All’s fair in love and war, and it seems like Nick Fury’s recruitment of Skrulls to his cause has led to the radicalization of his former allies in the latest episode of the Marvel and Disney+ Original series, “Secret Invasion.” This episode reveals a lot about both Nick Fury’s past, as well as Gravik’s rise to power. There’s also Easter eggs galore tying back to previous Marvel properties, and the question remains: “who is actually a Skrull?”

This episode goes a long way in painting Fury in a less than flattering light to help explain all of the issues he is currently facing. It demonstrates his willingness to use the Skrulls for his crusade and his promise to find them a home; a promise he has failed to keep. It also demonstrates his anger and frustration with Talos who brought almost all of the Skrulls who fled their home world’s destruction to Earth without Fury knowing. There are more than one million Skrulls on Earth and could be hiding as anybody. It also creates an interesting problem as Fury’s outright refusal to consider Talos’ proposition could lead to more Skrulls who would follow Talos to instead follow Gravik. Simply put, Fury has used the Skrulls and now he is paying for his sins.

Gravik became one of Fury’s soldiers at a young age which led to him being radicalized when Fury left Earth. Gravik is gaining power and turning more Skrulls to his side all in an effort for the Skrulls to make Earth their permanent home. It’s villainous but also understandable why Gravik would feel this way. Plus, there are early signs of a bond between Gravik and G’iah explaining why she was siding with him instead of her father.

The best part of this episode was the Easter eggs tying back to other Marvel properties. Gravik is working on Super Skrull technology and using DNA from Groot, Frost Beast and Cull Obsidian, as well as using the Extremis tech. This gives the series a connection to “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Thor,” “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Iron Man 3” on top of the obvious “Captain Marvel” connections.

Despite all of the reasons the early parts of the episode gave viewers to blame Fury, as he is definitely at least partially to blame for this secret invasion, it also gave us a look at his humanity. We see that Fury, himself, married a Skrull. The marketing made it clear he had a personal stake in this war and we now see it directly affects his family.

With so many Skrulls on Earth, the questions now become who is a Skrull and which side are they on? Anyone can be a Skrull. Rhodey is acting differently than we usually saw him as War Machine, but does that mean he is a Skrull? Or is that just because of his high ranking position? We know Thunderbolt Ross is set to be President of the United States in the next “Captain America” film. Is he the current President? Or is the current President a Skrull and that’s how Ross rises to power? This series is asking a lot of questions while doing a solid job of presenting a street level series with much bigger consequences.

Rating: 4 stars

What do you think of this most recent episode of “Secret Invasion?”

Jeremy Brown

Jeremy has been a big Disney fan since he was a kid growing up during the Disney Renaissance. One day he hopes to go to every Disney Park in the world.

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