Secret Invasion pulls the strings tight in tense Episode 4

The newest episode of Secret Invasion, “Beloved,” begins by revealing that G’iah (Emilia Clarke), the daughter of Skrull leader Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) is actually alive, this despite getting shot at the end of Episode 3 by the rebel Skrull Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir).

It’s never a good look to kill a character and then fake out their death, and this not-death is typically contrived. Like…why did Gravik just leave G’iah’s body on the side of the road? Won’t somebody see it? And won’t someone notice it’s gone now?

Ends up that G’iah, who was working as a double agent for her father, gave herself superpowers before trying to flee Gravik’s compound, which is how she survived the gunshot. That’s part of Gravik’s plan, if you recall: create a machine to give his Skrull followers superpowers so they’re better able to take over the Earth. It’s lame all around, but the show does make up for it later on.

Beware SPOILERS for Secret Invasion Episode 4 below

Let’s cut to the chase: at the end of the episode, Gravik kills Talos during an attack on a convoy transporting none other than the president of the United States, known only as Ritson (Dermot Mulroney). The president is on his way to negotiate with Russian officials, and Gravik’s plan is to make it look like the Russians are responsible, thus triggering World War III.

Once again, contrivance reigns. Could Gravik’s rag-tag band of rebel Skrulls overpower the secret service that easily? What happens when the governments that Gravik is framing deny involvement in these acts? Surely the pattern is starting to look suspicious. And why doesn’t Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) not simply go public about what’s happening? That could help everyone make sense of things.

As usual, Secret Invasion suffers from a lack of context; we don’t know how all the players are reacting to the latest moves. It’s the kind of show that makes less sense the more you think about it. HOWEVER, Talos’ death (if a death it is) comes as an honest shock, because Mendelsohn and Jackson have built up a believable chemistry over the past few episodes. I was sad to see him go, and felt as stricken as Nick Fury looked. Sure, Secret Invasion could always bring Talos back, but after pulling that trick with G’iah, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Secret Invasion should stick to the drawing room

Secret Invasion is better with these personal moments than it is with the big picture, save-the-world-type stuff. The best parts of the episode involve Nick Fury’s face-off with his wife Varra (Charlayne Woodard), a Skrull operative who ended up falling in love with her mark. It’s a classic story, but it’s done well here, with episode writer Brian Tucker cleverly working a poem by Raymond Carver into the drama. (Really, how often do we praise the writer of an MCU story? You know it’s good for that to happen.)

There’s real tension as Nick and Varra sit down to speak in their home, and maybe to kill each other. I didn’t know what they would do, and I was compelled by the performances from Jackson and Woodard. And I was relieved when they decided to recommit to each other rather than kill each other. This part of the episode completely worked for me.

Maybe if Secret Invasion had embraced the idea of just being a drama, of keeping the scale at the level of the drawing room, it would be more exciting. But it always has to get to the next action set piece, has to bring in a superpowered someone at some point. It’s not the worst show Marvel has produced, but it’s not good enough to reignite mass interest in the Marvel Television Universe either.

Secret Bullet Points

• “We want to make them think it’s the Russians,” Gravik says of his plan. “Make it big, make it loud, like the Russians would.” Are the Russians known for being big and loud? Whatever, not important.
• I’m not sure where G’iah goes from here. I suspect the show might end in a superpowered face-off between her and Gravik, which would be a pretty predictable way to conclude a show that was trying to get away from standard Marvel fare.
• The James Rhodes who fired Nick Fury a couple episodes back is revealed to be a Skrull. Not sure where the genuine article is. Don Cheadle is having a good time being creepy.
• During Nick’s meeting with not-James Rhodes, Rhodes acts like it would be crazy for Nick to argue that the video of him killing Maria Hill actually depicted Gravik in disguise as him, even though that’s the truth. Why, though? Why would people in the MCU have a hard time believing that there are shape-shifting aliens on Earth? That’s, like, only the tenth weirdest thing to happen to the planet in the last handful of years.
• Talos in half-Skrull form looks cool

Episode Grade: B

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