Is ‘Secret Invasion’ repeating ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’s biggest blunder, or has Marvel learned from its mistakes?

Warning: The article contains spoilers for Secret Invasion episode three.

Secret Invasion’s third episode is here and the series looks primed to re-live Thor: Love and Thunder’s worst problem, which says a lot seeing how Taika Waititi’s disaster was a string of blunders upon blunders. 

This is happening after it already repeated another one of Thor 4’s detested mistakes – bringing back a beloved and hugely missed character, only to kill them. At least, Jane Foster got to say cringy lines and brandish Mjolnr before getting killed, unlike Maria Hill who was just brought to add shock value to the series (though the jury is still out on this one).

And now, Secret Invasion has gone ahead and pulled another Waititi — just like he wasted the talented Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher (more like Gorr the Voldemort Reject), the Marvel series seems to have given the exceptional Emilia Clarke a similar treatment as the latest episode sees Gravik kill her G’iah in cold blood. 

Just three episodes? Really? Come on, Marvel, you need to do better!

But what if maybe, just maybe, Marvel has heard our complaints and heeded the warnings? Because apart from our wishful musings, there is one solid piece of solid evidence that Clarke is so not dead. 

Will Emilia Clarke return in Secret Invasion? Is G’iah really dead?

Now, those questions might have two separate answers. But first the undeniable proof — the trailers of Secret Invasion, people! They include scenes of Clarke with Priscilla (Varra?), battling an enemy off-screen, covering someone lying on the road as helicopters fly away overhead, and talking to Fury — all moments that haven’t taken place in the first three episodes. 

Marvel has faked scenes in trailers before, but Clarke’s missing scenes are one too many.

Time to address the elephant in the room: Is G’iah dead? Maybe, but that doesn’t mean Emilia Clarke is done with the MCU. Remember that the human G’iah was impersonating is lying somewhere in Gravik’s Skrull headquarters. She could wake up, and join the fight, even if she is not introduced as Abigail Brand. Also, another Skrull could impersonate the comatose human, bringing Clarke back as another Skrull. 

But our money is on the possibility that G’iah is not really dead. She is smart, folks; I am sure she knew Gravik was laying a trap for her when he gave away the nuclear launch info in her presence. I think she had one of the below-mentioned contingency plans in place:

• Gravik has Extremis in him now, healing him rapidly from the gravest injuries. What if G’iah, who slinked into the laboratory in the last episode, took a dose too? Pretty sure Extremis would spit that bullet right out. As for her changing into her real form after she was shot, while that’s what confirms a Skrull is dead, with Extremis in his system she might have voluntarily shifted to make it look like she died. 
• We have never seen the grown-up G’iah in Skrull form. What confirmation is there that the Skrull that we saw die was actually her and not another Skrull — one on her and Talos’ side — who took her place to confuse Gravik?
• On the off chance that G’iah was shot and is not a Super Skrull like Gravik, maybe she will be saved by someone in the next episode or off-screen. We have seen Talos getting shot by the Kree in the chest in Captain Marvel and surviving that. Also, a bullet is not a deadly injury when it comes to the MCU. 

Secret Invasion airs every Wednesday on Disney Plus.