The pilot starts in Moscow, in the MCU present day (I believe it’s 2025-2026 for them), and we see Everett Ross going through the city to a classified location to meet Agent Prescod, a CIA agent stationed in Moscow, who tries to convince him something weird is going on. That the Skrulls are responsible for the 5 terrorist attacks that have happened in the last few years…for the sole purpose of conquering Earth and making them their own.
Through their conversation, we learn Nick Fury is on S.A.B.E.R., a space station he’s supposed to be building for the US government (it seems more like an excuse for exile if you ask me). Agent Prescod also realizes the “Everett Ross” we see is not the real Ross, and attacks him, ending up being killed by the fake Ross, who runs away while a supposed Russian man runs after him and Talos Maria Hill tracks him down. While we learn Maria Hill was actually following “Ross” to save his life as he falls from a random building’s roof, we learn he’s not the real Everett Ross, but he’s a Skrull. And the Russian man following him is undercover Talos. As the fake!Ross turns into a Skrull, Maria Hill looks at Talos and says “He’s one of you”, and Talos says “He’s one of THEM”… hinting at what Agent Prescod has said before.
After the intro, we see a spaceship touching ground, and Nick Fury coming out of it and waiting for someone… after a few seconds Maria’s car appears, she greets him and welcomes him back to Earth, and brings him to a classified location (a house where she and Talos run the operations.) Nick greets Talos, apologizing for everything that happened - I hope we also get some flashbacks for this. Talos tells him things have changed, his wife died (poor soul, I liked her so much), and G’iah - his daughter - had run away.
In the next scene, we see Maria Hill talking about the new Skrulls Council, run by Gravik, who’s hiding while we pretend to help young and scared Skrulls while he’s actually plotting to destroy humanity and conquer the world by causing a war between the US and Russia. Nick, clearly pissed off, decides to take a walk at night and gets taken by mysterious dudes who happen to be Sonya’s thugs, one of Nick’s old spy friends from the past.
While he’s at her house, Fury leaves one of his microphones and camera to hear what she’s up to, asks questions about bombs missing from Kazakhstan, and says he wants to be part of whatever her plan is to fight Skrulls. She tells him he has changed and he should go back to the spaceship and dismisses him.
In the next scene, we’re 312km southwest of Moscow, and we see a man approaching what seems like a military facility. A woman behind the facility’s gate approaches the man, asking to show his true self before letting him in…and he turns into a Skrull. The facility is, of course, the one Fury, Talos, and Maria had been searching for. She welcomes him and drives him to the actual Skrull camp - what looks like an abandoned nuclear facility?, as she tells him they only grow Skrull products and it’s an all-Skrulls little city.
As we explore the walls of this compound with the characters, we see the woman disappears behind closed doors, where we see like machines. - I don’t know to explain it - where humans, the ones that provide forms for the Skrull are attached. It reminded me a lot of what AIDA used on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D season 4 when she attached the team to the framework. It looks like it, is a little more advanced, and with life support, I believe? Anyway, we finally see how the Skrull take a shell, as one of them takes a human’s face and the human gets attached to those weird machines and the woman watches.
At the safe house Nick, Maria, and Talos listen to Sonya’s discussions with her agents about her plan to stop the Skrulls from conquering Earth…and they decide to intervene and track the Skrulls down before THEY get to exchange bombs. At the same time, the woman gets to work, as one of the guys from the compound commands her to deliver the bombs before the attack. As Maria, Talos, and Nick follow the lead, they point to the woman as a person of interest, and they also find the place and the man who's supposed to deliver the bombs. As Nick and Talos discuss with the man, they learn - with us - he’s actually a Skrull.
Back in the street, Maria manages to follow the woman to a tunnel, and starts a fight with her until the woman runs away and gets chased by Talos, who recognizes her as G’iah, his long-lost daughter who’s now part of the “Resistance”. He tells her what happened, that her mother is now dead - and that her last words were “Find G’iah”…she didn’t know at all - and he asks her - begs her - to give him the bombs. She pushes him and runs away as she ends up crying for her mother on a corner of the street. I actually felt bad for her - especially because I liked her as a kid so I’m only hoping for a decent redemption arc.
Next, we see Fury in a bar with Maria, talking about the past and how much he has changed since the Blip, saying he hasn’t been in contact in the past few years, and that she thinks he’s not ready to fight for this war as he should. She asked why he abandoned Earth and he said he actually had a crisis of faith and he only came back because he owed it to Talos. Maria asks if he actually owes it to someone else, but this person is not actually mentioned - I’m curious if she’s talking about Natasha or what.
Back at the compound, G’iah gives them the bombs but doesn't reveal she met her father and asks the men to postpone the strikes, but they decide not to. She meets her father later, and he tells her to save herself and give him information. She tells him the strike should happen the day after, and she’ll try to help them identify the bags, but that Gravik knows they will be there. As the teams move to try and catch the bags full of bombs, the Skrulls carrying them, Fury tries to follow a Skrull who’s changing identities quickly - we shortly learn the Skrull is actually Gravik, who makes the bombs explode. At the end of the episode, they try to fool us. We see Fury going away following Gravik, and shortly after we see Fury reuniting with Maria- as soon as she goes to hug him he shoots her in the stomach. As we see Maria falling down, dying, we learn - just from a look, (good job SLJ!) - a Skrull in the form of Fury shot her. As the real fury falls down next to her, he reassures her it was not him.
I have to be honest…I don’t believe Maria is really dead, always remember that no one is really dead when it comes to Fury.
What did you think of this episode? Did you like it? Let me know in the comments!
