Despite the many superhumans, aliens and more in Marvel Studios’ nest, it seems like the one human being who’s been in the run since the beginning is possibly the hardest to crack, and Secret Invasion episode 2 ending sequence only brings us closer to finding out how far away we are from Nick Fury’s life story. Starring Samuel L Jackson, Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman, Don Cheadle, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ben Mendelsohn and others, the second entry of the newest Marvel TV series debuted on Disney+ on June 28, 2023, and it has been direct by Ali Selim.
With a runtime of 55 minutes, the latest episode further digs into how the Skrulls have infiltrated Earth, and their ruptured alliance with Fury is falling apart as the seeds of their invasion are being planted heavily. This particular episode rather slows down its pace in comparison to the previous more action-driven trajectory of the season premiere. More diplomatic conversations take centerstage and unveil Gravik’s ultimate plan, in addition to historical revelations of how Fury’s been one of the most significant players in bringing the Skrulls closer to earthly circumstances more than ever.
Major Spoilers About Episodes 1 and 2 Ahead
Secret Invasion Episode 2 Ending Explained
Following the devastating demise of Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) in Episode 1, things have simply been plummeting down for Fury. With the Skrull General Gravik launching an attack on Moscow, it seems that the first blow only offered a taste of what’s to come next. Fury also particularly seems to be on Colonel Rhodes’ (Cheadle) cold side now, who’s more about dealing with the bureaucracy and the political jargon from a distance than engaging firsthand in the battlefield like he used to before.
The biggest issue about the impending invasion is put in the clearest words possible by Fury himself, “We’re being invaded and we can’t even tell who the invaders are”. However, the whole shape-shifting ordeal is flying past many of those who are in power (and not Skrulls themselves). Fury tries his all to convey the same to Rhodes in their quick, and rather hostile meeting towards the end of the episode, but he still believes it to be impossible for shape-shifting species to be invading them from the inside.
Yet, on listening to what Fury has to say, he suggests they bring in their “friends” aka the Avengers for help. Nick, on the other hand, knows better than to do that because once they get in contact with Skrulls, there’s nothing stopping these species gone rogue from stealing their identities and making the good guys look like terrorists. Fury hopes for Rhodey to back him up in this war, but the man had actually decided to meet up with him only as an “envoy of the United States government”, and lay him off his job.
And in this moment, Fury finally gets it – the war is about him, but is also against him from all sides. He can’t trust anyone anymore, even people he’s shared a long history with. While Nick is out there dealing with all this heartbreak, Colman’s MI6 agent Sonya Falsworth breaks into coming close to finding out Gravik’s base. Catching a hold of one his soldiers, she interrogates him to the best of her abilities using whatever means necessary, and the same ultimately leads Gravik to sacrificing his own men as a means to cut down deadweight from his operation.
What comes after this is an even greater surprise, because the episode’s final moments reveal that Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos is not the only Skrull Fury has been buddying up with. The initial half of the episode introduces us to a lot of Skrull diaspora moving into Earth, including a young Gravik brought in by a Skrull woman named Varra. Ever since then, she’s been helping the good side of the fight, assisting Skrull refugees to settle in, but now that the scene has changed, we assume her to have some new roles. Although more of her contributions are yet to be laid bare, we catch Fury with the same woman in the end. Charlayne Woodard plays the character in question, aka the former SHIELD head’s wife, Priscilla Fury.
There’s a great possibility that Nick isn’t aware of her true identity though, considering how taken aback he was listening to Talos’ message about millions of Skrulls walking the Earth. Or it could completely be the opposite as always. He may in fact be aware of the truth after all, which would explain his close ties with and affectionate bond with the Skrulls as well.
Once he slips on the wedding band, it’s more than clear that the two have been married, which instantly takes us back to the happenings of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, when a severely wounded Fury lay on Steve Rogers’ couch, waiting for him.
While the conversation between the two key players back then may have all seemed like a grand codified talk to cover up the truth from HYDRA, who might be listening in, Fury mentions early on that his wife kicked him out. Steve replies with the same response that we all had back then, “I didn’t know you were married”, and Fury stated the obvious in return, “a lot of things you don’t about me”.
Now that we’re well aware of all that transpired in Captain Marvel, we know that Fury met all these Skrulls way before he initiated the Avengers project. Therefore, it won’t be a surprise anymore to join the dots and find out that Fury had been telling the truth all along.
The most enthralling aspect about this series is that everything that seems to be the head, soon turns out to be tail. One can’t rely on the looks of things because they’re all nothing but deceptive. Fury’s ultimate challenge here will be to make up his mind about who to trust or not. And he isn’t the only one fighting this battle of wits.
Emilia Clarke’s G’iah is equally perturbed and conflicted about Gravik’s plans, as he also seemed to have collected harvest DNA samples from several creatures, one whom many Marvel viewers even dearly love – Groot. Could this mark the beginning of the Super-Skrull saga? Super-Skrulls are basically the bio-engineered superior version of the Skrulls. In the comics, the most well known version of this creature is helmed by Kl’rt, one of the greatest nemesis of the Fantastic Four.
Gravik has time and again weighed in on his plans by briefly expounding on the vision that he doesn’t see the Avengers as a threat to his mission. Is this the reason why he’s so brashly courageous about his project and work? Although one can only speculate at this juncture, we know that the Fantastic Four movie is also being worked on presently, so a hypothesis can easily draw up the connections to the future of MCU.
We can expect more exciting adventures in the upcoming episodes of the spy thriller rendition of this Marvel series as Gravik’s plans are further unravelled.
Secret Invasion Episode 2 is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar. Read our review of the first two episodes here.
Also read: Who is David Corenswet, DC’s New Superman Who Replaced Henry Cavill? Where Have We Seen Him Before?