The writers and actors strike has already halted Marvel-Disney productions, which was a long time coming because of the way the production houses were treating every single department. To make matters worse and to show how ludicrously stupid things have become, an article from Forbes revealed that Disney has spent upwards of $200 million on Marvel’s Secret Invasion. And that obviously got everybody scratching their heads because if the writers aren’t being paid properly, if the VFX and CGI artists are overworked and underpaid, and the miniseries looks like utter garbage, where is all this money going? CEOs and producers used to be known for being efficient and smart when it came to spending money on different kinds of projects. Did they hit their head somewhere? Also, given how Marvel-Disney is known for being tight-lipped about spoilers, why are they even letting such information reach the press? Do they think this is a good look, and they’re flexing their power? Because, let me tell you, this isn’t a good look!

Spoilers Alert

Sonya Is Hunting Skrulls

Episode 5 of Secret Invasion opens with Nick Fury taking President Ritson to the hospital and repeatedly telling him that the Russians weren’t the ones who attacked him, so that Ritson doesn’t start an all-out war against them after waking up. Fury also warns him not to trust Rhodes and then proceeds to guard the ICU with his life. Back in New Skrullos, the Skrulls start to doubt Gravik because he keeps letting Fury get away, and things get so heated up that Gravik kills the one who questions his leadership qualities. Then he orders Rhodes (whose Skrull name is Raava) to convince Ritson that it wasn’t only the Russians who attacked him; Skrulls were involved as well.

Rhodes is understandably taken aback, but Gravik theorizes that Fury will do anything to stop a war between humans and protect innocent Skrulls. So, if Russians and New Skrullos are in danger, Fury will be forced to show his hand, i.e., some kind of Avengers DNA that he has at his disposal that will allow Gravik to become even more powerful than he already is. When Rhodes does arrive at the hospital to convey the message to Ritson, Fury confronts him, and Rhodes uses that same old logic of leaking the footage of him killing Hill. It works yet again, and Fury is forced to leave. Sonya visits Director Weatherby’s office, shoots him in the leg, and proves to the secret intelligence officers that he’s a Skrull. Then she asks Weatherby about Dr. Rosa Dalton, i.e., the scientist who is working for Gravik and making the Super Skrull machine.

Fury Goes To Finland

Gravik is attacked by the mutineers in New Skrullos, but he proves to be way more powerful than them. Nick Fury conveniently returns to one of his safe houses, which is actually the one where he promised all the Skrulls that he’d take them to a new planet many years ago, and Gi’ah is waiting for him. They’ve a little chat about Talos’ death and how Gravik wants “The Harvest” from Fury. Since that is located in Finland, he has to go there to retrieve it. Before leaving, Fury tells Gi’ah to go to Priscilla so that she can perform Talos’ last rites in the traditional way of the Skrulls. Elsewhere, Sonya pays Rosa Dalton a visit, as she wants Rosa to tell her all about the Super Skrull machine. Rosa’s husband and colleague, Victor, tries to scare Sonya with a shotgun while being unaware that one of Sonya’s men, Nigel, is right behind him with a gun.

Everything that Olivia Colman has done in this show is the most interesting thing about it. You can see the devilish glee that she brings to the role, which doesn’t necessarily undermine Sonya’s prowess. She even makes the most blandly composed frames light up with her eyes and her smile. If it were up to me, this show would’ve been about Sonya and Gravik. That’s it. The rest is nonsense. Anyway, Victor tries to hold Rosa hostage to scare Sonya yet again, and Sonya just shoots him point blank. Gi’ah reaches Priscilla’s house with Talos’ body. How did she retrieve it after the shootout? I guess the showrunners didn’t find it all that necessary to show that, so I don’t know. In the hospital, Rhodes convinces Ritson about the plan to attack New Skrullos, and before we can learn what Ritson thinks about this conspiracy, the show cuts to Gravik threatening Fury over the phone. Gravik wants Fury to hand deliver the vial of “Harvest” or witness the extinction of the human race as well as the Skrulls. Fury is clearly two steps ahead as we see him boarding a plane to Finland to get the Harvest.

Who Is Nick Fury Calling?

Priscilla helps Gi’ah perform Talos’ cremation ceremony (which seems to be a cross between the Hindu and the Norse cremation procedures). I just think it’s a little weird to burn a whole body in the backyard of a suburb without setting off any alarms. Does Priscilla really think that nobody in the neighborhood is going to notice the smoke and call the police? I mean, there’s comic book subgenre dumbness, and there’s abject dumbness. This moment is certainly the latter. After the ceremony, Gi’ah and Priscilla try to spend some quiet time with each other and talk about Fury, Talos, and whatever lies in the future for Skrulls. They are interrupted by Gravik’s people, as they’ve been ordered to kill Priscilla for not killing Fury. Since these Skrulls’ aim is worse than that of the Stormtroopers, they bite the dust pretty quickly, and Priscilla and Gi’ah leave unscathed. I was sure someone was going to get shot, but tension or danger aren’t Marvel’s forte. Hence, here we are.

The action is supposed to be good, and you can clearly see that some thought has been put into the stunt work and action choreography. But if you pick up any of the kitchen/home invasion fights from John Wick, The Raid 2, and Upgrade—all of them cost less than Secret Invasion—you’ll see the difference in quality, especially when it comes to the editing. However, I’m guessing Marvel fans will be too excited to notice that, so what’s the point of complaining? Priscilla drops off Gi’ah somewhere for an undisclosed reason. If I have to guess, she’s going to go after Gravik because he is her father’s killer. Sonya picks up Fury at the airport, who seems to be using Black Widow’s facemask technology to get around. Given that the latest installment of Mission: Impossible is available in theaters right now, and I’ve watched it multiple times, I’ll say that nothing beats a good old prosthetic mask. This hi-tech, holographic stuff is weak. Okay, coming back to the plot, Fury gives a detailed explanation of what the Harvest actually is. He says that at the Battle of Earth (which seems to be the fight in Endgame), every Avenger left some form of DNA on the battlefield. So, Fury and the Skrulls had to scrub it clean so that it didn’t land in the hands of the villains. And since one of those Skrulls in the clean-up crew was Gravik, he is aware of the DNA’s existence, and he seemingly wants to use it to become powerful. If that sounds repetitive, it’s because the writing of Secret Invasion is bad!

At the end of episode 5 of Secret Invasion, Fury extracts the vial of Harvest from one of his many graves, puts on his iconic costume, and calls somebody up to tell them that it’s time to wrap things up. I’m sure it’s meant to start all kinds of speculation about who is on the other end of Fury’s call. Some will say it’s Monica Rambeau, others will say it’s Carol Danvers, and the most optimistic ones will probably say it’s Quake from Agents of SHIELD. Well, it’ll be really funny if any of those are the right answers because Fury gives this huge speech about how they shouldn’t depend on superpowered people for everything. He says something about heart and blood and soul and whatnot to illustrate the point that this is a personal fight because he sees the Skrulls as his people. So, if you want my honest answer, I think Fury is calling Gravik to set up the meeting and settle things in a nonviolent way. If it’s anyone else, that whole speech will seem hilariously pointless (just like this whole damn show).