Summary
An abundance of exposition certainly bogs things down, but Secret Invasion has a compelling premise, what seems like a willingness to swing big with its narrative, and returns to a style and tone the MCU has been lacking for a while.
This recap of Secret Invasion Season 1 Episode 1, “Resurrection” contains spoilers.
There’s a solid argument to be made that Marvel’s Secret Invasion is arriving at the perfect time.
By that, I don’t mean perfect for the MCU, although you could certainly make a case. People aren’t exactly in love with the franchise in the way they once were given the relative aimlessness of the post-Endgame output, and Secret Invasion, which has the paranoiac tone of the beloved Captain America sequels and the return of Samuel L. Jackson as one-eyed spymaster Nick Fury, feels like a welcome deviation from multiverses and Taika Waititi.
But what I really mean is that it arrives in a perfect climate of gullibility and mistrust, where people genuinely believe the Earth is flat again, where every newsreel is fake unless it suits one’s personal politics, and where the idea of a hidden cabal of shapeshifting aliens influencing world events isn’t particularly farfetched, since some people believe that anyway — and they’re not even comic book fans.
Secret Invasion Season 1 Episode 1 Recap
“Resurrection” begins by laying these ideas out in the cigarettes and whiskey voice of a frantic Richard Dormer, who plays an agent named Prescod operating out of a safe house in present-day Moscow. The theory is that a spate of seemingly unrelated terrorist attacks has been orchestrated by Skrulls, who, after being promised a new planet by Nick Fury and Carol Danvers in Captain Marvel, have designs on Earth itself.
Does Everett Ross die in Secret Invasion?
This information is relayed to Everett Ross (a typically frazzled Martin Freeman), who is promptly attacked by Prescod and chased by the presumed Russian assassin who shoots the conspiracist dead. While sprinting to a rendezvous with Maria Hill, Ross tumbles from a building, and you have to ask yourself whether Marvel might have taken the ballsy move of starting their new small-screen series by killing off a fan-favorite supporting player.
But not quite. The Russian assassin turns out to be Talos, and Ross, who expires on the pavement, turns out to be another Skrull. But not one of Talos’s. One of the others.
What is Gravik’s plan?
This brings Nick Fury back to Earth — he had been hiding out on S.A.B.E.R. — and cues up a boatload of early exposition from Talos and Maria. Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) is now on the Skrull council and has been stoking up a lot of hostility among the young, displaced Skrulls who are still upset about not having a home. He’s hiding out in Russia, in an off-the-books nuclear plant, since Skrulls are immune to radiation.
Agent Prescod had uncovered schematics for a dirty bomb that validated his personal theory that Gravik was trying to provoke a war between the United States and Russia, using a radical group called the AAR — Americans Against Russia — as a front for another forthcoming terrorist attack. Ross’s imposter was trying to cover the plot up.
Who is Sonya Falsworth?
Fury’s return immediately provokes the interest of Sonya Falsworth (Olivia Colman), a charismatic MI6 agent who thinks Fury is past it, though doesn’t realize he bugged one of her ornaments so she can inadvertently tip him off about a bombmaker who is involved in the AAR plot.
What is New Skrullos?
That’s the next stop for the heroes, but “Resurrection” also spares time for the villains. Gravik is operating out of New Skrullos, a refuge for displaced Skrulls hacked into the irradiated wreckage of a decommissioned nuclear plant. We’re introduced to this place through the eyes of Beto (Samuel Adewunmi), a Skrull refugee, and Talos’s radicalized daughter, G’iah (Emilia Clarke), who shows him the ropes.
New Skrullos only grows Skrull produce and preserves Skrull traditions. Those given refuge there aren’t obligated to fight in the rebellion, but those who choose to are given human “shells”, which they remain in indefinitely to make them more difficult to identify.
What happens to Propischchin and his bomb?
Since all roads must converge, Gravik’s right-hand man, Pagon (Killian Scott), gives G’iah a mission to retrieve the bomb from the bombmaker, Propischchin (Uriel Emil), at exactly the same time that Fury, Talos, and Maria are trying to interrogate him under the nose of Sonya and MI6.
The mission goes terribly for all involved. Propischchin, a Skrull, identifies Talos immediately and they fight; Fury shoots him dead in the struggle, which annoys Talos. Maria, meanwhile, clocks G’iah leaving the building and follows her on foot, but can’t capture her. When Talos catches up, he tells G’iah that her mother is dead, which gives her pause, but she nonetheless leaves with the bomb.
The news about her mother obviously struck a chord with G’iah, though. She returns the bomb to Pagon, but she also meets clandestinely with Talos to tell him that the attack will be happening the next day, there will be three bombs and three couriers — including her — and she’ll mark the bags with an infrared spray.
Oh, and Gravik also knows Talos will be coming, though she isn’t clear on where he’s getting information from given the number and secrecy of his field operatives.
Secret Invasion Season 1 Episode 1 Ending Explained
Who dies in “Resurrection”?
This mission is, once again, a bust. Gravik’s decoys send Fury and co. for a loop, and they aren’t able to stop any of the detonations. In the ensuing chaos, to add insult to injury, Gravik shapeshifts into Fury and shoots Maria Hill dead. The final shot of the episode is her dead body on the floor as blood steadily pools around her.
An ongoing theme of “Resurrection” is that Fury has PTSD. It’s constantly repeated that he was never the same after the Blip. He hid himself away on S.A.B.E.R. and dropped out of contact for years. Sonya tells him he’s too old for the mission; Maria even implies he isn’t ready. A random Russian man in a bar catches Fury staring into a dirty mirror on the wall and warns him that no matter how long he looks, he’ll never see the man he used to be.
How Maria’s death will affect Fury’s headspace will clearly be a key element of Secret Invasion moving forwards. If nothing else, it’s a ballsy way to kick off a new series after the fake-out with Ross in the cold open.
You can stream Secret Invasion Season 1 Episode 1, “Resurrection”, exclusively on Disney+.
