Do Not Trust the Colonel
President Ritson is in rough shape but, thanks to Fury’s determination and Talos’s sacrifice, he’s alive. Medical professionals are rushing him into an operating room. Fury runs along with them, both keeping an eye on the President’s safety and trying to convince him (despite his barely conscious state) that it wasn’t the Russians who were responsible for the assassination attempt, and that he cannot trust Colonel Rhodes.
Unfortunately for Fury, he’s barred from entering the operating room. He pulls up a chair and sits in front of the doors, gun in hand, guarding access to Ritson best he can while his life is being saved.
Pagon
Over in New Skrullos, Pagon parks a vehicle and lets out several other Skrulls, including Beto. Pagon hesitates for a moment, watching the others walk ahead, before getting out of the car after them. Inside, Gravik gives an order to assemble the operatives. Beto watches him for a long moment as he walks away.
The troops are gathered. Gravik speaks to them from a balcony above the room. Pagon tries to congratulate him on Talos’s death, but Gravik interrupts, turning it around on Pagon — if he’d done his job, it should’ve been Ritson dead, not Talos. As things stand, their war hasn’t yet been set in motion.
Pagon pushes back. He questions Gravik. Fury is still alive; Gravik has allowed it. Gravik claims that’s because Fury has what they need — he knows where samples of the Avengers DNA are. Pagon points out that the DNA wasn’t in any of the locations Gravik provided. If Fury didn’t trust him, why should they?
Gravik’s Groot-like arm shoots out before Pagon is even done speaking. Gravik impales him through the chest. Beto watches, horrified, as Pagon drops to the floor.
In the silence over Pagon’s body, Gravik coldly reminds the assembled Skrulls that they are faceless and nameless. Pagon thought he had a voice, but none of them do. The only reason Fury is alive is because Varra disobeyed a direct order and didn’t kill him. He orders that some of their people be dispatched immediately to kill her. The Skrulls all file out. An unhappy looking Beto is the last to go.
Threats Upon Threats
Gravik answers a phone call from the Skrull posing as Rhodey. Rhodey is confused by Gravik’s orders: keep Ritson alive, make sure he knows it was Skrulls not just Russians that tried to assassinate him, and show him satellite footage of New Skrullos. It’s leverage, Gravik tells Rhodey — Fury doesn’t want a world war, and he doesn’t want innocent people to die, humans and Skrulls alike. When Rhodey questions what they do if Fury doesn’t give them what they want. Gravik’s answer is concerning; they’ll all do what they’ve prepared for. “Sacrifice,” he says. Rhodey doesn’t respond.
At the hospital, Rhodey expertly clears the room area and secures access to the President, despite Fury’s attempts to keep him out. Fury has the upper hand for a second, pinning Rhodey to the wall, but he can’t prove he’s a Skrull without killing him — without any backup, and with Rhodey having the whole presidential team as backup, there’s little Fury can do.
Rhodey reminds Fury of the footage that shows him murdering Maria Hill, and claims to have released it. Fury is angry but knows he can do little about it in the moment so, with a little parting punch, he backs off. Rhodey makes it clear he won’t let him near Ritson again, accompanied by a show of force from his service colleagues, who all raise guns to Fury as he departs.
Revolt in the Rebellion
Back in Russia at the Skrull compound, Beto approaches Gravik while a group of Skrulls watch. He tells Gravik that he’s a little confused — Pagon failed them. Gravik questions if he’s scared, but their conversation is interrupted by a phone call from Rhodey. He confirms to Gravik that Ritson is out of surgery, and once he’s awake he’ll go ahead with their plan and confirm the strike.
While Gravik is busy on the phone threatening Rhodey to ensure he does as ordered, a Skrull stands up behind him with a large, metal lump hammer. As the call ends, he swings. Beto jumps into the fray, putting a plastic bag over Gravik’s head, and the rest of the Skrulls in the room join in. It’s a full-scale insurrection.
Unfortunately, the Skrulls rising up against Gravik don’t do so well. He’s a Super Skrull now, and it seems like tree arms and rapid healing aren’t his only skills. After shaking off many attacks, Gravik — in his Skrull face — throws Beto outside. He follows out after him, yelling at the many assembled Skrulls. With his last breath, in Gravik’s grip, Beto tells him that he’s nothing but a monster. In response, Gravik slits his throat.
Where The Path of Struggle Leads
Returning to England, we see Fury climbing the stairs to a dark, abandoned looking building in Brixton. It’s not empty, though. G’iah waits for him inside. He tells her why he likes Brixton and feels strength there. Fury tries to comfort her about her father’s death, but she seems too angry in her grief, telling Fury that she ran away from Talos because she knew he would lose. Fury is adamant that Talos did not lose. He chose the path of struggle. Fury reveals that Talos told him how G’iah escaped New Skrullos, by altering her DNA. In turn, she tells him what she knows of Gravik’s program, the few samples of DNA he has — and what he’s looking for. The Harvest, samples of the Avengers DNA.
Police sirens sound. Before he leaves, Fury tells G’iah to go to Priscilla so that she can help bury Talos. Fury then leaves swiftly down a fire escape, letting G’iah know that he’s headed to Finland.
G’iah takes Talos’s body to Fury’s home. She uses her new, Super Skrull strength to break into the property when no one answers the door, and after a short exploration within she finds herself gun-to-gun with Priscilla. They deescalate as G’iah explains that Fury told her Priscilla could help her bury her father.
Outside, Talos is wrapped and placed on a pyre. G’iah places an offering, her mother’s ring, on it with him as Priscilla makes the final preparations to the platform of branches before lighting. Priscilla leads a prayer in the Skrull language as they send Talos to his beyond.
Back in the house, G’iah confesses that she told her father he was a failure. She clearly has regrets. She also questions why Priscilla is following orders and waiting around for Gravik to kill her. Priscilla explains to her that she loves the house. She built a life there, with Fury. If she’s to meet her executioners, she’d rather do it there than in a dark alley.
She doesn’t have to wait long. As G’iah and Priscilla talk, a bullets rain onto them through the windows. The two Skrull women run, finding go-bags and weapons stashed in the house. Together, they take out Gravik’s team.
Later, Priscilla drops G’iah off in London. Touching her hand as they part, she tells her to be careful.
Skrulls Everywhere
In London, Director Weatherby is sitting in his MI6 office watching the footage of Fury shooting Hill — which is, of course, Gravik shooting Hill — play out on the news. Sonya Falsworth lets herself into his office, despite him trying to have her told that he’s too busy. He brings up the Skrull invasion as its mentioned on the news and Sonya confirms that she thinks they’re everywhere, before cheerfully shooting him in the hand. SIS agents immediately pull their weapons and question what’s happening, but are easily quelled when they see Weatherby’s green, Skrull hand. Sonya orders the Skrull to tell her how to find Dr. Rosa Dalton.
Sonya acts quickly. She locates the scientists she’s been searching for, whose names she got from the butcher’s shop several episodes ago. Rosa doesn’t want to talk initially, but careful threatening with a silenced gun and an SIS agent named Nigel and she begrudgingly sits down with Sonya. Sonya pulls out a diagram of the machine built in New Skrullos that Gravik uses to make his Super Skrulls.
Later, Sonya, Rosa, and their accomplices are all outside of the laboratory. Sonya apologizes for having to torch it all. Victor Dalton snaps, holding a gun to Rosa’s head himself and telling Sonya that he will never let Rosa betray Gravik.
Sonya is as calm as always. Men are all the same in any species, she claims, with their gaslighting and murder. She shoots Victor in the head at point blank range, so that he drops a very traumatized, purple-goo covered Rosa.
The War Machine Turns
Ritson is awake, but describes himself as feeling “helpless” as Rhodey enters his hospital room. True to his word to Gravik, Rhodey proceeds to tell Ritson that the assassination attempt wasn’t just the Russians, it was Skrulls and Russian’s working together. He shows Ritson aerial pictures of New Skrullos, on Russian soil.
Rhodey suggests an immediate strike, telling Ritson that Sonya has corroborated the evidence and England is with them, and when the rest of NATO sees the proof they will be too. Ritson is hesitant at the idea of World War 3, but Rhodey pushes. He’d rather see them at war than extinct.
Here Lies Nicholas J. Fury
Fury answers a call from Gravik in the back of a car. They go back and forth only briefly before getting to the point: Gravik wants the Avengers DNA. He’ll call the whole thing off if Fury brings the Harvest to him in person.
Boarding a plane, Fury is greeted by Rick Mason, smuggler and ally of Natasha Romanoff. Fury is “grumpy,” as Rick terms it, with everything that he has going on. Regardless, Rick supplies him with a Widow’s Veil — technology to disguise his face — and gets him out of the country and on his way to Finland.
Suitably disguised, Fury gets through customs and meets up with Sonya on the other side. She drives him away from the airport and out into the countryside. As they drive, Fury questions why she thinks Rhodey is in charge. After she tells him that Rhodey asked for corroboration on the New Skrullos site, he gives her the bad news that Rhodey is a Skrull.
Fury explains Gravik’s leverage, that if he doesn’t give Gravik the Harvest — DNA from all of the Avengers, collected by a Skrull team after the Battle of Earth — then Rhodey is going to incinerate the Skrull compound, and Russia will retaliate. It will be war, and Fury feels responsible for it all. That’s why he came back.
Sonya parks beside a remote cemetery in the woods. One of the grave stones bears Fury’s name. They discuss why Fury hasn’t called any of his friends to help. He believes they can’t keep calling on super heros to save them. If they can’t win with their own minds, maybe they don’t deserve to. And this one is personally. He confides in Sonya that he married a Skrull.
When Fury blows onto the gravestone, it opens up, revealing a vial. Once he’s collected it, Fury walks into a nearby mausoleum. Blowing on the plaques within causes them to open up also. From within, Fury collects a fresh leather coat, eyepatch, and gun. He’s ready. From the last opening he pulls out a cell phone and dials. “It’s time,” he says. “Let’s finish this.”
Secret Invasion releases new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+, with the series finale coming up on July 26. Don’t forget to check out Nerds & Beyond for recaps and updates!
