Secret Invasion S01E03 Review: Obvious Traitor is Obvious

Secret Invasion, Season 1, Episode 3: Betrayed

If I've been slacking in reviewing Secret Invasion, that's because I am... mostly because the episodes take so long for me to honestly trudge through. And that's not a word you really want to use for a superhero show. But I don't know... I just feel like there's just such a dearth of characters for me to care or get excited about. It's not just because the majority of the side-cast are brand-new faces either, which was also something that was true for shows like Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel, and I liked those shows just fine. But I honestly find it hard to care for anyone other than Nick Fury and maybe Talos most of the time in this show. 

And again, Nick Fury and Samuel L. Jackson's delivery of his lines are always welcome to see, but even then it's kind of wearing thin. Just like, honestly, the plotline going on in this episode. Oh, sure, lots of stuff are happening, but it really does feel like we're retreading the 'who is G'iah loyal to' plotline from the first two episodes and it's just so... repetitive. Even the action scene as Fury and Talos charge into General (?) Fairbanks' house and threaten his kid, and eventually force G'iah to break cover to find out the password... that just feels like a very basic spy stuff that ends up being kind of underwhelming.

It doesn't help that Gravik really doesn't do much beyond being a regular sneering villain. And there's nothing wrong with that, but I really wished we got more out of him. We get him boasting and promising about 'Super-Skrulls', a meeting with Talos and a cat-and-mouse game with whether G'iah is the traitor... and really nothing much beyond that. Turns out that, oh, G'iah is in contact with Papa Talos, she finds Gravik a bit too much now, and her obvious treachery ends up being found out and she's seemingly shot dead by Gravik at the end of this episode.

It's also honestly rather frustrating that this is supposed to be a show that makes me pay attention and figure out who's duping who, who's a secret Skrull, and which Skrull has a secret motivation... but Talos, Gravik and G'iah are all such obvious character archetypes that going through 40 minutes of reaching the conclusion already telegraphed in the first 10 minutes really isn't all too engaging. And I'm not sure why. I guess maybe none of the huge 'twists' are actually 'twists', and is telegraphed to us from the get-go? Like how Gravik is obviously already on to G'iah, and how G'iah's loyalty is obviously to Talos at this point, and there's not really much in terms of excitement as they go through the motions. 

Talos is also a character that's been rather... bland. Ben Mendelsohn delivers his line fantastically, but it really does feel like he's just here as the token good Skrull, and while I can get that he becomes a bit more emotional whenever his daughter is concerned, it feels like rather overwrought character exaggeration from "no, wait, damn it Fury, you're triggerhappy" when he was interrogating the art-dealer Skrull last episode to him freaking out when they were interrogating Fake-Fairbanks and shooting him just because he said some mean words about his daughter. 

There is some superhero intrigue with Gravik mentioning Super-Skrulls, and seemingly actually having perfected it by showcasing some super-regeneration when he rips his hand through Talos's knife. Presumably that's Extremis from Iron Man 3? But when Fury and Talos mentions the possibility of Avengers fighting and I know we're not going to get any more than a couple, it really does dampen the stakes of this show by a fair bit. 

Sonya Falsworth also shows up a bit to give Nick Fury some intel, I guess, and I thought that bit with the owl statute and putting an eyepatch on him was kinda cute, but otherwise... eh?

Oh, and I actually almost forgot to talk about Priscilla Davis, Nick Fury's wife, who is also a Skrull called Varra. And... the actress is pretty good, and she has a good dynamic with Samuel L. Jackson, but the conflict here is her being angry that Fury's left her and basically everyone else to hide away on SWORD after the Blip, and it's, again, all rather repetitive. Turns out, though, that Varra's at least been in contact with Gravik, which... again, is another huge obvious-'plot-twist'-is-obvious moment because... well, we've only met Varra this episode, so just like G'iah in the pilot there really isn't any emotional stake to me when she gets outed as a possible traitor. 

Again, this is still episode 3 of... 6, I think? Allegedly, the show gets better in the next episode or the one after that, but for a show about Nick Fury -- a character I desperately wanted more of in the MCU -- this hasn't really been a show that's firing on all cylinders. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The term 'Super-Skrull' is a reference to Fantastic Four's recurring villain Super-Skrull, or Kl'rt, who has the power of all four members of the Fantastic Four -- namely stretching abilities, flame manipulation, invisibility and a rock body. 
• Varra is a in-name-only adaptation of a Skrull/Kree hybrid character that otherwise has no relation to Nick Fury in the comics. 
• Fury and Varra name-drop General Dreykov, who was the primary antagonist of Black Widow. 
• Fury is able to catch on to the fake Fairbanks impersonating Talos because he calls him 'Nick'. The line about how everyone calls Nick Fury 'Fury', even his mother, came from Captain Marvel.