The Ringer-Verse - ‘Secret Invasion’ Episode 2 Easter Eggs [VIDEO]

Episode Date: July 2, 2023

Jessica Clemons is back with an Easter Egg breakdown of Episode 2 of ‘Secret Invasion.’ She checks out if we’ve seen any of the Skrulls in previous MCU entries (0:50), breaks down the Nick Fury and James Rhodey scene (11:41), what the powers glimpsed in the lab could mean (16:20), and more! Host: Jessica Clemons Producers: Aleya Zenieris and Isaiah Blakely Additional Production Supervison: Richie Bozek, Mallory Rubin, and Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, I'm Jessica Clemens here on the Ringerverse, and again, I'll be showing up on your feed with theories, Easter egg breakdowns, and explainers on all your favorite content. This podcast doubles as a video, and if you'd like to watch the amazing work our editors did, or you're just a visual learner, like myself, you can watch the video on Spotify, the Ringer website, or the Ringers YouTube channel.

Today, though, I'll be delivering the most delicious Easter egg breakdown, seen by seeing an order of appearance, pulling things you might have missed, and telling you things you just need to know. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Trimphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphaya is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks,

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Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfairadio.com. The second episode of Secret Invasion has a ton of references from the comics, previous Marvel titles, and things we just didn't know as a unit. Additionally, here's your one and only spoiler warning. I'm spoiling episode two, but also giving you insights from the trailer that you might have never seen. So if you need a warning, this is your warning.

Get out, come back, and then watch my breakdown. All right, let's get into it. We opened in 1995, fresh with some Captain Marvel footage. And remember, this is when Carol Danvers just came back to Earth after training with the Cree. So this entire flashback overlaps with her movie and adds perspective and clarity to those who forgot on how important their goal was to help the scrolls and spoilers how it went unfinished.

Post meeting tallows and posts agreeing to help the scrolls, we jump only two years later to Brixton London, 1997. Brixton doubles as a hideaway for the scrolls as we see it, but we also know this is where Stephen Grant, aka Moon Knight currently lives. This Nick Fury that we're seeing right now doesn't have a metal eyepiece that he's wearing at the end of Captain Marvel. It's just a note reminding us it's been two years

and our boys shouldn't keep the metal patch with tape over it at this point. Though this little hideaway looks like a withered community center of some sorts, the paintings on the wall show a variety of different people, but it's no coincidence that the first person we see is a blue woman symbolizing the Cree, perhaps. Be warned, I'm going to be like Crocker from fairly odd parents from this point out. Ad minute, you have very godparents! The female scroll assisting young Gravick is Vara, who we haven't met in the MCU yet. This is a character from the comics who is a part of the Knights of the Infinite,

a team of scroll-cree hybrids, assembled by Emperor Doric Supreme, to be heroes to the scroll and Cree, and ultimately unite them. I think Vara is Priscilla, aka Nick Fury's wife, played by Sherilyn Woodard. Fury's wife in scroll form at the end looks exactly like Vara. She has the same dark purple freckles on the ridge of her nose and lining on her cheekbones. They both have the same nose and face shapes. Suspicious, though, Vara is not credited anywhere, not an IMDB fandom or even at the end. It might be a secret, yet we know Fury was married.

It was a dressing Captain America, Winter Soldier. Either way, we find out during the Cree Skrerov's parents were killed by the Cree, and he escaped from behind enemy lines. He escaped on a ship alone and came to Earth. Then Vara says he'd be a great agent. And of course, he'd be a great agent. He's quick on his feet, stealthy, and can pilot a ship. Once the scrolls started revealing themselves,

I looked into each of their doubles in case we've seen them before in other Marvel properties, and it was pretty limited. Maria Teresa Creasy, the woman to the right of Soren and the Blue Jacket, voices Black Widow and Lego Marvel superheroes too. Michael Bagsy, back to the left of Gaia with the striped shirt, is actually acting as a Kree soldier in the Marvel's, so he's a snake. Then we're back to the present day bombing, right where we left off in episode one. And let me tell you, nothing screams, yes, I'm guilty of this attack, then calmly walking through the attack scene like Gravick is. Like, clearly it's him.

At least Gaia looks a little overwhelmed like everyone else does. We're now on a train from Moscow to Warsaw with Fury and Talos. Russian soldiers are searching each train car for Fury. Talos sort of Inception Tom Hardy-style shape shifts into a persuasive lady, and this is the second episode in which we mentioned Fury standing out for just being black in Russia. On the train, Fury reminisces about the past, and as fans of the MCU, we don't really know much about Fury's personal life. He's a man that keeps to himself and plays Papa to the Avengers.

We had mention of his grandfather and father Jack Fury, but here in Secret Invasion, we're getting glimpses of his wife and stories about his mom. It's just nice getting clarity on any background of Fury because he's been in the MCU forever, and we still don't really know him, and same goes for Roe. We knew Scrolls came to Earth. We just never clarified the amount, but now we know it's a million and that is a lot. Talo said that they sent out a call to come to Earth

so that beacon had to have been done under Fury's watch. Honestly, I think a lot of the immigration happened during Fury's time on Sabre. In their fight, Fury mentions this. Play the clip. And oh, it's too heavy here, man. I gotta go up to my space station. You've been up there for years.

You knew how to get in touch with me, Tilos. And you didn't because you didn't want me to know. Remember that the scrolls fled as soon as they were attacked. Even Grovick's family didn't make it out after being captured. So some of them probably didn't get the call or were able to escape Scrolos at a later point then arriving to Earth. Or if Talo's didn't blip, they could have come over during the blip because we know that Fury disappeared during then. Talos mentions Emperor Draug's Colony. Play the clip.

I sent out the call and every scroll that isn't in Emperor George's colony? The answer. This is a character straight out of the comics. Drag Finuidu was the smartest scroll in the story. the empire. When they captured the Illuminati, they studied them in the comics, basically taking and using all of Mr. Fantastic Super Level genius and dissecting the rest. Through his studies and cloning, he realized he could manipulate genes and create Super Scrolls. Now, when Talos says Emperor Drog's colony, they could be referring to the Dard Van, a zealous sect within the scroll

empire. Drog worked under Queen Varanke, the scroll empress, who basically led the Dardban. Also, being the nerd that I am, I've got to talk about a piece that Talos mentions right here. He says, we're being hunted across the universe. I had two choices. I could let my people be annihilated or summon them here to Earth. We knew the Cree were after them, but in New Avengers issue number 40, we learned that the Dardvan believed

that the scroll throne world would be destroyed by Galactus in the annihilation wave. Alas, the prophecy came true. Then Queen Veronica led the remaining scrolls to Earth. The annihilation wave was a group of insectoids that looked like big robotic bugs, and they could wipe out an entire world. So these keywords, annihilated, hunted,

and even referencing drug feels like a direct homage to the comics. The number on the car Fury and Talas are in is 19-48, which, bear with me. If you remember Marvel Hub Snaps from NECA, the little pog chips that you annoyingly like click, click, click, click, click, click, well, they came out with a checklist card. The first series, number 19 of 48, was actually Nick Fury. A coincidence? Or a dedicated production designer?

We jumped to London where we mourn Maria Hill. Her mother, played by Juliette Stevenson, is receiving her casket. We never met Maria Hill's mom, and like Fury, Rodey, Black Widow, even Phil Coulson, these agents are government officials in the MCU didn't really get backstories until very later in the MCU. Arguably, not at all for Rody and Colson. So this is another scene of clarity for us to see a different perspective of Maria Hill. She wasn't just Fury's right-hand agent. She was also someone's daughter.

Then we jumped to CUV News covering the explosions in Moscow. CUV News is featured in episode 8 of Wanda Vision when she storms the sword headquarters looking for Vision's corpse. We learned that 2,000 people died in this attack and that's a lot of people. Then we jump to another newscaster reporting a suspect in custody, Martin Wallace, the poor man who was captured by the scrolls. He's now labeled as the leader of Americans against Russia. So now Russia hates us and is retaliating. We jump to our man, Shooter McGavin.

I will never not see this man as Shooter McGavin. But I digress. Christopher McDonald is playing the news anchor Chris Stearns. FXN News is featured in Daredevil season three, episode 12, with the same likeness, with red and blue colors. It's giving America really serving eagle. This is something that I've noticed that can't be a coincidence. The green walls, floor and chairs

in and outside of the room of the scroll council. The prime minister's choice of a green emerald necklace. My man in the back of the EU meeting straight up in that heavy green attire, this man in the green behind Rodi on the phone with Nick Fury, these green placements can't be nothing. Now, do I think this is the ultimate tell of who's a scroll? Absolutely not.

But I think these large green accents aren't placed to make an outfit look nice or a room look more professional because they really pull your attention away from the shot at hand. Please, production designer, you have to listen to me for this show. At me on Twitter, I know I'm not crazy. I see what you're doing. I'm not crazy. Very good parents! We're then introduced to the council, the Council of Scrolls. Now I assume this council is the council that kicked Talos out. The members of the council that seem to be the most

important are the Prime Minister of the UK, NATO Secretary General Sergio, Chris Stearns, the news anchor, and Shirley. If you're wondering what NATO stands for, it's the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Secretary General of NATO is the top international civil servant, basically facilitating all discussions, chairing the meetings of most major committees, they're just a big deal. This is the scene where Gravick says humans are lower than dogs, which, I mean, I don't really disagree with. I like more dogs than I like a lot of humans. And criticizing everyone on the council for indulging in human stuff is like every movie when the antagonist hates what their people have become. Like Killmonger criticizing Tchalla and Wakanda for feeling superior and forgetting about all the other black folks.

Or in Falcon and the Winter Soldier, where the Flag Smasher Carly despises the government for their lack of effort helping those who didn't blip. These villains get a pretty fun yet common justification, which is like, we're no longer underdogs. I'm putting my foot down. They're not at all justified in their actions, but we see their end goals. Additionally, they're always orphans. They're always orphans in the MCU. If you're a villain or a hero, you just got to be an orphan, whether you're Gomorrah, daredevil, even Kilmonger.

He's an orphan. The rules are really weird. The rules are really weird. Gravick then mentions Fury speech they said at the beginning of the episode, basically where he's citing that we were all there. We all heard him. So all these scrolls we saw change eventually molded to be higher-ups, the news anchors. the prime ministers of the UK, Secretary Generals, they've been plotting.

Then we hear this. Play the clip. And what happens if the Avengers return? You don't think I thought about that? Put your face in me. Okay, so we've got two major takeaways, right? One, the Avengers seemingly have been gone since endgame. We, as the audience knew this. We don't really have a team anymore.

We just got a bunch of retired dads. And two, this sets up the Super Scroll. And just so we don't get lost, I'll come back to the Super Scroll bit a little further in this Easter Egg breakdown when we get into the lab. just hold on. After the council decides to promote Grovick to scroll general, Shirley calls and informs Talos of Grovick's newfound promotion, and this is when his characteristics start blending with Furies. You know how everyone's been telling Fury he's not ready for this. He needs to be more grounded and controlled. That's when Shirley starts warning Talos because he's acting like a loose

cannon since Sorin died. He tells Shirley to set up a meeting greet with the bad boy Gravick, which I assume is this scene we saw earlier from the trailer when Talos grips Gravick's shoulders and people in the little restaurant began shape-shifting to look just like him. So we can expect this meetup to be a setup. Also, this might just be me, but I don't think I trust Talos yet. He's acting a little weird. He's not listening to Reason with Shirley, not stopping his daughter who has explosives in the first episode. I just don't think he's here to help Fury or defeat Grovic. I think he just wants his daughter back after losing his wife. We jumped to New Scrollos where the people celebrate Grovick's return, whether it be his big murder bombing or new promotion,

they're genuinely happy. This woman thanks him, and she's credited as Kriega, who is actually a super scroll from the comics. Kriego was the leader of the Lava Man, a race from Subterania, kingdom beneath the surface of the earth made of lava. The Fantastic Four discovered the mole man living here, and I just think mole man's very funny. That's when Gaia follows Grovick through the sketchy, dirty plastic curtains, passing the Russian alarm signs to the secret lab. We've seen this lab plenty of times in the trailer. We have a scene where Fury sneaking in it, Grovic's skulking in it, but the biggest noteworthy

scene to take from that trailer is the fight scene that we're going to see between Grovick and Fury that we can expect to see soon. Now, I know, I'm sorry. I hate to be this person, but give me a little bit longer, and we'll talk about the lab and what they're doing there. I just need to get to that computer Groot scene. We then jump to the reporters outside the Emergency Summit to discuss America's involvement in the attack.

We're with 27 EU heads of state and the scroll prime minister. Rody says this about Slovakia. Play the clip. Slovakia rolls the size of me one more time I'm going to put on the suit and carpet bombing. Yeah, this is referencing his titanium suit we love so much that we have yet to see in the series so far.

But we got to look at what the war machine looks like, carpet bombing in Infinity War, De Thanos's goons. So just picture those little rockets plopping out of war machine on Slovakia to further your imagination. After the meeting, Rody receives a phone call from Nick Fury, and they meet at Burner's Tavern, which is an actual tavern in London, where they actually shot this scene. This is my favorite scene in the Secret Invasion series so far.

Honestly, I'll probably just say overall in the MCU. Personally, I love that we're addressing Rody and Fury's relationship when they're two sides of the same coin. And one of my biggest upsets in Falcon and the Winter Soldier was Rody not being there for Sam Wilson a lot. Ryan Cougar gets into this with Black Panther, but also in Creed, that black men need each other's support, especially in the same field. What better support system than Sam Wilson, Rody, and Nick Fury, a man who set up the Avengers

with two other Avengers. So I like this back and forth discussion, especially seeing as Rody works by the books now and his team government, and Fury was never really hashtag team government anyways, more team freedom of choice. In this conversation, Rody notes that all America's allies flipped to Russia were basically an isolated nation now. When Fury starts assessing Rody's agents, he tries to hint at them maybe being scrolls. Instead, Rody guesses he's talking about Hydra.

If you don't remember Hydra, that was a big, bad terrorist group in most Captain America Avenger movies. They were very basic. And when I say basic, I mean the opposite of what Kang was. They're more political, infiltratey type of villainous group. So it makes sense to still be on the government's radar. Even Fury mentions one of Hydra's top dogs Alexander Pierce when talking about how is black men, they have to work twice as hard. Alexander Pierce was the guy that was controlling Bucky and was undercover in the U.S. government

as one of the leaders of Hydra. This conversation also confirms that most government officials don't know about the scrolls, but Rody does after being part of an eyes-only top-secret presentation that happened about 15 years ago. So that presentation had to be around 2009 or 2010 and secret evasion takes place like mid-2020. So this was around the Stark Expo incident when Tony and Rody fought Ivan Vonko at the 2010 Stark Expo and Iron Man 2. After Fury tells Rody that we're being infiltrated by scrolls, Rody says, maybe we should call up our friends referring to the Avengers, which, what a freaking coincidence. What a great idea, Rody.

While the scrolls are stealing DNA and looking for people to harvest, we serve them the Avengers on a silver platter. Rodey's got to be a damn scroll. Fury says, this is my war. And yeah, a little because he started this, but ultimately, we cannot let people with superpowers into the hands of the scrolls. Use all the normals you can.

This show makes a crazy woman out of me. Then Rody sums up this entire conversation we're having, sparing absolutely no feelings in clapping back at Fury. Play the clip. Have you even listened to a word that I've said? Yeah, I have. The world is on the... line, the enemy is a million times more dangerous than Hydra, but they can only be vanquished

by you, alone. And you want me to make the power mean something by helping a brother out, but you should know better than most. The reason we wrestled this power from mediocre men who don't look like us was not simply to turn around and hand it to mediocre men who do. The point of this power is to be uncompromising, to be unsparing, to be able to sit across from a man we greatly admire, with whom we share an entire professional. professional, personal, ancestral history with, and to tell him without any reservation that he's fired. God damn, that was rough, and we witnessed all of it. Rody said, don't bother me. Don't butter me up. We ain't a team no more. And I mean, yeah,

this Rody is probably definitely a scroll, but also remember, Rody was team Iron Man during Civil War. So he's always kind of been on the books and not by freedom of choice. This won't be Rode and Fury's last time speaking because in the trailer there's another scene we haven't seen yet of them talking and what could be the White House or a very Ritzie Hotel. Behind Fury on the TV of the trailer, you see the photo on the top left that's like America's Most Wanted, and like Rody said, you're the most wanted man on the planet. Then we jump to Sonia, dressed to death in a plum and green pantsuit looking like She-Hulk or Barney.

She's a butcher shop, and this is our first time we're seeing her in the episode. After she makes a subtle, weird masturbation joke about beating me in regards to the scroll they're beating up, they hand off Rogan to Sonia. A big thing to take away from this interaction between Sonia and the torturers is Sonia hands them the phone to talk to her boss. The torturer says, of course, sir. Who is her boss? Who does she work for? Clearly, it's a man.

We also learn cutting off someone's finger can revert that finger back to scroll form. So essentially, once something dies, whether it be your entire body shutting down or cutting off an appendage, that will signify them being a scroll. It also reminds me of the scroll invasion in the comics where Black Widow grew tired of not knowing who was a scroll and began just shooting people. and if they bled green or turned into a scroll, that's just how we knew. Basically, that's what Sonia's doing right here. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session.

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Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Here's when I get into the scroll harvesting DNA, what I've been waiting for. So back at New Scrollos, Gaia has begun Google searching Rosa Dalton. Our scientists we met earlier talking to Pagan. Rosa and her husband, Victor Dalton,

are clearly collecting the harvested DNA that Gravick and his friends bring to them. So him mentioning a backup plan for when the Avengers show up and the eeriness of the lab scene all led up to this moment. Essentially, we assume is to create the Super Scroll or empower the scrolls even more.

We see the list of harvested DNA samples they already have. They have a bit of Groot. On the sample page, it confirms he's from Planet X, which we knew from the comics and from the first Guardians movie, where they referred to its origins as X. His species is the Flora Colossi. He's labeled as a humanoid plant. This sample must have been taken from Infinity War. Honestly, Groot is always using his long arm, so it could have been picked up anywhere, but this gives way to the scene in the trailer where we see Grovick's Groot-like ability in play. We've got the Frostby species in planet Yotenheim. It's labeled as carnivorous reptom mammal. We last

saw this creature in Thor 2 when it's trying to kill Loki, Siff, Thor, and the Warriors 3, we've got Coal Obsidian's hand. It was cut off in Infinity War by Wong, and I just like that the scrolls were there during or after Infinity War to pick up some of the pieces. It would make sense that it would be a smorgasbord of fine DNA harvesting. Additionally, coal species is still unknown. Lastly, we have extremists. It says species, terran, human, homo sapient from planet Terra, C-53 Earth. Extremist appeared in Iron Man 3, giving the person using it the ability of healing and regeneration. It kind of felt like Sonia gave Wallace a concentrated version of that later in the episode when torturing him

because his reaction to it and the reactions from people in Iron Man 3 look exactly the same. If their body rejects extremists, they jump in temperature and the body can explode. So no wonder it's a fine torture method. Now in the comics they made the Super Scroll, which was a genetically modified and enhanced scroll, who was given superhuman ability specifically taken from the Fantastic Four. This was clerk. Personally, I think what we did here in Secret Invasion was the mimic those powers of the Fantastic Four to make our own version of the Super Scroll in Gravick.

Groutes mimic Mr. Fantastic with the super extension, Frostbees being Sue Storm with their shields, pull obsidian being the thing with the tough skin and the strength, and extremists using the firepower like the human torch. So essentially, they're harvesting DNA from special soups to create a stronger army. We'll probably see the bigger picture when we see this scene from the trailer

of all the lit-up people and stasis looking like a bunch of clones. After John wicking everyone in the butcher shop, Gravick takes broken out back and gives them the old yellow treatment, and this man is very cheap. chill about everything. Him walking leisurely from bombings or literally killing one of his own men, and he always has his hands in his jacket pocket. What is up with that? I wonder if it's a side effect to him taking the serum, if he's taking the serum, like just having fatigue could be one of the many side effects because the serum probably isn't free from all error yet. It's always

just after doing the most work. He's basically just out cold, almost asleep. Then we jump to Fury going home. He lives in London. His home is also very beautiful. And there's a scroll in his house cutting vegetables. And once Fury reaches her in the kitchen, she's now Sherilyn Woodard. Does he know his wife is a squirrel? We don't know. But I still think that that's Vara.

Take a look again at this side-by-side reference from the beginning of the episode. She has the same dark purple freckles on the ridge of the nose and lining on her cheekbones. Additionally, they have both the same nose and face shape. Essentially, I think he knows. And it's also top priority they play the part as humans in disguise at all times.

She probably doesn't do it when he's home because he'll get on her case about it. But as they say, when the cat's away, the scrolls turn back into scrolls. Additionally, the song with the heaviest drop since any ADM song ever, I'm talking about Try Little Tenderness by Otis Redding, is playing in their home, which I'm sure a lot of people will dissect the lyrics,

but also everyone's mom listens to music while cooking or cleaning. My mom chooses Chaudet, Priscilla chooses Otis. And that's it for my Easter egg video on episode two of Secret Invasion. Brooked down on how to build a perfect super scroll, we obsess over the color green, and we learn some backstory for two MCU goats. Make sure to catch the House of ours deep dive and Midnight Boys' reactions to the second episode of Secret Invasion. Subscribe to the Ring Reverse on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast.

Follow us on TikTok and Instagram and Twitter at Ring Reverse. Follow us at the Ringer YouTube channel. That is YouTube.com slash The Ringer. Thanks for watching and listening and try a little tenderness. Yeah, yeah.