A recently abducted AIM drone is taken to a dark, scary room full of lights and surrounded by Skrulls, who begin the process of replacing him. His impersonator reels off a disturbing level of knowledge regarding his personal history — Dr. Lyle Getz, senior commander of AIM and next in line to become Scientist Supreme. Getz is taken away and the Skrulls go to work on another of their prisoners: the real Captain America, who is quite the conundrum for them. For the past two months they have been experimenting on him to find out how to break humanity but he has so far resisted everything that their interrogators, scientists, and shamans can cook up. As a last, desperate attempt, they stage a fake rescue by the "Avengers" but the Cap immediately sees through the ruse and breaks free. He takes his Skrull interrogator with him as insurance and ends up freeing the real Viper. They agree to cooperate with each other, at least until they are able to escape the Skrull ship, and start grilling their captive for information.
The Skrull homeworld was destroyed, as prophesied, by the planet-devouring supervillain Galactus and so they travel the stars in order to find a new homeworld. Having chosen Earth, they have infiltrated every human organization, with the Skrull interrogator boasting that they have already won. The Cap disagrees and together with Viper, he frees a number of fellow prisoners: Mockingbird and Clay Quartermain of S.H.I.E.L.D., Lyle Getz, Cobra from the Serpent Society, Henry Peter Gyrich, the government liaison to SWORD, and the Invisible Woman. There are tensions initially but Cap is able to convince all of them that they need to cooperate in order to get back to Earth alive.
The prisoners make their way down to the hangar bay to steal a shuttle but they find a single Skrull, Kl'rt, standing in their way. Unlike the others that they have faced, he possesses the powers of multiple superheroes and is able to fight toe to toe with any of them. The non-superpowered humans race to get the shuttle working while Cap saves Viper's life several times when he could have just abandoned her, because he's the Cap, damnit! Getz does try to leave both of them high and dry but is stopped by Quartermain. Finally all the prisoners are able to make good their escape thanks to some timely intervention by the Invisible Woman and the Skrulls cannot pursue thanks to the damage to their ship.
The Skrull queen is completely unfazed by this setback, having learned that Captain America is an inspiration to the people of Earth and the perfect messenger to convey their demands for surrender.
Tropes:
- All-Loving Hero: Cap never once considers the way that Susan could be useful to escaping, if she were awake; he just sees someone in need of help and carries her himself. He also rallies bitter enemies to work in common cause.
- All Your Powers Combined: As in the comics, Kl'rt possesses the combined powers of the Fantastic Four.
- Big Damn Heroes: Viper manages to wake Susan so she can use a forcefield to save Cap from Kl'rt's fire attack.
- Bittersweet Ending: The captives escape, but Veranke takes a lesson from Cap's ability to convince mortal enemies to follow him. The order to begin the first steps of the invasion is also given.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: All the prisoners have been detained for some time now because Veranke wanted to get as much information out of them as possible and to figure out how to subjugate the rest of humanity. This attitude expires during the escape attempt, as the Skril Commander orders them all to be killed.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Cap takes on an entire team of Skrulls masquerading as the Avengers and wins.
- Determinator: Cap, natch. The Skrulls are never able to break him.Captain America: Name: Steven Rogers. Rank: Captain. Serial Number: 54985870. And that's all you're ever going to get from me!
- Dirty Coward: Gyrich tells Cap he is permitted to save him at the expense of the others. It's Getz, however, that actively tries to leave the others behind during the fight.
- Eldritch Abomination: Galactus. He looks like we usually see him in the comics, but he never talks. He is described as something beyond beings like humans and Skrulls."The end had come, for Galactus is a force of nature. He cannot be reasoned with or bargained with. He has no conscience or mercy; he only consumes."
- The End of the World as We Know It: A flashback shows the destruction of the Skrull homeworld.
- Enemy Mine: Cap rallies SHIELD agents, Serpent Society members, and an AIM drone to work together against the Skrulls. Viper warns Cap that when the Skrulls are defeated, they'll be enemies again.
- Flashback: After The Teaser, we see the rest of Cap's abduction and his early captivity before skipping back to after Getz's abduction.
- Foreshadowing:
- He seems like any other Skrull, but if you're familiar with the comics, you know that Kl'rt is the real name of Super-Skrull.
- Getz mentions having designed a weapon that could kill all humans on the planet. This proves very important two episodes later.
- Skrull Cap orders the beginning of the Wakandan infiltration, which kicks off the next episode.
- Viper promises Cap they will be enemies again once the Skrulls are defeated, which is seen in "Along Came a Spider..."
- Genre Blindness: "There is nothing special about Captain America."
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: The Skrull interrogator won't answer Cap's questions on the grounds that he's too noble to get results. Cap concedes the point and then threatens to leave him to Viper, who's brandishing a makeshift knife. The interrogator immediately cracks.
- Honor Before Reason: Cap going back to save Viper from Kl'rt.Gyrich: Is he insane?! What is he doing?!
Mockingbird: He's being Captain America. - How We Got Here: After The Teaser, the episode winds back to two months earlier when Cap was replaced and shows some of his time in captivity before getting back to the present.
- I Owe You My Life: Why Viper opted to help Cap.Viper: I do not like being in my enemy's debt.
- I Warned You: Standing over Cap, Kl'rt says the Commander shouldn't have stopped him from summoning reinforcements before this got out of hand.Kl'rt: The Commander was wrong. You are dangerous. Too dangerous to leave alive!
- Little Green Men: How Cap describes the Skrulls when he sees them in his cell. He finds it rather amusing.
- Little "No": The Skrull interrogator as part of the faked rescue operation. He does it for real when Cap escapes with him as a prisoner.
- The Load: Susan Storm because the Skrulls drugged her and left her sedated.
- Miles Gloriosus: The Skrull interrogator is quite smug and confident when in control of the brutal interrogations, but he becomes a whimpering mess when Cap takes him prisoner. He fares even worse when Cap considers letting Viper have a go at him.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Cap was able to get away because of the phony rescue ploy. As part of the plan, the fake Black Panther slashed off the wrist restraints. Cap took the opportunity to remove the ankle restraints before revealing he knows it's a con and fighting his way out of the cell.
- No One Left Behind: Quartermain kicks Getz aside when he tries to leave the others behind during the fight. Also, Cap going back for Viper and Viper repaying the debt.
- Noodle Incident: On the subject of Viper's scar.Cap: What happened to you?
Viper: What happened is that I was given a reason to hate people like you. - Nothing Is Scarier: How the Skrulls interrogate their prisoners. We see one nasty looking tool, and we're also told that Cap took punishment (and then some) that usually breaks prisoners.
- Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: Cap spends two months in Skrull captivity, and nothing they come up with comes close to breaking him.
- Oh, Crap!: After Kl'rt deflects a blast with a force field.Mockingbird: Uh-oh.
- One-Man Army: Cap when taking on the Skrulls impersonating the other Avengers.
- Percussive Maintenance: After knocking out Getz, Quartermain takes the controls and struggles to work the shuttle. Once everyone's aboard, he panics and starts hitting the console with his fists. It works, getting the shuttle into the Asteroid Belt. He's as surprised as anyone that that actually worked.
- Planet Eater: Galactus destroyed the Skrull homeworld.
- The Power of Trust: Tested as all of the captives are uncertain who is human. Steve orders them all to work together to escape the Skrull ship.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Viper reminds Cobra that it's in their best interests to listen to Captain America so that they can escape the Skrulls.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: The last attempt to break Cap is to make him think that the other Avengers have found and rescued him. He doesn't buy it for one second.Cap: How stupid do you think I am? [punches out the fake Iron Man]
- Prison Episode: Albeit on a ship docked by Saturn.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Kl'rt to Viper about humans.Kl'rt: Humans, you think you're special? Even your powers, we can make more powerful!
- The Reveal: Henry Peter Gyrich, Cobra, Getz and Quartermain have also been replaced by Skrulls.
- Scream Discretion Shot: As Getz is being restrained, the camera pans down in Cap's cell. We hear Getz scream throughout.
- Smug Super: Kl'rt, as evidenced by his little speech. He also gives Cobra a smug smirk before burning him.
- Story-Breaker Power: Getz lampshades how the Skrulls had to keep Susan sedated, due to her powers. Once she's finally awake, she's able to easily save Cap from Kl'rt.
- Stunned Silence: Viper's reaction to Cap giving up the chance to escape to save her.
- Trap Is the Only Option: Cap and Viper immediately notice how the shuttle being unguarded isn't a good sign.
- Villain Ball: After Captain America escapes from his cell, the Skrull commander prevents Kl'rt from summoning reinforcements on the grounds that Cap isn't special, despite having just gone on at length about how they've been unable to break the guy. Cap is able to join with other prisoners and make a break for it, as a result.
- Wham Shot: The escapees run into an elite Skrull with the powers of the entire Fantastic Four.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Commander orders Kl'rt to do everything possible to stop the prisoners from getting off the ship and later tells the mooks to gun them all down. Kl'rt gladly takes the opportunity to get rid of Cap for causing all this and says he's too dangerous to spare.
