‘Secret Invasion’ Episode 1 Recap: We Have a Situation

Secret Invasion is here. This is not a drill. While many of the MCU shows on Disney+ have so far had a minimal impact on the overall story, Nick Fury’s (Samuel L. Jackson) latest mission looks set to make some waves, at least on the Earth-bound side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and/or Multiverse). In the first episode of the series, we see the start of the Skrull threat, which brings Fury back to Earth after a long absence. The consensus is that he’s lost his mojo but Fury (hopefully) still has some tricks up his sleeve. It’s a delightfully paranoia-inducing series, which uses the Skrulls’ shape-shifting powers to keep you guessing as to who is foe and who is Fury.

Written by Kyle Bradstreet and Brian Tucker and directed by Ali Selim, the episode sets up the show as a sequel to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and, most significantly, Captain Marvel. The premise, in a nutshell, is this: thirty years ago, Nick Fury and Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) promised to find the Skrulls a new home. Which shouldn’t have been a problem for them since there were just a handful of Skrulls on Earth. But it’s thirty years later now and the Skrulls are just about done waiting. We start in Moscow in the present day, which for the MCU timeline is roughly November 2025 (the Marvel Timeline gets weird).

Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) heads to a clandestine meeting with an operative called Agent Prescod (Richard Dormer), who is obsessed with the idea that Skrulls are trying to take over the world by bringing about a global war. He says they’re doing this by faking terrorist attacks that provoke nations to turn on each other. Prescod believes that the Skrulls, after thirty years in the shadows, want to take Earth as their new home. Ross is dismissive of Prescod’s theories, reiterating that the handful of Skrulls on Earth are allies, working with Fury. Ross also reveals that Fury is on S.A.B.E.R. (the space station first shown in Spider-Man: Far From Home) and that he’ll need a lot more evidence to bring him back to Earth. But Prescod has that covered. He gives Ross the details of an impending attack, which he refers to as “the one that sets the world on fire.”

Related:’Secret Invasion’: What to Remember About Nick Fury’s MCU Story

‘Secret Invasion’ Episode 1 Begins With a Lot of Paranoia

Ross agrees to take the information to Fury, but Prescod suddenly suspects Ross of being a Skrull and attacks him. Ross kills Prescod in the struggle and escapes with the evidence, calling Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) for an extraction. While he tries to make it to the rendezvous, Ross is chased by a strange Russian-speaking man. After a tight chase sequence, Ross falls off a building, landing conveniently in front of Hill’s car. Hill tries to save Ross, pulling a gun on the stranger, who reveals himself to be Talos (Ben Mendelsohn). “Ross” dies, turning back into his natural Skrull form, confirming that the conspiracy is real.

After the credits, Nick Fury is beamed down to Earth from a spaceship, now going around without the eyepatch and walking with a limp. He is picked up by Hill, who takes him to meet Talos, and we find out that Talos’ mate Soren (Charlotte Baker) is dead. Fury and Talos have a touching moment and Talos talks about how the Skrulls spent the past thirty years working for Fury to ensure he found them a new planet. But after the Blip (Infinity War), Fury was a different man, disappearing from Earth for three long years without any contact. Talos also tells Fury that his daughter G’iah disappeared after a point as well, having become disillusioned with the condition of her people. Talos himself was kicked off the Skrull Council and exiled, allowing the rise to power of another disillusioned young Skrull who shares a history with Fury, Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir).

Gravik is essentially the leader of a rebellion among the young Skrulls, basing himself in Russia. Since Skrulls are immune to radiation, these rebels are using abandoned off-the-books nuclear plants in the country as bases, and Hill and Talos have no idea where Gravik actually is. Hill tells Fury that Prescod had found schematics for a dirty bomb, which he thinks the Skrulls will use to stage a terrorist attack that will be credited to a radical group called Americans Against Russia, provoking a war between two “major powers” (because we’re all pretending Wakanda doesn’t exist). The Skrulls have since stolen the materials they need from a site in Kazhakstan, so the threat is real and possibly existential. Fury, presumably shocked by the stakes of what he’s walked into, abruptly leaves for a walk. Meanwhile, at the White House, James Rhodes (Don Cheadle), now a presidential advisor, informs President Ritson (Dermot Mulroney) that Fury has left S.A.B.E.R. and that Maria Hill and Nick Fury have gone AWOL. The President tells Rhodey to deal with it. Back in Moscow, Fury’s walk takes him past a couple who give him dirty looks (Skrulls?) and a girl playing with a ball (also maybe a Skrull?) who is shocked by his appearance and has to be led away by her mother (again, Skrull?). Two men then attack Fury, putting a hood on him and pushing him into a car.

‘Secret Invasion’ Episode 1 Introduces Us to Sonya Falsworth

He is taken to meet Sonya Falsworth (Olivia Colman), a charming but undoubtedly deadly MI6 agent. Fury and Sonya clearly know each other, exchanging some fun banter. While she gets him a drink, he takes the chance to plant a camera on an owl statuette. They drink and talk about the Skrull rebellion, which Sonya is also trying to stop. Fury asks Sonya about the heist in Kazakhstan and Sonya says she doesn’t know about it, which Fury says is a lie. Sonya expresses doubt in Fury’s abilities, saying that he was changed by the Snap and that the incident showed him that no matter how hard he tries, there will always be someone stronger. But Fury says that his experience with the Skrulls gives him an insight into their situation that nobody else has, proposing an alliance. Sonya, however, doesn’t want his help and tells him to go back to his space station. Fury leaves, but he now has an advantage.

We then move 312 KM southwest of Moscow, where a young man (Samuel Adewunmi) approaches a gate with armed guards. G’iah (Emilia Clarke) meets him and asks him to reveal his true form. After confirming that he’s a Skrull, she allows him into the compound, which she calls New Skrullos. G’iah introduces the new Skrull Beto to their home and their ways, giving him a Skrull fruit grown on the compound and promising him that the risks he took to get there were worth it. New Skrullos is an abandoned nuclear plant—just as Hill and Talos had theorized—with over 500 Skrulls, including children, living there. Not everyone is a rebel, but only the “warriors” are allowed to leave, taking on human forms and maintaining them for as long as possible. G’iah then leaves Beto and goes into a restricted room where Gravik’s lieutenant Pagon (Killian Scott) inducts a new Skrull warrior named Brogan. A shadowy figure watches from above. The other Skrulls bring in a prisoner (Ben Peel), the leader of Americans Against Russia, and Brogan takes his form. They then hook up the human to a machine that allows the warrior to copy the man’s mind as well.

Fury, Talos, and Hill watch the spy cam and find out that Sonya has figured out who the Skrulls will use to build their bomb: an artist and bomb-builder called Poprischchin (Uriel Emil). Sonya plans on waiting until a Skrull rebel shows up to pick up the bomb and then following them to their base. Fury wants to incapacitate the MI6 agents and get to Poprischchin first, which Talos is uncomfortable with. However, Fury says that Sonya has a “scorched-Earth policy”, meaning that she will kill any and every person that gets in her way. Attacking her men is the only way to prevent the loss of more lives. Fury also says that Gravik thinks mercy is Talos’ weakness and that this is a chance to prove him wrong.

Father and Daughter Reunite in ‘Secret Invasion’ Episode 1

Back at New Skrullos, Pagon informs Gravik that Fury is on Earth. Gravik doesn’t seem concerned and says that they will still make their move the next day and that they won’t stop until they have Earth for themselves. Pagon then sends G’iah to Poprischchin to pick up the bombs and get them to their Moscow safe house. G’iah heads to Poprischchin’s place and finds MI6 agents waiting, so she goes in through the back instead and meets the bomb-maker. At the same time, Talos incapacitates an agent and sneaks in with Fury. They joke about their age, with Talos asking Fury what he got for his midlife shopping spree. Fury responds with a classic MCU-style one-liner, saying “The Avengers.”

As her father and Fury go in, G’iah leaves with the bombs. Fury and Talos confront Poprischchin and Hill spots G’iah getting away, deciding to follow her. Poprischchin reveals himself to be a Skrull, and he and Talos begin to fight. Talos insists that he can handle this on his own, telling Fury not to get involved. But when it looks like Poprischchin might have the upper hand, Fury kills him, leaving Talos feeling upset and betrayed. Hill follows G’iah underground. G’iah attacks her and manages to get away, but Talos arrives and starts chasing her with a gun. G’iah reveals herself to her father, who informs her that her mother is dead (implying that she was killed by Gravik’s rebels) and asks her to give him the bombs. But G’iah runs from him and later breaks down in tears.

Fury heads to a bar, where one of the patrons makes a knowing comment that implies that Fury isn’t the man he once was (possibly a Skrull, we don’t know). Fury buys him a drink and walks away, joining Maria Hill at their table. They talk over a game of chess and Hill asks him why he abandoned Earth. After some hesitation, he says that he had a “crisis of faith.” Much like all the others, Hill shows doubt in Fury’s ability to stay ahead of his enemies and says that if he doesn’t figure things out, someone’s going to get hurt. Later, Fury thinks about the Snap and the moment when he died, clearly still working through it. G’iah delivers the bombs to Pagon. She tells him that someone was waiting for her but doesn’t say who and suggests that maybe they should postpone the strike. Pagon, however, thinks that things are going exactly according to plan.

G’iah then meets with Talos, giving him the time and location of the attack—the Unity Day celebrations the next day—and telling him that Gravik knows Talos will be there. She also tells him that Gravik has hundreds of operatives in deep cover, many of their identities unknown even to each other. There are to be three couriers, including G’iah, carrying bombs in two bags that she will mark with infrared spray.

‘Secret Invasion’ Episode 1 Introduces the Beginning of the End

The next day, Hill, Talos, and Fury spot G’iah at the location, tracking the bags, but she hands them off to the two other couriers. Talos goes after one courier while Hill chases the other. But while they’re running off, Fury is distracted by the young girl with the ball whom he saw earlier. He follows “the girl,” a Skrull who constantly shifts forms and leads Fury away in a very Alice in Wonderland-esque sequence. The Skrull, actually Gravik, takes his human form just as Talos and Hill catch up with their targets and find that the bags are decoys. With Fury watching, Gravik detonates the real bombs. The crowd descends into chaos as the bombs go off and Gravik, taking Fury’s form, shoots Maria Hill in the confusion. She dies in Fury’s arms, and Talos pulls him away from the scene.

As series premieres go, Secret Invasion‘s doesn’t come close to past Marvel TV favorites like WandaVision or Moon Knight. But, having already seen the next episode, I can tell you that it does get a lot better (and crazier) in Episode 2. Secret Invasion is shaping up to be a slow burn, but what it’s building up to could have consequences for the whole MCU, at least for the characters who still live on Earth. Does anyone know how to get to Knowhere?