The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (1.1) Episode Recap: Two Stories Diverged

The full-throated action is back, baby! Like it or not, we are going to punch some people, we are definitely going to jump out of planes, and surely, we wouldn’t go without blowing up some helicopters. While the trailers of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier promised action, the first 5-minutes or so of the television did more than enough to deliver on that promise. After those moments though (and a literally nightmarish action sequence introducing Bucky Barnes A.K.A. The Winter Soldier), the show starts to settle into its respective stories of two seemingly forgotten superheroes in Marvel’s post-blip world. That last part is key because as the show’s first episode switches between its two main characters, adulation and popularity are hardly part of the story.

Sam Wilson’s story as The Falcon picks up shortly after he receives Captain America’s shield at the end of Avengers: Endgame. In some ways, Anthony Mackie’s performance as Sam Wilson almost feels too polished. The man is an accomplished actor whose stage presence is offset only by his obvious charisma on said stage. The moment in the beginning of the episode when Sam is contemplating taking up the shield himself (like Captain America told him he should) and the moment at the end when he finds out that the government is trotting out a whole new Captain America without ever talking to him belie something more to the performance though. The moments in between those two are marked by a jovial and unrelenting optimism from Sam, especially when he discusses the family business in New Orleans with his sister (a nice touch given that is actually where Mackie is from). His sister is tired, she sees the writing on the wall, and she refuses to hope against hope with everything she has experienced and dealt with on her own. Sam refuses that outlook, but the moments where he lets his guard down (like the beginning and end of this first episode) reveal something more. I hope the show gives Mackie a chance to showcase that even more. The reveal of the “new” Captain America at the end of the first episode sets up Sam’s story for conflict, but even more importantly, it might set it up for a reckoning. Sam demonstrated in this first episode that he refuses to believe there is a problem he cannot solve, but what happens when he is forced to confront the fact that are out of your control and you can’t solve, not even by being a superhero.

Throughout this whole introductory episode, Sam and Bucky’s stories traverse separately. Sort of. They are never physically together, and they never have a conversation, but each hero is dealing the aftermath of the blip and their place in the world. While Sam has his sister and friends and family in New Orleans, Bucky doesn’t have much of anyone besides his (mandated) therapist and an old man named Yori. This friendship isn’t explained at first, but it’s precious. They have lunch together and converse about Yori’s late son and Yori even gets Bucky a date. The delight of the mundane is amplified when Bucky ends up playing Battleship on his date at the restaurant after it’s closed up. Of course, the fact that he cannot bring himself to make amends with Yori after remembering he was the one who killed Yori’s son adds a more complex layer to the story. But it’s in these quieter moments where the first episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier thrived. As the show, the MCU as whole, slows down, it allows its storytellers and audience to flesh out these characters more. It certainly didn’t affect the pace of the episode either. An adequate amount of time with Sam and Bucky leave us with a far better idea of who they are as opposed to how we came to know The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in their respective movie appearances.

The Flag Smashers represent the villain in this particular miniseries, or so the first episode has set up. Until the series reveals more about this group that had one super powerful member who steals (only??) two bags full of cash from a bank, I am holding off spending much time with them. In a 6-episode miniseries, exposition is precious and a storyteller best make it count. Rather than use the exposition in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier as a plot device to keep pace moving forward, the creative team behind the series used it as a way to detail these characters we have spent so much time with over (please don’t make me go look up how many Marvel movies I have watched again) 20-something movies but have barely gotten to know. While the start of this series feels much closer to many of the films (particularly the Captain America trio) than WandaVision did, it carries a similar tenor of finally starting look beyond the bombast and spectacle. The small change of pace is a breath of fresh air.