'Secret Invasion' Recap, 'Harvest'

By Brian Richards | TV | July 22, 2023 |

By Brian Richards | TV | July 22, 2023 |

Previously on Secret Invasion: Fury learns the truth about Priscilla’s actual motivations, attempts to make peace with Rhodey after their last conversation, and fights alongside Talos in order to stop Gravik and his rebel Skrulls from unleashing hell on the President. Which unfortunately ends with President Ritson being hospitalized, Talos dying at the hands of Gravik, and Fury discovering that Gravik now has Extremis DNA in his system, making him near-invulnerable.

THE STORY SO FAR: Fury brings President Ritson to the hospital for medical attention, where he is confronted by Rhodey and discovers that he has released the footage of Gravik-as-Fury murdering Maria Hill and that Fury is now being hunted by every law enforcement agency worldwide. G’iah meets up with Priscilla in order to give Talos a proper Skrull burial. The Skrulls begin to question their loyalty to Gravik, who makes it very clear that his authority will be respected.

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT THIS EPISODE?: The confrontation between Fury and Rhodey at the hospital. Gravik being ambushed by Beto and a dozen other Skrulls, only for all of them to be defeated and slaughtered thanks to his Super-Skrull abilities, and for Gravik to challenge every other Skrull to come and have a go if they think they’re hard enough. Sonya’s interrogation of Derrick Weatherby revealing his true Skrull identity to the rest of MI6, followed by her arriving at the home of the Daltons to demand answers about their Super-Skrull machine. (The fact that she drops a reference to “Cake or death” from Suzy Eddie Izzard’s Dress To Kill while interrogating them? A moment that deserves several chef’s kisses.) G’iah meeting up with Priscilla to talk about their love of Talos and Fury (as well as Priscilla shutting G’iah down for questioning Fury’s love for her as a Skrull), followed by the two of them teaming up in the firefight at Priscilla’s house. Fury admitting to Sonya that not only is he married to a Skrull, but his original plan of using Skrulls to collect DNA from The Avengers during their numerous battles to protect Earth, only for Gravik to use that idea for his own nefarious reasons. Which is why he came back to Earth from outer space.

WHAT’S NOT SO GOOD ABOUT THIS EPISODE?: Talos’ death, much like Maria Hill’s death along with the revelation that Rhodey has been a Skrull for Bast knows how long, feel like such a non-event in the series, and doesn’t feel like it’s really given the weight that such an occurrence deserves.

DO ANY OF THE AVENGERS APPEAR IN THIS EPISODE?: No, and if you’re about to respond with “But what about Rhodey?,” this isn’t actually Rhodey that we’ve been seeing in this series, so technically, my original response is still true.

EVEN AFTER AN ATTACK ON THE PRESIDENT, AND THE PRESENCE OF SHAPESHIFTING ALIENS ALL OVER THE NEWS, NOT ONE OF THEM CAN BE BOTHERED TO SHOW UP AND HELP FURY OUT?: Nope! Despite what you may have read about this series and its higher-than-expected budget, the likelihood of having any of the Avengers show up to appear in an episode or two is pretty f-cking unlikely. (Unless their appearance is from footage of a movie that’s being set up to come afterwards, and has already been filmed separately from the series, that is.)

STILL NO SIGN OF EVERETT ROSS?: No.

DOES DAISY JOHNSON, A.K.A. QUAKE, FROM AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. SHOW UP IN THIS EPISODE?: No, she doesn’t. The only dark-haired women who show up to provide some assistance to Fury are G’iah and Sonya Falsworth.

ANY EASTER EGGS WE SHOULD WATCH OUT FOR?: In order to avoid being identified and arrested when arriving into Finland, Fury disguises himself with the Widow’s Veil, which was seen being used in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and in Black Widow. Speaking of Black Widow, Rick Mason, the pilot/smuggler who was friends with Natasha in that film, and who provided her with transportation, appears as the pilot who meets up with Fury to hook him up with transport and some fake IDs.

ANY FAN THEORIES SPREADING LIKE WILDFIRE ACROSS THE INTERNET BECAUSE OF THIS EPISODE?: President Ritson showing support for the Skrulls, as Talos had hoped for, as well as his closest advisor being revealed as a Skrull bent on world domination, will result in him being removed from the Presidency, and is how ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross (played by Harrison Ford) will become President in Captain America: Brave New World. Sonya will form her own version of MI6, which will be known as MI-13, and will handle any supernatural threats in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with team members like Black Knight and Blade. Gravik will end up either losing his Super-Skrull powers in his battle against Fury and end up dying, or he will lose his powers and end up imprisoned in The Raft. Monica Rambeau will make an appearance in the season/series finale to help set up The Marvels and explain just why her and Fury will be working together.

DID YOU SEE THE NEW TRAILER FOR THE MARVELS?: I sure did. I liked it, but I also couldn’t help but wonder why Marvel/Disney dropped the trailer now instead of next week after the Secret Invasion finale has already aired.

ARE THERE ANY SCENES DURING THE CLOSING CREDITS?: No.

TO SUM IT ALL UP: For everyone who has expressed their disappointment with this series, and how this really should’ve just been made into a feature film instead, “Harvest” really isn’t going to do much to make them change their tune. As the penultimate episode for a series whose finale will set up events leading into both The Marvels and Captain America: Brave New World, the episode as a whole wasn’t impressive, and Gravik’s plan of revealing the existence of New Skrullos to the President, and his willingness to sacrifice the lives of every other Skrull in order for World War III to happen, only reminded me of Karli Morgenthau and the Flag-Smashers from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and not in a good way. I’ve expressed before how the storylines of both Gravik and the Skrulls and Karli and the Flag-Smashers had much in common, and with each episode, Secret Invasion has left much to be desired when it comes to being invested in the Skrulls and what they’re looking to accomplish. As for Fury pulling a Batman, and secretly collecting DNA from The Avengers for his own purposes? He’s always been an a—hole when it comes to keeping the world out of harm’s way (just look at his Phase 2 plans for using the Tesseract to design advanced weaponry, as well as lying about the details of Coulson’s death to motivate The Avengers to take down Loki), and him willing to either create his own Avengers, or create ways to take them all down in case any of them break bad? That’s pretty much Nick Fury being Nick Fury, for better and for worse.

And did Fury really need a separate tomb for each of the items he was retrieving for his lock-and-load montage? One tomb for only his Badass Longcoat, one tomb for only his eyepatch, another for his pistol, which really should’ve contained his own JanSport backpack filled with lots of weapons and ammo like what Priscilla had in their house?

See you here next week for the Secret Invasion season/series finale!

This episode of Secret Invasion has been brought to you by “Army Of Me” by Björk: