Secret Invasion episode 6 recap — is this it?

Our Verdict

Secret Invasion squanders most of its potential and tension in a finale that drives home how mildly disappointing it all has been.

Secret Invasion episode 6 recap. Well, guys, this is where we leave you. We’ve got to the finale episode of Disney Plus’ adaptation of the epic comic story, but was it worth all the fuss?

Let’s get into the fine details of Nick Fury and Skrull rebel Gravik’s climactic showdown, Sonya’s most notable episode yet in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and what the G’iah twist means for future Marvel series and new movies.

This is the last episode of the Disney Plus show, so big spoilers ahead. Let’s start this Secret Invasion episode 6 recap at the beginning, with Fury speaking to his unsure wife, Varra. Still struggling with insecurity around how deep her husband’s love runs, Varra answers a call from Nick, who has essentially contacted her to say farewell, just in case things don’t go to plan.

Meanwhile, Skrull-Rhodey is still, rather intensely, trying to convince President Ritson to start World War III by attacking Russia, which he still claims is working with New Skrullos. Ritson is an asshole and not especially smart, so doesn’t catch onto the fact he seems way too eager to start a world-threatening conflict.

‘Fury’ (yes, ‘Fury’) goes to meet Gravik, having been invited to New Skrullos by him in the previous episode. The base is littered with the bodies of Gravik’s people, and radiation seems to be making ‘Fury’ sick.

Back at the hospital where Ritson is recovering, Sonya calls Skrull-Rhodey — she knows he’s a Skrull at this point — and tells him Fury is coming for the president to draw out the men surrounding Ritson so she can take them out one by one. The plan doesn’t make a tonne of sense, especially considering the reveal later that Fury is actually coming, but she’s cool so we’ll allow it.

While this goes on, we switch back to New Skrullos. ‘Fury’, looking weaker by the second, drops all his iodine pills. This gives Gravik a false sense of security because the spy doesn’t look like he could fight his way out of a wet paper bag at this moment.

We’re then given insight into Gravik’s human form. It turns out Fury was running kill ops back in the day, using Skrulls. He had Gravik eliminate a man who was a husband and a father. This was the first person Gravik murdered, and he says each time he took a life it ate away at his soul. Basically, he’s the sociopathic tyrant he is today partly because Fury used him as a thankless weapon.

It’s in these moments Secret Invasion comes close to being special. But all its commentary on the way powerful nations use immigrants to their advantage while never truly protecting and accepting them never amounts to much. It feels as if these complex threads are just left out in the cold, and that the series thinks the intelligent and earthy way to develop them is to leave them as unresolved musings instead of fully enveloping us in them using character drama.

Kingsley Ben-Adir does amazingly in this sequence, sweat visible on his face — screaming at ‘Fury’ and unleashing decades of bottled-up rage and abandonment issues. It’s not easy to be physically intimating in a scene with a veteran actor like Samuel L. Jackson, but he draws all the energy from the scene and utilizes it to persuasive effect.

‘Fury’ admits he couldn’t find the Skrulls a new homeworld, and that the only feasible option left was convincing Earth to take them in. The only problem was that was never going to be possible. This ‘Fury’, at least, thinks humanity will never change their minds, so giving up was the result. The Skrulls were left unmoored and without aid consequently.

‘Fury’ then hands over the Harvest vial, containing Carol Danvers and many other superheroes’ DNA, asking that Gravik’s forces leave Earth in exchange. Gravik grabs it and immediately powers on the Super-Skrull machine, now loaded with all the powers of Avengers and villains from Endgame’s battle.

‘Fury’ is in the machine with him. For a baddie who has been calculated and smart for the run of the story, this seems like a massive oversight, but maybe humans aren’t strong enough to survive the process. Gravik, now a hulking Super-Skrull with Avengers abilities, goes straight for the kill, but unfortunately for him, ‘Fury’ is actually G’iah in disguise. And now she has all the boons he has.

The real Fury heads into the hospital to confront Skrull-Rhodey in front of Ritson. After some back-and-forth, Fury shoots Skrull-Rhodey in the head. So, now Ritson knows Skrulls have invaded the US.

He had to do it, but herein lies one of the series’ flaws: the show should be wrestling more with the waste of life on both sides. It has gone out of its way to humanize the Skrulls and explain their extremism, but they’re still treated like any old villainous organization at the end of the day and thematically the story drops the ball in driving home its ideas.

A CGI-slop fight between G’iah and Gravik ensues, both of them throwing their new talents at each other. It’s not choreographed badly, but the budget can’t stand up to meet the quality of effects the battle necessitates.

Eventually, G’iah uses her Super-Skrull powers to put a Captain Marvel blast hole through Gravik’s center, killing him. Again, nothing ceremonious about it. She then heads into the Skrull compound to release all the humans. When Rhodey is woken up, in a hospital gown, we learn how long Rhodey has been a Skrull. It looks like he was taken after his accident in Civil War, which is mind-boggling. He may not even know Tony Stark is dead.

After everything settles down, President Ritson, who we’re not voting for, announces all non-human life forms in America will be treated as enemy combatants, punished for the sins of a small group of rebels. G’iah’s fears of humanity’s unwillingness to empathize with Skrulls, innocent or not, are confirmed. Another intriguing idea largely underbaked over the course of six episodes.

After this, human kill squads and vigilantes hunt Skrulls, even occasionally murdering humans who they wrongly suspected. G’iah meets with Sonya, who wants a transactional relationship — she helps the Skrulls, and presumably, G’iah’s Super-Skrull powers will be put to use for Sonya’s ends.

Fury speaks with Ritson and tries to convince him to end his war on Skrulls, but Ritson doesn’t listen. So, Fury decides to venture back out into space to a peace summit between the Kree and Skrulls, which could result in Skrulls being allowed on an unused Kree-owned planet or similar (space capitalism, sheesh).

Varra turns up and says she will accompany him, at least for a while. She then reveals her Skrull form, unwilling to hide herself out of fear of being unloved any longer. Fury dispels her worries by sharing a kiss with her. It’s a lovely moment.

There is no Secret Invasion finale post-credit scene, so that’s where the story ends. While the G’iah and Sonya thread has us curious (we like them both a lot, and they were underserved here) ultimately this MCU chapter has the same issues many of the Disney Plus installments had: a plot stretched too thin, not enough episodes to develop new characters, a non-committal approach.

It’s over, but if you’re not over it, we’ve got some thoughts on the Secret Invasion TV series and comic differences, why Secret Invasion should have been an Avengers movie, and how Marvel needs to learn that killing characters isn’t everything.

For more MCU at large, check out how to watch the Marvel movies in order and the Marvel Cinematic Universe upcoming movies. Or, for a different tone, find a new best TV series to watch or find out what’s new on Disney Plus.