Who can you trust?
Last time on Secret Invasion,
Nick Fury is back after a few years out in space. It was discovered by Maria
Hill and Skrull operative Talos that Everett Ross was in fact a Skrull. The
Skrull was part of a new revolutionary group within the Skrull exiles on Earth
working under a Skrull named Gravik that are trying to take Earth. This group
had killed Talos’ wife Soren in the intervening years, while also radicalizing
his daughter G’iah as a member. The trio learn of a plot to use Dirty Bombs in
Moscow in the hopes of setting off a war between the US and Russia. They
attempted to get their hands on the bombs first, but were too slow intercepting
G’iah, who escaped. Talos though got to talk with her and seemed to convince
her to stop the attack. She told Talos that they’d use three bombs and she’d
mark them with infrared ink. On the day of the festival, they try to intercept
the bombs but learn too late that the Skrull they were following only had
decoys. Gravik sets off the bombs, and in the confusion assumes Fury’s form to
get in close and kill Maria Hill. So not a great return trip for Fury thus far.
Enough recap. Let’s get to it.
Ep 2: Promises
We begin in 1995. Fury gives us the
general plot of Captain Marvel, Skrulls are invading Earth, they’re
shapeshifting aliens that lost their planet in a war with the Kree and are
looking for a new one. Two years later, 1997, in London, the Skrull are
gathering and meet with Fury. He’s introduced to Gravik by Varra, another
Skrull intermediary. Gravik’s family were killed in the last stand with the
Kree, and he escaped on his own shuttle from behind enemy lines. Varra thinks
he could be useful and just asks Fury to talk to him. Fury does talk with
Gravik and agrees to take him on as one of their operatives. Talos starts the
meeting, thanking the Skrull for gathering here on Earth, and promising that
Nick Fury will find them a new home. Fury tells them that he believes that
Humans and Skrulls can work together and hopes that the Skrulls will work for
him while he and Captain Marvel look for a new home for them. All the gathered
Skrull volunteer and Fury says that if they keep their word, he’ll keep his.
In the present, chaos is happening
in Moscow. As Fury mourns Hill, Gravik and G’iah escape in a car. Fury is
grabbed by a man and thrown in the back of a van, as is the Skrull pretending
to be an American Against Russia member. It’s revealed a moment later that the
guy that grabbed him was Talos in disguise.
We jump to a train. The Russian
Army are looking for Fury. They interrogate a woman if she’d seen a large Black
man on the train. The woman says that a Black American on the Moscow to Warsaw
train seems less likely than finding an alien onboard. As soon as they leave,
she shuts her compartment door, reverts to Talos and thus proves his
hypothetical completely accurate. Fury slips out of the bathroom when he hears
the coast is clear. He asks if he heard from G’iah, but Talos hasn’t. Fury is
reminded of how he used to travel on trains from Alabama to Detroit with his
mother. It wasn’t as nice as the modern train cars, especially because they’d
had to take the “Colored” cars back then, but they had fun. He tells Talos
about a game his mother invented called “Tell me something I don’t know,” and
when he was a kid, his mother once asked him “Tell me something I don’t know
about Nick and Suzie.” Suzie being Nick’s “friend” that he played doctor with
behind a barn, if you catch my meaning. He said he lied to his mother about
finding a polka dotted frog, and that in telling such an outrageous lie, he
proved to her all she needed to know about him and Suzie. Fury asks Talos if he
wants to go a few rounds, and when he says yes, Fury asks him to tell him
something he doesn’t know about the destruction of Skrullos. Talos tries to
tell him he knows everything, but Fury presses. Talos says that the Skrulls
held out as long as they could, and when they couldn’t hold out anymore, the
million or so survivors fled. Fury then asks about the Skrulls that fled. Talos
says that those Skrulls that fled are on Earth. He mentions that there’s
another Skrull colony, lead by someone named Emperor Drogge, and all the
Skrulls not with him are one Earth. The two men start fighting, Talos airing
out the years of frustration he felt since Fury disappeared and then came back
before heading out into space. It sounds like he didn’t bring in the additional
million Skrulls until the Blip. Talos says that he hopes Humans and Skrulls can
coexist, and a furious Fury points out humans can’t coexist with each other.
The train reaches the station and Fury tells Talos to get out. When alone, he
holds his head in his hands at the insanity.
In London, we witness a body being
put on a plane during a military funeral of some sort. Fury arrive and meets
with a woman named Elizabeth. Elizabeth Hill. Crap. She demands to know what
happened to Maria. Fury tells her the truth, that she was in Moscow and that
she died because someone wanted to hurt her. Elizabeth, angry, says she doesn’t
know why Maria died, but he better make sure it wasn’t for nothing.
We see some news footage of the
attack on the news cycle. The attack killed 2000 people, and the Skrull that
was captured is posing as “Martin Wallace” of the AAR. Tensions are high and
war looks like it’s imminent.
We cut over to Gravik and G’iah
driving. G’iah asks how Gravik knew that Fury would be there, Gravik lies and
says he didn’t know but he’d hoped he’d be there. He says that not much of Fury
is left, he’s down to vapors. He says he could have killed Fury there but
didn’t because you don’t beat a man by giving him what he wants. He order her
to rush him to the Skrull Council meeting, he wants to see their faces while
Moscow is still burning. Gravik goes in, giving G’iah a gun and saying to kill
one of the guards if he’s not out in an hour. The council, it seems, is made up
of a lot of big wigs, the Secretary General of NATO- Skrull, this Sean Hannity
looking talking head- Skrull, Prime Minister of England- Skrull, and two other
unnamed Skrulls. Gravik immediately starts scolding the others for going native
on Earth. They counter, saying that his actions are putting the peace the
Skrulls have worked to maintain in jeopardy. They want to punish Gravik, but he
claims that he was given the “right” to act thus when Fury failed to meet his
end of the bargain to find them a new home. He promises to take Earth as the
Skrulls new home. He thinks that humans were going to wipe themselves out
regardless of them, he’s just speeding things up. They ask what he’ll do if the
Avengers return, and he says he has a plan for that. Gravik’s ally, the Prime
Minister, suggested they elect a “war time leader” for this time of crisis,
which has “terrible idea” written below it in neon. She nominates Gravik as
Skrull General. The Skrull capitulate and Gravik is named General. Only one
Skrull objects, a woman in the guise of an Indian named Shirley, who chastises
the group. She says they forgot their history, that they ended up refugees, not
because they were unwilling to wage war but because they were too willing. She
refuses to support Gravik. Gravik says if he had a hundred more like her he
could rule the universe but lets her leave unscathed. Shirley calls Talos and
lets him know what happened. He wants her to set a meeting between them and ays
to tell Gravik that he wants to talk about G’iah.
Gravik leaves the meeting and takes
back his gun from G’iah. They return to New Skrullos and he’s celebrated as a
hero. G’iah follows Pagon into a backroom. He hears Pagon speaking with a
scientist. He is scolded for not finding something called the “Harvest.”
Without it, their plans are delayed, the scientist saying that it’s “back to
scavenging,” and their DNA selection is limited. Pagon complains that he’d been
told by Gravik of multiple locations for the Harvest but they’ve all been
empty. She dismisses him and the science team powers up some kind of device.
We go to an emergency Security
Council meeting in London. Rhodey is brought in and forced to try to explain
what Fury and Hill were doing in Moscow. He says that if it’s true they were
there, it was in their capacity as private citizens and claims any photos from
Moscow are suspect. The Skrull Prime Minister asks why Rhodey is there instead
of the US president, and Rhodey counters by saying he’s there as a courtesy.
President Ritson is busy and won’t be coming to this kind of meeting without
real proof. Rhodey leaves the meeting and gets a call from Fury. He wants to
meet, and Rhodey tells him to meet at Burners Tavern at 1.
Fury arrives at the meeting. Rhodey
tells him that he’s real close to turning him over to Russia. Fury says he was
there to stop the attack. Rhodey “congratulates” him for setting the stage for
WWIII and for pushing their allies to Russia’s side. Fury asks Rhodey how much
he knows about his security detail, before dropping the “truth bomb” about the
Skrulls. Turns out, Rhodey already knew. He was part of a read only
investigation fifteen years ago and was brough up to speed about the Skrull.
Fury says that the invasion Rhodey had been warned about then is happening.
Rhodey suggests calling in the Avengers, but Fury says no, that if they do that
the Skrull will just start taking on their shapes and framing them for
terrorism. Fury asks Rhodey to back him, but Rhodey refuses. He claims he used
all his pollical capital getting Hill’s body back. Fury says that they need to
back each other as successful Black actors- I mean spies, and how they both
wrestled their positions from the mediocre Alexander Pierces of the world. Nice
call back to the HYDRA guy from The Winter Soldier. Rhodey’s security
guy comes over and says that Fury’s car is ready. Rhodey set him up with a
trip. Rhodey “fires” Fury. The guard tries to lead Fury away, But Fury grabs
him and dislocates his arm for disrespecting him. Rhodey says that Fury is out,
and Fury counters by saying “I’m Nick Fury. Even when I’m out. I’m in.” He
heads out to a back bench before collapsing with a gasp.
Sonya enters a butcher’s shop and
asks where “he” is and is pointed to the back where a group of Russians are
torturing the Skrull AAR man for information. She takes custody of him. Sonya
says that she can be very persuasive and dismisses him. When alone she blocks
the door, and when he threatens her, she cut off one of his fingers and it
turns into a Skrull finger.
At New Skrullos, G’iah researches
the Scientist she saw earlier, one Rosa Dalton. When she searches the name in
the data base she gets a list of creatures that the Skrulls seem to have gotten
DNA of. There’s Groot, one of those Ice monsters from Thor 1, and Cull Obsidian
of the Black Order. Gravik interrupts her, asking what she’s doing in there.
She says that she’s checking the progress of their newest recruit and says that
he’ll be ready for a “face” soon. Gravik says that when she firsts showed up he
was skeptical, thinking what sort of coward would send his daughter to do what
he couldn’t, and then realized that she must be there on her own because I
coward couldn’t do that. He says their man on the inside said someone’s
identified Brogan and that they need to head out.
Sonya threatens the Skrull, Brogan,
with an injection that will make his blood start to boil in his veins unless he
talks. He refuses to talk so she injects him in the ass. Dark. The Skrulls head
to intercept. She breaks Brogan, getting him to say that Gravik is working on a
machine to “make them stronger.” The Skrull head in with military gear. She
asks who is leading their science team and he says some married couple. He
breaks, saying they’re named Dalton. The Skrulls begin their assault, sniping
one of the Russians before slipping into the building. They start killing the
Russians. Sonya says that Brogan’s ride is here and shoves his chair over as
she prepares to escape. G’iah, who’d be left in the car, heads in to see how
it’s going. Sonya escapes out a secret grate. G’iah calls someone and speaks to
them in Russian when she’s out of sight. Pagon tries to take Brogan out, but
Gravik stops him to ask what he told. Brogan says he just lied to them and
Gravik lets him pass.
The Skrulls head out. They escape
the city and head into the woods outside of town. Gravik orders them to pull
over and gives Pagon a gun. He pulls Brogan out and executes him. They drive
off.
Fury goes to an old garage and
pulls a jeep out of storage. He arrives at a Skrull woman’s house. Inside, she
tells him that he’ forgetting something. He slips out, grabs a ring, and slips
it onto his finger. Fury was married to a Skrull this whole time? Huh. Oh, this
is the Skrull Varra from earlier, she’s assumed the identity of a woman named
Dr. Precilla Davis. Neat.
This was a fine continuation of the
story. I’m really enjoying Olivia Colman’s Sonya Falsworth. There’s just
something about a sweetly smiling proper lady that will cut your finger off at
the slightest insult that’s just fun to watch. The weirdly cheery energy around
her is just so off putting. Seeing the gravity of the situation here is kind of
interesting. We find that Talos has been lying to Fury for a few years now and
has quietly turned Earth into one of the two biggest concentrations of Skrulls
in the universe. Fury definitely has a point that doing that behind his back
was a bad call, but I also completely get Talos getting desperate and wanting
to get as many of his people to a safe place as possible. The information that
G’iah is looking into is interesting. The Harvest has something to do with DNA
and it involves some pretty powerful creatures if Groot and Cull Obsidian are
on their list. I like the implication that she’s starting to question her
loyalties now, despite only having had that quick chat with her dad in the
tunnels. I’m not sure if Gravik turned into the G’iah that met with Talos, or
if another Skrull did, but it's clear by now that G’iah herself was not the one
that got in the taxi with Talos. Which… like, surely the Skrull should have a
means of identifying each other. A code phrase, or gesture, something to prove
someone is who they appear to be. Or maybe taking on someone else’s form is
extremely offensive in their culture. Who knows? I’ll also give the show credit
for having a reasonable reason not to pull in any of the Avengers. Yeah,
risking the Skrull retaliating by, say, shapeshifting into Captain America and
doing a war crime would be a difficult genie to get back in the bottle. Still
don’t buy this insistence that Fury is on his last legs though. Tired?
Definitely. Out of practice? Yeah. But not old man on his last legs. I just
can’t see Samuel L. Jackson as anything less than a powerful man, I guess. I’ll
be curious to see where the stuff with Rhodey goes. Ya don’t fire Nicholas Fury
without consequences, my man. But we’ll see where it goes. Next time, ep 3.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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