The following is a spoiler-free review of episode 6 of Secret Invasion, ‘Home’, streaming now on Disney+.
It may be the finale, but there’s still time for one more surprise. After a run of disappointing episodes, this week’s Secret Invasion delivers a genuinely enjoyable conclusion. It does so by somewhat abandoning its Cold War cinema ambitions and embracing comic book tradition, but the result is a stronger sense of emotion and excitement than we’ve seen from any prior episode.
The core of this concluding chapter is the inevitable final showdown between Nick Fury and Gravik. While it doesn’t lend the Skrull General’s plight any further complexity, a villainous monologue allows Kingsley Ben-Adir to bring out all of his character’s burning rage. It highlights the hurt and betrayal that powers Gravik’s deadly invasion and pins the blame squarely on Fury. And in response, Fury is given the opportunity to reflect on how his failure to provide the Skrulls the home he promised has led to disaster. The moment sees Samuel L. Jackson revisit the more broken Fury that we saw in the season’s opening chapter, demonstrating that there’s much more going on beneath that eyepatch than his toughened exterior suggests. A subsequent plot development does reduce the weight of his words if you think about it for more than a second, but there’s genuine emotion there, if only for a moment.
The episode’s wider thematic beats help bring Secret Invasion’s refugee plot line to an impactful conclusion. Astute observations are made on how the words of leadership can directly lead to xenophobic violence. Marvel’s best-known slogan has always been ‘With great power comes great responsibility’, and the finale reflects on how that affects the hidden lives of the Skrulls. It lends the story some much-needed consequence, although that consequence likely won’t be felt in the MCU at large.
The finale’s visual showstopper is drawn from a much more traditional comic book place.
There’s also time for brief thoughts on code-switching and interracial (or in Secret Invasion’s case, inter-species) relationships. They’re simplistic observations, but they do at least give the interpersonal elements of Fury’s story a little extra weight.
While it’s the words between warriors that make ‘Home’ a solid conclusion for Secret Invasion, the visual showstopper is drawn from a much more traditional comic book place. You could argue that this final battle represents the nuclear arms of the espionage films Secret Invasion draws inspiration from, but it mostly feels like it’s dropped a lot of those ideas to allow a super-powered punch-up to take center stage. And, quite honestly, that’s okay. Had Secret Invasion been better at its paranoid thriller concept, this would have been a frustrating shift into the bombastic. Instead, it’s a welcome pivot to the MCU’s more explosive side. It might not be Marvel’s finest hour when it comes to action, and it’s over much too quickly, but this is a fight built on an enjoyably imaginative concept.
Secret Invasion has delivered its best chapter in weeks, then. But there are still areas it stumbles in, and there’s unfortunately no time left to fix those mistakes. Emilia Clarke’s G’iah is given more plot than she’s had in almost the entire run, but it’s lacking any authentic emotion. Very little complexity has been drawn out of her connection to both Talos and Gravik, and so the conclusion to her story feels built on the mechanical requirements of the plot rather than her personal connections. And by not providing G’iah the emotional heft she needs, Secret Invasion also neglects to give Talos a worthy send-off. Ben Mendelsohn gave that Skrull his absolute all, and it’s a real shame that his exit storyline feels so barebones.
The finale also makes very little use of Secret Invasion’s best original character, Sonya Falsworth. After a terrific outing in the penultimate episode, Olivia Colman is very much in the wings this week. While Sonya does pull important strings, her best asset – that psychopathic comedic edge that always sat well alongside Secret Invasion’s darker tone – is completely absent. The story certainly isn’t in need of any laughs for its dramatic final episode, but a couple of last-minute barbs from Colman wouldn’t have gone amiss.
After a couple of years of multiverse-hopping stories and space adventures, Secret Invasion is a welcome return for the MCU’s lesser-used gritty espionage template. It shares a lot of common ground with the Winter Soldier projects, but manages to stand apart thanks to an almost total absence of superheroes and a solid cast of messy central characters. The first two episodes lack the sense of fear that a paranoid thriller really needs, and there’s already the sense that any reveal won’t match the impact of those in the story’s comic book inspiration, but Secret Invasion’s dark tale is nonetheless off to a solid start.
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