Secret Invasion 1x1, 1x2, 1x3
ORIGINALLY REVIEWED 6/21/23, 6/28/23, 7/5/23
SYNOPSIS
Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) learns of the truth about the remaining Skrulls’ plan to hide on Earth, under the guise of humans. However, he is unaware of the secret behind a rogue Skrull “cult’s” plan, led by their general Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), to overthrow humankind for control of the planet. Joined by the Skrull Talos (Ben Mendelsohn), Fury must stop the same people he promised to protect.
IMPORTANT MESSAGE:
AS THIS IS THE FIRST REVIEW I’VE WRITTEN FOR A TV SHOW, I MUST EXPLAIN HOW IT WILL WORK. THERE WILL BE TWO DIFFERENT REVIEWS, THIS ONE FOR EPISODES 1-3, AND THE OTHER FOR 4-6. ONCE ALL 6 EPISODES ARE OUT, I WILL DO MY REVIEW FOR EPISODES 4-6. THIS SETUP FOR TV SHOW REVIEWS WAS VOTED ON BY MY DEAR READERS VIA INSTAGRAM POLL.
SPOILER FREE REVIEWS
EPISODE 1: RESURRECTION
SCORE: 7.5/10
This Episode is a rollercoaster of emotions. From start to finish, it hammers down on the fact that there is no one you can trust. Always wanting to watch your back, it makes you question who will reveal themselves to be a Skrull.
EPISODE 2: PROMISES
SCORE:7.5/10
Following the closing moments of the first episode, Fury continues his mission to stop the Skrulls from overthrowing humanity. This episode shows another side of Fury, and it really helps to add another layer of depth to his character.
EPISODE 3: BETRAYED
SCORE: 8/10
As the midway point of the season, this episode continues to close Fury’s circle of trust. It’s full of tense scenes and great dialogue, that hint at things to come.
SPOILER REVIEWS
EPISODE 1: RESURRECTION
This episode goes all out to tell you that this show isn’t meant to be taken lightly. As the closing moments show. By far one of the hardest hitting moments post Avengers Endgame, the death of Maria Hill is quite the shock. Especially when you consider the fact that Gravik pulled the trigger, while disguised as Fury. I will say, this death did hurt, but I wasn’t fully surprised. While watching the intro, I noticed that Cobie Smulders’ name was missing from the credits, only to see her name first thing in the closing credits, as a special guest.
One thing I love in this episode is the use of environments to hide the shapeshifting. Some may chalk it up to the studio doing it to save money on CGI, but I don’t think so. We see Skrulls shapeshift throughout this episode (and in later episodes), so when they use the environments to hide it, it adds another layer of tension and suspense. The best use of this comes in the closing sequence of the episode, when Gravik gets Fury to follow him, as he walks behind carts and people, each time changing into someone we’ve seen Fury somewhat interact with throughout the episode. Showing both us and Fury that Gravik has been keeping his eyes on fury, as well as reiterating that you truly can’t trust anyone.
This episode gives me a bit of hope, as someone that overall isn’t a big fan of the MCU shows (Moon Knight excluded) that we can have great miniseries embedded throughout the MCU.
EPISODE 2: PROMISES
While this episode doesn’t have the major impacts that the first episode has, it isn’t without its twists. Seeing Maria’s mother confront Fury on the death of her daughter is heartbreaking, because Maria was by his side throughout everything. This episode does something that I hoped it would do, and that’s expand on the history between Fury and the Skrulls post the events of Captain Marvel. I wanted to call this out because it not only gives us context, and a background of history between our two sides, but also showcases what I believe to be one of the best deepfake/de-aging software in cinema. By sending us back to the late 90’s we see how Fury and Gravik first meet and hear the promise he makes to protect the Skrulls and find them a home. Now seen as a broken promise by his desertion to SABER, Gravik is both out for revenge, and for his views of a better life for the Skrulls.
James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) is sent to answer for Fury’s alleged appearance and involvement in the attack at the end of episode one. This scene leads me to believe that he is a Skrull, but I’m not sure yet. WRITER’S UPDATE: I’ll get into it at the end of the next episode’s review, but there’s a scene in that episode that helps this case.
The end of this episode opened us up to a whole new side of Fury, by introducing his wife, Priscilla (Charlayne Woodard) who is a Skrull. It was a nice change of pace for our protagonist, as we’ve always just seen him a man of action. It’s reminiscent of the reveal of Hawkeye’s family in Age of Ultron.
EPISODE 3: BETRAYED
This episode goes to the next level, and each time you think it’s finally over, it just keeps on going. The tension holds you, and keeps you there until the very last second. My favorite scene from this episode finds Talos and Gravik sitting down with each other, as they struggle to reason with one another. After a few mentions of his daughter, Talos lundges at Gravik, only to be stopped when everyone around them reveals themselves as Skrulls. This moment was so much fun to watch, reminding me of De Niro and Pacino meeting in Heat (released in 1995). However, it lost some of its effect, as they showed that reveal in one of the trailers.
The next sequence involves Fury and Talos trying to stop an attack between a plane and submarine. After needing the help of G’iah while in the Skrull’s sanctuary, she gets the passcode to stop the “exercise” and Talos prevents the attack. During her retrieval of the passcode however, G’iah had to blow her cover, and now must flee. She is stopped by Gravik outside the gates, and he shoots her. Given the context of the show, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if she was really dead, but I have a feeling she might still be alive.
The episode ends with Priscilla going to retrieve a deposit box. Once alone in the vault, she opens the box, to reveal a gun, and immediately gets a phone call. The voice on the line sounds like Rhodes, and though is no confirmed by closed captions as Rhodey (CC labels it “man on phone”), does help the case I made that he is a Skrull. Only time will tell, for as of writing this, we still have three more unreleased episodes. These episodes have given me hope that this show will hold up through the finale, which is more than I can say for a few of the other MCU projects as of late.
