Gritty Spy Drama’s Shock Ending Changes MCU Forever

That might be the big question lingering through this first episode, which emphasizes just how big this threat is … and just how seriously Marvel is taking this show.

It’s not just a vanity side project for Jackson, as evidenced by a shocking final moment that alters the Marvel Cinematic Universe forever! And it’s just getting started.

** SPOILER WARNING – There WILL be discussion of that shocking moment, as well as other developments before it, from the premiere episode of “Secret Invasion” below. Proceed at your own risk! **

Fury is certainly put to the text in an exhilarating first hour that set the highest possible stakes — all of humanity’s continued existence — and then spent the bulk of it talking about how Fury isn’t the same Fury he used to be. He’s lost his edge, his grit. Is he an asset or a liability?

It’s an interesting and compelling layer added on top of a rather grim and gritty espionage series. Once again, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is exploring a whole new genre with this one. Undercover subterfuge and down-to-earth dangers around every corner.

From the dramatic low-angle shots to the dark and moody cinematography throughout, this one screams film noir in all the right ways. It’s claustrophobic at times, adding to the paranoia that danger could literally be lurking around any corner … and underneath any face.

There are no superheroes around to save the day — at least not at this point — but the dangers are perhaps more sinister than ever before. The shapeshifting Skrulls that Fury and Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) herself made peace with 30 years ago (in MCU time) and promised to help find a home have a new plan.

Fury promised to help find them their own home planet, but a lot of time has passed and they’re pretty sure they’ve found one they like already, thank you very much. Even better, it’s right here. The only problem is all those pesky humans currently crawling all over it.

As with human discord, though, not all Skrulls are part of this annihilation faction. Fury’s old Skrull pal Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) is still fighting on the side of peace and harmony, but he’s lost his daughter G’iah (Emilia Clarke) to the radicals.

Clarke makes her MCU debut as a seemingly conflicted young Skrull who, as a warrior, never sheds her human “shell.” It’s an effective way to emphasize their commitment to the cause, and save a buck by not having to put makeup on them or show them changing form. Clever, clever!

Clarke brings a believable gravitas to her torn character, estranged from her father and in over her head as one of the trusted warriors of New Skrullos. As always, she has the most expressive face, selling scenes with no dialogue time and again, as when she broke down in an alley after learning her mother died, and possibly at the hands of her new friends.

Right away, we get a sense of the full scope of danger this secret Skrull invasion presents — that’s possibly been going on longer than anyone realizes — with an opening sequence that brings Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman) back into the MCU only for him to quickly be uncovered as a Skrull infiltrator. Talos figured him out and was able to take him out, with an assist from a very bad fall, just before Agent Mariah Hill (Cobie Smulders) was about to help Ross get away!

We found ourselves asking the same questions that were written all over Hills’ face. How long has he been replaced and working for the other side? Was he a Skrull the last time we saw him? The first time we saw him? Marvel Comics used this paranoia and uncertainty to great effect in the original “Secret Invasion” crossover comics event.

There, superheroes and significant public figures were revealed to have, in some cases, been Skrulls for years and years. It remains to be seen if the show will follow suit with this level of subterfuge.

As with all things MCU, the scale of this “Secret Invasion” is much smaller as far as the individual players, but the fear that absolutely anyone could be (or have been for a while now) a Skrull is just as palpable. It’s an uncertainty that hangs over every scene and every character, which is a beautiful paranoia to sit with.

There’s something fresh, too, about the way Jackson is playing Fury. For years he was the guy who always knew what was going on. He was cool and collected and certainly someone you’d want in a pinch. Then, “Avengers: Infinity War” blipped away half of all life in the universe, including Fury, and he went away.

This Fury still knows the spy game, and he’s got some cool tricks up his sleeve, but he’s not the suave super-agent in a leather coat and eyepatch anymore. Instead, he’s grizzled, a little out of shape, and walking with a limp.

It’s reminiscent of Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven,” exploring how time comes for us all, eventually, sapping us of some of our vitality. As others start to question if we’ve still got it, so to speak, we might start to doubt ourselves. It’s a part of life rarely explored.

The difference between the MCU and the Marvel Comics they’re based on is this very real passage of time. Samuel L. Jackson is an eternal legend, but he’s also 74 years old. Comic book Fury can live forever, but this version of him is as fallible as Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman’s Professor X and Wolverine, respectively, in “Logan.”

We don’t think this is by any means a swan song for Jackson or Fury, but we appreciate them acknowledging the passage of time for the world’s most famous spy and all-around badass. It’s also nice to see that despite the doubt from more than one ally in this first hour alone, he’s still got it.

Fury may not be in the field kicking butt, but he can get himself abducted in order to plant a bug with a key associate, enabling him to get information that could have turned out a lot better if Talos hadn’t given his daughter the benefit of the doubt.

The final scene really brings home just how dangerous Skrulls can be as enemies, with Fury and his very small team of Hill and Talos and that’s pretty much it — unless you count his dubious relationship with Olivia Colman’s Sonya; also a Skrull —  trying to stop a bombing in Moscow at a crowded event. G’iah gave her father information about backpacks being used to transport the bombs, but that was just a ruse.

Instead, while Hill and Talos split off to chase two backpack runner decoys, it was Fury who was taunted and lured by a creepy little girl transforming into multiple people on her way to the center of the action where she became the Skrull faction’s leader, Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), and detonated the bombs.

That’s right. Despite their best efforts, in their first real test to see if they could stop or even slow down the Skrull plans of attack, Fury and his team failed miserably. And for that failure, they paid the ultimate price.

In the chaos of smoke and fire, Fury called out to Hill … and then shot her. Only it wasn’t Fury at all. Instead, Fury saw himself standing over Hill as another explosion went off and Gravik revealed himself. Even Hill thought Fury had shot her, as she laid there, bleeding out.

This is how real the danger is. And this is how high the stakes are. As the camera panned away, Hill appeared to die and, perhaps most importantly, she didn’t schlorp into a Skrull in the final moment, as Freeman had done in the opening scene. In other words, it looks like Mariah Hill is dead.

The original “Secret Invasion” series played with high stakes like this, altering the comic book Marvel Universe for years to come, with major characters dying and/or revealed as having been Skrulls for years. With the loss of the real Hill — and possibly Ross, as well; we don’t know if the real Ross is still alive — this version is playing for keeps, too.

Already outnumbered and with very few friends, Fury needs to hope that when Rhodey (Don Cheadle) shows up, it’s as an ally to the fight. In one brief scene, he was sent by President Ritson (Dermot Mulroney) to track down the AWOL Fury and Hill.

Of course, do we know that’s the real Rhodey? How about Ritson? We saw the process by which the Skrulls take not just someone’s physical appearance, but their memories and mind as well. With 30 years on Earth, anyone we meet or anyone we’ve perhaps known for years could be a Skrull.

How far does the MCU want to take this? How far will Fury go to stop it? Does he still have what it takes to see it through? And just how much darker can this series go? Who will survive? Who will be revealed to be a Skrull?

The mystery and danger continues with new episodes of “Secret Invasion” every Wednesday on Disney+.