and Fury deciding to leave him behind, the greatest proof of his death was Fury’s reaction and how he was killed. To the first point, Fury was actively going to go back to get an injured Talos away from the fight and to safety with the president. Instead, he realized that Gravik was disguising himself and had a hold of Talos. Fury plans for a lot, but I don’t think he anticipated Talos not only getting injured, but Gravik so easily getting his hands on him. He knew once Gravik showed himself that his friend’s life was likely over and his face showed that. But secondly, any fake death would likely have been less chaotic. Talos not only was injured first, showing no signs of something like Extremis to heal himself but then was viciously slain by Gravik. This wasn’t a gunshot wound and I have a feeling Fury was aware of his friend’s life being gone, as he had to choose to leave him there and get the president away.

Beyond all the moments in the scene itself, Talos’ death was one that I predicted from the very beginning, even if I wasn’t entirely correct about why his death would be so important. I initially suggested it would be the driving force behind G’iah switching sides, but we all saw that her mother’s death was what put that into motion. Instead, I think Talos’ death is going to be the driving force in G’iah cementing her allegiance with Fury and working to take down Gravik, as he took both her parents from her. For Fury, it once again is a strike against him and might be the moment he decides he can’t do this alone, needing backup in some way.

Varra vs Priscilla, Who is Fury’s Wife?

The final thing I want to address is the conversation that takes place between Fury and Priscilla. The conversation, while odd since they were actively both possibly going to take a shot at the other, literally, proved one thing to us about Fury. Fury’s blindspot might have been marrying a Skrull, but it wasn’t because he loved Varra. From the conversation, it appeared that Varra did everything perfectly to make Fury fall in love with Priscilla, even as the real Priscilla lay dying in the hospital. Fury fell for the version he was presented, even though he knew it wasn’t actually real. We get this confirmation at the very end when Varra asks if he would have actually loved her if she had been herself and he coldly answers that we will never know.

It’s interesting because the cold and calculating Nick Fury allowed himself one moment of weakness, a moment he knew would end eventually. He always knew he was with a Skrull but they both pretended she wasn’t. He admits that she was his blindspot all these years, yet it makes sense that now she has stopped pretending that their ‘marriage’ would fall apart. On top of that, while there is a level of care for one another, it almost was all built on a lie. This is why they couldn’t kill each other, but also why they stand so separately in where their futures are going to go. I’m sure Varra will disappear now, as Gravik won’t be happy that she didn’t kill Fury. Whether or not we run across Varra in the future is probably one of the better questions. Either way, it’s moments of this show such as this one that is what make it so great, as it humanizes a man we never saw as anything more than a spy, one willing to make the hard choices, always.

Conclusion

We have not been disappointed by this show yet and episode 4 made sure we left more shocked than we started. With so many big moments, episode 5 is on par to be just as crazy, if not even more as we start gearing for the finale of Secret Invasion. We will be here next week, doing the same thing by breaking down episode 5 and spewing theories for everyone to chew on. In the meantime, if you haven’t listened to our podcast episode, go give it a listen. Don’t forget to keep up with Secret Invasion episodes, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Secret Invasion Episode 4”, Cameron Frew, Dexerto

Things are only getting worse for Fury.

Episode 3 has proven quite a few things to us, including that Fury is in over his head. As Fury continues to build back the bridges he burned, the Skrulls are gearing up for a full-on assault, while taking up scientific experimentation to make themselves even stronger. All this to say, the next 3 episodes are only going to get more and more crazy and we are along for the ride. As we are halfway through the show, the bigger ramifications of it are also starting to be brought into question as we start to sort out where this show might lead us. We cover all of this and more in our new podcast episode. Listen on your favorite listening platform by clicking the button or start listening live right now with the link provided.

Super Skrulls have made their Appearance

An extremely subtle moment in this episode was the fact we witnessed our first Super Skrull. If you happened to look away for even a second, you might have missed the three-second moment where Gravik’s hand healed after being stabbed by Talos and the whole area glowed a red/orange. It’s possible to miss it, but if you didn’t then you know exactly what that red/orange glow signifies thanks to Iron Man 3. Extremis has made an appearance and the first Super Skrull has officially been sighted. This small moment shows that the Skrulls have been successful at least once so far in their effort to make their own super race, and there are two things we need to note from this moment.

The first thing is that in the trailer, we see Gravik with what appears to be Groot arms. We learned in episode 2 that Groot is one of the specimens that the Skrulls are using the DNA to experiment with creating powers, so we know this checks out. Since we have seen Gravik now with Extremis and know the future holds Groot arms, there’s a very strong possibility that Gravik is going to make himself a, let’s say, an extended Super Skrull, the top of the group, allowing himself to have all four of the enhanced powers that they are experimenting with. We’ve seen how Gravik acts and how he is treated almost like a god by the Skrulls who follow him. These moments make it seem highly probable that he wanted to make himself remain the top dog by having all the enhancements in his system.

The second thing to note is the reason Gravik is creating Super Skrulls is because of threats like the Avengers and other enhanced heroes. We saw that the Avengers were thrown around twice in the trailers, but quite frankly, we believed that those mentions would be it. Instead, the Avengers have been mentioned at least twice an episode and they appear to be a really big thorn in the Skrull’s side, even though they haven’t made an appearance in a while (that we know of). It’s starting to make me think that Secret Invasion really is going to lead us into a bigger Avengers-level piece of content, as the Skrulls are not only outsmarting Fury, but they outnumber him greatly. Once more and more of them become enhanced, unless Fury does have some friends he decides to call him, this fight really will be too much for him to handle, even with the help of Talos and Sonya. Not to mention, we’re making it to the part of the series where we start to question if we actually have the time to bring a conclusion to all the things that need to be finished. For now, the threat only grows only stronger.

More Talk of Rhodey being a Skrull

There was one other slightly missable moment in the episode where Fury drops that he has a lead on a high-ranking US government official being a Skrull. I say it’s missable because it gets a little buried in the bestie reunion that takes place between Fury and Talos toward the beginning of the episode. Either way, this line is pretty important considering we pretty strongly believe that Fury is talking about Rhodey. I mean, quite frankly, who else would Fury be talking about considering he just had a sit down with Rhodey himself, who is, of course, a high-ranking US government official. It seems Fury didn’t look past some of the oddities that we fans caught onto as well.

Yet a different moment, which is a little less of an obvious and concrete clue, is the man on the other end of Priscillas, Fury’s wife’s phone call. We will discuss her in the next section, but we are allowed to hear the man speak to her in the very last few seconds before the credits, where it sounds like Rhodey might be on the other end. As I said, definitely not nearly as concrete as the previous clue, yet it still could be a more blatant way of proving that Rhodey is in fact a Skrull. As Taylor mentioned on the podcast, this is gearing up to be a witchhunt similar to that of Mephisto in WandaVision, but I do think we have a better chance of this one panning out for us.

Fury’s Wife

Let’s get to the real elephant in the room, which is that we have gotten answers to some pretty pressing questions we had from the last episode revolving around Fury’s wife, and not all of them are great. First things first, Fury does in fact know his wife is a Skrull and she is actually Varra, the Skrull who brings Gravik to Fury in the flashback from episode 2. She goes by Priscilla in her human form, in case that was mildly confusing for anyone else for a second. However, unfortunately, we see that Priscilla, in Fury’s absence, has begun to work with Gravik.

This shouldn’t be too surprising to anyone, considering she did act as his almost social worker when his parents died. She brought him to Earth and it wouldn’t be entirely too shocking to maybe learn Priscilla and Fury were a large part of Gravik’s life as he grew up. Once Fury chose to leave for SABER, Priscilla likely felt she couldn’t defend him any longer and instead spent more and more time with Gravik, who she felt was still trying to help the Skrulls. This doesn’t take away from the fact she still very much cares for Fury, as we have seen in the few seconds of screentime they share together. With the ending of this episode being Priscilla getting a gun out of a holding box, there’s a very real possibility that Gravik ordered her to take out Fury if he came home, something she feels unable to carry through with. Regardless, I don’t think she’s a bad Skrull, instead, she’s similar to G’iah who just wants to help her people. I wouldn’t be entirely shocked to see her switch up or sacrifice herself for Fury somewhere in the last three episodes of this show.

What is happening with G’iah?

The real shock of the episode came when Gravik shot G’iah after exposing her as the person giving away information to Fury and Talos. I guess in all honesty, this isn’t the shock, it’s more when she is shot and killed by Gravik, with death confirmed when her body turned back to Skrull form. The trailers have already confirmed more scenes of G’iah and I hardly can think they brought in Emilia Clarke for three episodes of this show, which leads me to think there is no possibility where she actually died. So here are the possible theories we’re running around.

Gravik didn’t check the body once he killed her, so there’s a strong possibility G’iah faked her death. Since Skrulls clearly have the ability to also take on their true forms whenever they wish to, G’iah possibly prepared for Gravik to come after her. So she then faked her death to ensure getting out of Gravik’s reach. She knew the risk and she also specifically told Gravik to shoot her as they faced each other, so it’s very possible a plan was conceived to fake it all. I mean, come on, who’s better at faking deaths than Nick Fury?

Another possibility is that G’iah really did die, but someone else is going to take up her shell and parade as her. A hole in this is that we have to assume Gravik will pass along the news that G’iah was a traitor, so her shell isn’t of much use inside the revolutionaries anymore. That doesn’t mean the average refugee who isn’t as involved in the fighting itself might not think twice about letting “G’iah” wander around, although it seems like a lower possibility.

A final theory, one that is absolutely crazy but so on brand for our show, is that G’iah’s mom was never killed and instead G’iah is safe somewhere while her mom wore her shell. The conversation between Talos and G’iah in episode one about her mom could have been coded to mean it was time to start passing information rather than just keeping up appearances and settling herself in with the revolutionary Skrulls. Pretty left field, I know, but it’s always pretty suspicious to me when a show or movie kills a character off-screen and allows only one small reference to it.

Conclusion

We are hoping that Secret Invasion keeps up with answering our dying questions in episode 4, as there were some crazy moments in episode 3 that have left me clawing for more. The action is also heating up, as the Skrulls make more and more power moves to prepare for their war against the entire human species, where 99% of them don’t even realize that there is a very real threat walking among them. Let’s get ready for episode 4, out in only two more days with more chaos to come, since Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Secret Invasion Episode 3”, Breeze Riley, Multiverse of Color

Confirmed: Nick Fury stands alone.

Piggybacking off the loss of his right-hand woman, Fury faced the demise of almost every other relationship he still had on Earth during episode 2 of Secret Invasion. In the meantime, the Skrulls are preparing for war against the humans and are turning to science (because that always works) to create their own super army. Episode 2 set us up for some crazy things to happen as the show continues its 6-week release. Before I get into all the details of the topics mentioned above, take a second to listen to the corresponding podcast episode, which you can find on your platform of choice by clicking the button below or listening live using the link provided.

Answers to Taylor’s Questions from the Podcast

Question 1: Does Fury marry a Skrull in the comics? – Fury never actually marries in the comics, which means that anything revolving around a wife is uncharted territory for the character.

Question 2: Who is the general who is off-world with the last group of Skrulls that Talos refers to? – The off-Earth colony that Talos mentions is run by Emperor Drogge. He is not a direct translation from the comics, but could be closely based off the Skrull emperor named Dorrek.

The Relationship between Fury and Gravik

Starting with the beginning of the episode, we got some interesting intel on what life looked like after the Skrulls first came to Earth, something I wasn’t expecting to see but was pleasantly surprised and happy we did. The flashback helped to establish a section of Fury’s involvement with the Skrulls post-Captain Marvel and boy did it show some things that don’t make Fury look all that good. Essentially, it proved to us that Fury’s deal made with the Skrulls was not just that he would find them a home but that in return they would need to help him out by using their shapeshifting abilities, and this is an assumption, to do SHIELD work and gather intel for SHIELD. To break it down, Fury used the Skrulls and their desperate need for a home as a way to exploit them for his own use, which really does not make Fury look like a stand-up guy.

The flashback did one other important thing, which was it showed us that the relationship between Fury and Gravik is much more than surface level. In the first episode, you can tell that Gravik had some sort of relationship with Fury in the past but it isn’t until this episode that you are able to truly understand it. Gravik, a young boy in the flashback, had just lost both his parents fighting the Kree when he met Fury and it is implied that he then also took up the call to ‘help’ Fury out while he was supposedly trying to find them a home. As he was so young and had just become an orphan, it wouldn’t have been shocking for young Gravik to idolize Fury, only to grow up and understand that not only were he and his people exploited but that Fury had lost the drive to help the Skrulls. I think this makes the conflict in this show a lot more interesting, so it will be intriguing to see where this dynamic takes us when Gravik and Fury face each other once again.

Fury and Talos’ Conversation

Fury loses his first ally (we aren’t counting Maria right now because Fury losing her was a little more permanent) early in the episode upon a conversation that takes place between him and Talos. Talos explains to him that he had called all the Skrulls who were out seeking refuge to Earth during what seemed like the time Fury was either Snapped or located on SABER. This is a shot in the gut to Fury, who believed the Skrull’s numbers were much smaller than they actually now are and therefore assumed the threat he was facing was not nearly as large as it has become. To remind everyone, Talos was implying there were millions of Skrulls now living on Earth, with only one group not coming and setting up a colony elsewhere. For Fury, this fact is made worse because it was Talos himself who made that call and never told him. As far as affecting the plot of this show, it confirmed that this fight is much bigger and more dangerous than anyone believed.

G’iah behind Enemy Lines

First things first with G’iah, episode 2 confirmed that she hadn’t betrayed her father after all and that she definitely doesn’t believe in all parts of Gravik’s cause. However, the flashback from the beginning confirmed something else: G’iah and Gravik most likely grew up together as some of the few Skrull children on Earth in the 90s. This lends itself to explaining why she hasn’t quite parted ways with him and his cause. G’iah wants to help her people and likely sees Gravik as the best way of doing so but he is beginning to put them in harms way to get what he wants. While she is in it to save Skrulls and free them, Gravik wants to take over the planet and use his people as weapons in doing so. The two of them likely used to share similar ideas and she also likely cares very deeply for Gravik, even though he is beginning to get out of hand and she knows it.

We explicitly see this when she spies on the scientists who are working to make Super Skrulls. G’iah was not informed of this because Gravik likely knew it would alienate her and you can see the shock and discomfort she feels as she uncovers more parts of the plan, especially the fact Gravik is sacrificing Skrull lives for his testing. I’m calling it now that the Super Skrulls will be the reason G’iah leaves Gravik but will stay by his side as an informant for Fury or her father in the meantime. This also spreads some light on that conversation between G’iah and Fury in the trailers, where she tells him “you don’t know what they have planned for you”. It’s very likely this is her giving insider information regarding the creation of Super Skrulls, which we edge closer to every episode.

Rhodey – Is He Who He Says He Is?

I think I speak for many of us when we say from the very start of this show we were quite suspicious of Rhodey, before he even actually made his first appearance. Now that he has, the suspicions have grown even louder. I believe the most obvious one for many is the blatant diseprect that Rhodey shows Fury during their entire conversation. Now, to be fair, these are two characters that don’t really share much screen time throughout the rest of the MCU collection but their relationship is clearly implied through Rhodey’s connection to the Avengers and Fury signing up Stark as one of the first ones back in the day. While tensions are clearly high since the Moscow attacks, the anger Rhodey seems to have towards Fury is definitely a little off, implying that an angry Skrull could instead be in his place.

Another huge moment that I immediately pinged was when Rhodey was very gung ho about calling in their ‘friends’. He got a little too excited for my taste, and Fury even knocks him down by saying he doesn’t want the Skrulls shapeshifting into the Avengers and making them fugitives (again). Of course, for us fans, that means there is a team of Avengers waiting somewhere out there so yay but in relation to this show, Rhodey’s willingness to jump the gun and call them could signal a Skrull who wants to do exactly what Fury wants to make sure doesn’t happen. Gravik does say during this episode not to worry about the Avengers, so it is implied they have a plan if they were to get involved or one to keep them out of it.

Lastly, Rhodey’s entire position in the government is definitely a little strange, as he is essentially is one of the president’s right hand men. For those who have been here awhile, you might be wondering why I’m saying this. In Endgame, Rhodey tells Secretary Ross that he regrets his decision to sign the Accords and decides instead to help the fugitive Avengers, therefore making himself a fugitive as well. So it seems a little strange that he’s now suddenly in such a high ranking position within the US government. On top of this, he himself wanted to fire Fury from SABER, a clear win for the Skrulls as it forces Fury to be cut off and even more alone than he already is. As I said, from the start Rhodey was suspicious and he’s only made a worse case for himself. If he isn’t exposed in Secret Invasion, there would be a high likelihood he will be exposed at the beginning of Armor Wars and be left to pick up the pieces his absence caused.

Does Nick Fury Know His Wife is a Skrull?

The last few moments of episode 2 gave us a partial heartattack as Fury returns home to his (Skrull) wife. From there, the internet exploded with everyone asking the same question: does Fury know his wife is a Skrull? From what Taylor and I have figured, there are 4 possibilities at play.

1. Fury knows he married a Skrull, they both just prefer she look human when together.
2. Fury doesn’t know he married a Skrull and she hides it from him.
3. Fury didn’t marry a Skrull, his wife was replaced by one.
4. Fury knows he married a Skrull but she has in his absence sided with Gravik.

Now, each of these have their own implications, but the worst two would be that Fury’s wife was replaced by a Skrull, more specifically one of Gravik’s Skrulls or that she sided with Gravik. This forces the threat into his own home, which if Gravik knew about it, would be quite the powerplay. However, I do theorize that Fury knows his wife is a Skrull and I believe that’s what makes this fight personal on yet another level for him. And it’s possible that’s why Fury lost the drive to rehome the Skrulls, when plenty seemed to assimilate themselves to Earth just fine like his wife. It will be interesting to see her character play a bigger role in the next few episodes and how complicated this could get, very quickly.

Conclusion

Episode 2 acted as a very informative episode, allowing us to see how deep this fight goes and how bad it is going to get. It set the stage for some really important storylines to create chaos as we move through the show and I have to say, I’m very excited, especially for Super Skrulls. The threat appears to just be getting worse for our buddy Fury but we will have to see what happens next. Next week, we will be reacting to episode 3 of Secret Invasion, so make sure you are keeping up with Marvel’s content so you can keep up with ours, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Secret Invasion Episode 2”, Tom Spoors, Loud and Clear Reviews

We weren’t ready for this show.

Reminiscent of the time WandaVision took the world by storm with its first two episodes, Secret Invasion never allowed us to breathe. From the very beginning to the very last few seconds, Secret Invasion proved that we are in for one really wild ride here. Our minds will be consistently confused and manipulated as some of our favorite characters are taken over by Skrulls and create chaos. So let’s cut all the vague statements and let’s get directly into the most prominent moments of episode 1. As with all reaction episodes, go ahead and listen to the corresponding podcast, where you get our raw reactions to the episode. You can start listening by hitting the podcast button and finding your listening platform of choice or listen live in this blog post by hitting play on the link provided.

Agent Hill and the Ending

I can’t begin this blog without talking about debatably the most important part of the episode, which was that extremely uncalled-for and painful ending that took Agent Maria Hill away from us. Now if you were anything like me, you were likely expecting her to turn green and to find out Fury had put together she wasn’t who she said she was. Yet, I think we all knew the second we saw one Fury turn into Gravik that it was, in fact, game over for our favorite agent. Quite frankly, there are only about three reasons I can think that they chose to do this not only in general but also so early in the show.

The first simply is that Marvel wanted to prove this show is not to be taken lightly and that they aren’t afraid to let their punches fly in an attempt to make a dark, Winter Soldier-level storyline again. And quite frankly, they succeeded. While we obviously already saw how serious the Skrull invasion truly already was throughout the rest of the episode, Marvel wanted to prove that it wasn’t just going to be about body snatching. There are serious threats walking among everyday, normal people, and if you didn’t get that by the fact the Skrulls were pretending to be terrorists and were killing innocent people, then you were going to get it by seeing Maria Hill bleeding out in the streets of Russia.

The second reason is also quite simple: it happened this early because Fury needed to be given motivation. Throughout the entire first episode, everyone around Fury is calling him out for looking worn down and like he isn’t actually ready for the fight that is sitting at his doorstep. While he obviously argues against this, as fans, some of that have been here awhile know that these statements are true. Fury isn’t himself and the only way to get him there was going to be to lose someone who means everything to him, his right-hand man. Moving forward, this will be the impetus that drives him because this war just got to another level of personal for him.

The final reason Maria faced death is simple: Cobie Smulders has been playing Agent Hill since The Avengers in 2012. That is 11 long years of one character, who has touched quite a few of the most important projects to date. But she also is the type of character who was never really the main focus and so she could be called in really whenever to reprise her role. Honestly, Cobie might just be done with playing the role and want to focus her attention elsewhere instead of getting random calls from Marvel about spending 3 minutes in their next movie. With SHIELD falling ages ago at this point and other organizations and heroes taking the places of the ones who came before, it might have just been time to say goodbye to Agent Hill and pave the way for new storylines to take her place.

Either way, no matter what the reasoning was, she will be missed. She was one of those characters that you could rely on to show up in projects and make an impact, no matter what. It was definitely not on my Maravel 2023 bingo card to lose Maria Hill but unfortunately, here we are. Now we have to hope Fury will do the one thing he does best: avenge her.

Agent Ross’ MCU History

Switching gears, let’s go to the beginning of the episode which I think left many of us possibly just as shocked as the ending did. Agent Ross being revealed as a Skrull might not have initially given many a reaction, but when it finally dawned on everyone that it opens the question about how long he’s been a Skrull, well, suddenly we all are a whole lot more worried. My personal theory? He was at least a Skrull during Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. As much as I don’t want to take the focus off of the immensely well-done movie about grief over T’Challa and also Chadwick, quite frankly, I could see Ross having been a Skrull throughout the whole film, and here’s why.

Agent Ross is one of the few people outside Wakanda who the Wakandans actively trust. This means that he has access to not just them, but their royal family, and having access to them means the possibility of having openings to free vibranium right under their noses. As a Skrull army, it would make a lot of sense for them to want someone on the inside there who could get them a valuable resource that could be used for weapons during their takeover of Earth.

Taylor brought up a great counter-point in our episode about how a Skrull would also want to be involved in the CIA and while I don’t disagree, take a moment to remember how much Ross struggled between his duty to the CIA and alliance with the Wakandans. Now, a normal person would say this is a typical response and doesn’t in any way make it seem that he could be a Skrull just from that but I ask you to think about how a Skrull who took over Agent Ross’ body might also react in that situation. As I explained above, Ross was in a great position with one of the most affluent countries in the world with the best power and weapon supply. A Skrull put in the position to choose between the CIA and that would also be having an existential crisis over which one is more important to be associated with, especially if they aren’t currently in full contact with their leadership. Obviously, it’s a theory, but if Wakanda Forever proved anything to us, it’s the fact that everyone wants what the Wakandans have, maybe even including the Skrulls.

Fury, the Blip, and Skrulls

It was no secret entering this show that we would be seeing Fury struggle with the effects of the Blip. We saw several clips in the trailers and even some released footage that showed everyone around him telling him how he clearly wasn’t the formidable Fury we always knew. But the great part in all this is we are preparing to see him as a character have his first real character arc, so let’s get into trying to understand what that might look like.

We know the basis of the show is simple. Fury, Captain Marvel, and Talos all promised the Skrulls in the 90s that they would find them a new home. Let’s say theoretically Captain Marvel is off in the galaxy doing side quests but still actively looking. That leaves Talos and Fury on Earth with the remaining Skrulls. Fast forward to 2018, half the universe was snapped out of existence, including Fury and we will get to the effects of the Blip on him in one second. But upon his return, Fury left Earth, leaving the Skrulls high and dry and this doesn’t include the Skrulls who weren’t snapped and lived 5 years on Earth without Fury. So yeah, they’re angry with him and I don’t blame them, yet the question we’re still asking is why did Fury leave?

Our thoughts, which we actually do align around is that Fury couldn’t take the failure that was solidified when the Snap took place. Think about it and take it all the way to the beginning. Fury was the person who was experimenting with the Space stone and called Loki to Earth and from there, it all pretty much went downhill. Yes, he assembled his heroes who added more heroes to their roster but at the end of the day, his heroes failed because they fell apart before the biggest threat came and where was Fury? When the Avengers were destroying a German airport, where was he? And by the time Fury even knew Thanos was actually here, it was too late because he was dusting away. Fury, Director of SHIELD, where Hydra grew right underneath him, failed again and again. He was so sure he could take the threat by the horns and stand his ground but the Snap proved he couldn’t. To come back 5 years later with most of his heroes gone and one of his favorite agents, Natasha, dead, well that’ll screw with someone and their ability to feel they can control the outcome when threats come knocking.

This is likely why he ended up in space, trying to create a new first line of defense for Earth and invasions from up there, but he also likely couldn’t handle the reality of what being on Earth brought to him. Memories and failures were surrounding him and not to mention, he is technically supposed to be dead. But to the Skrulls, Fury abandoned them yet again and left them now stranded on this planet that they never really asked to be on. While Fury struggles to find his footing again, the Skrulls are taking matters into their own hands. It’s going to be exciting to see how the rest of this plays out throughout the show.

Whose Side is G’iah really on?

The final big moment of this episode was our reintroduction to G’iah, Talos’ daughter who we see spends her time with the Skrull revolutionaries. Clearly, she is estranged from Talos under the understanding that it has something to do with her mother up until Talos confirms her mother’s death. In doing so, we see a shift in G’iah and she decides to ‘help’ her father by feeding him insider information about the attack the revolutionary Skrulls have planned. But it raises the question of: did G’iah really do it to help her father, or to corner her father, Fury, and Hill inside the bombing location, making them bait for Gravik?

We threw out from the start that G’iah would at some point turn good, and although I predicted it would be from Talos’ death, her mother’s death is just as good of a reason. As explained in the show, G’iah’s mother died at the hands of the revolutionary Skrulls, so that would be enough to shake anyone into questioning their loyalty to the cause. I believe that G’iah was truly trying to help her father, but I also think that people like Gravik don’t trust her regardless. She is Talos’ daughter, no matter what side she is standing on, the revolutionaries are not likely going to be quick to believe she fights with them. If you noticed, Gravik’s right-hand man seems to be a little more forceful with her when sending her on the initial mission to get the bomb. There appears to be some degree of distrust already, so it wouldn’t have been shocking for the Skrulls to have lied to her or misled her on purpose, indirectly then misleading Fury and the gang.

The other possibility is of course that she purposefully led her father into a trap and that she knew the bombs were already planted rather than in the bags. If this holds up, we won’t be seeing any double agent G’iah for the time being as she is still very loyal to the cause. However, I do think it’s hard to fake a reaction like the one she had to losing her mother and while I think she is angry and disagrees with her father, that doesn’t necessarily mean she wanted to lead him to a possible death chamber.

Episode 2 Predictions

What could happen in the next episode? Let’s begin with the Agent Hill situation, as there are a lot of thoughts floating around this. Obviously, we didn’t see her turn green and I doubt Gravik would have killed one of his own men, especially one in deep cover as Hill. If we assume she’s dead, Fury could pull out some crazy tricks like he did with Agent Coulson. Yes, I’m saying Fury might do the whole Kree blood thing on Hill, but I don’t think the chances are high. As I explained earlier, there are some solid storyline reasons as to why she died and quite frankly, Fury took off and left the body. There’s no telling how long between life and death and the supplies that are needed would take to gather in order to pull this off, but it’s worth sharing.

On top of this, there’s of course the possibility Hill isn’t actually dead or that there was a Skrull impersonating her at points throughout the episode. In episode 2, I wouldn’t be shocked to have it revealed to us that another Skrull who is helping Talos and Fury was actually the one who took the shot and the cameras just cut before she turned green. The problem with this show? We aren’t going to be able to confidently declare anything for a while.

We obviously are also on board with thinking episode 2 is going to see a change in Nick Fury, with him starting to show signs of the old Nick we all knew. We know from trailers he takes this fight to heart, and after Hill’s death, this is the perfect moment. This will be likely when we see him begin his team-up with Falsworth and run into Rhodey, as these feel like solid episode 2 moments that run directly in line with what we saw in episode 1. The Fury we know is coming back, just slowly.

That wraps up the very first episode of Secret Invasion. If it wasn’t clear through this post or from the podcast episode, this show is already so good. We are hoping this energy continues through the next episode, which will be out this Wednesday. As always, you can catch our reactions to the second episode two days after the episode drops, so make sure to keep an eye out for that as well. Lastly, our July newsletter will be arriving in emails on July 1st, so use this link to sign up so you get it. This month is all about the top 5 most interesting characters to be Skrulls. Make sure you guys are keeping up with all this great content from both Marvel and us, as Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.

Image: “Secret Invasion Episode 1”, Fran Ruiz, Space