Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Secret Invasion So many things happened during the finale of Secret Invasion, the latest Marvel show to hit Disney+. For a quick rundown, Secret Invasion follows the life of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) as he comes back to Earth to help Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) and fight back against rebel Skrulls under the leadership of Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir). The rebel Skrulls are trying to take over the world, and doing so by making the humans fight one another. To avoid a huge war, Fury must find a way to defeat Gravik and help out other Skrulls — basically a million of them — to the best of his abilities.

There were a lot of revelations, action-packed scenes, answers, and, of course, even more questions in the finale. This episode, entitled “Home, » was met with pretty low reviews by fans and critics as it failed to properly deliver what it had hoped to achieve. It gave a pretty lackluster finale as opposed to the previous episodes, which were actually setting up for something more intriguing, and one of the reasons why this latest MCU show isn’t necessarily on plot, but length.

‘Secret Invasion’s Episodes Are Way Too Short

Other MCU shows run for more than 40 minutes to about an hour per episode. However, this series, especially the last three, only last for half an hour, which affected the overall quality of the storyline. The first few episodes were setting up huge things for the rest of the series and the future of the MCU, and it did its job to intrigue viewers, making the story feel increasingly promising. But by the halfway point of the show, it just kept falling apart, and it’s partly due to the runtime.

The show revealed a lot of surprising twists — there’s the big reveal that Priscilla/Varra (Charlayne Woodard) is the wife of Fury, the numerous world officials actually turning out to be Skrulls in disguise, President Ritson (Dermot Mulroney) declaring war between Skrulls and humans, Super Skrulls, and the unexpected deaths of some of our favorite characters. A lot went down in the show. However, the execution would have been so much better if they just gave more time for the stories and the tension to develop. Everything feels cramped and rushed, leaving little to no room to breathe with the amount of new information being thrown out. On the other hand, due to the length of the episodes, the show did not get to properly introduce proper context or build up what’s at stake, which is why the finale fell so short. Having to squeeze every story and loose ends in one half-an-hour episode was not the most optimal decision in terms of quality and building excitement for what’s to come.

Talos’s Character Arc Deserved To Be Fleshed Out More

For instance, in the finale, they did not properly show just how the captured world officials felt upon learning that they have been stuck in the Skrulls’ headquarters for who knows how long, especially that of Rhodey (Don Cheadle). They were just escorted out of the place and no follow-ups were made. Another instance is surrounding Talos’ death. This Skrull was last seen fighting alongside humans when the Skrulls attacked the president en route to a meeting. Talos was ultimately killed by Gravik, and besides G’iah (Emilia Clarke) and Varra giving a Skrull-style funeral, there’s nothing more from Talos, who was basically the only remaining Skrull to side with Fury.

Talos has been a huge part of Secret Invasion and the overall MCU, and how he’s been planning the future where Skrulls and humans can co-exist just evaporated. His death was not given enough justice, and if they were to give him more scenes and a proper send-off, things would be different. Of course, there’s also the relationship between Varra and Fury. The two being married was a huge surprise for many, especially knowing that Varra is a Skrull. While the couple shared some scenes, the show just did not have enough time to establish how they worked together throughout the years.

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There’s only so much they could fit in an episode, and, in turn, the show lost a lot of potential and excitement. There’s essentially no room for sharing little moments of the characters, no scenes where they’re just living and doing things that are not too relevant to the show. Apart from creating enough tension and action-packed sequences, making “mundane” scenes are also important as they establish who a particular character is. So, without it, the audiences may not be able to connect with a character as strongly as expected. This goes to show how much of the storyline has been sacrificed just so that the running time for each episode is maintained.