Last week’s episode of Secret Invasion established the core conflict between the Skrulls and the humans. The Skrulls, under the command of the rebel leader Gravik, want to take over Earth because Fury didn’t give them the home planet that he promised at the end of Captain Marvel. That brought Fury back to Earth and he teamed up with Talos and Maria Hill to bring the Skrulls’ operation to an end. MI6’s Sonya showed interest in ending the Skrull threat while Rhodey started making plans to track down Hill and Fury before they did something stupid. With the help of Talos’s estranged daughter, Gi’ah, the heroes learned about Gravik’s terrorist attack in the middle of Moscow. They tried to stop it, but failed and Hill got killed in the process.
Spoilers Alert
Talos And Fury Have A Falling Out
Episode 2 of Secret Invasion literally recaps everything that had happened in Captain Marvel. Then we learn that Fury and Talos had gathered all the surviving Skrulls and requested them to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. until he found them their new home. All of them obliged, except for one, i.e. a young Gravik. Then the narrative cuts to the present day where Fury is being dragged away from Hill’s dead body by Talos, while Gravik and Gi’ah are escaping from the scene of the crime. A few minutes later, we see Talos and Fury taking a train ride, with Fury trying to learn what’s actually happening with the Skrulls. Talos reveals that when Fury didn’t give them a new home planet, he sent a signal to all the Skrulls scattered all over the galaxy to come to Earth. Talos obviously assumed that Earth would simply accept the emergence of a new species who can shapeshift at will. But, as pointed out by Fury, humans have been at war with themselves since they could stand up on their own two feet. Humans have divided each other on the basis of their country-of-origin, skin color, sex, gender, and more. So, it’s stupid to assume that humankind will be open to millions of humanoids from outer space.
By the way, during this shouting match, Talos rightfully points out that Fury was okay with the presence of the Skrulls as long as they were doing unpaid labor for the humans. Now that they’ve started to fight for their rights to stay on this planet, Fury is angry about it, which is hypocritical. After parting ways with Talos, Fury meets Hill’s mother at the ceremony where the deceased’s body is handed over to the family, and tells her the truth about Hill’s demise because no one else is doing it. That conversation adds to Fury’s sense of guilt because he is blamed for Hill’s death by her mother. As per the newscasters, 2000 innocent people have died in the blast and the major suspects are a radical group called Americans Against Russia (A.A.R.). Yes, I’m not kidding. The Skrull going by the identity of Martin Wallace has been arrested. U.K. Prime Minister Pamela Lawton and NATO Secretary General Sergio Caspani respond to this incident by saying that they are taking appropriate action, while an American newscaster says that America shouldn’t be blamed at all for this mishap.
The Skrull Council
It’s revealed that the top brass from all over the globe are actually Skrulls, including Lawton and Caspani. Gravik is presented in front of them to be punished. Instead, it turns into a ceremony where he is promoted to the position of Skrull General. Only the Skrull named Shirley opposes this proposition because she thinks that war isn’t the solution. She counters Gravik’s claim about humans being self-destructive in nature, by pointing out that the Skrulls have turned into refugees because they also waged too many wars. Gravik makes a sly comment to show that Shirley’s non-violent methods are unrealistic, but lets her walk away from the meeting unscathed. Shirley immediately calls up Talos to let him know about this recent development so that he can prepare his next step.
Meanwhile, Gi’ah continues to spy for Gravik as she follows an unsuspecting Pagon into the innermost cells of the plant in New Skrullos. She ends up in a secret vault where a couple, the Daltons, are conducting weird experiments. The end results aren’t shown but the bright light emanating from the experiment indicates that they aren’t making anything productive. Rhodes attends an international conference where he is held responsible for Fury’s presence during the bombing in Moscow. The whole conversation goes in circles but what really ticked me off is that Rhodes makes a joke about carpet bombing Slovakia because its representative is scoffing at his statements. People keep wondering where the military propaganda is in the Marvel movies and shows. Well, they can stop wondering because it’s right there in the form of Rhodes. This essentially started when he was rebranded as the Iron Patriot and Iron Man 3’s third act involved saving the President of the U.S.A. And here we are now, in the pits. After the conclusion of that meeting, Rhodes meets Fury. They have yet another cyclical conversation that sounds political but actually isn’t. That ends with Rhodes firing Fury.
Is Nick Fury Married To A Skrull?
Sonya breaks into the torture chamber where the Skrull Martin Wallace is being, well, tortured into revealing Gravik’s whereabouts. Wallace doesn’t intend to yield, so Sonya cuts off one of his fingers just to confirm that he is indeed a Skrull. Gi’ah goes through the Skrulls’ database created by Rosa Dalton and finds out that they’ve D.N.A. traces of Groot, the Frost Beast (from Jotunheim which was transported to Earth in Thor: The Dark World), Cull Obsidian (from Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame), and Project Extremis (from Iron Man 3). I understand how the Skrulls could’ve gotten their hands on all of them. What I don’t understand is how did the Skrulls get the D.N.A. samples of Cull Obsidian because he was obliterated when Tony Stark snapped his fingers? Or is it from pre-Snap Cull Obsidian whose hand was lying somewhere New York city after it was cut off by Wong? But wouldn’t that have been affected by Tony’s snap too? So many questions, so little answers.
Moving on with the plot, Gravik almost catches Gi’ah going through the database, but Gi’ah manages to convince him that she’s looking into the newest addition to New Skrullos, i.e. Beto. By the looks of it, Gi’ah’s charm doesn’t work on Gravik. Yet, he decides to bring her and Beto to Wallace’s rescue party. Talking about Wallace, he is injected with a kind of serum that’s making his insides boil. Unable to hold back any more information, Wallace blurts out that the Skrulls are making a machine that can make them stronger. This confirms that the Daltons are imbuing the Skrulls with the powers of Groot, Frost Beasts, Cull Obsidian, and Extremis. Once Sonya is done, she escapes while Gravik and Pagon shoot their way into the torture chamber. They extract Wallace, but Gravik realizes that he has given up too much information. So, they kill him. Going by the way Gravik looks at Gi’ah, he wants her to know that if she betrays him, she’s going to die exactly like Wallace.
At the end of Secret Invasion episode 2, we see Fury traveling to a remote place to meet his wife, who is a Skrull. She seems to be the same Skrull who introduced Gravik to Fury. As evident by their chemistry, Fury has been in contact with her. But neither S.H.I.E.L.D. nor anyone else in the galaxy is aware of this. My best guess is that this revelation is going to show that Fury is a little selfish and that he has someone to share his guilt with when it comes to the creation of Gravik. I am expecting to see some more flashback sequences featuring Fury and his Skrull wife, and how they brought up Gravik and where they went wrong. That means there’s going to be a whole lot of deaging, which is something that I’m not a fan of. I hope that the MCU learns that it’s perfectly okay to cast a fresh face who has echoes of the original actor but is doing their own thing. It’ll save them a lot of money and time.
