The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (1.4): Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

Whatever reservations I had about The Falcon and The Winter Soldier coming out of last week’s episode and the confusing direction of the show have started to dissipate after the show’s fourth installment this past week. The emotional tenor of the show was surprisingly strong in those first two episodes for both Sam and Bucky even as they started to resume their adventuring. In Madripoor in the third episode, the show sacrificed those moments in favor of embracing a setting untethered to any of its characters (besides maybe The Power Broker – whom we still don’t know – and Sharon – who takes far more of a backseat this episode). Immediately in this week’s episode, we are in a familiar place and space. Throughout the remainder of the episode while the place changes (and then maybe doesn’t? I’m not sure, all the abandoned buildings look identical), the space each character inhabits digs deeper into who they are and perhaps more importantly, who they could become.

In the beginning of this week’s The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Bucky is back in Wakanda over the course of a flashback. He is working with Ayo to deprogram his brainwashing at the hands of Zemo and Hydra. The intensity rises as Ayo starts to recite his trigger words and the horrific acts that Bucky has committed flash onto the screen. They continue flashing as the camera gets closer to his face. He holds his anguished look through each word. The camera finally cuts to Ayo, who states “You are free.” Immediately the tension subsides into overwhelming emotion as Bucky lets go of his fear. This short scene isn’t just a hard-fought catharsis for one of the most tormented characters in this world but sets the tone for the whole episode. It is an episode driven by the theme I honed in on in the show’s very first episode: each character finding out who they are and how they fit into this post-blip world. The story comes back to that for not just Sam and Bucky in this episode but Karli Morgenthau and John Walker as it brings all of the major forces in the show together in one place.

Karli and John’s journeys are front and center in this particular episode as they both hit a crescendo. Karli and Sam share a connection that Sam tries to use to bring her fight for justice to more nonviolent means. Sam’s perspective both as a former soldier and someone who helped counsel those recovering from the traumas of war uniquely equip him to be able to connect with Karli on a level that Zemo refuses to believe still exists in her since she took the super soldier serum. Oh, and now the serum is all but destroyed, expect... not before John Walker could get his hands on it. While his conversation with Battlestar/Lemar before he takes the serum seems to set up his desire to take it: “Imagine how many lives we could have saved that day if we would have had the serum?” A number of earlier scenes point to a desire more self-serving and driven by insecurity. After Ayo and the Dora Milaje hand John (and everyone including Bucky, Sam, and Lemar) a beat down, he Is left holding Captain America’s shield muttering in a disillusioned tone, “They weren’t even super soldiers.” It’s clear in that moment that John is feeling the weight of imposter syndrome. Karli’s existential crisis is to come, especially after Sam questions her methods and beliefs in this episode. John’s was there far before the show’s timeline picked up. Perhaps that’s why Lemar’s death at the episode completely unhinges him and causes him to commit a horrific act in broad daylight. Or perhaps it’s as Lemar described in their earlier conversation, the super soldier serum doesn’t change who you are, it just amplifies what is already there.

There are only two episodes of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier remaining and it’s clear that even if we never see John Walker or Karli Morgenthau after these episodes, they are emblematic of many of the people trying to navigate the post-blip world: confused, angry, and lost. Maybe Sam’s initial approach with Karli was the right way to go, after all.