Welcome to the finale of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, where the final fight is not an immediately resolvable one, a super soldier is brought back from the edge of madness, a popular fan theory is confirmed and a new costume is unveiled. What this episode does is ends the story arcs that do not need to go any further and opens up the future for the remaining characters of where they will go in the MCU - the biggest one being the announcement of a fourth Captain America film with Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson in the titular role.
The episode picks up right where the last left off with Karli and the other Flag Smashers trying to stop the GRC vote about resettlement going through. With Bucky and Sharon doing recon at the start, they don't keep us waiting long for Sam to show up in his new Captain America costume. In my opinion, it looks a little unfinished and in the early stages to me. Considering the Wakandans made it and what Sam's Falcon suit looked like early in the series, this Captain America costume looks a bit clunky and overstuffed. I'm not saying every costume has to have a sleek minimal modern look, this is a Captain America costume, it's that the Falcon costume was a lot better structurally and seemed better suited to Sam's combat style. Considering how well designed Wakandan armour and technology can be, that was another thing that made me think of how much better it could have been. But it did what needed to be done - it pushed Sam in the direction of accepting his new role as Captain America.
On occasion throughout the series, the Flag Smashers have been shown to be unsure of the extreme actions Karli has been willing to take. With their fight reaching its peak, you see again how everyone else is unsure of the lines she's crossing but they believe in the fight and see her as their leader enough to continue after a little bit of prompting. Karli is clearly the architect of this whole movement and is the only one that believes in it so strongly that she is willing to cross lines like killing hostages if she deems it necessary. It is that which makes her an opponent worth being concerned about. Otherwise, I've found that there's not much else beyond how much they characterised her dedication and belief in her cause.
John Walker shows up in the Captain America costume he still has and the new shield he made for himself, still trying to prove his worth after his pride has been hurt. The one useful thing he does is keep the Flag Smashers occupied while Bucky and Sam are too far off in other spaces to help the hostages in the trucks. Now, after John had tried to pull back the truck of hostages off the scaffolding, his super soldier strength wasn't enough. I think that showing that super soldiers weren't enough to pull that truck to safety and in the end it was Sam that did it made it a statement that whoever Captain America is does not need that serum running in their veins to know how the save people. As I watched it and saw the positions Bucky and John were in, I thought to myself that either of them could have jumped up the scaffolding to pull the truck to safety. But that would have taken away the significance of Sam being the one to do it. And I think this is the moment that pulls John Walker away from the madness that had been consuming him.
Following this is the reveal that many people predicted - the mysterious Power Broker is Sharon Carter. The showrunners may have intended for this to be a surprise after how much of a secret it was but it is very believable without considering the hints scattered throughout the series. The MCU timespan between Civil War and Infinity War was stated to be three years and then there's the five years of the Blip. That is between three and eight years that Sharon has been a fugitive of the law depending on whether she turned to dust as well. Even in those three years it makes sense that she would have turned her life in another direction that made her the Power Broker. She wasn't very well developed in the films beyond Peggy Carter's great-niece and a weak love interest for Steve Rogers so there was a lot they could do with her character. We've never seen what kind of person she really is and how she would react to her former life turning her back on her. Whether it was three years or eight years for her, you can see that she made something of herself that is more important than old friends/colleagues like Sam and Bucky being back in her life. With her investment in Karli, the Flag Smashers, being the one to help them start up their movement and spread it makes it seem like she probably didn't disappear during the Blip and that's why she was the person backing their fight from the shadows. But of course, Sam doesn't make it there in time to find out who she has become or realise how far she'll go to protect that secret.
Sam's unwillingness to fight Karli is a testament to his character and one of the reasons he is well suited to take up the mantle of Captain America. He still tried to understand and reason with her to the end, knowing that she was hurting and grieving for the people she's lost and the peaceful life that was taken from her. He wouldn't fight someone who was lashing out because that wasn't the way to help them. Sharon killing Karli wasn't a triumphant win for him and his determination to help her and bring her back from the brink of self-destruction is reminiscent of what Steve did for Bucky. You can see that Sam learned from that, in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Sam says that Bucky is beyond saving and should be stopped, but here in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, you can see that Sam believes now that there is always another way. He just didn't get the chance to prove that.
Sam's speech that follows is important. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is the first installment in the MCU to directly address the fallout of Avengers: Endgame that concerns the wider population and how people would have to readjust to their new lives. The Hulk's Snap wasn't an easy "bring everyone back and things would be back to normal" kind of situation, people had adjusted to not having half the world around. And now it was a whole new collective trauma with that half suddenly reappearing and having to go through a massive readjustment period again. It's not surprising that things have been going wrong and people have been mistreated with the situation but no one realises what is going wrong until they can blame it on someone they can call a terrorist before they're called out for it. And Sam calls them out on it right after bringing out Karli's dead body. Audiences have talked about the wider impact of the several Snaps to people's lives in the MCU but it was never fully addressed on a wider scale until now and that was an important element that could not be ignored. WandaVision gave us the representation of one hero's grief after so much loss piled itself on top but I think that could have happened with or without the Snap. With the two Disney+ Originals, they dealt with the grief and trauma of the individual and then of the masses. In a way, I think WandaVision helped set that up really well for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier to deal with, whether it was intentional or not. The ending just shows that there is still work to do.
After this, loose ends are tied up and some threads are left undone to follow on into future MCU projects. John Walker is outfitted in a new costume by Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, gaining a potential new monicker of US Agent. I wonder where this will go, if it's going to lead into the next Captain America movie or something else. Bucky ties up a loose end that I, personally, had forgotten about from the beginning of the series - giving closure to Mr Nakajima about what happened to his son when the former was the Winter Soldier. He also gives up Steve's notebook that he had been using with all the names on it, signifying that he has accepted that the Winter Soldier's actions were his past and he is ready to move on. I wonder if going forward, Bucky will still be called the Winter Soldier or begin to use the White Wolf name. That is still unclear as the show's title only changed Sam's superhero name from Falcon to Captain America, Bucky is still the Winter Soldier. After Sam's last visit to Isaiah, it was good to see that he still went back to talk to him after he made his decision about the shield. It was reasonable for Isaiah to not be able to accept the idea of a black man taking the mantle of Captain America but having the idea suggested compared to seeing it happen in a way he didn't expect is very different. It was good to have him accept it in the end despite seeming like he wouldn't. It makes it so much more worth it when Sam shows Isaiah the statue for the latter in the Captain America museum exhibition. This was a man who had been used as a weapon and then tortured for his service whose voice had been silenced for many years and finally got the commemoration and recognition he should have always had.
After the celebratory scenes with Sam's family and community by the boat, it wasn't all that surprising to go to Sharon's hearing to pardon her of the part she played in Civil War with the Sokovia Accords. However, it seems that a pardon was not enough for her as she's seen on the phone making plans to share government secrets and plans with someone else as she has been reinstated in her former role. It seems to be too little too late and I can see her becoming a significant villain in upcoming MCU projects.
Reasons to Recommend:
- Sam Wilson's Captain America
- A cause that doesn't get a clean "villain defeated, hero saved the day" ending with a lot more work to be done
- Clues to paths the MCU may take in the future
- Addresses one of the biggest issues in the MCU post-Endgame
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