This episode of The Flacon and The Winter Soldier picked up shortly after the events of last week’s shocking conclusion where New Cap John Walker had just killed Flag Smasher Nico by impaling him with the shield. We don’t see the direct moments after this happened but instead begin with Walker running away to a warehouse where he has a confrontation with Bucky and Sam.
After a moment of speaking calmly with Walker, they ask to take the shield and when Walker sees that they perhaps care less about him and more about taking the mantle of Captain America away from him he goes ballistic. The fight that takes place is by far the best that has happened in the series to date and is a tense two on one battle as the enraged Walker goes for the kill whilst the others are just trying to calm and subdue the recently enhanced Captain America.
It’s interesting to see that Walker would keep the two Avengers at bay for so long, as although he’s put over as a decorated soldier, there’s nothing to suggest that Walker could best both Bucky and Sam here. Sam’s wings get destroyed in the battle and for a moment it appears that Walker will kill him the same way he killed Nico. Fortunately Bucky steps in and between them they break Walker’s arm and knock him out.
After a really exciting start this episode does take a massive dip in energy and doesn’t really recover. The pacing was really baffling, as it almost felt like a combined epilogue and start of a new season as there was a complete of urgency from this point on.
Zemo, who had escaped last week was apprehended and whilst for a moment we were teased that Bucky would shoot him in the forehead, it was just a bluff and Zemo was taken away by the Dora Milaje and we assume he will face trail and imprisonment in Wakanda. I fully expect him to re-emerge in the MCU later on, but just as he was going to take his life at the end of Captain America Civil War it was interesting to see that Zemo was still accepting of his fate both to be taken away and when Bucky was going to shoot him.
Sam meanwhile paid a visit to Isaiah Bradley, taking the shield with him to discuss what had happened to him in the past and why America may or may not accept a black Captain America. This has been the central point for the series for Sam, and as we got teased at the end of the episode, no doubt next week will have him take on the mantel of Captain America to fight a fully formed evil Captain America in John Walker. For viewers who don’t watch the series on Disney Plus all they’ll know is that Steve Rogers gave the shield to Sam and in the next movie he is now Captain America, but this series has invested a lot into showing that that is a big decision for Sam and for everyone who watches the series will see a more developed character for it.
We also see Sam with his family and when Bucky turned up to help work on the boat I got a strange vibe of Lieutenant Dan joining Forest Gump, and wondered if they’d go out shrimp fishing. I didn’t expect they would, but maybe Disney saw the possibility of opening a chain of Falcon and the Winter Soldier shrimp restaurants.
This leads to Sam and Bucky practicing with the shield and we get a montage of Sam with it to show how deadly the thing is as it flies inches from taking Sam’s head off and crashes into stuff as he masters catching it.
On the Walker side of things we see that he gets dismissed without getting much chance to say anything to defend his actions. Probably for the best, but it’s all a part of the tragedy of how someone given the responsibility of the mantel of Captain America has tumbled down the wrong path and will become a villain. It wouldn’t surprise me if he later redeems himself or turned to the good side, as I doubt this series will end with new new Cap Sam Wilson killing middle Cap John Walker…time will tell though. Walker gets a visit from Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra, and whilst that name may be familiar to comic fans, she is an unknown in the MCU before this point. She wasn’t supposed to be however as it would seem she was supposed to debut in the Black Widow movie, but with the being repeatedly delayed to get a theatrical run this has turned to be her debut.
Walker visits Lemar’s family and comforts them that he killed Lemar’s killer which isn’t true as it had been Karli. I think this was in some way supposed to show that he lied or put him in a negative light, but the truth is they get more closure from thinking that their son’s killer has been taken care of rather than Walker say they are still out there somewhere. It also means that Walker can go and ‘avenge’ his friend, which is what the ‘avengers’ are all about to the point that that is their name.
We get a mid credits scene which shows that Walker is creating a new shield and that he will go out as a bad version of Cap next week – probably to hunt for Karli, but will most likely get stopped by Sam and Bucky.
So there you have it – an episode that started great and whilst it lost a lot of steam after that point, the storytelling it had was important for the future. It’s just a shame with the series almost over that the build did have to take a noticeable dip in energy to achieve it.
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