Fury makes his last play to stop Gravik, stop World War III, and save both sides.
Tropes:
- Absolute Xenophobe: Ritson might be willing to call off a nuclear attack on the Russians if shown that it wasn't their fault — but even that can be seen as not wanting retaliation, and as shown he is quite willing to try to exterminate all alien species just because of the actions of one faction of Skrulls.
- All Your Powers Combined: Thanks to the Harvest, both Gravik and G'iah become full-fledged Super Skrulls for the Final Battle, each harnessing the abilities of different heroes and villains who fought in the Battle of Earth. G'iah alone displays the powers of Captain Marvel, Drax, Mantis, Ghost, and the Hulk. Gravik also demonstrates the powers of Captain Marvel, as well as Abomination, Ebony Maw, Korg and even Thanos.
- Ambiguous Situation:
- As the "Fury" Gravik debates with is revealed to actually be G'iah, it's unclear how much, if any, of the confession that "Fury" gives (that he felt relieved upon being snapped away and gave up on searching for a new Skrull homeworld after a few years) holds true for the real Fury, or if that was actually G'iah's true feelings on the subject and simply taking the opportunity to vent.
- It's not clear when Rhodey was replaced by Raava; he can't walk without assistance, showing that it was sometime after Captain America: Civil War, but at what point after his injury he was replaced remains unknown.
- Artistic License – Gun Safety: While obviously the Skrull duplicating Rhodey would not mind, the Secret Service should have noticed "Rhodey" pushing the President's gurney with his gun in his hand, pointed right at the President.
- Back for the Finale: Martin Freeman returns as the real Everett Ross this time, who is freed from captivity alongside the real Rhodey. How long he's been in captivity is left unclear, but the fact that Rhodey is the only hostage who doesn’t walk out of the warehouse on his own power suggests that for both, it was at some point after Captain America: Civil War at the absolute earliest.
- Bittersweet Ending: Humanity and Earth are saved from the threat of nuclear annihilation, and Fury is seemingly back to his old self and has made amends with his wife, who accompanies him back to the S.A.B.E.R. Space Station (where he will next be seen in The Marvels). However, Fury has still lost two of his most important allies, Maria Hill and Talos, and is now at odds with a vengeful President Ritson, who jumps off the slippery slope by instigating a wave of vigilante violence against Skrulls, which catches more than a few genuine humans in its midst.
- Blatant Lies: Ritson says that Skrulls can now be detected, referencing Reed Richards' Skrull detector in the comic-book version of Secret Invasion, but before long, a montage of people shooting alleged Skrulls is shown with as many misses as hits — indicating that no such detection method actually exists, and it's all just random vigilante mob violence.
- Bookends: Fury (with Varra this time around) leaves the series and Earth much the same way as he arrived in the season premiere, on a brightly white-lit transport sent down from the S.A.B.E.R. Space Station.
- Boom, Headshot!: Fury shoots Raava in the head, killing her and exposing her true Skrull form.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Gravik asks Fury whether he recognizes his human form, and when Fury doesn't, Gravik reveals that it was the first human he ever killed, during his first mission for Fury. The fact that Fury doesn't remember this infuriates Gravik, who launches into a vicious Motive Rant and "The Reason You Suck" Speech. Subverted when it turns out that "Fury" was actually G'iah the whole time.
- Call-Back: G'iah finally and fatally defeats the Extremis- and Harvest-infused Gravik with a powerful energy blast through the torso. Tony Stark, in one of his Iron Man suits, used a Unibeam to the same effect to kill Eric Savin aboard Air Force One back in Iron Man 3.
- Cheated Death, Died Anyway: Prime Minister Lawton escapes Skrull custody, only to then be senselessly murdered in the midst of a press conference outside 10 Downing Street, by a vigilante who thought that she was her own duplicate.
- Continuity Snarl: When Gravik scans the contents of the Harvest, DNA samples from Ghost and Abomination are included in it. Fury told Sonya that the Harvest was a collection of DNA from the heroes and villains that took part in the Battle of Earth. However, Abomination was still locked up in the Department of Damage Control's Supermax Prison at the time, Ghost's whereabouts following her last appearance were unknown, and neither of them were shown among the heroes that were summoned to fight Thanos' army.
- Cool vs. Awesome: G'iah and Gravik bring the powers of multiple characters to bear in a knock-down, drag-out brawl between two Super Skrulls.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Fury mentions that the Kree, after more than three decades, are willing to open peace talks with the Skrulls. Although this is no guarantee that the Skrulls can call Skrullos home again, at least now there's a chance for the two sides to try and end a long period of acrimony and hostility. In The Marvels (2023), this is Subverted—the Kree leader, Dar-Benn, had been planning to steal the atmosphere of their new colony, at best intending to assimilate the Skrulls into the Kree Empire and relocate them yet again, though Captain Marvel suspects that the whole thing was a ruse. Ultimately, Dar-Benn uses Captain Marvel's presence as a pretext to wipe out as many of the Skrulls as possible, with the survivors having to relocate to Earth anyway (in New Asgard).
- Enlightened Self-Interest: Sonya offers a deal to G'iah to protect the Skrulls from humanity in exchange for favors. G'iah is reluctant, since that kind of deal didn't end well for Talos, but Sonya argues that they're both not so naïve as to believe the other isn't acting in their own best interest. It simply happens that their best interests align, so it makes sense from a purely pragmatic perspective to form an alliance.
- False Flag Operation: Quoted word-for-word by the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who (correctly) posits that the "Russian" (i.e. Skrull) attack on the president was one of these, only to get chewed out for it by Rhodey's impersonator.
- Final Solution: Ritson declares all Skrulls (and indeed all extraterrestrial beings on Earth), regardless of whether or not they were in the rebellion, to be "enemy combatants" and subject to summary elimination.
- Gambit Roulette: Fury's plan to have G'iah disguise herself as him so she can deliver the Harvest to Gravik and get the powers it holds was incredibly risky. He had to hope that she wouldn't slip up, that Gravik wouldn't just kick her out of the chamber giving them the powers, and most importantly, that she would be able to beat him even though he got the same powers as well.
- Gone Horribly Right: For the entirety of the show's events, Fury has been trying to convince President Ritson that there are dangerous Skrulls on the planet that pose a threat to the world at large to no avail. Now, Ritson finally learns about their existence and decides to act...by threatening to exterminate the entire Skrull species.
- History Repeats:
- Exactly as the dissenting Skrull council member warned earlier in the season, trying to destroy a species will just result in that species trying to eliminate the Skrulls, as it was with the Kree (although they now want peace, ironically) and so it is now with humanity.
- Sonya approaches G'iah at the end to offer her a deal working for her as the Skrulls had done for Fury. G'iah calls this out specifically, but Sonya insists it will be more like a business transaction than a friendship, and that will make their deal work where Fury's did not.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Gravik, twice. First, he can't tell that G'iah is impersonating Nick Fury, and second, he infuses G'iah with the Harvest and then gets his ass handed to him by her.
- Hypocrite: Gravik rails against (who he thinks is) Fury for having him murder a man who had a wife and children, and accuses him of just using the Skrulls for his own ends, two bits of moral outrage that would probably carry more weight if Gravik hadn't used, abused and outright executed several of his own people for his own ends, and if his plans for humanity weren't genocidal in nature, which obviously would mean the deaths of lots and lots of children and people who have children.
- Incurable Cough of Death: G'iah, in Fury's form, fakes one of these in a Wounded Gazelle Gambit to help her get close enough to Gravik and get his guard down so that she can be infused with the DNA in the Harvest and take him on with an even footing.
- Irony: Gravik, ostensibly at least, wanted to give his people a home where they could be safe in their own skin. His actions have fueled paranoia among the human race, leading to the Skrulls being hunted.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: U.S. President Ritson, who was a decent if brusque Reasonable Authority Figure earlier in the season and even seemed to have some standards against bombing Russia on the fake Rhodes' manufactured intelligence not long ago, goes full-on President Evil by the end of this episode, exhorting even regular civilians to go eliminating Skrulls in a wave of vigilante violence, which only serves to get a significant number of genuine humans killed along the way.
- Mistaken for an Imposter: Played for Drama. Prime Minister Lawton, freed from Skrull captivity, is killed by anti-Skrull terrorists, because they believe she's her own Skrull imposter.
- Mythology Gag:
- Gravik rants at who he believes to be Fury, only to find Fury a lot more combat-capable than he thought. An almost identical scenario plays out in the What If…? (2021) episode "What If… The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?" between Hank Pym and Loki disguised as Fury, though Loki kept up the ruse for longer than G'iah did.
- Gravik gets killed when G'iah blasts a hole through his chest, the injury proving too sudden and severe for his Extremis Healing Factor to handle. This is consistent with Extremis' portrayal in Iron Man 3, where Iron Man killed the Extremis-infused Eric Savin the same way.
- The anti-Skrull fanatics may be seen as the MCU version of the Skrull Kill Krew, a vigilante group dedicated to hunting down Skrulls.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: By revealing just how close to him the Skrulls had managed to get, Fury inadvertently radicalizes President Ritson against the entire Skrull race, leading to the murders of innocent Skrulls and even innocent people who are just assumed to be Skrulls.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Gravik allowing "Fury" to hang out in the infusion machine, which he knows doesn't affect humans, infuses G'iah with the Harvest and subsequently earns him a fatal No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
- Pet the Dog: Fury reveals that the Kree are willing to bury the hatchet with the Skrulls and make peace.
- Punch Catch: After becoming a full-fledged Super Skrull, Gravik attempts to finish Fury off, only for "Fury" to catch his punch before shifting to a Hulk arm to punch him through the ceiling, revealing that this is actually G'iah.
- President Evil: The entire debacle has resulted in Ritson devolving from a Reasonable Authority Figure to a paranoid lunatic ordering the genocide of the Skrull race and any other extraterrestrial life on Earth.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: While the President now considers Skrulls and all other aliens to be enemies, Fury (and Falsworth) is still willing to help them and mentions how the Kree are finally willing to open peace talks with the Skrulls.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Gravik tells off Nick Fury, actually G'iah in disguise, for using the Skrulls to fight for him and go missions then abandoning them.
- Disgusted and outraged by Ritson's xenophobic rhetoric, Nick Fury calls up the president and lambastes him for the needless and excessive carnage that he just inspired. Ritson, for his part, isn't having it.
- Redemption Rejection:
- G'iah, as Fury, offers Gravik the Harvest in exchange for him taking his rebel Skrulls and leaving Earth to find a new homeworld somewhere else; Gravik doesn't even consider it, simply taking the Harvest and going ahead with his plans. It's not clear whether G'iah (or Fury, assuming he knew she'd make the offer) actually thought Gravik might take the deal.
- President Ritson doesn't care one bit what Fury thinks of his new anti-alien policies, and just tells him to leave the planet with the Skrulls if he cares about them so much.
- The Reveal: Gravik’s human form is actually the first human he ever killed on his first mission for Nick Fury.
- Shut Up, Kirk!: Upon being called up by Fury and blasted over his Absolute Xenophobe policies, President Ritson isn't moved in the slightest, telling him to "get [them] off my planet" if he truly cares about the Skrulls. Fury has no response to this, and just heads off back to the S.A.B.E.R. space station, this time together with Varra rather than on his own.
- Theme Music Power-Up: The show's theme tune kicks in right as it's revealed that "Fury" is actually G'iah, and that she's become a Super Skrull too.
- This Cannot Be!: Gravik emits a shocked "You?" as G'iah sheds her "Fury" disguise, him having had no idea up until now that she'd found out about the Harvest and had empowered herself to survive him shooting her.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: President Ritson, who started out as a Reasonable Authority Figure, delivers a full-blown anti-alien tirade to the American people at the end of the episode and calls for legislation declaring the Skrulls and all other extraterrestrials to be enemies of humankind and thus active "combatants" (this is despite the fact that Talos, a Skrull, died saving his life a couple episodes earlier). Fury is so disgusted by Ritson's speech that he later calls Ritson directly and tells him this sort of thing is going to make him a one-term President.
- Torso with a View: G'iah kills Gravik with a photon blast through his body at point-blank range, leaving an empty hole in its place.
- Villainous Breakdown: Gravik gradually loses his usual composure during the final confrontation, which culminates in him furiously delivering a raw, emotional "The Reason You Suck" Speech to who he believes is Fury.
- Wham Shot: Infused with the Harvest, Gravik attempts to attack Fury with a superpowered punch ... only for Fury to catch his fist. It turns out that he's really a disguised G'iah, who's now an all-powerful Super Skrull just like Gravik.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Zigzagged, as "Fury" gets Gravik to lower his guard and gloat over him by having serious problems being in the radioactive former nuclear power plant. But then it is revealed that "he" was G'iah all along, so it was G'iah pretending to be Nick Fury pretending to be ill.
