After nine weeks of Disney Plus giving us WandaVision we only got a very short couple of weeks breather before we’re now going to be back into the MCU for another stretch of weekly storytelling with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
This first episode was equal parts high octane action and character based storytelling. The opening of the show was by far the best showcase of the Sam Wilson on a mission as Falcon that we’ve ever had in the MCU.
Sam, who up to this point has been in the role of Captain America’s wingman (pun intended) has always fulfilled the sidekick role to Steve Rogers, and even though both he and Bucky aka The Winter Soldier have been shown as complete bad asses before, this was the first time we completely get to see them take centre stage.
In many ways the start of the episode was a standard MCU opener. As a viewer the action was very fast that you kinda just go along for the ride and enjoy the flashy action, without getting a full sense of the stakes, and you’ll know that whatever the mission is, it will probably be completed by the heroes before going into the character based set up of the story proper afterwards. This is true of this episode, but it’s really worth noting that the action here has to win the award instantly as the best action sequence ever on a TV show. Yes that’s right…a TV show!
I genuinely can’t think of another TV show that has had action as big budget as what they’ve already done on this show. It was Marvel making a statement that the MCU on TV would still be 100% the standard of what the MCU is on the big screen. With both WandaVision and this show, you could make the argument that between the two shows, the four main characters have all been the movie B-Team players being the bigger fish on the TV screen small pond, but it certainly doesn’t feel like these characters are being treated as any lesser then the likes of Captain America or Thor here.
After the opening action we go to a sequence where Sam is giving away Captain America’s shield back to the government, having received the shield from Cap at the end of Avengers End Game. We are also treated to an appearance in the episode by Don Cheadle as James Rhodes aka ‘Rhodey’ or War Machine who speaks to Sam about not taking on the mantel as Captain America. This was a scene layered with extra meaning for long time MCU fans as both characters have lost their closest allies in Iron Man and Captain America (though the status of old Cap is a question in this show) at the end of Endgame. The choice of Sam to stick with his thought that there is only one Captain America is a big part of what plays into the ending of this episode and no doubt will play a big role in where the series will go.
The show then took us to Bucky who is still suffering from decades of being a brainwashed assassin for Hydra after the Second World War. We see that he has a flash back to a time where he killed a bunch of people, and later learn that he has been connecting with the families of his victims to in some way attempt to make peace with them.
To attempt to get over some of his past traumas we see that Bucky is undergoing therapy. This is an interesting idea that we’ve not really seen in the MCU other than a brief comedic post credits scene in Iron Man 3 where Tony Stark is speaking to Dr Bruce Banner, only for Bruce to remind Tony that he’s not that kind of doctor. But when you think about everything the Avengers go through they must all be nervous wrecks or need therapy of some kind.
Bucky doesn’t full tell the truth to his therapist who is hard on him to push that he is honest with her. Just as Steve Rogers found it hard to have a normal life and fit back into the world, so too is Bucky. Ultimately Captain America couldn’t entirely fit in with the modern day, and when the opportunity to go back in time and have a full life in the past where he had come from arose, he took it and had the life with Peggy Carter he had always wanted.
Bucky doesn’t seem to be pursuing the time travel option and we see him on a first date, but eventually he walks away from it. Clearly he isn’t at peace with himself even to the point of keeping gloves on through the date, explained away as poor circulation to hide his metal super arm. The thing that pushed his level of comfort over the edge was the talk that there are terms for people who have lost their parents or husbands/wives, but not for the people who have lost their children. Set up on this date by his neighbour we get the reveal that Bucky had in fact killed the neighbours child when acting on behalf of Hydra.
The guilt for his past actions which he can still remember, but had no control over at the time are being set up as the main arch for The Winter Soldier in this series. We can expect that throughout the episodes to come that Bucky will do a lot of soul searching and will in some way attempt to find peace with the past and build a new future.
One of the great things about the storytelling of the MCU in a TV event series form is that it allows us to get more insight into each of the characters then we can get in the movies. This is even more true now that there are an ever larger of characters to give screen time to. This episode introduces us to members of the Wilson family and specifically Sam’s sister Sarah, who like Falcon was a victim of Thanos and disappeared for five years during the blip. Just as WandaVision allowed us to see how people were affected with the blip with Monica, this is a chance to see how more characters and their families are trying to piece their lives back after years of not existing.
With a struggling business and financial woes Sam and Sarah attempt to get a loan at a bank with little result. The siblings were denied help despite his status as someone who fought Thanos and risks his life continually for the good of the world. There were signs that Sam was hopeful that being recognised as an Avenger would help get him some degree of support in his endeavour, but this only lead him to being questioned as to how Avengers make money, which has long been a question among fans.
Throughout the episode we are introduced to the Flag Smashes, who are terrorist anarchists who want the world to go back to how things were during the blip before the Avengers brought everyone back. In this sense these are people who want Thanos’s plan to have continued to have worked and I’m sure will provide plenty of nameless cannon fodder for Falcon and Bucky to beat up in spectacular action sequences in the coming weeks.
The big ending of the episode was when Sam and Sarah saw on the news that despite Sam giving Cap’s shield to the government for a historical display, they have now passed on the mental of Captain America themselves to a new soldier and the look on Sam’s face was of total disbelief. It can be certain that this new ‘Cap’ will turn out to be a villain, an incompetent or both, and by the end of the series Falcon will take his true spot as Steve’s successor.
Conclusion
A great first episode of the series which doesn’t give as much mystery as Disney Plus’s efforts with WandaVision, but more than makes up for it with solid MCU style action and familiar characters who we are able to dive into more depth with.
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