Disney Plus’s Marvel original series Secret Invasion, Season 1 Episode 4, called “Beloved,” explores the story of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) continuing their mission to stop Gravik and his Skrull Army from starting World War III. The episode begins with Gi’ah (Emilia Clarke) surviving Gravik’s (Kingsley Ben-Adir) attempt to execute her for her betrayal. In a flashback, Gi’ah used Gravik’s machine to transform herself into a Super Skrull with the powers of Extremis. With Extremis, Gi’ah healed a fatal gunshot wound, allowing her to continue her mission to help Fury and her father, Talos, with their mission to stop Gravik.
The scene transitions to a flashback in 2012 when Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD, meets up with Varra (Charlayne Woodard) in a restaurant sometime after the Battle of New York and Loki’s defeat at the hands of the Avengers. Varra starts the conversation by complimenting Fury for forming the Avengers and stopping the Chitauri invasion of New York. The conversation’s subject then changes to a poem that Varra uses to subtly explain to Fury that one of the reasons she loves Fury is because she desires to be loved.
In the present day, Varra attends church, where she meets with Skrull Warrior Raava (Nisha Aaliya), the Skrull who disguised herself as Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle). In other words, the Skrull impersonating Rhodes is a female Skrull Warrior. Varra asked Raava how Fury was fired, with Raava responding that she fired Fury. Raava then tells Varra that Gravik’s mission for her is to kill Fury. Despite this, Raava says she doesn’t care if Varra or Fury dies in the future confrontation. Unbeknownst to them, Fury secretly listens to the conversation and knows of his wife’s mission to kill him.
At an unknown airstrip, Gravik and his Skrull Warriors disguise themselves as Russian terrorists and plan to attack the U.S. President and his convoy to ensure the war between America and Russia will happen. During the preparation, Gravik informs his second in command, Skrull Warrior Pagon (Killian Scott), that Gi’ah is the mole, and he killed her. The Skrull General still does not know Gi’ah is alive. Following her attempted demise, Gi’ah meets with her father, Talos, and asks him if he has a plan for their people’s future. Talos tells Gi’ah that after they defeat Gravik, he plans to ask U.S. President Ritson (Dermot Mulroney) for aid to help find a home for the Skrulls on Earth, much to Gi’ah’s disappointment.
Later at Varra’s home, Fury confronts his wife regarding her allegiance and her mission to kill him. Before that, Fury tells Varra that he did fail as a husband when he ignored her in favor of his obsession to protect Earth from internal (ex. HYDRA) and external threats (ex. Aliens). The former Director of SHIELD then asks Varra why she chose to take on the original human Dr. Priscilla Davis’ appearance and identity. Varra replies by explaining how Priscilla had a congenital heart defect and kept it a secret. It was a secret because Priscilla did not want the people she loved to watch her die in a hospital. Before Priscilla’s death, Varra befriended her, and their strong friendship led to Varra asking Priscilla if she could assume the latter’s identity and live her life. In exchange for using her identity, the dying Priscilla had Varra accept three deals. The first deal was for Varra to bury Priscilla at sea. The second deal was for Varra to continue being a daughter to Priscilla’s parents. The third deal was that Varra could not hurt Nick Fury.
Fury continued to ask Varra if she loved her life as Dr. Priscilla Davis and later Priscilla Fury. Varra responds she did love her new life as a human because she finally found love when she married Fury. In other words, Varra wanted “to call [herself] beloved.” After that, Fury and Varra simultaneously quoted, “To feel myself beloved on the earth,” before shooting and missing each other on purpose. Fury prepares to leave and warns his wife that Gravik’s Skrulls will come for her. Before Fury leaves, Varra asks her husband if he will love her even in her Skrull form. Fury replies he will never know, much to Varra’s sadness and disappointment.
Fury meets “Colonel Rhodes” uninvited in his hotel suite and shares a Pappy Van Wrinkle rare whiskey drink, secretly a liquid tracker, with the Colonel. “Rhodes” drinks and talks with Fury about Skrulls in the U.S. Government. Fury knows “Rhodes” is a Skrull and uses the conversation as an opportunity to read “Rhodes” based on the latter’s behavior on Fury’s intel on the Skrulls. In response, “Rhodes” subtly threatens and blackmails Fury with releasing information on his “involvement” with the bombings in Moscow. The colonel then demands Fury leave his hotel suite before he calls security which the latter does.
Fury and Talos use the liquid tracker to track “Rhodes” and his movement. “Rhodes” then meets U.S. President Ritson, who sees something off about “Rhodes” and the colonel’s behavior. Together, they ride in a convoy until Gravik and his Skrull Warriors, disguised as Russian terrorists, attack it. Soon, Fury, Talos, and the British Army arrive to aid the U.S. Secret Service in defeating the “Russian terrorists” and saving President Ritson. Gravik continues to fight, using his Super Skrull Groot powers to fight his enemies. Fury’s mission to save Ritson is a success. However, Gravik stabs and kills Talos as he and the Skrull warriors escape. Talos’ death saddened Fury because he lost his best friend and ally.
Gravik kills Talos
In Secret Invasion, Director Ali Selim and writer Brian Tucker created a fourth episode with many stakes in the new Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series. The fourth episode brought in more action when Gravik and the Skrull Warriors posed as “Russian terrorists” to once more instigate the United States of America and Russia into starting World War III. Despite failing to kill or capture President Ritson, Gravik killed Talos and allowed the Secret Service and British Army to witness the existence of Skrulls as Talos gradually reverts to his Skrull form before dying. The idea of Skrulls going public will be horrifying as having shapeshifting aliens on Earth would make humanity distrustful and have an Among Us mindset.
Talos’ death would even be another painful news Gi’ah has to face. Gi’ah lost her mother, Soren, to Gravik and now lost her father to the same man that killed her mother. What’s worse was how Gi’ah’s final conversation and time with her father were not on good terms, making Gi’ah very sorrowful for not spending enough time with her family due to her and her kind’s crusade to destroy humanity and make Earth their new home.
Fury is now alone, without Talos, to fight Gravik unless he gains President Ritson’s support. Aside from Gravik, Fury is facing issues at home regarding Varra’s mission from Gravik to kill Fury, even though Varra refused the order. The episode also reveals that Varra had the permission and blessing of the deceased human Dr. Priscilla Davis to take on her identity in exchange for Priscilla’s personality, morality, and integrity remaining intact via the three deals she had Varra promised to keep. Varra did keep her promise and never broke the three deals she made with Priscilla and ensured she never tainted the original Priscilla’s personality when she took on the deceased doctor’s identity.
Regarding Varra, Varra’s home showed that she, as Priscilla, wrote a book called “Decoding the Superhuman Gene,” which may detail Varra using Priscilla’s scientific knowledge to become an expert on superhumans and their genetics. Varra’s scientific knowledge would mean she could understand how Super Skrulls work alongside Gi’ah. Therefore, Varra and Gi’ah are essential figures that could help Fury defeat Gravik and Skrull Warriors that became Super Skrulls.
Rating: 9/10