‘Secret Invasion’ Didn’t Actually Kill Off This Character, Did They?

This post contains major spoilers for Secret Invasion episode 3.

After fridging Maria Hill (who, despite fans’ refusal to believe she’s really gone, seems deader the more time passes), Marvel couldn’t possibly kill off another female character in Secret Invasion. Or could they?

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Because it sure seems like Emilia Clarke’s G’iah is dead!

To recap: Gravik figures out that G’iah is the mole who’s been leaking information to Talos and Nick Fury. He catches G’iah as she’s trying to escape the Skrull compound, and confronts her. When he tells her to turn around and face away from him for her execution, she defies him. “No,” she says. “You’ll look at me. And you’ll ask yourself, are you a leader of Skrulls, or our worst enemy?” As she says the last word, Gravik shoots her in the chest. He watches as she reverts to her Skrull form, signaling that she’s dead, and the camera lingers on her now green body, with blood spreading from the wound over her heart. Then Gravik drives off, leaving the body on the road.

However, there are a couple of clues that G’iah could still be alive.

Did G’iah survive Gravik’s attack?

The first, most obvious clue that G’iah is still out there is that there’s footage of her in the trailer, along with a photo of G’iah as a Skrull that was published in Vanity Fair, that we haven’t seen in the series yet. However, that footage doesn’t necessarily mean that G’iah survived. Marvel has been known to use footage in its trailers that doesn’t end up in the final cut of the film or series it’s advertising.

The second clue that G’iah could still be alive is that her body is left on the road. I can’t help but think of Thor: The Dark World, in which Thor leaves Loki’s supposedly dead body behind on Svartalfheim, which conveniently gives Loki a chance to sneak away. Could G’iah be faking it somehow? Can a Skrull shapeshift the illusion of a fatal chest wound? In episode 1, we watched Maria Hill’s body long enough to confirm that it really was her and she really was dead, but we only see G’iah’s body for a second.

The third clue that G’iah survived is, admittedly, grasping at straws. Fridging Agent Hill is bad enough, but wantonly killing off two major female characters before the series is even halfway over? There’s no way the writing on this show could be that bad. Right?

Right?

In any case, I’ll be tuning in next week—and I’ll have my fingers crossed that G’iah shows up to explain to Talos and Fury exactly how she got away.

(featured image: Disney+)