Secret Invasion Director On Episode 2 & Nick Fury's Wife

SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from Episode 2 of Marvel‘s Secret Invasion.

Nick Fury appears to have lost most of his allies after Episode 2 of Marvel’s Secret Invasion.

The episode opens moments after the attack on Moscow, quickly devolving into a messy fight between Talos and Fury once the latter learns that there are far more Skrull on Earth than he thought. Talos reveals that, when Fury and Captain Marvel didn’t pull through with their promise to find the Skrull a new home, he summoned the remainder of the species to Earth. At this point, he has no idea how many Skrull are inhabiting the planet, but his guess is in the millions.

Frustrated, Fury turns to James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) for help. Rhodey has just arrived in Russia as a liaison to the U.S. to try to clean up the mess caused by Gravik and his rebel faction, and during a meeting with Fury he suggests that perhaps the Avengers can help solve this mess. Fury is adamant that bringing in the Avengers would be a dangerous move, considering the Skrull can not only impersonate them, they can likely take over their minds and duplicate their powers. Fury wants Rhodey to have his back, but the former War Machine can’t do that. Instead, he fires Fury. As if Fury could ever really be sidelined.

But, perhaps the most shocking turn of events in Episode 2 comes at the end of the episode. As Fury returns home following the difficult day, a peculiar scene plays out. Audiences get a glimpse of the kitchen before Fury does, where a Skrull woman stands in the kitchen preparing dinner. It’s the same Skrull woman that we saw in the 1995 flashback at the beginning of the episode (which takes place shortly after the events of Captain Marvel), introducing Fury to Gravik.

As Fury enters the home and rounds the corner, the woman is now in human form. We soon learn that this is his wife, Priscilla Fury. Or is it? The episode leaves it unclear whether or not Fury is aware that his wife is a Skrull.

“In the script, he knows. And when we shot it, it was interesting that maybe he didn’t know. We ultimately edited it in a way that made people feel like, ‘I wonder if he knows or not,'” director Ali Selim told Deadline. “I can’t tease anything forward about his wife. The conversation in the lobby after the premiere the other night was, ‘Does he know she’s a Skrull? Or does he not?’ And I think either way works.”

Selim added that it will soon become clear whether they decided to stick to the script and keep Fury aware that his wife is a Skrull. Either way, it presents complications. If Fury doesn’t know that Priscilla is a Skrull, then the rebel infiltration may be much closer to home than he thinks. But even if he does know, the flashback at the beginning of the episode leaves audiences to assume that she once had a connection to Gravik — which could put a wrinkle in Fury’s plan to stop him.

“I think his wife is a support and a complication, and I think you will learn interesting things about their relationship…going forward,” Selim said. “But ultimately, that is the personal issue that he needs to confront to make this make sense to him.”

As the rest of the season unfolds, Fury’s mission to stop Gravik will continue to get a whole lot more personal, Selim teased.

“The mission is external and it’s internal. I think that Nick Fury has to vanquish a villain, and the reason he has to vanquish that villain is that he created that villain through his promise. That’s what makes it personal,” Selim said. “I think that also is what makes this a more human Marvel story and a more dark psychological Marvel story.”

Secret Invasion is streaming on Disney+