Massive spoilers for Secret Invasion episode 1, which dropped on Wednesday 21 June 2023! I’m going to write up a rundown of the episode along with the analysis, the Easter eggs and my predictions for what comes next.
In this post I’ll briefly write up the things that caught my eye on a first viewing and the Easter eggs, and then get into the analysis.
Spoilers ahead
For the episode-by-episode reviews of the shows that aired earlier, click the images below!
I’ve started shooting all sorts of things for fun lately. The camera is an α7 IV — shoot in RAW, edit in Lightroom, that kind of thing.
In Marvel’s Secret Invasion, former S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury is old, faded and worn out. Looks like he wants to step back from Earth’s battles…
Episode 1, “Resurrection,” centres on Nick coming back down to Earth from the S.A.B.E.R. space station. The Skrull refugees he rescued in the 1990s are, thirty years on from that first meeting, disappointed with the way their prospects have gone. That’s because the new homeworld he and Carol Danvers promised them in 2019’s Captain Marvel never happened. They’re angry about that — but Talos the Skrull (Ben Mendelsohn, wearing the same worn-out expression), even after living through his wife’s death, has stayed Nick’s loyal friend, and that was so good to see!
In Secret Invasion, Talos’s daughter G’iah turns up, all grown up. She’s joined a rebel Skrull group, and their leader Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) may well be scheming to touch off a war between Russia and America!
The Skrulls have probably been operating for a long time now, posing as humans in geopolitically important roles, and they may already have built themselves powerful positions and laid out a meticulous plan.
Sonya Falsworth, an old ally of Fury’s and a key MI6 agent, turns up too! The two of them didn’t get much back-and-forth this time, but she looks set to come back in an important role!
Maria Hill dying, of all things… I cried
She’s held the MCU up for such a very long time, so it’s a shock… Her face doesn’t change when she dies, so it doesn’t look like she was a Skrull either… but surely this can’t be the end of it…! Really hoping there’s more to come!
Talos’s daughter G’iah joining up with the terrorists, of all things…
In episode 1 she came over to Fury’s side and told them all sorts of things, but whether Gravik saw that coming, or whether G’iah really was Gravik’s ally all along, I don’t know — either way it came to nothing… And Maria Hill dies because of it.
Really want Talos and G’iah to pull off a reconciliation! Though if they do patch things up, it feels like Talos is going to die~
By the way, this is how small she was in Captain Marvel!
Agent Ross, who also quit the CIA in Wakanda Forever! And a Skrull had been impersonating him, of all things… So where’s the real one now?
The girl with the rainbow ball who appears early on turns out to be the very same girl who appears near the end! And since she was really Gravik, maybe the surveillance was running right from the opening?
First off, there’s every chance people who died in the MCU turn up again as Skrull impersonations!
Rhodey, aka War Machine, smells like something’s up~ Personally I reckon Rhodey could well be inside that human storage vault in Russia, having actually been held captive this whole time.
Coulson, Skye (Daisy), May and the rest look likely to come back!! Personally I especially want Coulson back in the MCU’s main continuity!
On July 24, 202…