S01.E04: Beloved

[paigow]

Fury must make some hard sacrifices

Airdate: Jul 12 / 23

[tired and hungry]

So "Rhodey" was indeed a skrull. Does that mean they have the real Rhodey captured somewhere for his memories?

Why are they killing(or pretending to kill) so many characters?? We just saw Gi'ah get shot in the previous episode & now they "killed" Talos...

[Spartan Girl]

I really hope Talos is a fake-out like G’iah, but I fear it’s not. It would be a way to get G’iah on Fury’s side for sure.

Yup, Rhodey’s a Skrull but how long has he been like this? Somebody find the real Rhodey!

Edited July 12, 2023 by Spartan Girl

[paigow]

Did the kitchen walls have bullet holes before anybody started shooting?

[MrWhyt]

 

Quote

I really hope Talos is a fake-out like G’iah, but I fear it’s not. It would be a way to get G’iah on Fury’s side for sure

Sadly I don't think they're going to do 2 death fake outs in a row. I suspect Talos is pining for the fjords for real.

Edited July 12, 2023 by MrWhyt

[Affogato]

Grrrrŕr

[Spartan Girl]

And now it all becomes clear that they might have killed off Hill (and Talos) for real so her place can be swapped for G’iah.

I hate how the MCU treats female characters.

On the plus side, Cheadle is clearly having fun playing the bad guy. But give me back my Rhodey!

Edited July 12, 2023 by Spartan Girl

[Chicago Redshirt]

I assume most people strongly suspected that Rhodey was in fact SkRhodey. 

Which is a shame, because SkRhodey has showed more personality and fire than Rhodey across, what, six movies or so? Rhodey always got overshadowed by Tony or the huge group of Avengers he was with.

[tennisgurl]

My god, how many more people have to die to motivate Nick Fury to get his ass into gear?! First Maria and now Talos, what a depressing show this is. I would normally say that Talos dying is a fake out, and it might still be, but after we ended the last episode on a fake out with Gi'ah I fear that they wont do that again. Which especially sucks because I would rather have Talos and Maria over Gi'ah any day of the week, as much as I love Emilia and am glad to at least see one female character get out of this alive. Talos was a great very likable character while Gi'ah is a whiny terrorist, they are going to need to do a lot to get me to like her at this point. 

Talos and Fury's banter has been by far the highlight of this show, losing that is going to make this show even more dour than it already is. 

I really don't mean to keep beating this dead horse, but this entire conflict makes no sense at this point in the MCU. Why would Skrull Rhodey think that blackmailing Nick by saying that no one would believe that he was being framed by a shapeshifting alien would work? She-Hulk had a whole episode about a shapeshifting space elf scamming people via shapeshifting! Shapeshifting into Megan The Stallion! Aliens and shapeshifters and such are a well known part of life now, I still just do not get why we have not been told why skrulls cant just tell everyone they're here. I can make guesses, but I shouldn't have to when its the basis for the conflict of the entire series. This would all make a lot more sense earlier in the MCU's timeline, but not now. 

Poor Fury is just having an awful time of it. On top of his post snap despair, he's watched two long time friends killed in front of him by the same asshole, might have also lost Rhodey as well (although I think he's probably alive) finds out that his wife has been spying on him as part of a skrull conspiracy, and now he's trying to save the world all on his own. He definitely deserves some of that quality liquor. 

How dare Gravik use Groots branches like that! You're no Groot, sir. 

[RobertDeSneero]

9 hours ago, tired and hungry said:

Why are they killing(or pretending to kill) so many characters??

I suspect that some actors just feel that there comes a time for them to exit the MCU (or their contract ends) and if they're not going to be appearing in any more movies or TV shows, then it makes sense to try to get value out of killing off their characters.  I don't know if Samuel Jackson is signed to do more stuff, but this series could totally be Nick Fury's last ride, a tired old man temporarily regaining some of his lost vigor to go out with a bang, saving the world one last time.

[paigow]

37 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

How dare Gravik use Groots branches like that! You're no Groot, sir. 

You have watched many political debates....

 

[Sakura12]

They really want Fury alone in this, first he loses Maria, the his wife, then Talos. If they can't get Carol what about Monica, wasn't she invited to Sabre? 

Does G'iah have Groot powers too or did she get something else. Talos' plan was dumb so I don't blame her for walking away. But I suppose if he is dead it'll be her vs Gravik. 

How long has Rhodey been a Skrull and where is he being held. 

 

[Morrigan2575]

Well no surprise that G'iah's death was a fake out, it was beyond obvious.  Unfortunately, I don't think Telos is a fake out...although I'm not 100% sure he is dead...mostly because it looked like both bullet and knife were in the shoulder 🤷‍♀️

I would have had a lot more respect for this show if Fury actually killed his wife. I feel like they're playing it way too safe. 

[greekmom]

G'iah not dead. Talos is probably mostly dead and Rhodey could be dead but most likely on ice.

Nick Fury never trusted his wife and she was running a long con.  Poor Nick.

Gravik has Groot in him. **Yawn**

I hate the MCU at this point. It sucks and they are really running themselves in the ground. 

[Bill1978]

I feel this show is just one big set up for a movie. Sure, technically WandaVision was setting up the plot for Doctor Strange but it at least told its own story with a resolution. With only 2 episodes left, I don't think we will get a resolution. 

This show suffers from the same problem Falcon & Winter Soldier had. I just cannot sympathise with the cause of the bad guys. It both shows, the antagonist comes off as a spoilt entitled brat. Usually, I can understand the motivation behind a bad guy's quest, but when it involves whiny entitlement, I just don't care.

And now that anyone could be a Skrull and combine that with the multiverse, deaths in the MCU are pretty meaningless.

At this stage, the only way this show will be worth sitting through 6 episodes is if they drop a hint about the existence of Hulkling.

[dwmarch]

10 hours ago, paigow said:

Did the kitchen walls have bullet holes before anybody started shooting?

I don't know but it sure looked to me like God came down from Heaven and stopped those MF bullets.

[Raja]

7 hours ago, greekmom said:

 

Gravik has Groot in him. **Yawn**

 

Those guns seemed fine against the Secret Service Agents. For all the talk of making it look like Russians all they did was confirm aliens were there.

[thuganomics85]

Not seeing Olivia Colman's name in the credits was already enough to bum me out.  She/Sonya are one of the best things about this show by far.

At least they didn't wait long to reveal that G'iah was totally not dead thanks to going into that machine (what is it, again?) before her escape attempt?.  But now it's Talos who gets taken out and since I would be really surprised if they had two fake-outs in a row, I sadly suspect this is permanent.  Would really suck since Ben Mendelsohn is amazing and has made Talos a fascinating character.  But, I'm guessing this is going to not only weigh on Nick, but be used as a catalyst for G'iah to avenge her father and work with Nick.  Just wished it was all worth it, but I'm starting to think that won't be the case.

No surprise that Rhodey was a Skrull this entire time, but Don Cheadle was having the time of his life at least.

Since we only have two episodes left, I think it's safe to say that Gravik is going to be an underwhelming villain.  There just isn't any layers here and his motivations seem one-dimensional.  It sucks since Kingsley Bel-Adir was magnetic in "One Night in Miami", but is forced to be so one-note here.

I wish I could care about Nick and his wife but I don't.  It feels like we really should have seen/heard more of this relationship in order to be invested over the betrayal and mixed emotions that followed.

Lets see if these last two episodes can manage to salvage things or maybe actually make them worse!

[dmeets]

Apparently love is not being able to shoot your alien spouse in the head. 

What if the real Rhodey is revealed to be… Terrence Howard. 

Edited July 13, 2023 by dmeets

[tired and hungry]

I wonder if Carol will stop by to see how Fury or the skrulls are doing but I guess she's too busy getting swapped around with Ms. Marvel

[greekmom]

6 hours ago, dmeets said:

Apparently love is not being able to shoot your alien spouse in the head. 

What if the real Rhodey is revealed to be… Terrence Howard. 

I dunno who would have more egg on their face. The characters or the audience if that happened. But that would be super awesome!

3 hours ago, tired and hungry said:

I wonder if Carol will stop by to see how Fury or the skrulls are doing but I guess she's too busy getting swapped around with Ms. Marvel

Carol doesnt give 2 craps about Earth, Fury or the Skrulls.

[paigow]

The real Rhodey never stuck around at the end of Iron Man 3... so he did not see how Killian /  Mandarin was actually defeated. But we know that War Machine would have failed. Conventional weapons are useless against Gravik. Captain Marvel is the only plausible solution.

[Orbert]

I'd love to see Captain Marvel make an appearance and show that she actually does care about her home planet.  It seems like something that they would have had a hard time keeping under wraps, but I suppose anything's possible.

Not much to add that hasn't already been said.  After last week's "fake out" death, it would be too cheesy to do it again, so Talos is probably gone.  I remember a line from an early trailer for Secret Invasion with Fury saying that this is something he has to do alone, and I remember thinking that that's getting really old, the lone wolf thing, "I gotta do this by myself".  But it turns out that he has to do it alone because they killed Maria and Talos, and Rhodey's a Skrull, and so's Mrs. Fury for that matter, so there's no one left to help him.  I generally hate it when someone's death is used as a plot device or "motivation" for another character, and they're just piling them on here.  Bleah.

Super Skrulls.  More bleah.  This show had a lot of potential, and it's not a total disappointment, but it's not up to the level I was hoping for, either.

[Chicago Redshirt]

3 hours ago, paigow said:

The real Rhodey never stuck around at the end of Iron Man 3... so he did not see how Killian /  Mandarin was actually defeated. But we know that War Machine would have failed. Conventional weapons are useless against Gravik. Captain Marvel is the only plausible solution.

How do we know conventional weapons are useless against Gravik? Certainly, we have seen him survive being shot and sliced. The Extremis that he has incorporated in his DNA seems to have made him hard to kill, yes. But obviously humans with Extremis were killed all over the place, and it may just be a matter of firing bigger/more guns/lasers/bombs than he has had to withstand till now.

[Stardancer Supreme]

On 7/12/2023 at 11:50 AM, Chicago Redshirt said:

I assume most people strongly suspected that Rhodey was in fact SkRhodey. 

Which is a shame, because SkRhodey has showed more personality and fire than Rhodey across, what, six movies or so? Rhodey always got overshadowed by Tony or the huge group of Avengers he was with.

 

 

 

Damn, I was hoping for Rhodey to be the real deal. But, that means the President is NOT a Skrull. I wonder how they determined which world leader to replace? That I would like to know... and where's Rhodey?!? In all this fighting the Skrussians, no one noticed Skrhodey chilling in his car? These people don't call on him to be War Machine?

I also didn't enjoy sacrificing Taylos for G'iah. I loved Taylos!

I think this is the last we will see of Varra/Dr. Priscilla.  She kept her word.

On 7/12/2023 at 2:34 PM, tennisgurl said:

My god, how many more people have to die to motivate Nick Fury to get his ass into gear?! 

Talos and Fury's banter has been by far the highlight of this show, losing that is going to make this show even more dour than it already is. 

Aliens and shapeshifters and such are a well-known part of life now. I still just do not get why we have not been told why skrulls can't just tell everyone they're here. I can make guesses, but I shouldn't have to when its the basis for the conflict of the entire series. This would all make a lot more sense earlier in the MCU's timeline, but not now. 

Poor Fury is just having an awful time of it. On top of his post snap despair, he's watched two long time friends killed in front of him by the same asshole, might have also lost Rhodey as well (although I think he's probably alive) finds out that his wife has been spying on him as part of a skrull conspiracy, and now he's trying to save the world all on his own. He definitely deserves some of that quality liquor. 

How dare Gravik use Groots branches like that! You're no Groot, sir. 

 

 

 

Yeah. Even if we don't get the Avengers in this show, we are at least entitled to an explanation of why Skrulls are persona non grata other than that they tend to be a cancer to any other inhabitants of any planet they may want.

Edited July 13, 2023 by Stardancer Supreme

[MadyGirl1987]

8 minutes ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

Yeah. Even if we don't get the Avengers in this show, we are at least entitled to an explanation of why Skrulls are persona non grata other than that they tend to be a cancer to any other inhabitants of any planet they may want.

I feel the fact that they can shapeshift and read memories to impersonate anyone is more then enough of a reason. yeah, shapeshifters exist, but random aliens ending up here who can shapeshift is much different then a whole civilization of them. Look at what Gravik and his followers are doing, taking the forms of world leaders and doing false flag operations to provoke nuclear war. Even if not all Skrulls are bad, it's justified people would be uncomfortable allowing millions of shapeshifters to live amongst us, simply hoping none do anything nefarious.

[paigow]

4 hours ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

In all this fighting the Skrussians, no one noticed Skrhodey chilling in his car? These people don't call on him to be War Machine?

Under the 2022  Skrukovia Accord, War Machine can only deploy in U.S. airspace

[Cthulhudrew]

On 7/12/2023 at 2:28 AM, tired and hungry said:

Why are they killing(or pretending to kill) so many characters?? We just saw Gi'ah get shot in the previous episode & now they "killed" Talos...

Even if the next two episodes don't end up with characters dying as cliffhangers, that still means they have had deaths (or fakeouts) as 50% of the season's cliffhangers. That's pretty lazy storytelling, IMO. 😕

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Orbert said:

I'd love to see Captain Marvel make an appearance and show that she actually does care about her home planet.  It seems like something that they would have had a hard time keeping under wraps, but I suppose anything's possible.

They managed to keep her other cameos under wraps so I don’t think it would be a problem here. Especially since this and The Marvels filmed back-to-back. 

6 hours ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

Even if we don't get the Avengers in this show, we are at least entitled to an explanation of why Skrulls are persona non grata other than that they tend to be a cancer to any other inhabitants of any planet they may want.

I think that is more than enough of a reason. They’d have a harder job convincing me why anyone would welcome them. 

[Mr. R0b0t]

On 7/12/2023 at 9:50 AM, Chicago Redshirt said:

I assume most people strongly suspected that Rhodey was in fact SkRhodey. 

Which is a shame, because SkRhodey has showed more personality and fire than Rhodey across, what, six movies or so? Rhodey always got overshadowed by Tony or the huge group of Avengers he was with.

I agree, but his non-verbals during the scene where the time heist is proposed and they discuss killing baby Thanos is an all-timer.

 

[Spartan Girl]

6 hours ago, Mr. R0b0t said:

I agree, but his non-verbals during the scene where the time heist is proposed and they discuss killing baby Thanos is an all-timer.

 

I agree, I loved Rhodey in Endgame so if we find out he was a Skrull since long before TFAWS it’s going to piss me off. Why does the MCU keep ruining its characters?!

[Affogato]

It looks to me as if Rhode skrull self is a girl. They may be the skrull queen. 

Whatever that is.

I've read reviews saying it isn't working, the show, the mcu, because too much comic content. This show because it can't settle on a genre. I think they are killing people rather than developing characters. 

The liquid tracer was genius. 

I like Priscilla and Fury's interactions. 

Talos is/was actually my favorite character. They are losing me. 

Edited July 14, 2023 by Affogato

[Jenniferbug]

I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this show. I wanted a 3 steps ahead Nick Fury spy thriller, and this feels like a let down. Maybe they'll deliver and turn it around in the last 2 episodes, but with only 2 episodes left, I'm skeptical. 

With each episode it feels more like this is meant to finish off contracts. Maria Hill- dead. Talos- dead. I'm skeptical we'll see Nick Fury after this series ends too. Possibly in the next big crossover movie, but they haven't really used the character as unifying force in a while. I guess he's in The Marvels, but I'm not sure we know when that is set. 

I understand the MCU needs to move forward, but G'iah isn't working for me. She seems a little too conflicted to be a good guy, but also not that compelling as a gray character. I have no attachment to Emilia Clarke and while she's fine here, her acting isn't blowing me away so much that I want to see her again in spite of the character. 

This also so far hasn't really done anything to make me excited for Armor Wars, though maybe that will come later. (Assuming Armor Wars ever actually happens)

But there are some really terrific moments and the acting has been mostly so good that I can't say I've disliked the show or regretted watching it. I think it had potential to be so much more and I wanted it to be something other than what it is, and as a result it feels watered down to me. 

[Guest]

22 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

I agree, I loved Rhodey in Endgame so if we find out he was a Skrull since long before TFAWS it’s going to piss me off. Why does the MCU keep ruining its characters?!

I have mixed feelings about it. I loved everything with Rhodey and Nebula and hated everything about Rhodey and Thor. Skrull Rhodey being the one that made the cheese whiz joke wouldn’t upset me at all. 

19 hours ago, Jenniferbug said:

I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this show. I wanted a 3 steps ahead Nick Fury spy thriller, and this feels like a let down. Maybe they'll deliver and turn it around in the last 2 episodes, but with only 2 episodes left, I'm skeptical. 

Same for me. When the Marvel shows were first announced there was a lot of talk of them being like six hour movies and I think they took that too far here. I feel like we’re stuck in the part of every Marvel movie where they take the heroes to their lowest point. 20 minutes of that is fine but three episodes of it is tedious and depressing. 

[Spartan Girl]

49 minutes ago, Dani said:

I have mixed feelings about it. I loved everything with Rhodey and Nebula and hated everything about Rhodey and Thor. Skrull Rhodey being a the one that made the cheese whiz joke wouldn’t upset me at all. 

True, and I wouldn’t mind if Skrull Rhodey was the one who decided to be Secretary Ross’s bitch regardless of what he did to Bruce, but that would be kind of inconsistent lol.

As long as we get Real Rhodey back for Armor Wars…

[paigow]

Did Real!Rhodey get Stark Industries artificial legs after Vision accidentally crippled him? Can Skrull!Rhodey replicate that?

[Morrigan2575]

6 hours ago, paigow said:

Did Real!Rhodey get Stark Industries artificial legs after Vision accidentally crippled him? Can Skrull!Rhodey replicate that?

He doesn't have artificial legs, he has a walking brace of some sort. We saw it at the end of Civil War and he was still using it in Infinity War. I think it might have been gone by Endgame but, can't remember. 

[Raja]

41 minutes ago, Morrigan2575 said:

He doesn't have artificial legs, he has a walking brace of some sort. We saw it at the end of Civil War and he was still using it in Infinity War. I think it might have been gone by Endgame but, can't remember. 

When he ejected from his suit he crawled with his arms before getting back into the suit for the armies battle 

[Morrigan2575]

7 minutes ago, Raja said:

When he ejected from his suit he crawled with his arms before getting back into the suit for the armies battle 

OK, so he still needs it. 

[AWhittle]

It wasn't a bad idea to have a show like this: So far it is like a spy thriller, don't know who is who, Samuel Jackson centered, and so far no superhero in a shiny costume showing up.

A respite of sorts from all the capes.

But the execution of it all... Some things could be better, plot holes.

A little disappointed? Yes

[ProudMary]

On 7/13/2023 at 12:56 AM, thuganomics85 said:

Since we only have two episodes left, I think it's safe to say that Gravik is going to be an underwhelming villain.  There just isn't any layers here and his motivations seem one-dimensional.  It sucks since Kingsley Bel-Adir was magnetic in "One Night in Miami", but is forced to be so one-note here.

Granted, I'll watch any of the Disney Plus Marvel series, but I was especially drawn to Secret Invasion specifically because of Kingsley Ben-Adir's excellent performance in ONIM. I expected great things from him here, but he hasn't been given much to work with. Disappointing. 

On 7/14/2023 at 9:08 AM, Jenniferbug said:

This also so far hasn't really done anything to make me excited for Armor Wars, though maybe that will come later. (Assuming Armor Wars ever actually happens)

The one thing that will get me excited about Armor Wars will be if they bring back Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer!

[paigow]

On 7/15/2023 at 9:45 PM, ProudMary said:

The one thing that will get me excited about Armor Wars will be if they bring back Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer!

He was doing time with Trevor Slattery aka Fake!Mandarin... Maybe Justin Skruller will break out...

[Kel Varnsen]

That shoot out was pretty well done, but I am not sure how much help Fury and Talos thought they would be when the president already had a whole bunch of secret service and army dudes protecting him.

Also I am not really sure at what point Mrs. Fury decided to betray Fury and why. Was it just a loyalty to her people thing or is there more to it?

On 7/13/2023 at 4:24 PM, Stardancer Supreme said:

These people don't call on him to be War Machine?

You would think that would be a big part of the deal. If the president selects Rhodey to be in his cabinet, you would think a requirement of an that is that it is a package deal and he gets War Machine too. 

Also after watching GOTG3 last night:

Spoiler

The Skrulls need to get ahold of some of Rocket's magic med-packs. Since they seem way to east to kill for advanced aliens.