If I had a nickel every time an episode of Secret Invasion ended with a death I’d only have three nickels, but it’s weird it happened thrice. Secret Invasion Season 1 Episode 4 “Beloved,” shows the main party being betrayed by this series is Marvel fans.
Even Samuel L. Jackson, an incredibly talented actor, can’t carry Secret Invasion to a place where you start to care. His scenes with Priscilla should be tender and evocative, but we just met her two episodes ago!
We didn’t even know Fury had a wife and now we’re supposed to be crushed by this dramatic scene of them reciting a poem to each other after they fail to kill one another. Priscilla doesn’t even get a chance to explain for why she’s been working with Gravik.
Sure, you may be mildly shocked and concerned to find out Rhodey is a Skrull (for how long we don’t know, because why offer interesting world-building details when you can just rely on shock and awe?). It also seems almost disrespectful to a character who was already underused by the MCU to bring him back for a major arc where it’s not even him.
The twist that G’iah is still alive because she put herself in the Project Extremis machine and gave herself healing ability is admittedly a good surprise. That is, until she swaps places with her dad who ends up dead at the end of the episode at the hands of Gravik (I think this one might actually stick).
Their last conversation ended with her being disgusted by the fact he doesn’t have a real plan to find the Skrulls a home other than show humans Skrulls are nice and hope for amnesty. G’iah and Talos’ fraught relationship along with his relationship with Fury was the emotional core of the show and now that’s gone.
If you really try to make something out of this Secret Invasion clearly wants to be an allegory about the myth of the model minority versus radical liberation movements. Unfortunately, that is probably giving the show too much credit.
Ending what is already a short episode on a bloated CGI firefight with crashing helicopters and President Ritson just dangling in an overturned jeep doesn’t give the show much to say. I’ll miss Ben Mendelsohn’s stellar acting if this is the end for Gravik, but at least we still have Oscar-winner Olivia Colman waiting to be utilized more.
Secret Invasion airs Wednesdays on Disney Plus.