Secret Invasion: Harvest review S1 E5

Secret Invasion has been getting progressively worse with each episode. Harvest, the penultimate episode, pretty much assured that there’s no redeeming yet another entry in the Multiverse Saga.

That’s impressive considering this episode clocked in a series low 38 minutes but more than enough damage was done to write Secret Invasion off as a viable entry in the MCU.

Fury helps escort President Ritson to the emergency room and stands guard for all the good that will do since Fury couldn’t tell if a “doctor” was actually Gravik. You know, cause Fury is super incompetent in Secret Invasion. 

Gravik switches his motif up this episode and kills someone in the first 10 minutes as opposed to the last 10. This time it’s Pagon, who dares question him. Gravik has anger issues and the writers have squandered him as a character where their shortform of making him come off formidable is simply having him kill someone. It’s not cool anymore writing room. Do better. 

This act doesn’t go unchallenged though as Gravik’s actions leads to a mini-Skrull revolt. Like Fury, these Skrulls are stupid and forget Gravik is the one true Super Skrull. He casually kills them as if he was playing with some toddlers. Too bad as they were some of my favorite Skrull extras…

Gravik tells Skrull Rhodey to inform Ritson about the Skulls, which he hopes will launch World War 3. It’s never been made clear why Gravik’s plan is so complicated. Rhodey could be alone with Ritson at any time. Why hasn’t she just swapped out and adopted Ritson’s identity? This war would have been started a long time ago. 

Skull Rhodey goes to the hospital and threatens to leak the Maria Hill murder footage prompting Fury to leave. This isn’t a threat though as Fury is now apparently the most wanted man in the world for killing a SHIELD agent no one knew. And maybe he aligned with alien invaders? Sure doctor the footage all you want, but that’s a tough narrative to pull off especially when the Avengers have an android, a hulking green behemoth running around. 

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Fury reunites with G’iah to hand over Talos’ body. I missed the scene where he fled the battleground to ge Ritson to safety and came back to get Talos’ body. I suppose no one else came by to get the alien body off the street???

Fury offers some empty platitudes that G’iah shuts down for its stupidity. No Talos didn’t choose the path of struggle. He aligned with an idiot who had no contingency if an alien race went rogue. G’iah tells Fury that Gravik is looking for the harvest. 

Sonya shoots the Skrull infiltrating in his office and tracks down Gravik’s scientists and wants intel. At least Sonya acts like she has a plan. I’m at a loss for the needless male bashing dialogue of “The males in my species are quite similar — if they’re not busy gaslighting you they’re threatening you with murder.” Did Disney+ do some market research and find that 99.9% of Secret Invasion’s audience is women?

Gravik calls Fury and wants the harvest in exchange for calling off the war. Fury links up with Natasha’s connection Mason. It’s wild how important they’ve made Black Widow in the Multiverse Saga after…killing off Black Widow. 

G’iah connects with Cilla to bury Talos. Gravik’s executioner squad comes after her. Of course, they’re in perfect combat sync like they’ve been teaming together for years. What’s with the red blood? Are these Skrulls that committed to the bit that they just bleed red too? And this proves that Gravik is the only competent threat despite being a dude so that’s impressive. 

Fury borrows Ethan Hunt’s mask to get by customs. Was it that hard for Mason to just drop him off right where Sonya was parked? It’s confession time and Fury explains in the battle for Earth — see also when the MCU was connected and made sense from movie to movie to movie — all the Avengers shed blood, including Carol Danvers. Good grief. I know, I know. Carol Danvers is Everything and ALL THE THINGS, but enough already. Fury sent in Skrulls since they could blend in to collect that blood. 

What kind of idiotic plan was that? What villains running around in the MCU were even on that level of thinking? And it’s not like the Avengers didn’t bleed in New York, in Sokovia or in the German airport. 

When Sonya asks the clear and obvious question of why Nick won’t call in the Avengers, he says he can’t keep depending on these superheroes to swoop in and defend us. This makes zero sense. Like absolutely none. 

Fury grabs the harvest vial and his eyepatch and calls someone that it’s time to finish it. Unless it’s Hulk, Doctor Strange, Thor, Spider-Man, Ant-Man & Wasp, Black Panther, Star-Lord, The Winter Soldier led by Captain America, there’s no salvaging this mini-series. The real question is can the season finale get worse?

Rating: 4 out of 10

Photo Credit: Disney