Finale review: Secret Invasion ends with a limp little plop

Secret Invasion reportedly cost Marvel over $200 million to produce, even though there are only six episodes. For a while now, fans have wondered what that money bought. Overall, the series has looked…fine, nothing special. The set pieces have been kept to a minimum and scenes that seem as though they’re intended to be exciting feel smaller than they should. This is supposed to be a worldwide conflict with lots of stakeholders all over the globe, but it’s often boiled down to Nick Fury and a friend holding a gun to someone’s head.

Well, the finale at least revealed where some of that money went: to a superpowered showdown between Gravik and G’iah, who masquerades as Nick Fury and gives Gravik what he’s been searching for: Carol Danvers’ DNA. Gravik fires up his superpower generator machine, turning the both of them into super-Skrulls. Then they bash each other with CGI until Gravik dies.

Even that looks just alright by Marvel standards. And narratively, it’s pretty boring. The show has gone out of its way to avoid including superheroes, justifying their absence in increasingly nonsensical ways, only to end with a super-powered battle scene that reminded me very much of the fight between Wanda and Agatha Harkness at the end of WandaVision. However they start, this is how Marvel shows wrap up.

And however spectacular the fight looks, it still boils what’s supposed to be complicated conflict down to two people punching each other. All of Gravik’s followers seem to be gone expect for him and the Skrull impersonating Rhodes. Actor Kingsley Ben-Adir gets to give a passionate speech where he airs out all of Gravik’s grievances about how Nick Fury used him, but it doesn’t land, because we only just learned they had a history at all.

I did like the twist of G’iah pretending to be Nick Fury, though. See, I can be nice.

In the MCU, the secret service is useless

Meanwhile, Skrull-Rhodes is in the hospital where President Ritson is recovering following last week’s Skrull attack. He’s trying to convince the president to order an attack against Russia, arguing with an admiral who urges restraint. “Did you take a stupid pill with your breakfast this morning, admiral?” Rhodes asks her, and I burst out laughing. Who wrote that one?

Secret Invasion sells itself as a serious drama, so all the goofy, campy tags really stand out, and there are a lot of them. Sonya and Fury break into the hospital and single-handedly take down an army of secret service officers by shooting them in the necks with tranquilizer darts — they’re just that good. Then have a standoff with Rhodes where they try and convince the president that Rhodes is really a Skrull, while Rhodes says he isn’t one. And all this time the president is in a mobile hospital bed looking back and forth. I imagine orderlies panicking just out of frame.

For a while, I’ve wondered why Fury didn’t just come out and tell everyone about the rebel Skrulls. They pose a threat to the world, so the world should know. Why wait for an awkward confrontation in a narrow hospital hallway to reveal this information? To its credit, Secret Invasion kind of gives me an answer.

Secret Invasion review, Episode 6, “Home”

Obviously, G’iah kills Gravik and Fury kills Skrull-Rhodes. The threat is over, although again, by the end the threat seemed like two angry aliens attempting to take down the world by themselves. This show was terrible at selling a sense of scale.

Still, the threat is over. But President Ritson, shaken by the ordeal, declares all all “off-world born species” as “enemy combatants,” essentially declaring war on the Skrulls who remain on Earth. So maybe that’s what Fury was afraid would happen if he let the cat out of the bag.

But honestly? I don’t think so, because the show never mentioned the possibility of something like this happening. In fact, it never developed Ritson at all. He was a cypher who instantly became a bigoted hatemonger when the story needed a dramatic ending. It’s stilly stuff.

Verdict

Part of the reason for Ritson’s turn is, of course, so Secret Invasion can set up some other show or movie in the future, as is Marvel’s way. Sonya and G’iah join forces. Sure. The president has now declared war on Skrulls. Why not? Fury and his wife Varra leave the planet to negotiate with Kree aliens. Go off.

If there was one good thing to come out of Secret Invasion, it was the relationship between Fury and Varra. I thought their final moment together was very sweet, with Varra reverting to her Skrull face and still finding a committed partner in Nick.

But that’s not enough to save what has been the mildest, least impactful Marvel show so far. I think we’ll see Disney start to pivot now. They can’t put out many more series like this and expect returns.

Secret Bullet Points

• Apparently the president of Russia, President Vladimov, is amassing tanks on the border of Ukraine. I dunno if this show was shot before or after the actual Russian invasion of Ukraine, but that was…a little eerie.
• “Gimme your gun, goddammit.” Hey, Secret Invasion has swearing and (alien) blood.
• G’iah: “You’re doing this out of the kindness of your heart?” Sonya: “Oh god no, don’t be silly.” As Sonya, Olivia Colman was definitely the acting MVP of this show, and the only actor who seemed like they were having a good time.

Episode Grade: D

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