If this week’s episode of Secret Invasion feels like it’s over quickly, that’s only because it is. At 38 minutes, it’s the shortest episode of any of the MCU’s one-hour Disney+ shows since WandaVision’s early episodes, which were aping the half-hour sitcom structure. (What If…? and She-Hulk, Attorney-at-Law were both half-hour shows.) However, once you get to the end, you can see why: they spent all their money on the big-ass fight scene at the end…
Of the four episodes of Secret Invasion so far, three have ended with a major character being shot and left for dead, including this one. Of the first two, one has been pretty clearly established as permanent, that being Maria Hill’s tiresome death in “Resurrection.” The other is G’iah, shot by Gravik at the end of last week’s “Betrayed.” This week, we kick off by finding out that G’iah was only mostly dead, not all dead. Off-camera last week, but shown in flashbacks this week, G’iah used the process Gravik described last week that would create Super-Skrulls on herself. So now she has a version of Extremis coursing through her body. We already know that Gravik has already used the process, as last week when Talos stabbed him in the hand, the Extremis effect was seen to heal him, and this week, Gravik uses both that and Groot’s plant-extending powers.
Anyhow, while we get G’iah back, we appear to lose Talos this week, as he’s shot in the midst of the aforementioned big-ass fight scene while trying to save President Ritson’s life, and Fury is forced to leave his at-the-very-least-unconscious form behind in order to get Ritson to safety. Talos was bleeding out slowly (reverting to Skrull form in bits and pieces, which is actually a very effective visual) before collapsing, and it’s possible he’s still alive, at least.
Talos also speaks to G’iah about what his plan is to counter what Gravik is planning, and his notion is cooperative, symbolic, hopeful, and also painfully naïve, especially in a world like the MCU that has a certain amount of mistrust of aliens (given in particular what happened in New York in 2012, which the episode itself reminds us of by having a flashback to Fury and Priscilla having a post-Avengers meet-up in Paris) and which also went through the Blip. It’s not clear what will happen with G’iah now, since she’s no longer on either Gravik or her father’s side.
Well, okay, it’s a little clear: since she and Gravik both have powers now (beyond shape-changing), they’re probably going to wind up confronting each other in the climactic superhero battle that this storyline really calls for, thus saving them from having to pay for a famous actor to show up in episode 6.
There are two other surprises this week, besides G’iah’s miraculous recovery from being shot in the chest, one a genuine surprise, one not so much.
The latter is that Priscilla is working for Gravik (which was pretty clear last week) and has actually been a deep-cover agent whose mission was to seduce Fury and be an asset who will keep track of what Fury is doing. However, she has genuinely fallen for Fury, and when they confront each other in the kitchen over tea, she makes it clear that she’s not going to kill him. She explains her reasoning, beyond the fact that she really loves Fury: the person whose face she took was a woman with a congenital heart defect, who had three dying wishes after she agreed to let a Skrull take over her life: to be buried at sea, to still be a daughter to her parents (both of which she has done), and to not hurt Fury.
Both Fury and Priscilla have pistols out on the table when they have this talk, and they fire their weapons off-camera, leaving us to—very briefly—wonder what’s happening. But we’re not kept in suspense long. They both deliberately had Greedo’s marksmanship and missed each other. It’s actually very sweet.
The other surprise was genuine: Rhodey, it turns out, is also a Skrull, and working for Gravik. He’s the one Priscilla was on the phone with last week being given an assassination assignment, and this week it’s made clear that her target is Fury—and Rhodey is the one giving her the assignment. To reinforce the point, we see “Rhodey” as a Skrull taking a shower then changing shape back into Don Cheadle. Fury shows up in Rhodey’s hotel room to share a bottle of expensive bourbon and try to mend fences—but it’s all a ploy to get Rhodey to drink a liquid tracker.
I will give the producers credit, I did not see that coming at all. Though it does take the wind out of the sails out of the conversation between Fury and Rhodey in “Promises,” as a big part of the appeal of that conversation was that it was between these two particular Black men who have had to struggle to succeed while being impeded by mediocre White men.
One-on-one conversations is still what Secret Invasion does best. As with the previous three episodes, “Beloved” is a mix of great conversations mixed with dopey action that doesn’t really make a lot of sense. Both scenes with Fury and Priscilla—the flashback to 2012 and the confrontation in the kitchen—are magnificent. And for all that it mutes their previous tête-à-tête, the hotel room scene with Fury and Skrull!Rhodey is searingly good.
The tracker Fury puts in the fake Rhodey’s drink leads them to a presidential motorcade in Russia, with Ritson en route to a summit meeting with the Russian president. Gravik and his Skrulls pose as Russian soldiers who ambush the motorcade. The entire sequence is terrible, a loud, awful mess. What’s particularly absurd is that the Secret Service and U.S. military guarding Ritson are doing so poorly until Fury and Talos show up, and then suddenly they turn the tide, which is, um, not convincing.
Also, a major flaw in this entire ambush setup: how is Skrull!Rhodey supposed to explain why he didn’t put his armor on and defend the president? Indeed, the fact that we have yet to see the War Machine armor in a series for which Don Cheadle is in the opening credits is kinda ridiculous…
This and that
- The title of this week’s episode comes from Raymond Carver’s poem “Late Fragment.” It’s quoted by Fury and Priscilla twice, once in the 2012 flashback, and again in the present right before they pretend to shoot each other. The poem’s text is one person asking another if they got what they wanted from this life, with the other replying in the affirmative, for what they wanted was “To call myself beloved, to feel myself / beloved on the earth.”
- This series is the first time the Extremis project from Iron Man 3 has even really been mentioned since that now-ten-year-old movie. It’s kind of more surprising that nobody else has tried to revive it…
- When the Skrull changes shape into Rhodey after showering, my first thought was, “Okay, so that’s why he used to look like Terence Howard…”
- Now I’m wondering how long Rhodey has been a Skrull. I mean, isn’t that the sort of thing the doctors who treated him after his massive injuries in Captain America: Civil War would’ve noticed? Then again, the now-dead Skrull who posed as Everett Ross in “Resurrection” is probably a more recent infiltration (like, since Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), so it’s possible that Rhodey was replaced more recently also…
- Apparently Skrulls like good booze. Ritson can still smell the Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve on Skrull!Rhodey’s breath when the latter meets Air Force One in Russia, which leads to a rather cranky request by the fake Rhodey for a mint…
Keith R.A. DeCandido has stories in two new anthologies out now: Double Trouble: An Anthology of Two-Fisted Team-Ups, which he also co-edited with Jonathan Maberry, and which features team-ups of classic characters (Keith paired H. Rider Haggard’s title character from She with the Yoruba goddess Egungun-oya), with other contributors including New York Times best-selling authors Kevin J. Anderson, Greg Cox, Delilah S. Dawson, Nancy Holder, David Mack, Jody Lynn Nye, Scott Sigler, and Dayton Ward; and Sherlock Holmes: Cases by Candlelight Volume 2, which has four tales of Holmes & Watson by Keith, Christopher D. Abbott, Michael Jan Friedman, and Aaron Rosenberg.
Not a spoiler but speculation, I think we’re going to see some Life Model Decoy shenanigans to counter shape shifter shenanigans (The Maria Hill we saw die in Episode One being an LMD would be VERY Maria Hill).
@1 That would be nice, as the fridging of Hill was so egregious, I can’t believe someone in the writer’s room wouldn’t have objected to it. And using LMDs to cheat death is in SHIELD’s DNA, right back to Fury’s recruitment into the organization in Strange Tales #135.
It took a while, but I think this series has finally snapped into focus. We finally got to hear the Fury/Talos Skrull homeland plan, which is an idealistic pipe dream, but at least it is a plan. I think G’aia will come up with a better plan on her own (female characters can think for themselves, after all, and do not have to choose between plans the guys dreamed up). The battle scene was a bit overblown at times, but was exciting. And the encounter between Fury and Priscilla was wonderful.
(KRAD, I may be wrong, but I think the motorcade was in Britain, attacked by “Russians,” not set in Russia. The reinforcements that came to help Fury had what looked to be British uniforms. )
I had some issues with this week’s episode.
1. Fury and Pricilla were much, much more effective here than in the previous episodes. However, the setup and payoff with the poem were way, way too close together. I understand no one even likely thought about Fury having a Skrull wife until this show came about, but couldn’t they have put the first poem scene in an earlier episode? Also…if she’s really sodded off, and we don’t see her in the final two episodes, this feels like a useless side plot.
2. Fury’s first scene with Rhodey made no sense. Skrull Rhodey should have just killed him, straight up, and Fury was dumb taking this risk, just rewarded due to being a main character. Also, it kinda feels like Samuel L. Jackson is mugging for the camera whenever he’s in a scene with Don Cheadle, playing himself rather than Fury. I get what they’re trying to do here, it’s supposed to be code-switching of a sort, but it’s not like Sam acted like this with Rhodey.
3. Why is Skrull Rhodey still alive? It’s just odd they left him chilling inside an SUV through the entire firefight. I thought for sure she would be some sort of impediment to Cage and get shot. As soon as the President regains consciousness, the jig is up, which really makes me worry that Episode 5 will involve Cage dragging around an unconscious President. Or even worse, an episode where a bumbling character supposed to be President of the United States becomes Cage’s new sidekick! Any scenario I can think of here just seems like wheel spinning.
In general though, it’s good to see Cage finally being halfway effective at doing something, even if it was by the skin of his teeth, and Talos had to die for it to happen. Presumably, the whole Russian false flag operation is 100% dead, regardless of how quickly Cage get the President to safety (there’s lots of dead Skrulls on site aside from Talos – I guess they planned a clean-up crew which couldn’t come due to the added resistance). Unless Gravik plans another action against Russia (or the show takes some dumb dumb pills), I have to think the show is going to pivot to Gravik on the run.
“This series is the first time the Extremis project from Iron Man 3 has even really been mentioned since that now-ten-year-old movie. It’s kind of more surprising that nobody else has tried to revive it…”
I mean, yes and no. There may have been an Extremis soldier in the cage fight in Shang-Chi, and as far as revivals go Extremis was a major part of Marvel Television’s Agents of SHIELD‘s first season as a component in the Centipede serum.
(And as much as the back and forth of whether SHIELD and other Marvel TV is still MCU canon is a debate I won’t touch, it was unquestionably intended as such at the time.)
Well, most of what I wanted to say has already been said by Keith or others. As usual, the performances are the highlight, but yeah, they do need to think of other ways to end episodes beyond lingering on dead or dying bodies.
It took me a few moments to realize that Gravik was using Groot powers when he tentacleified his arm like that, because really that should be something Skrulls are already capable of. My first thought when I saw it was, “Ah, so MCU Skrulls can shapeshift beyond humanoid form.” It wasn’t until the tendrils got shot and bark broke off that I remembered that Groot powers were a Super-Skrull ingredient.
@3/KarlZimmerman: “I get what they’re trying to do here, it’s supposed to be code-switching of a sort, but it’s not like Sam acted like this with Rhodey.”
Why should he? Sam and Fury are different individuals from different generations, just as Sam and Isaiah Bradley were different individuals who held different viewpoints about what their Blackness meant to them and how it shaped their choices.
Also, in the last half of your post you mistakenly refer to Nick Fury as Luke Cage
Wait, how could Talos possibly still be alive? Not only was he shot, but there’s that whole scene with Gravik very clearly stabbing Talos and leaving him dead.
Quoth Foo: “Wait, how could Talos possibly still be alive?”
You’re obviously not familiar with superhero stories…. *chortlesnoot*
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I’m grateful to be wrong about G’iah actually being dead. Even though I said it would be more interesting if they flipped the trope and had Talos die in order to give G’iah a revenge motive (not that she needs extra motivation, since her mom was killed already) I’m not going to make the same mistake twice and assume Talos is actually dead until I see next week’s episode.
Wow, I really agree about that action sequence lacking credibility. I could buy that the secret service could be overwhelmed by Gravik’s fake Russians, but it’s hard to believe two aging men and a shotgun are all it would take to turn the tide. At least they eventually had reinforcements.
In contrast with the action, the acting and dialogue continues to be top notch. As for how long it’s been since Rhodey was replaced as a Skrull, I’m sure that will be addressed (either here or in the Armor Wars film that is supposed to serve as a sequel to this show). Though I got the impression that it was a recent development, I suppose it could have been anytime after his appearance in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and I have no idea how far apart these shows are supposed to have taken place in the MCU timeline.
Hmm, what to say.
Secret Invasion is problematic in a few ways; It actually has proper character scenes, and gives the actors a chance to perform, Fury’s character being developed, and his humanity in regards to turning to dust and reforming, being somewhat traumatic, as an example, Don Cheadle finally stepping out of the Iron Man sidekick role and showing those who only know him from Marvel, a little of what he can do. However, the overall plot and pacing regarding the actual invasion is a complete mess, and the writers really should have studied AoS season 5 (especially) as a way to build a suspenseful story without resorting to clanging cliffhangers.
If anything, Secret Invasion is a missed opportunity to bring AoS back into mainstream Marvel continuity, in a similar way to Daredevil and Kingpin’s assimilation. True, making any tv series is a nightmare of organisation, and actors are not always available, yet just having Deathlok, Quake, and Agent May in one or two episodes would have given the series a push it seems to lack for the average Disney/Marvel viewer.
@krad – I’m surprised you were gobsmacked by Rhodey being a Skrull, given that there were clues pointing to that. I wasn’t remotely surprised, just annoyed that, once again, the series betrays its espionage design by revealing clearly who’s a ringer. Spoon feeding sucks. It’s like revealing the leading cabal in this thing — rather than drip-feed reveals, they just squirt everything out there, blowing the suspense.
I’m just waiting for Sonya Falsworth to blurt out, “Oh, I’m a Kree, dear boy, one of the pink ones so the budget doesn’t have to stretch to makeup and effects.”
G’iah recovering was a gimme, after the Chekhov’s Guns left and right in previous weeks. I wouldn’t be surprised if she finds her Dad’s corpse and finds a way to manage Extremis to revive him.
The Fury/Priscilla stuff was lovely. Except for that silly business with the guns.
The big action set piece was complete idiocy. The US and Britain are supposed to buy that a motley bunch if generic Russians attached the convoy? FSB or Wagner mercenaries might be more believable. Presidential convoys include missile launchers? President Deadmeat wasn’t already replaced with a Skrull? What about the evidence on sure? Dead Skrulls all over, very likely a ton of video, *massive* active surveillance that should reveal the bullshit in a matter of minutes.
*sigh*
They could have done the full Le Carré experience here. Instead we got a bit of Mick Herron and the least suspenseful espionage story ever.
@krad – I’m surprised you were gobsmacked by Rhodey being a Skrull, given that there were clues pointing to that. I wasn’t remotely surprised, just annoyed that, once again, the series betrays its espionage design by revealing clearly who’s a ringer. Spoon feeding sucks. It’s like revealing the leading cabal in this thing — rather than drip-feed reveals, they just squirt everything out there, blowing the suspense.
I’m just waiting for Sonya Falsworth to blurt out, “Oh, I’m a Kree, dear boy, one of the pink ones so the budget doesn’t have to stretch to makeup and effects.”
G’iah recovering was a gimme, after the Chekhov’s Guns left and right in previous weeks. I wouldn’t be surprised if she finds her Dad’s corpse and finds a way to manage Extremis to revive him.
The Fury/Priscilla stuff was lovely. Except for that silly business with the guns.
The big action set piece was complete idiocy. The US and Britain are supposed to buy that a motley bunch of generic Russians attaced the convoy? FSB or Wagner mercenaries might be more believable. Presidential convoys include missile launchers? President Deadmeat wasn’t already replaced with a Skrull? What about the evidence on sure? Dead Skrulls all over, very likely a ton of video, *massive* active surveillance that should reveal the bullshit in a matter of minutes.
*sigh*
They could have done the full Le Carré experience here. Instead we got a bit of Mick Herron and the least suspenseful espionage story ever.
@10/11 – a secret invasion story in the mould of the TV version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (with Fury as Guinness’s Smiley) would have been fantastic!
Overall, I am really sad with this show, it is (for want of a better word) nonsense – sadly much like The Falcon and Winter Soldier. Secret invasion interviews have namechecked the Americans as a source, but has nothing of that much superior show – nor any real sense of threat to the fictional world of the show. Such a missed opportunity.
I don’t see how (extant) superheroes can’t get involved after the climactic events in this episode unless there’s somehow a total information blackout on what occurred — but it prolly ain’t gonna happen.
Ditto what KRAD said about Talos’ slowly, partially reverting to Skrull form really being a neat visual, as well as him and Fury turning the tide in that confrontation being ridiculous. Ditto what CLB said about Gravik’s Skrull/Groot powers, although I understand the choice to go with a rough conservation-of-mass limitation on the shapeshifting abilities.
Emilia Clarke looked very uncanny around the eyes to me during the bench convo between G’iah and Talos, akin to certain Marvel de-aging faces, to such an extent that I was surprised her forehead crinkled a bit when her eyes widened near the end. I’m not sure what that’s about; maybe it’s just me but the wife thought so too.
I’m curious whether we’re supposed to have recognized the Skrull aping Rhodey, say as a girl (she presented female to us, anyway) roughly Gravik and G’iah’s age in a previous flashback.
While I know that it would’ve likely been an insurmountable expense in cash or desire on his part to get Robert Downey Jr. back, I can’t help thinking that if the Skrulls really wanted to wrest control of the popular consciousness — and if Marvel really wanted to have the fallout from this Secret Invasion be massive in terms of global distrust of power structures going forward — they’d scheme to apparently resurrect Tony Stark only to have him revealed as a Skrull.
@13/Arben: “I’m curious whether we’re supposed to have recognized the Skrull aping Rhodey”
According to the MCU Wiki, she’s named Raava and has appeared only in this episode. Although her actress, Nisha Aaliya, previously played a Bollywood dancer in Eternals.
Thanks, CLB @14. I saw her name in the end credits but didn’t check previous episodes or wikis (as I do Memory Alpha watching Trek).
I really liked the scenes with Fury and his wife, and while I’m a little irritated that knowing he’s around (probably) for the Marvels took some of the suspense out of the scene, I loved the whole twist with them both missing and knowing where they stand.
But I agree with the general criticisms of the attack and how that all shook out.
While Talos’s plan was really, really naive (does he even…watch the news?) I wonder if his play to save the President was part of that and if his disguise faded as he got wounded partially on purpose.