Last week’s debut episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier ended with the reveal that the United States had got themselves a new Captain America much to the stern look on the face of Sam. The second episode of the series starts off with a look at who the new Captain America is and we learn that he is a soldier called John Walker.
Whereas the brief wink at the end of last week’s show combined with Sam’s reaction indicated to us that we probably shouldn’t be too thrilled with this replacement Cap, the opening here does go some way to show us that he isn’t all bad as he shows vulnerability and nerves before the big stadium show in his home town where he is still being introduced to the world as the new face of the US army.
One small thing that bothered me, and this is nit picking is that a kid in the audience already seemed to have an action figure of the John Walker Captain America, and anyone who knows anything about toy production will know this is totally bogus that one will have been designed already let alone produced and on sale…anyway.
We also learn that Walker is a bad ass with references to his record as a soldier and that just like Steve Rogers he has jumped on grenades, but we’re lead to believe that he doesn’t have any super human abilities. In this sense you can understand why the character may feel somewhat defensive as not only does he have to live up to Steve Rogers, but he doesn’t have the benefit of the super human healing or strength that the original Captain America had.
The episode also gives us the first buddy up between the titular Falcon and the Winter Soldier as Sam goes off on a mission and is joined by an insistent Bucky, and one thing that struck me about the characters in this episode is how they were given a someone antagonistic relationship at times, and were only really united fully in their dislike for Walker. Maybe I’m forgetting something, but their interactions in the previous MCU films always seemed as if they got on well, so this was unexpected. The scene later in the episode where they had a staring contest was amusing, if a little weird. To me this didn’t seem to fit either character, and felt more like what I would have expected from Ant Man, or could expect from Hobbs and Shaw in the Fast and the Furious spin off movie.
Bucky definitely came over like he had a bigger chip on his shoulder where as Sam was the cooler headed tactician in the mission, and we got some great action as they had a roof top battle with a group of super soldiers who are part of the terrorist group The Flag Smashers. When Bucky first entered the back of the moving truck I think everyone watching could tell that the ‘hostage’ was going to turn out to be a baddie, and the fight sequence that followed was pure actiony MCU goodness.
Sam and Bucky were having trouble besting the villains and new Cap showed up to lend a hand joined by Lemar Hoskins AKA Battlestar, his partner and this pairing sets up a future tag team brawl pitting Bucky and Sam against New Cap and Battlestar.
Back to my nit picking for a moment, as much as I enjoyed the action scenes on top of the moving trucks, they also made no sense. Either Sam or Bucky could have easily stopped the trucks using their super abilities or tech. At one point Bucky grabbed into the road surface as if to try and slow the vehicle, but either could have easily made their way to the drivers door, or done something to disable the vehicles. Sam in particular can fly and so he could have done this with minimal interference form the baddies. And again as Sam can fly, why didn’t they continue the chase after being knocked to the ground? It felt like this whole action sequence was there more to introduce the super soldiers and make sure the episode had a big fight scene rather then it making total sense.
This episode also touched upon race after the scene at the bank touched on this area last week. We’re introduced Isaiah Bradley, who we learn was a super soldier who had previously had run ins with the Winter Soldier whilst Bucky was still brainwashed by Hydra. He is understandably frosty to Bucky, and Sam is disappointed to learn that there was a black super soldier whom we learn has been treated badly for decades. This includes being experimented on and imprisoned by the US government.
After leaving Isaiah’s home we see Sam and Bucky argue and when police arrive they instantly assume that Sam is the problematic one bothering Bucky. Bucky is quick to defend Sam, and echoing last week we see the police officer’s attitude change when they realise that Sam is one of the Avengers. These sequences say so much about how members of the black community are treated with generalisations and assumptions as both Bucky and Sam were equally part of their tense exchange, but only Sam was looked upon as in the wrong. This scenario wasn’t explored for too long, as in contrast to their assumptions, the police quickly realised that there was in fact an arrest warrant out for Bucky, who had missed his mandatory therapy session.
At the police station we get their staring contest as put upon them by Bucky’s therapist, and soon enough John Walker shows up and gets Bucky off the hook. Walker proposes to Falcon and Bucky that, they all team up, but the title characters snub Walker, and we get a sense from Walker’s reaction that this offer won’t be extended again.
The episode ends with the return of Helmut Zemo from the Captain America Civil War movie. This series could provide a good opportunity to explore Zemo more, as his character is one of the least explored in the MCU. To be fair, Civil War was all about pitting factions of the Avengers lead by Steve Rogers and Tony stark against each other, and whilst Zemo did play an important part of what happened, he was less memorable then other elaborately costumed or super powers baddies.
This episode is another solid entry into the MCU story and other than the questionable logic to an otherwise exciting action sequence, the plot seems to be building nicely. If the end point of the series is that Sam takes up the mantle of Captain America there is the risk that this will feel like a fun distraction, but leave us in the same place as we were before the series began. When End Game ended Steve Rogers was giving Falcon the shield to take over the Captain America name, and my prediction is that this series will have things there without there being too much else added new along the way.
WandaVision before it was much the same, as at both the end of End Game and the end of WandaVision we had Wanda with Vision being dead and the possibility of coming back. It may be that Disney create these Disney + series as fun to watch adventures, but ultimately ones that if you don’t have Disney + you won’t feel too in the dark when you next see a MCU movie at the cinema.
Conclusion
This was another fun dose of MCU action which brings in new characters form the comics and delivers great action. The ending sets up intrigue for episode 3 and it feels as if we’ve done a lot of ground work to establish where the series is going and I expect it to ramp up the stakes and action more each week.
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