The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Man, these six episode seasons fly by don't they? We are at the last two episodes of the season and once we are done someone will have taken over the mantle of Captain America from Steve Rogers. Don't know who or hankering for a refresher? Read on.
"Truth"
Isaiah Bradley: "They will never let a black man be Captain America. And even if they did, no self-respecting black man would ever wanna be."
After committing murder in broad daylight in front of a crowd of witnesses, John Walker takes off with Bucky and Sam in hot pursuit. Walker justifies what he's done and when Bucky and Sam don't buy it the three face off. After a heated battle, the Falcon and the Winter Soldier are victorious and Walker heads to a Senate hearing where he is disgraced and unceremoniously booted from the military. Things start to look up when he and his wife are approached by the mysterious Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Sam and Bucky do some soul searching while Karli and the rest of the Flag Smashers put their final plan into motion with some help from a certain leaping Frenchman.
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| Foreshadowing... |
"Truth" is the penultimate episode of this season and it is a quieter episode. There is one big action sequence but the rest of the episode is more focused on long conversations between the characters, particularly Sam and a number of people. That isn't to say there is no action in the episode, it begins with a great three way fight where Falcon and Bucky face off against John Walker the super soldier. This is a brutal fight that pushes the "PG-13" boundary nicely without being gruesome. The fight choreography in this show has been top notch from the jump and this one might be my favorite of the whole series. I am a little suspicious that Walker would get Bucky on the ropes so quickly, but he is hyped up on adrenaline, super soldier serum and crazy, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt here. That final move where like Bucky lifts Walker up so Sam can clothesline him is super dope.
The rest of the episode is quieter but that doesn't mean its bad. Far from it. We get lots of illuminating conversations between our various characters and the writing, acting and direction all work in tandem to keep them from being a slog. Walker spends most of his justifying what he's done. He believes that he had the right to kill that Flag Smasher because they killed Lemar and even after he gets confirmation that wasn't the case, he's willing to continue this lie because it delays him coming to terms with what he's done. It doesn't help that Val shows up and tells him exactly what he wants to hear. You have to give a slow clap for Julia Louis Dreyfus who makes a magnificent entrance into the MCU here. Val is oily, charming and snarky all at once and her you're going to do what I say attitude is a nice jolt. I can't wait to see where she turns up next.
Bucky finds Zemo at the Sokovia memorial and their interaction is a nice period at the end of their sentence. Zemo tries to his last to try and convince Bucky to do what he wants, kill the super soldiers, but Bucky stands firm. Bucky's journey this season has been all about what it means to make amends and his talk with Sam about what that really means is a nice bookend to this scene with Zemo. Zemo ends up in the Raft thanks to the Dora but with Val running around recruiting, I can't help but think he won't stay there long.
It's not a surprise that the most important conversations in this episode are between Sam and various characters. The most impactful is the one that he has with Isaiah Bradley. It's a travesty that Carl Lumbly got zero awards recognition for this role because he is amazing. His hurt, anger, sadness is palpable as he tells Sam the story of his brief tenure as Captain America. How he and his fellow soldiers were experimented on then discarded has shades of the Tuskegee experiment. Lumbly makes you feel all of it and it really elevates this, for all and intents and purposes, monologue. Some people were turned off by "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" bringing discussions on race into the MCU, but a couple of things. This is a very broad discussion. It's not re-inventing the wheel and in the end things are kind of wrapped up in a bow. That being said, Marvel has always brought real world issues into their storytelling and it's nice to see the MCU doing that here along with "WandaVision" touching on mental illness.
I really love this episode. There is all this, plus a fun montage of Bucky and Sam fixing up the boat and Bucky flirting with Sarah. A Sam training with the shield montage. Everything is queued up for a thrilling series finale.
Grade: A
"One World, One People"
Bucky Barnes: "Sorry, I was, uh, I was texting and so, all I heard was, um, 'a Black guy in Stars and Stripes'."
Karli and the Flag Smashers have taken the GRC hostage and are ready to kill them if they don't get what they want. Luckily, Sam has taken up the mantle of Captain America and is ready to stop her and he won't let anyone get in his way, including Batroc and an out of control John Walker. Not to mention, the Power Broker is making their final move in the midst of all this. Will Sam prove Isaiah Bradley wrong or will his first time out as Captain America be his last?
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| Captain America |
There is starting to be a pattern emerging with these MCU Disney+ television shows. The penultimate episode is a more contemplative affair while the finale is a balls to the wall, action packed episode that plays like the third act of most MCU movies. There's nothing particularly wrong with that, but after the phenomenal last episode, this one can't help but feel like a little bit of a let down.
There's honestly not a ton to talk about here. The big moment of the episode is, of course, the reveal of Sam Wilson as the new Captain America, officially. I love this costume. It is basically exactly the same as the Sam Wilson Captain America costume from the comics and I'm here for it. I love the integration of Sam's usual Falcon fighting style with the shield. Redwing is still around and is involved with one of my favorite moments of the episode, when Sam works with a woman on a helicopter to take out the Flag Smasher and safely land the helicopter.
Batroc being the first major villain that Sam goes up against as Captain America is a nice call back to Steve facing off against him in "The Winter Soldier," which was the first Cap movie set in the present. We love an homage.
Not everything works for me. The reveal that Sharon is the Power Broker is maybe one of the least surprising reveals I've ever seen. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out now that she is pardoned and back working for the US government. The show kind of loses it's grip on Karli in this episode. Whereas before they were kind of walking a fine line and keeping her in the gray area, this episode pushes her firmly into the unequivocal villain column and her death feels like it only happens so Sam can use it in his big speech at the end of the episode.
That brings us to Sam's speech he gives. Like, it's well written and Anthony Mackie delivers the hell out of it. But it feels like the creators of the show were concerned that the audience wouldn't understand what they were trying to get across so they decided they ended to have it spelled out explicitly. I don't love that and I wish they would have trusted us a little bit more.
The rest of the episode is an epilogue of sorts. Sam meets up with Isaiah and shows him that he had the Captain America exhibit in the Smithsonian amended to include him and his platoon. This is a nice moment, but at the same time, Bradley's change of heart doesn't feel earned, so this resolution just comes off a little too pat. Bucky finally comes clean to Yori and makes amends. I wish the episode had lingered on this a bit longer. It was such a big part of the first episode that I feel like we deserved a bit more. John Walker makes his debut as the USAgent. And Zemo's manservant uses a car bomb to dispose of the rest of the super soldiers. So, alls well that ends well?
All in all, this was a great series that gave the Sam becoming Captain America story the room it needed. Malcolm Spellman is hard at work on a Sam Cap movie and I can't wait for it.
Grade: B
Next up, we catch back up with Loki after he steals the Tesseract in "Avengers: Endgame."
What do you all think of this series? Where does it rank out of the Disney+ shows for you? Let me know in the comments.
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