A lot of the goodwill that Marvel’s Secret Invasion has built up over the last three weeks, in my opinion, kind of felt undone this week in a scattered and unfocused fourth entry. Are we approaching the inevitable MCU Disney+ finale that fails to deliver?

Right from the getgo, Secret Invasion inexplicable hits control Z on the death of Emilia Clarke’s G’hia from the end of last week’s episode, showing us that she turned herself into a Super Skrull before leaving the base, which gave her the Extremis healing powers that Gravik also has. I feel cheated by the show now. The shocking death of G’hia last week was one of the ballsiest movies Marvel has done in eons and it was completely undone mere moments later. The show didn’t even think to hold off on showing us she was alive. The whole thing gave me Chewbacca’s death fakeout in Rise of Skywalker. Plus we didn’t get to see Talos’ reaction to the news that Gravik killed her, he didn’t even mention that to torment him before Gravik killed Talos (or did he, who knows now?).

Elsewhere in the episode, elements were being revealed, but they lacked any shock as they were teased so heavily earlier in the show that we didn’t get the ta-da moment the show thinks it was giving us. Case in point, it’s confirmed that Rhodey is a Skrull, but I mean that was pretty obvious. I don’t think he’s been a Skrull this whole time, just for this show, as his personality has been just a little bit off from his past appearances. Rhodey wants Fury dead and sends his wife to do the job, but Fury eavesdrops on their meetup, learning about the upcoming assassination attempt and that Rhodey is a Skrull.

While his confrontation with his wife reveals that his wife was replaced by a Skrull and that neither one could bring themselves to kill the other, the confrontation with Rhodey didn’t really contribute much, as Rhodey continued to deny being a Skrull and threatened Fury with blackmail. So nothing moved forward. But considering his proximity to the President, you’d think that Fury would’ve told someone about the mole. And why does Skrill Rhodey think no one will believe Fury’s statements about there being shapeshifting aliens? Aliens exist very publically in the MCU, so what’s so hard to believe about shapeshifters when aliens came out of a wormhole to attack New York? It’s a strange defense to lean on.

The less than thirty-minute episode ends with Gravik’s forces ambushing the President (thanks to intel from Rhodey), which leaves him wounded. I’m going to imagine he’s not going to survive his wounds, which will pave the way for Harrison Ford’s Thunderbolt Ross, currently the Vice President, to step up before his appearance in Captain America: Brave New World. As mentioned, Gravik also seemingly killed Talos but I can’t get invested in that act until I know for sure he’s dead, thanks to the safety net given to G’hia. So all tension and shock have left the building.

Secret Invasion’s fourth episode is a sharp pivot from the interesting spy show we got to date. Things just felt more generic and there’s no more tension or stakes on the table. With Gravik having new powers (and G’hia as well), I fear this show is heading towards one of those mandatory action-packed finales that everyone always criticizes for being generic. Let’s see what next week brings, but this week I feel frustrated by this show this week, which is a shame as I was on board.