Thursday, July 13, 2023

Re:tro Re:view - Secret Invasion, “Betrayed”!

“Promises” Re:cap - While Brogan is being interrogated by Falsworth, Gravik takes Gi’ah to retrieve him, Brogan tries to defy Falsworth and she has a syringe that will burn his blood! She injects it and Brogan screams in pain. This is an uncompromising woman who has all of the graces, but will do whatever needs to be done! Pagon joins Gravik. Falsworth asks about the location of Gravik’s base.  He reveals that Gravik is “building a machine” to “make them stronger.” Gravik and Pagon enter the butcher shop and begin killing the guards. Falsworth hears the shooting and kicks over Brogan’s chair. Gi’ah leaves the station wagon to check on something. 

Falsworth calmly escapes down a secret passage under the floor. Gi’ah reports in Russian at an alley. Gravik finishes off the last of the guards. Pagon brings out Brogan and Gravik asks what he revealed. He has says he only told lies. Gi’ah drives the group past police surrounding their safe house. At some dark woods, Pagon takes Brogan out to shoot him. The next day, Nick Fury goes to a building to drive out a jeep, he reaches the home of a Skrull woman, she then appears a black woman (Charlayne Woodard). The actress played the mother of Elijah Price (Jackson’s character) in Unbreakable (2000). He goes to get his wedding ring and kisses his wife! The same Skrull who introduced Fury to young Gravik! 


At Pagon’s office, an older man readies his gun, Beto, the new recruit is uncertain. Pagon says he joined for the same reason, “faith in the future”, which he says brings risk. He hands out Official Service Record folders with photos of military officers. Gravik enters the laboratory with the machine that has curved pillars. Four members of the council enter as Dr. Dalton and her assistants prepare the machine. He tells them that three operatives are going to the Royal Navy to attack a United Nations target. Oh, this is a James Bond villain-type plan like Stromberg in the The Spy Who Loves Me (1977). Gravik says that all of them will become Super Skrulls to stop any Earth heroes! I don’t know why the council made him general before approving of the operation and seeing the machine. 



The Skrulls infiltrate the Royal Navy base. Maybe understanding the Skrull threat there should be security measures past i.d. or iris scans. Next, we have a rainy night at “New York City, 1998.”  A young Nick Fury enters a diner as he is told by a woman if he is looking for someone. This is Varra, who we saw as Fury’s wife last episode!, he joins her table. The older Fury is cooking watching the Chris Stearns show, he was one of the council members that will become a Super Skrull. Varra asks why he returned and Fury says he retired. He has decided to spend his “retirement” for revenge. Fury asks if she is contacted by Gravik. Varra gets a phone call to which she says she doesn’t have the information. 


Gravik meets with Gi’ah at a room with broken boards. He says only a few knew the location of the safehouse. She says under torture, Brogan made a guess. Gi’ah adds that she is a good liar. Later in London, Gravik steps down from a lear jet with Gi’ah. She drives him as Gravik says that her father, Talos, called for a parley. He gets a call, the Pamela Lawton Skrull?, and says that the UN plane will be at the coordinates of Neptune, a nuclear sub is my guess. Gi’ah watches Gravik walk to his meeting and texts the information.  At the National Portrait Gallery, Gravik looks at the painting when Talos joins him. He points out Statesmen of World War I (1930), by Sir James Guthrie, to point out the smug statesmen and the soldiers who do the fighting. Talos is low key, sad, and Gravik is blustery, ready to kill. 


At the cafeteria, Talos asks if Gravik wants an honor meeting, he says Gi’ah is in the car. Also, that he should be grateful that Gravik didn’t kill her. Talos reaches out and sees that everyone in the cafeteria are men with Gravik’s face. Gravik says that humans only know murder. Talos says he doesn’t know anything about humans and tells him that humans are at the “most formidable when threatened”! He says that he will reveal the Skrulls. Really how honorable, how much of a warrior is Gravik if he is attacking while hiding. Gravik taunts Talos saying Gi’ah is with him. Talos stabs Gravik’s hand and takes hold of his throat! Yeah, he was a general, but Talos is ready to fight! He warns Gravik not to say his daughter’s name. 



Gravik pulls his hand from the knife and his hand is healed. Talos leaves, stumbles into an older man who picks up a cell phone to give to him, then Gravik is walking behind the same man. A van stops in front of him and then he sees Gi’ah by the car. At a pub, Talos is eating a breakfast when Fury walks in, he is still wounded from their last conversation. Fury says he has found a “rebel Skrull” highly placed in the U.S. government. Talos wants him to  be more on the same level instead of just assuming he will work with Fury. He tells Fury about Gi’ah intel and Fury calls Falsworth. She wants him to apologize for the bug on her owl statue, Fury has just been tossing aside colleagues on his mission. She attaches an eye patch on the statue!  He mentions the submarine and Falsworth says her work at the butcher’s shop was compromised! 


Fury just wants the name of the sub’s captain. Falsworth says his name is Commodore Robert Fairbanks. She also sends him his location and photo. Fairbanks is at Portsmouth, the headquarters of Naval Command. On the way, Talos sees a woman cleaning up after her dog, he wants to know another species that does so. Fury says he has been cleaning up for Talos for 30 years. Talos counters that he was a nobody at S.H.I.E.L.D. in 1995. He adds that 19 of his people joined his spy network. Talos says that the Skrulls were responsible for his promotions. Fury notes that they are at Fairbanks’ house while he says Talos was on his rant. Fairbanks greets two of the guards at his house. He is about to enter the house and sees a guard leaving it. Talos knocks him down and Fury takes out the two guards. They transform back to Skrulls. This is Gravik’s men. 


Talos enters the house with his gun, he sees a room with a teen boy, Zachary, but passes him playing  a video game. Nick has his gun drawn entering the house and gets Talos’ position. He enters the room with his gun at the kid’s head saying that no one calls him Nick. Bob has Talos in a neck lock with a gun to his head. Fury is not bluffing. Bob drops the gun and releases Talos. We see the Neptune, there is some underwater sounds, but nothing like the displacement of a submarine. The captain presents orders that he thinks is a mistake. The control room man says he must order a strike. Talos gives a cup of water for Zachary and tells him that he wants his dad to do the right thing.  Talos tells Bob that he can protect him from Gravik. Bob doesn’t believe Talos as strong as Gravik. The control room operator also seems like a Skrull. They have to find a way to stop this act of war. A tense episode of Secret Invasion, though at this point, Gravik’s back story to form the resistance what had him betray humanity and Fury is needed. 


Four Skrull Sky Plants out of Five!


#SecretInvasion, #Betrayed, #SamuelLJackson, #BenMendelsohn, #EmiliaClarke, #CharlayneWoodard, #SamuelAdewunmi, #KillianScott, #BenPeel 


No comments:

Post a Comment