Secret Invasion Finale Recap: Avengers Powers, Assemble! — Plus, Where Does It Rank Among The 8 MCU Shows?
The Secret Invasion finale (now streaming on Disney+) uncorked a twist or two during its final battles, before laying some groundwork for future MCU tales.
The shortest episode of the season (by a margin of three seconds!) opened with Fury taking out a pair of New Skrullos sentries (using the oldest trick in the book), before wobbling into the radiation-heavy facility to face off with Gravik. After taunting Fury over his dwindled supply of iodine pills, Gravik offers his adversary a sip of booze and then launches into his Villain's Speech.
In short, Gravik has been wearing the face of the first human that Fury had him kill back in the day, though the significance of that apparently was lost on the onetime S.H.I.E.L.D. heavy. (Or was it?) Gravik grumbles that he and the other Skrulls "wandered in the shadows" on Earth for 30 years while Fury utterly failed to find them a new home. "You pimped us" as S.H.I.E.L.D. assets "and then threw us away," Gravik grouses, so now his plan is to off Fury and then "take a flame thrower to humanity." And the blame for mankind's annihilation, he contends, will fall at Fury's feet.
Fury gets his turn to speechify, saying that just a few years into his "search," he realized that Earth was the only answer. And that it was easier "save the lives of billions" by having the Skrulls lay low in human form "than to change hearts and minds" by asking humans to accept aliens among them. Flaking away in the Blip in turn brought Fury "relief, that I didn't have to fight anymore."
Fury tells Gravik that the only reason he came back to Earth was because "I felt responsible for you... because I failed you and your people." And that is why he is here, now, to give Gravik what he wants: the vial containing Carol Danvers' DNA, for Gravik to combine with that of the other Avengers'. His only ask is that Gravik power up and then go decimate some other planet/species, and leave Earth the hell alone.
Gravik scoffs at the proposed deal, then powers up his machine to go Super Skrull and lunge at Fury. But when Gravik's first strike gets stopped in its tracks by the the first of a mere human, he and we realize — though as I predicted when watching the sneak peek Marvel put out — that "Fury" is in fact G'iah. (Though, man, she sure knew a lot about Fury's thinking/psyche/past!)
"You killed my mother and my father," G'iah growls while manifesting the powers that she, too, just was imbued with. She smashes Gravik through the ceiling and into the yard outside, and the two get to duking it out, wielding the powers/abilities of Hulk, Korg, Ebony Maw, Ghost (deep cut!) and others. And when both Super Skulls take to the sky a la Captain Marvel for an airborne tussle, G'iah gains the upper hand by Mantis-ing Gravik to "sleeeeeep" and thus plummet to the ground. She then goes for a kill shot, by photon-blasting a hole through his midsection. Afterward, G'iah rescues Everett Ross, Rhodey (who had been a Skrull since after Civil War?!) and others from their fracking pods.
Speaking of Rhodey.... Concurrent with the G'iah reveal, we saw that it was the actual Fury stealthily taking out Rhodey's men at the hospital, before President Ritson could order a missile attack on Russia. Ultimately, Sonya winds up training her gun on Rhodey as he stands at Ritson's bedside, while Fury struggles to convince POTUS of his impostor advisor and the Skrulls' role in the motorcade ambush. When Rhodey moves to overpower Sonya, Fury puts a bullet in his brain, triggering a shape-unshift that proves his case to POTUS.
In the aftermath, Ritson pushes through a bill that designates "all off-world-born species as enemy combatants." (Holy profiling!) G'iah meanwhile finally meets Sonya, who proposes that they unite against the war Ritson has declared. "I will use you, you will use me, and together we will make the planet safe for both our people," Sonya offers. And G'iah, who apparently is still super-powered, accepts.
As for Fury, he calls Ritson to render his very qualified POV that POTUS just made a bad situation worse. He has government hit squads killing Skrulls, even those who might want to help Earth... there are "dumb-ass vigilantes" accidentally killing humans (or getting killed themselves).... "Call off your war," Fury advises. But Ritson is unmoved, saying, "There is only one way this ends, and the old Nick Fury would know that. So if you truly care about the Skrulls, get off my planet."
Fury goes to do just that, but before S.A.B.E.R. can beam him back up, Priscilla shows up at the remote field. Fury invites his wife to come with, in part to use her diplomacy skills to help broker the truce he has lined up between the Kree and Skrulls. Priscilla agrees, after returning to her Skrull form and asking that she be Varra for now on.
"I love you as a I am," she says before they head off. "Only as you are," Fury nods.
All told, what did you think of Secret Invasion? And where would you rank it among Disney+'s eight live-action Marvel series thus far? Vote below!
Got questions about Secret Invasion? I'm talking to the director later today! Email your question to InsideLine@tvline.com, and it may be answered via Matt's Inside Line!