Here we are, the penultimate episode of Secret Invasion, which means it’s time for characters to get into their final positions, ready for whatever comes next. As far as that goes, the episode delivered, on character growth and story expansion, things were a little less clear, but this time both of those aspects seemed to be intentional.

Unlike the start of the previous episode, there was miraculous resurrection for Talos, his death last week joined Maria’s in its permanence. This should have had more of an impact on Fury, but it seems that he just doesn’t have time for that right now, given his wanted status. Fury taking the President to the hospital is fine, but the fact that no one else was there, was weird, like how did no one call in the fact that the US President was on the move. I did get a chuckle from Fury grabbing the chair and then just plopping it down in front of the door, it was quite a move. Compare the composure and willingness to get things done by Fury, to that of Gravik, who has seemingly lost the faith of his fellow Skrulls, well it makes me laugh. Gravik has never come across as a particularly impactful leader, not because he wasn’t willing to make hard calls, we saw him do that from time to time. Rather the reason his leadership seemed weak, is that he often is just seen sitting and doing nothing and again, there might be things done off camera, but if we don’t see it, then it doesn’t happen.

The confrontation between Fury and Skrhody was interesting, as it shows that the security detail that Skrhody has, is also made up of Skrulls. The promise of more direct action should Fury get near the President again was interesting, given the conversation that Skrhody had in the car, but one can only hope that the message Fury whispered at the last moment sunk in. Why all this matters is because of the change in plans that Gravik has issued, after the failed ambush, showed that the character is perhaps not so stable anymore. While the character was likely not the most stable to begin with, splicing in alien DNA to his own, likely made things a lot worse and that means that the character will become quite unpredictable going forward.

The other plotline of the episode was that of G’iah and her quest to bury her father, as well as finally getting some much needed perspective. Of course, she still had her moments of snarkiness and the scene with her and Fury, while short, did offer some insight into the whys of her character. The scene with Cilla, before the action, was interesting as it showed that she didn’t understand a lot about the world and her own heritage. We do need to address the shoot out scene, the actual gun play was great, it was impactful and quick, however the tactical reloading of the backpacks was weird. Given how the character was walking away to do her own thing by the end, there is clearly more to see of her.

The episode didn’t have any major reveals or character events, though one could argue in favour of the Skrulls deciding to reject Gravik as a big character event, it still pushed things forward. Falsworth learning that Mrs Fury was actually a Skrull was great, if only because it shows how well the secret was kept. Given the way the previous episode ended, this one could have focused more on Fury’s grief and while it would have been justified, I did rather like that it just pushed forward, something that felt more authentic to Fury. The final episode has a lot of ground to cover, more so if they aim to wrap up all the story threads the show has let loose and while I don’t hold high hopes on it, the lead in episode had plenty to offer.