Secret Invasion Made Huge Mistakes With Both Major Character Deaths In Episode 1

This article contains spoilers for "Secret Invasion" Episode 1, "Resurrection"

"Secret Invasion" Episode 1 has many great moments. Unfortunately, this article isn't about any of them. Instead, let's look into the two big wham-moment deaths in the episode and why they're both awful calls. 

The series opens with the reveal that "Captain America: Civil War," "Black Panther," and "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" veteran Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) is a Skrull. What's more, the implication is that the news comes as a surprise to legendary intelligence operatives Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Unfortunately, neither Ross nor Hill lives beyond the first episode to explore the implications of the titular invasion any further. The two established characters' deaths bookend the episode; Ross falls to his death in the chase sequence following his fight with Agent Prescod (Richard Dormer), while the Skrull rogue Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), disguised as Fury, shoots Hill in the final moments. Both are powerful scenes. Unfortunately, they're also big mistakes.  

It would have been far more interesting to let an actor of Martin Freeman's caliber revel in Skrull villainy for a while, instead of killing Ross as a hasty precursor to the real story. As for Hill's death, it's arguably even worse. She's almost casually gunned down, her agency as a character removed. With this, she turns into a sacrifice to raise the stakes in the showdown between the hero and the antagonist — thus joining the long list of female Marvel Cinematic Universe characters who have been killed off to drive the plot.

Maria Hill has been underused for pretty much all of her tenure in the MCU, and the character leaves the cinematic universe the way she existed in it. This is far from the first time MCU movies pull a stunt like this. Women who die to motivate the male hero are pretty much a go-to cliché in these stories. Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth) loses his mother Frigga (Rene Russo) to the Dark Elves in "Thor: The Dark World." Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) both die for an Infinity Stone and some extra motivation for a male character in "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame." Even Spider-Man's (Tom Holland) classic "Death of Uncle Ben" plotline has been replaced by Aunt May's (Marisa Tomei) demise in "Spider-Man: No Way Home." Honestly, it's not a great look.

Ross' Skrull reveal, at least, makes sense because while he's not a major MCU character, he's a prominent enough player to show just how high the stakes are. However, his sudden and rather dumb fall to death is completely pointless, whether this was the real Ross or not. Yeah, that's another thing. If the true version of Ross turns out to be alive and well, the whole beginning of "Secret Invasion" will retroactively turn into nothing but cheap shock tactics.