Warning: The article contains spoilers for Secret Invasion episode one.
Hoo boy, Secret Invasion definitely wasted no time in generating lots for the fans to dissect and discuss in its first hour. From its shocking first five minutes to its opening credits, which were equally shocking but in a whole other way, to its heartbreaking cliffhanger, there’s plenty of big things to grab the attention in episode one. And yet it always pays to pay close attention to the little things too, as the show’s most inconspicuous Easter Egg so far attests to.
When Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is brought to Sonya Falsworth’s office in Moscow, he secretly hides a fancy camera contact lens on the eye of an owl statuette. This then allows Fury, Maria Hill, and Talos to keep track of Falsworth’s intelligence later on (even though it’s possible that she knows they are listening in, but that’s a theory for another time). What you may not have picked up on, however, is that there’s a deeper meaning to the eye Fury chooses to bug.
As Redditor figgityjones pointed out on the r/MarvelStudios sub’s discussion thread for the first episode, Fury puts the device “on the eye of the owl which is the same as his scarred one.”
In a series like Secret Invasion, in which we can’t trust the evidence of our own eyes thanks to characters potentially being imposters, it’s ironic that we should’ve been keeping a closer check on any eyes that actually appear on screen in the premiere. Just like Fury himself, this hoot of an Easter egg reminds us that we need to pay as close attention as possible in every single scene.