‘Secret Invasion’ Episode 3 Recap: Marvel Keeps Killing People Off

Enemy lines have been drawn in Secret Invasion’s Skrull resistance. But who will dare to cross them, either from the Skrull side to the human side or vice versa?

Finally, Secret Invasion has some stakes—but that doesn’t mean the show is any more entertaining by its third episode than it was in the last two fairly drab installments. The counterparts of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Talos (Ben Mendelsohn)—Fury’s wife, Priscilla (Charlayne Woodard), and Talos’ daughter, G’iah (Emilia Clarke)—start to question their allegiances in this episode, “Betrayed.” While G’iah switching sides would mark a win for the humans, Priscilla has some sort of shady involvement with the Skrull resistance, which could completely endanger Fury.

‘Secret Invasion’ Episode 2 Recap: Nick Fury Teaches the Skrulls About Racism

These are great updates to the story of Secret Invasion, which, so far, has hinged everything on the idea that any human might be a Skrull. The shape-shifting powers of the Skrulls has allowed them to take over Earth. Many of the world’s leaders are Skrulls pretending to be humans, who have given resistance leader Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) the power to annihilate the human race. Now, Gravik has developed the weapons of mass destruction to do so: He has created Super Skrulls, who can absorb any power and are nearly indestructible.

But before we can develop the evil Skrull revolution any further, Secret Invasion whisks us once again into the past. Right after the events of Captain Marvel—which saw Fury shuttling Skrulls into Earth after their planet had been destroyed—Priscilla, also known by her Skrull name “Varra,” helped Fury on a handful of missions related to other MCU plots. (In this episode, we see something related to the events in Black Widow.) Although the previous episode left Fury’s understanding of his wife unclear, now, we know that Fury is aware that his wife is a Skrull.

Not only is Fury aware, but he’s also nervous about Priscilla’s honesty with him. In the present day, something about Priscilla feels off; she’s also been receiving mysterious calls. But when Fury questions her, Priscilla fires back about Fury being away all the time, always off saving the universe while leaving her at home alone. Without him, she has become a “widow.” It’s no wonder why, then, we see her making calls to Gravik later on in the episode. She’s either a really good wife, going undercover for her human hubby, or she’s fed up with his constant departures and wants to take a stand.

Gravik accuses G’iah of making the opposite swap, from the Skrull revolution to her father’s team with the humans. This has happened to Gravik before—high-ranking revolutionaries get to the top but back down when they realize how violent the position will be. But G’iah tells Gravik she’s ready to take charge. Still nervous, Gravik stages a parley with Talos, who tells Gravik he plans to announce the Skrull presence to humankind, therefore eliminating the Skrulls’ advantage over the humans. How would that work, exactly? Talos would get the world’s largest microphone and announce, “Hey, there are a bunch of aliens pretending to be humans, watch out”? I don’t buy it.

But Gravik’s suspicions are confirmed when G’iah, shape-shifting as an old man, passes Talos a phone with information about the Skrull revolution’s next major strike. Using Royal Navy ships, the Skrulls plan to take down a U.N. plane heading across the Atlantic Ocean. Talos and Fury race to stop the strike—of course, pausing for banter along the way. The witty arguments these two get into are kind of fun, but Talos is such a half-baked character that it all feels a bit forced. With more help from G’iah, Fury and Talos are able to stop the strike.

In helping her father, though, G’iah’s cover is blown. She must escape the revolution before they kill her. It’s good that G’iah turned on the revolution, but there must’ve been a higher stakes attack that she could’ve helped uncover instead of this mild airstrike. In the end, the revolution catches up to G’iah and assassinates her. Unless this is a fake out—maybe G’iah has secretly become a super Skrull—this short-lived character was such a waste of Emilia Clarke. But the series offed Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) in an even shorter amount of time, so clearly, Secret Invasion doesn’t mind early deaths.

Then we get back to Priscilla, who makes a shifty call to the evil Skrull rebels. We don’t hear who’s talking on the other line. But Priscilla keeps demanding to talk to Gravik. As she does so, she ventures into a safe to retrieve a suped-up gun. Nice. It’ll be fun to see both halves of the Fury couple in action.

All in all, though, what a dull episode. Everyone switching sides is only fun when there’s a bit of intrigue and action going on—but Episode 3 was devoid of nearly all excitement. Bring back spy Olivia Colman. Show us Fury giving a lecture to some evil Skrulls before taking them out one-by-one. Secret Invasion has unearthed a group of liars and traitors—but can the series actually do anything with those twisted relationships? At the halfway point, it seems like the answer is no, but here’s hoping for some improvement.

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