Secret Invasion Theory: Talos Is Not Really [SPOILER] - He's [REDACTED]

Contains spoilers for "Secret Invasion" Season 1, Episode 4 — "Beloved"

So, Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) is dead. After good Marvel Cinematic Universe showings in "Captain Marvel" and "Spider-Man: Far from Home," "Secret Invasion" marks the end of the road for the Skrull leader when Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) kills him in front of Nick Fury's (Samuel L. Jackson) horrified eye. The show does everything in its power to make Talos' death as believable as possible, and things play out exactly like one of MCU's major death scenes ... more so, in fact, than the death of Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) and the fake-out death scene of G'iah (Emilia Clarke) have done. That, friends, is suspicious. This is "Secret Invasion," a show that wears the fact that no one can be trusted proudly on its sleeve. 

Isn't it weird that Gravik's forces have been the only ones who have pulled off impressive stealth impersonation tactics here? Why wouldn't Talos and whatever allies he has left play a similar game, as well? We know that he's a clever and crafty Skrull general, yet the only real stealth move we've seen Talos pull so far is setting G'iah (Emilia Clarke) up as a double agent, and she didn't exactly need too much convincing for that. Combined with his suspiciously dramatic death scene, this makes us wonder if Talos could have some hitherto unseen tricks up his sleeve ... or even whether he's actually dead at all. With this mindset, let's theory-craft a bit: here's a look at some of the ways Talos could still surprise us.

It's true that we see Talos' true Skrull face when Gravik stabs him, but we don't get a clear look at him after the villain lets him fall to the ground. This effectively negates the surefire Skrull tell of reverting to their true form shortly after death, so let's embrace the possibility that "Talos" may have been actually a completely different Skrull. As for Talos himself ... well, when you're impersonating people, why not go to the very top and assume President Ritson's (Dermot Mulroney) identity? Hey, Nick Fury did tell James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) that there's a Skrull at the very top level of the country. Who's to say he was speaking about Rhodey?

Given the stakes of "Secret Invasion," it's only natural that Ritson appears in the show. However, he seems a bit bad at his job, doesn't he? As noted in Episode 4, the President can barely make an informed decision without outside input, and indeed, he seems to be a little bit snarkier and more out of his depth than you'd expect from a powerful man ... much like Talos when he impersonated Fury in "Spider-Man: Far from Home." So, maybe Fury and Talos went directly to Ritson after learning that Rhodey is a Skrull, and managed to convince the President to stay safe while Talos takes his place. 

As for who could be playing the Talos role, we've seen very little of the Skrulls who might still be loyal to Talos and Fury in the show — such as the unnamed Skrull agent (Lori Livingston) in "WandaVision." Narratively, the most impactful Talos impersonator would probably be Soren (Sharon Blynn), Talos' wife. Gravik's people are supposedly responsible for her death, but it could just be a story Talos tells to maintain a deep-cover situation. If she is indeed impersonating Talos in Episode 4, the cover story would become tragically true and Gravik would end up killing Soren for real. 

Talos has taken a steep fall from "Captain Marvel's" Skrull general to the borderline outcast he seems to be in "Secret Invasion," largely thanks to his decades-long allegiance to Nick Fury. Still, would the Talos we know really be so powerless and hopeless that he'd resort to sending his own daughter to spy on the Skrull that killed his wife? Even with G'iah's willingness to take the task, it seems like a huge tactical error to send her to Gravik. 

As such, this theory posits that we've seen Talos and G'iah in their "true" human forms at times — such as when they interact in Episode 4. However, on many occasions, their roles have been reversed. Talos, a far more experienced spy, went to Gravik while impersonating G'iah, while G'iah operated as Talos. She's known Fury roughly as long as her father has, so the chemistry between the Skrull and the human wouldn't necessarily change all that much regardless of who's wearing Talos' face in which scene. Talos calling Fury out in Episode 3 and Fury's cold reaction to it, in particular, could very well be interpreted as a young Skrull lashing out at a human she perceives as ineffectual, and Fury begrudgingly withstanding the kid's barrage, knowing that she lacks perspective. 

This would mean that not only is it G'iah who dies in Episode 4, but it's Talos who survived the Episode 3 shooting and is now heavily implied to have Super-Skrull powers. Granted, the fact that G'iah seems to transform into her own Skrull form instead of Talos' after being shot could speak against this theory ... but hey, the wound wasn't exactly fatal, and who knows how Super-Skrull powers change how the Skrull's appearance changes after serious trauma?

The MCU has already pulled the "antagonist Skrull isn't evil after all" stunt in "Captain Marvel," so why not repeat the trick when people least expect it? There's no redeeming heroic turn in sight for Gravik, of course, but "Secret Invasion" could still pull a reverse "Captain Marvel" on Talos by revealing that he was actually a bad guy all along.

The show has already confirmed that Talos has been making moves behind Fury's back, and some of his tactics in "Captain Marvel" and "Spider-Man: Far from Home" expose some less-than-saintly sides of him, a fact he's been quite open about. He's also the one who sanctioned the biggest non-Gravik issue in "Secret Invasion" — the stealthy arrival of a million Skrulls, who have all assumed human identities in who knows what fashion. 

It's clear that Talos is at odds with Gravik, but what if Gravik isn't the biggest Skrull force at play, here? What if he and Talos are both planning to overtake Earth, and just happen to disagree with each other's methods to bring humanity under their boot? What if they're both pawns working for Raava (Nisha Aaliya) — the Skrull impersonating Rhodey (Don Cheadle) — and like to partake in some pretty hardcore (and ultimately fatal for Talos) interpersonal bickering? This would mean that Talos' surprise non-villain reveal in "Captain Marvel" and his subsequent collaboration with Nick Fury have been one big deep-cover operation, and he's worked as a mole working to bring enough Skrulls on Earth to make it their home — by force, if necessary. 

Who knows how long those million Skrulls have really been on Earth? Who knows what they've been doing? A whole bunch of world leaders were already Skrulls well before Gravik took over. If there was someone who controlled this takeover, Talos — possibly under Raava's command — is really the only plausible candidate.

Let's return to the "another Skrull was impersonating Talos when he died" well. If that's the case and we assume that Talos isn't playing the President game, where could he be? Perhaps closer than you think. 

Compare Nick Fury's anguished, yet somewhat muted reaction to Maria Hill's death in Episode 1, and his utterly horrified expression when Gravik kills Talos in front of his eyes. Perhaps the fact that he witnesses the death of another close ally so shortly after losing Maria is simply too much for him ... or perhaps that's not Fury at all.

If there's one guy Talos is great at impersonating, it's Fury. Yes, in "Spider-Man: Far from Home" he's a bit out of his element, but in all fairness, he and the rest of the world spend the majority of that movie being thoroughly duped by an expert team of top-level ex-Stark Industries scientists and engineers. In the "Secret Invasion" context, he could probably pass for Fury just fine — especially if the role involves big guns rather than international espionage, like during the motorcade assault. 

Talos is far more expressive than Fury, and the shock we see could very well be his genuine reaction to watching "himself" — who also happens to be a close ally or perhaps even a family member — being killed. As for where Fury is during the attack if Talos is impersonating him ... well, that's the question, isn't it? If this turns out to be the case, the reason for this particular switcheroo clearly hasn't been unveiled yet, and will probably play a huge part in the last two episodes. 

Why has Talos stayed on Team Fury while the former SHIELD director has pulled the rug from under the entire Skrull race? "Secret Invasion" makes pretty clear that he's one of the few Skrull allies Fury has left ... but what if his supposed allegiance is actually a play? What if Talos — just like pretty much every other Skrull — has become disillusioned with Fury and his failure to help them, and has turned to other intelligence heavyweights as a result? What if he's allied himself with MI6 and Sonya Falsworth (Olivia Colman) in hopes that she can help the Skrulls more efficiently, and has merely maintained his relationship with Fury to keep up appearances? 

Sonya seems destined to take a larger role in "Secret Invasion" if Talos is truly dead, seeing as she's probably the last remaining member of the international intelligence community who's still willing to deal with Fury. Now, imagine if she casually revealed that Talos has been in her pocket all along. Learning about Talos' betrayal after the Skrull's death would surely be a massive blow to Fury, and yet another indication that he has truly failed the Skrulls. Oh, and if Talos' death is a G'iah-style fakeout and he's still alive, that'd just give Fury yet another extremely personal enemy to fight. Really, this would be a lose-lose scenario for the man behind the Avengers.