Episode Grade: (8.0/10)
Nick Fury returns to Earth to deal with the rising threat of angry Skrulls, but he quickly finds himself outmatched. Agent Hill pays the ultimate price.
Plot (39/50)
The pilot sets up a straightforward storyline centered around the Skrulls. Nick Fury promised to find the Skrulls a new home, but he’s ever since he returned from getting blipped, he hasn’t been the same. With his confidence shaken, he’s retreated to S.A.B.E.R., a US space station. Some Skrulls remain loyal and friendly to Fury, such as his good friend Talos. However, a large contingent have split under the leadership of Gravik. United by their anger towards Fury for abandoning his promise to find them a new home, they’ve taken matters into their own hands. The threat is so real that Fury thought it necessary to come back down to Earth to deal with it himself.
An Emerging Threat
The show opens with a sequence that sees a Skrull operative disguised as agent Ross meet up with a paranoid agent Prescod. Agent Prescod has been working on a conspiracy theory that the Skrulls are planning to set off a chain of events that will put the world’s main powers at war with eachother. He believes that their ultimate goal is to initiate a nuclear war that would cripple humanity, which would then allow the Skrulls to take over the planet. Turns out, he was right. Unfortunately for him, the damning piece of evidence he found put a target on his back. Skrull Ross quickly disposes of agent Prescod.
At this point, it’s not yet been revealed that Ross is a Skrull, so we still think he’s the “good guy.” As he leaves Prescod’s hideout, he’s followed by some individual presumed to be on the side of the bad Skrulls. He has agent Hill as support, but before he can reach the pickup point, he falls to his untimely demise. At this point, it’s revealed that Ross was actually a Skrull trying to suppress the evidence Prescod discovered. The Skrull that was in pursuit of Ross is Talos, a known ally. The situation is dire, so Fury is called back down to Earth.
Fury’s Return
Fury was reluctant to return, but he does so anyways due to the serious nature of the threat. Talos sheds some much-needed light on the developing situation. After Fury seemingly abandoned the Skrulls in their quest to find a new home, the species have been divided into three groups. Some, led by Talos, remain loyal to Fury. Others, namely younger Skrulls including Talos’ own daughter, G’iah, have grown impatient in their desperation for a new home. Finally, impatience has turned into anger for a sect of radical Skrulls led by Gravik. The younger Skrulls are increasingly turning to Gravik’s ways, and his ways aren’t pretty.
He’s managed to organize his people into a highly effective unit despite their small numbers. He’s utilized their shapeshifting abilities to their maximum potential as they’ve now infiltrated every major power across the globe. Everything is in position, all that’s needed now is a spark to get the dominoes to fall. Actually, it’s more of a bang. The information Talos recovered from Skrull Ross reveals plans to bomb some unknown target. That’s enough for the team to go by for now.
Fury’s first course of action is to “meet up” with Sonya Falsworth, an MI6 agent and old associate. Sonya refuses to play ball and is not impressed with Fury’s severely diminished capacity. Her lack of cooperation is a minor setback for Fury because he’s already bugged her office. That later comes in handy as Fury and co are able to track down the arms dealer responsible for creating the bomb. He doesn’t give them anything, but Hill’s sharp reconnaissance does.
Gravik Strikes
Hill picks up the trail of the Skrull agent who is now in possession of the bombs. She pursues her but is ultimately powerless to stop her. However, she manages to delay her long enough for Talos to arrive. He’s shocked to see that the Skrull agent is his own daughter G’iah. G’iah is shocked to learn that her mother is dead. Talos suggests that Gravik had something to do with it. Nonetheless, G’iah sees out her mission. When she returns to New Skrullos, she reports that she was intercepted but hides that it was her father. She’s wavering.
Later that night, she meets her father in secret to inform him of Gravik’s plan to bomb a city square the following day. Armed with this new information, the team of Fury, Talos, and Hill position themselves to neutralize the threat. With the help of G’iah, they’re able to track the bomb bags as they’re handed off. Unfortunately for them, the bags were decoys. Gravik reveals himself to Fury as the bombs go off. To make matters worse, Gravik, disguised as Fury, shoots an unsuspecting Hill. As Hill dies, the real Fury arrives, but he’s too late to save her.
Final Thoughts
The idea of a secret invasion by a group of virtually undetectable Skrulls is intriguing. The early sequence with Ross adds a sense of mystery that will remain active as we try to figure out who’s real and who’s not. This sort of thriller is somewhat original within the MCU, which is always welcome. Gravik’s early success sets up a global escalation in conflict as he will certainly frame the attack as an act of US aggression on Russian soil. Agent Hill’s death immediately ups the stakes for Fury and the show as a whole. With that said, her death didn’t resonate with me as much as I believe it was intended to given the stature of her character.
Character Development (12/15)
There are various character dynamics that work well in parallel and when they intersect. There’s the human side that’s mainly centered around Fury. There’s the Skrull side that’s mainly centered around Gravik. Then there’s the intersection which will leverage the relationship between Talos and G’iah. That’s a really solid foundation that should keep the viewer engaged without overcrowding this miniseries.
Humans
Clearly, Fury is no longer the formidable general he used to be. Everyone can see that he’s a shadow of his former self, and he knows too. The blip shattered his confidence and introduced a sense of disillusionment in his mind that no matter what he did, there would still be some threat in the universe that could crush humanity at any moment. He feels a sense of responsibility to the Skrulls, but that wasn’t enough to get him back in the fight. However, now that Gravik has rallied the Skrulls behind his cause, Fury knows that he must be the one to take him down. As a matter of fact, he has more than one reason to fight Gravik.
Fury feels at least partially responsible for the anger that’s led the Skrulls to such extreme measures. He also seemed to care deeply about Talos’ wife, whose death Gravik is responsible for. Gravik made things even more personal when he murdered Hill, Fury’s closest friend. That Hill died believing that Fury was the one that shot her makes the situation that much more devastating for him. And that was after she had warned him that his weakness would get someone hurt. Her death should serve as the catalyst needed to jolt him back to the ruthless Fury of old. Keep an eye on Sonya and Rhodes as they meddle in the background.
Skrulls
Talos’ loyalty to Fury is interesting. It’s clear he values him as an ally and as a friend, but there’s more to it. He blames Gravik for the death of his wife, which means he kind of has to take Fury’s side by default. He was ostensibly upset with Fury for intervening in his fight with the Skrull arms dealer because he wanted to take care of it himself, but there’s more to it. I think he knew that Fury wouldn’t hesitate to kill, and he didn’t want to see his fellow Skrull eliminated. Talos might not agree with Gravik’s methods, but he is sympathetic to the struggles of young Skrulls who just want a place to call home.
G’iah’s involvement further complicates matters for Talos. She’s probably an accurate representation of most of Gravik’s followers. They don’t want to hurt humans, but they’ve reached a point of desperation that makes it much easier to justify Gravik’s methods. Speaking of Gravik, he’s one of those “ends justify the means” type of guys. He doesn’t seem particularly power-hungry. If anything, he shares the frustration of his fellows Skrulls. In his mind, Fury’s to blame. Gravik is clever, strategic, and ruthless. The parallels between his character and a younger Fury are, no doubt, intentional. This should be an interesting battle.
Theme/Messages (4/5)
- When information can no longer be trusted, “society starts to fray.”
- When you’re part of a team, you need to recognize when you aren’t up for a task and stand down because your failure will impact the entire team, even if you’re trying to help.
- An organized group can make a massive impact, no matter how small.
- Very few disagreements are worth completely cutting yourself off from your loved ones. Some would argue that, in the end, nothing is worth the abandonment.
- Do the ends justify the means?
Acting (12/15)
The acting was solid all-round. Cobie Smulders (Agent Hill) and Emilia Clarke (G’iah) were particularly impressive.
Cinematography (13/15)
- Bird’s eye view of the dead Skrull flanked by Talos and agent Hill spotlighted by the headlights from the car (7:52)
- Cool detail with the logo (letters are half green half gray)
- Shot of the entrance to New Skrullos: barren forest leading into evergreen trees with the sun shining through (21:50)
- Cool shot of the cathedral with a noticeably crisper look than the preceding scenes (44:36)
- Bird’s eye shot of Agent Hill lying dead as people scatter amidst the chaos to close out the episode