Secret Invasion episode 4 recap. We’re over the halfway mark in the latest MCU series, and this week’s installment was the largest in scale yet, with a full-throttle fight on the ground, Gravik continuing to cause mayhem, and a couple of big reveals.
Make sure you’re up to date with the Marvel Cinematic Universe show with our Secret Invasion release schedule, because we will be getting into significant spoilers from here on. We’ll be going over the Marvel series‘ Rhodey-Skrull as well as how Gravik’s plan in Secret Invasion is coming together.
Without further ado, let’s start off with G’iah’s fate in our Secret Invasion episode 4 recap and ending explained.
The story begins where Secret Invasion episode 3 left off: G’iah on the ground, her life in that balance after Gravik shot her. As we presumed, G’iah is not dead. It’s revealed she herself has some Super-Skrull enhancements when she uses Extremis to heal.
Following on, we flashback to more Nick Fury and Priscilla. They meet up soon after the events of The Avengers, the latter saying she had a feeling the spy was involved in the Battle of New York. Their bond has grown since the episode 3 flashback we saw, and Priscilla says “Home is worth fighting for, and the weak worth fighting for.”
In the present, she sits in a church. ‘Rhodey’ approaches, but it becomes clear — with the exciting edge of a 5-year-old razor blade — that Rhodey is indeed a Skrull in disguise. Skrull-Rhodey tells Priscilla to kill her husband, and her efforts to convince them that Fury isn’t worth the effort don’t find grip. Fury is listening in from home, hearing the conversation through a bug. He’s a smart man, so at this point, he will put together 2+2: Rhodey isn’t Rhodey.
Talos and G’iah meet up on a park bench to discuss the latter’s cover being blown. Talos tries to apologize for the circumstances leading to her being involved in any of it, but she assigns herself agency and says everything she has done has been of her own volition. She then asks him to make a plan to oppose Gravik’s; Talos’ idea is to defeat the Skrull insurgency, then ask Ritson for amnesty for the one million Skrulls who live on Earth. G’iah says his optimism surrounding their species being able to live freely is delusional, and leaves.
Back at the Fury household, husband and wife sit down for a chat. They both keep masks up for a short while before laying it all out on the table (including their pistols). Nick says getting married was his biggest mistake because his love made him act illogically, yet he admits he wouldn’t change anything.
Priscilla then tells the story of taking over human Priscilla’s identity: she was friends with the dying woman, who consented to the swap on three conditions, one being that the Skrull continue to be a daughter to her parents, as well as not hurting Nick, who she heard about through her Skrull visitor during her hospital stay.
Eventually, Nick and Priscilla both fire their guns. Both, either through instinct or calculated aim, miss the shot and fire into the walls behind. They break the tension with a laugh, and just before Fury heads for the door, Priscilla asks him if he would love her in her original form. He says they’ll “never know”.
This is one of a few moments in the episode that plays into observations or assumptions made by Skrulls about how humanity would or would not accept them as their true selves. The scene ends with them acknowledging Gravik’s side will come for Priscilla for not following orders.
We then see Skrull-Rhodey step out of a shower, appearing to be a female Skrull (through our narrow human perception of sexes, anyway). She then shifts into Rhodey. Maybe we’re looking too much into it, but there seemed to be either some hesitation about changing back into him, or the complete opposite: a struggle with her real form, as she looks at her features in the mirror.
Nick comes to visit Skrull-Rhodey. Later we realize the purpose of this get-together was planting a liquid tracker on the Colonel. During the meeting, Nick asks for his official title and job back. At this point, Rhodey shows his trump card, a clip of Gravik disguised as Fury shooting Maria Hill. He uses the footage to blackmail Fury into keeping quiet about his “conspiracies”.
After the successful plant, Nick and Talos follow him. Meanwhile, Gravik coordinates another attack, this time under the guise of Russians. Skrull-Rhodey informs the New Skrullos leader of President Ritson’s location, and Gravik’s forces — speaking in Russian to really sell it — lay into his SUV and the Secret Service.
After a gunfight, Gravik’s Super-Skrull powers are used to kill a soldier on the opposing side, and he then orders one of his men to shoot Talos, who is trying to retrieve the unconscious Ritson from his overturned vehicle. Talos takes a bullet in the shoulder, but he and Nick get the president out. Nick, in a moment that confirms what the Skrulls have been feeling about being 2nd class citizens, tells his dying friend he’ll come back for him, and starts escorting Ritson to safety.
An English soldier who noticed Talos’ true form when the Skrull was shot and struggled to maintain his human face instead comes to Talos’ aid. The only problem? It’s actually Gravik. In a moment eerily similar, and just as mildly disappointing, as Maria’s murder in the first episode, Gravik stabs Talos. And this time, don’t expect any miraculous survival. He doesn’t heal, and Fury drives away with the president after a quick glance back.
Honestly, as much as we like Disney Plus shows having stakes, something about both these deaths has not found purchase as the thrilling, sad, turn of events they’re meant to be. They come off wasteful and without much emotional impact, but we suppose that could be commentary.
That’s episode 4! We’ve been digging into the series with determination, so we have guides on the reality of whether Talos is dead in Secret Invasion, an answer to the question of Avengers in Secret Invasion, as well as some thoughts about why Secret Invasion should have been an Avengers movie.
We’ve also got the Marvel movies in order and upcoming Marvel movies for you to investigate. We’ll see you back here this time next week.