For the most part, I have genuinely enjoyed watching Secret Invasion. I am completely game when Marvel presents me with a shadowy spy-thriller. It’s why Captain America: The Winter Soldier is one of my all-time favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. It’s also one of the main reasons why I still love Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. so much.
**Beware! MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for Secret Invasion‘s fourth episode**
Secret Invasion has delivered a lot of things I’ve wanted from the MCU. It features excellent acting and dialogue from Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, Ben Mendelsohn’s Talos, and Don Cheadle’s Rhodey. Olivia Colman’s performance is incredibly fun, exciting, and slightly terrifying. And, like AoS, we’re reminded that not every major battle can be won by the might of the Avengers, with some problems requiring more subtle solutions. Secret Invasion is giving me all of that.
And yet, after watching the show’s fourth episode, “Beloved,” a pattern started to emerge that does the miniseries a great disservice. Currently, three out of four Secret Invasion episodes have ended on a cliffhanger—and not just any cliffhanger. Three episodes so far have ended with one of Secret Invasion‘s main characters dying. MCU veteran Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) was shot point-blank in the first episode, and Talos’ daughter G’iah (Emilia Clarke) was presumed dead at the end of episode 3—though episode 4 was kind enough to reveal she had already given herself an Extremis-level upgrade and thus, survived.
However, at the end of “Beloved,” another major character is killed on screen. Talos himself is shot and stabbed in the episode’s final moments.
Now, I am a big fan of Mendelsohn’s work on this show. I previously wrote about how much I love Fury and Talos’ dynamic in Secret Invasion because it’s unlike anything the MCU has ever shown us before. A genuine, complex relationship between two people who have known each other for well over three decades. The implications of Talos being killed off are massive, and if it turns out to be true—there’s always a chance he survived somehow—I’ll need to vent about that. But I’ll leave that discussion alone for now.
I firmly believe that ending at least half of the episodes of a six-episode miniseries with a major character death is, unfortunately, lazy storytelling. Since the MCU’s Disney+ debut, some of its shows have had trouble adjusting to an episodic format. Genuinely complicated stories aren’t being granted the breathing room they deserve, and many of these narratives have struggled with structure. While there is nothing wrong with cliffhanger endings in and of themselves, using the same cliffhanger ending multiple times in a single show completely dampens the effect and makes the story lose some of its appeal. Especially if it turns out that most of these deaths were fake-outs.
I understand the urge to end every episode with intensity and mystery. You want to keep your audience invested, and dangling the fate of a favorite character is an easy way to do it. One such death can be genuinely shocking, like Maria Hill’s demise. Was I expecting Talos to die too? Certainly not, and while the MCU has had a problem with resurrecting characters in the past, I genuinely want him to be okay. Would his death have been more surprising if his daughter had not also “died” just a week earlier? Yes, undeniably so. Instead, I felt bewildered and irritated.
Death is not the only way to end a chapter on a cliffhanger. There are plenty of ways to keep your audiences invested. Rhodey’s reveal as a Skrull could have worked as an ending. G’iah’s surprise resurrection could have worked as an ending. Fury and his wife shooting at each other could have been an incredibly effective ambiguous cliffhanger as well.
Obviously, these examples would have required some narrative reshuffling, but I want to mention them because they prove that tension can be found anywhere. Yes, many fans had already guessed Rhodey was a Skrull, but confirmation is key! Paying off a moment of foreshadowing can be just as effective an ending as a character’s sudden death. The right framing, dialogue, music, and editing can all help build a sense of dread and suspense that keeps viewers hooked.
I hope Talos is okay. I also hope this is the last time Secret Invasion ends with an overhead shot of one of our favorite characters motionless on the ground. And most of all, I hope that Marvel gives its shows more time to figure out their perfect rhythm and structure.
(featured image: Disney+)
