The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been in a rut for the last few years, churning out half-baked movies and series whose sole purpose is to make money, despite causing irreparable damage to the franchise’s longevity.
When I first heard of Secret Invasion, it sounded like just what the doctor ordered to breathe life into the MCU.
Secret Invasion Season 1 Episode 1 re-introduces us to Nick Fury, Maria Hill, and Talos, but it’s a painfully average hour of TV that utilized exposition to advance the story instead of action.
Despite the story not focusing on the heroes we’ve grown to love over the years, we’re seeing this tale from a much different viewpoint than before.
Nick may not have superhuman abilities, but he’s a hero in every sense of the word.
Nick, Maria, and others who work with them have been integral to this universe because of their fearless devotion to saving the world.
We look at them as unconventional superheroes: They’re not the people plastered all over the media, but they’re the people making the decisions that can make or break the world’s existence.
Fury: Tell me about Gravik.
Maria: Let’s… Let’s just talk about you first, yeah? We’ve been helping you for all these years to ensure that you kept your promise. But after The Blip, you were different. And then you disappeared. Carol Danvers disappeared.
Taros: And so did G’iah.
Nick: Hold it. Your daughter? Disappeared too… Where?
Taros: She was young. Angry that our people still don’t have a home. Many of them are upset. I got kicked off the Council, pushed into exile.
Checking in with Nick was nostalgic, but if the premiere is any indication, Nick has some deeply rooted issues he needs to work through as Secret Invasion Season 1 progresses.
Despite his best attempts to put on a happy face and tell everyone he’s up to this challenge, he knows this mission could be his undoing.
From looking in the mirror at himself to hearing Sonya tell him he was no longer up for the challenge, he’ll face an uphill battle if he wants to save the world and reignite hope for future generations.
Thanos’s snap was a cataclysmic event that shaped Nick’s current arc. It’s been largely a waste of time for the MCU, sending almost every character’s arc in a depressing direction.
For Nick, this isn’t merely a mission of redemption; it’s a mission to prove to everyone that the world isn’t safe, no matter how the media would like to frame it.
Despite Nick feeling like he’s had a personality transplant since the last time we saw him, it’s nice to tell a story with someone who’s been a significant presence in this franchise over the years.
If we take his actions on “Resurrection” at face value, the Nick Fury we know is still in there, but he’s been battling many inner demons since the snap heard around the universe.
I wasn’t fond of the decision to kill off Maria. You don’t bring back Colbie Smulders for one freaking episode and expect fans to be happy about it.
The likely scenario is that Smulders will continue to appear through either flashbacks or as Skrulls taking her likeness because it will be the ultimate way for them to stick up the middle finger at Nick.
The sad part of Maria’s final arc is that Gravik pulled the trigger on her while posing as Nick. It sets a worrying precedent for the remainder of the season.
How can viewers trust anything on-screen if even characters with the best intentions could be revealed to be Skrulls?
It adds to the narrative’s intensity and paranoia, but it’s a plot device that could wear out its welcome pretty quickly.
Prescod: Imagine a world where information can’t be trusted. Not very hard, is it? News service says one thing, website says another. Society starts to fray. All we can turn to are the people we care about. But what if those people weren’t who we thought they were? What if the ones closest to us, the ones we’ve trusted our whole lives… …were someone else entirely? What if they weren’t even human?
Ross: Agent Prescod, respectfully… uh, what exactly are you talking about? Prescod: Chaos. And that’s only the beginning. Five global terrorist strikes within the past year. Each one claimed by a different group. It’s business as usual. That’s precisely what they want you to think. Argentina attacks Colombia, Colombia attacks the Philippines. A violent chain reaction consuming the globe. Do you realize that the entire world is at war?
Ross: Well, the atmosphere has been tense.
Prescod: There is an architect to that tension, Agent Ross. These attacks are escalating. If they hit the soil of the major power…
Ross: Oh. So you… You think the same people are behind all of this?
Prescod: Not people… Skrulls. Come on, Ross, you know the stories. This didn’t start yesterday. It started 30 years ago when the Skrulls found Earth. Carol Danvers and Nick Fury promised to find them a new planet. But now… ( Chuckles ) now they don’t want just any planet, they want ours. Look, can’t you see it? All these groups, they’re the same. Skrulls could be anybody, anywhere, at any time. And there is only a tiny handful known to live on Earth. Ross: That’s barely enough to…
Prescod: To what? You have no goddamn idea what you’re talking about, Ross! There could be thousands of them, tens of thousands! And you would never know.
Ross: Okay, Prescod, let’s play a little game of forest for the trees, shall we? Yes, Skrulls can shapeshift. Yes, they’re looking for a new home. But, as you say, the only Skrull contact has been through Nick Fury. That means they’re our allies.
Prescod: Then where is Fury?
Ross: He’s on S.A.B.E.R.! God… And if I’m gonna bring him down for whatever the hell this is, I need to give him something more than just theories, I need evidence. All these other attacks, they would be nothing compared to this.
Prescod: This is the one that sets the world on fire. I stopped filing reports at the office. Don’t know who I can trust anymore. Other than you…
Ross: Hey, Prescod, look, I’m here to help. Okay? So… So let me take this and I’ll give the information to Fury.
If we had to say goodbye to Maria, at least we said goodbye to her while she was doing what she does best: helping to save the world.
Truthfully, I expected something terrible to happen to Maria when she was tailing G’iah.
Everything that happened when Maria started tailing G’iah played out far too conveniently for my liking. Maybe that was the intention, but there was zero emotion when Talos realized the mysterious individual was his daughter.
We already knew his daughter had pretty much gone rogue, but there was a complete lack of emotion when she learned of her mother’s death.
I wondered whether she would help or hinder her father and Nick’s operation.
Before the Secret Invasion Season 1 premiere, I expected G’iah to be one of my favorite characters, but she felt more like a script note to the writers saying, “Introduce someone who looks like that chick from Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”
It would be grand if the series begins developing G’iah with Secret Invasion Season 1 Episode 2 because it’s a shame to waste Emilia Clarke’s talent.
Talos is interesting because you can see how much he cares about the people of Earth, but he’s also wrestling with how best to handle people like Propischchin.
On the one hand, he could have been as cutthroat as Nick and shot him, but on the other, he wanted to show some humility to these people.
It makes me wonder whether he understands why the Skrulls are taking over and doing all these deadly things.
It seemed like Talos wanted to talk to Propischchin, but Nick felt the easiest way to handle him was to shoot him.
Rhodey: We have a situation, Mr. President.
Ritson: Concerning?
Rhodey: Agent Fury. We’ve just received word that he’s left S.A.B.E.R.
Ritson: What do you mean, “He left S.A.B.E.R.?”
Rhodey: Well, I can try to think of a different word. Abandoned, departed… Ritson: Agent Fury is building up the most complex aerospace defense system in the history of mankind. He can’t just leave.
Rhodey: No, I agree, sir.
Could we reach a point in the narrative where Talos could realize that Earth’s people are too heavy on the Anti-Skrull hate, and he’ll switch sides? I don’t know, but it sure is something fun to ponder.
The addition of Olivia Colman as Sonya was a stroke of casting genius. Colman got some of the best material of Secret Invasion so far.
Sonya quickly counted Nick out but failed to recognize that he was thinking several steps ahead of her, even in his current state.
I’m intrigued to learn how she’ll react to the bombshell that Nick and his team got the intel they needed by planting the bug in her office.
Then again, given the espionage-y tone the series is going for, maybe she knew Nick would plant the bug and helped set the wheels in motion for the deadly encounter at the end of the episode.
Kingsley Ben-Adir is also an excellent actor, but there’s so much we don’t know about the villainous Gravik that it’s challenging to get a read on him.
“Resurrection” had all the ingredients of a successful premiere, but the execution of these great ideas didn’t hit the mark, delivering an episode that felt more like a prologue for the action that should have transpired.
What are your thoughts on Maria’s death? Do you think it’ll stick?
What’s your take on this hardened Nick Fury? Are you on board?
What did you think of Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman, and Kingsley Ben-Adir?
Hit the comments, and don’t forget to keep up with our Secret Invasion reviews as the series progresses.
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Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.
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