Warning: This article contains spoilers for Episode 5 of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, “Truth.” Click here for more of our coverage on the series.
Whether because it followed on directly from last week’s shocking ending, the simple yet effective opening fight scene, the extra minutes added to the run time, or just Sam and Bucky finally hanging out instead of bickering, the latest episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was undoubtedly its best so far. While only 8 minutes longer than the previous episode, “Truth” felt so much longer, meatier somehow. Despite the high flying action scenes of the first episode, and the Gang Beasts style truck fight in the second, this felt more like tasty slice of a bigger movie, but it also highlighted some of the weaknesses with the series as a whole.
Before we get into those, let’s just reiterate that’s it’s a miracle that any movie or TV show gets made on this scale, and that’s before you factor in all the production issues that arise from trying to shoot during a global pandemic. With that said, there are a few things that were so good in this episode that they threw the others into sharp relief.
While that fight scene between Walker, Bucky, and Sam (holding his own against a super soldier) was one of the best of the series, it was the quieter moments that really dominated the episode. Sam’s discussions with Isaiah Bradley, Bucky, and his sister Sarah, almost felt like they were from another show. After Sam’s talk with Isaiah and particualtrly Sarah, it seems clear now that the series was always supposed to be about Sam reckoning with the history of Cap’s shield, the history of America, and his part in it.
It hasn’t always felt like that along the way though.
Captain America: Sam Wilson
While Sam’s spirit of optimism came to the fore as he faced the history of the super soldier program and Isaiah’s treatment by the United States government, I couldn’t help but feel as though this was played more as naiveté earlier in the series. Of course the U.S. government wouldn’t allow one of its greatest symbols (and icons of propaganda) to be retired. Of course Sam’s reliance on his status as an Avenger wouldn’t help him with the family finances. Now, after all that, it feels like his optimism might just become his greatest strength for the finale. At least I hope so.
They will never let a black man be Captain America, even if they did, no self respecting black man would ever want to be
Isaiah Bradley
Despite what Isaiah says, after this final episode, the show simply has to end with the title changing to “Captain America and the Winter Soldier,” or even the more accurate but less snappy “Captain America: Sam Wilson and the Winter Soldier.“
Of course Sam should wield the shield.
Legacy
If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that I can’t win every fight but that’s cool. I’m ok with that. But this is our history. We can’t lose this fight. All our struggles as a people, I think about it, and I used to say I’m gonna show them, I’m gonna go out and change the world.
Sam Wilson
Sam may have felt that he couldn’t live up to Steve Roger’s legacy, not only has he always been worthy, but now he has more than a few points to prove. Much like the family boat, he can’t erase the history of the shield, what happened to Isaiah, and how the government easily handed the shield out to someone new, but he can provide a new, better example to the world. Sam’s not just talking about the boat. He can show them, he can change the world. At the very least he’ll try, if only to prove Isaiah wrong. Sam’s realisation that he needs to take up the shield, that he needs to be the one, is what makes this episode work so well, but it casts the rest of the series in a different, slightly worse light.
The Hero’s Journey
It would have been all the more powerful if Sam’s journey had felt more integral to the show. Whether due to reshoots, a rumoured virus plotline that was abandoned, or production complications, it doesn’t really feel like it was. In the best super hero stories, the villains usually hold up some some dark mirror to the hero, or else link to their motivations in some way. How do the Flag Smashers tie into Sam’s journey?
Sure, he wants to help people, but so do they, at least initially. Super soldiers robbing banks and vaccines for the needy hardly provide a philosophical point for Sam to reckon with, at least until the intervention of Sam, Bucky, and Walker escalates things.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier skipped the opportunity to have Sam re-examine his feelings about the U.S., the World after The Blip (God, how I hate that name!), or even his opinion of super soldiers – except maybe when he told Zemo without hesitation that he wouldn’t take the super soldier serum if offered.
Instead of a storyline that shed light on Sam’s inner conflicts, we got a decent examination of Bucky’s issues, a confusing plot about Sharon Carter, and Zemo dancing (admittedly a very fun moment). How did Sam blundering his way through an undercover mission in Madripoor fit with him working his way back to the shield? Why on Earth would he leave his phone on in that situation!?
Wouldn’t Sam have considered that, if he had been Cap instead of Walker, he might have had all the time he needed to win over Karli when they met in Episode 4? Right before Walker burst in, sending himself, and Karli, on their separate journeys of no return?
Truth
Sam’s been an optimistic, “good soldier” for most of the series run, but it feels like the series drops the ball when he has nothing to say after Walker and the Dorae Milaje argue over who’s got jurisdiction, in another country, where neither really should. That seems like a pretty good jumping off point for some introspection, especially after Sam has been going around, doing whatever he wants, wherever he wants, for Uncle Sam, with no qualms over jurisdiction or law. (He did kick an awful lot of people out of helicopters in that first episode, even if they were bad guys/enemy combatants.)
This may feel like I’m being overly nitpicky about a show where a man with mechanical wings flies around fighting “crime” and hangs out with his time displaced, brainwashed, ex-assassin buddy with a robot arm, but The Falcon and the Winter Soldier had so many moments that felt like they were really going somewhere.
That imagery at the end of Episode 4, of Walker, standing, over the corpse of one of the Flag Smashers, bloody shield in hand, feels far too deliberate for the show not to have anything to say about the U.S.’s position in the world. It’s another hint at a truly ground breaking show, one that could have been, if only it had followed through. Especially considering how race in America has dominated the news over the past few years.
Other Concerns
While I may have felt let down by parts of Sam’s evolution, there were other developments in this episode that felt unsatisfactory.
While Daniel Brühl has been a delight as the head tilting Baron Zemo this season, his capture at the Sokovian memorial was something of a damp squib. Yes, he did get a cool fight scene (where he helpfully wore a mask to disguise the stuntman), and he did fulfill his primary goal of preventing the creation of any more super soldiers, for now at least. I think I would have preferred Zemo remain at large in the MCU for other shows and movies to play around with. Maybe Daniel Brühl is just too busy, or maybe his trip to the raft will eventually lead to some form of The Thunderbolts.
Meanwhile Karli has gone from wide eyed revolutionary to planning Sam’s death via Batroc “Ze Leaper” with glee. Also, is Sharon the Power Broker now? Where did that plot development come from? Why did she help Sam and Bucky in the first place? Was she using them as a back up plan to get the super soldier serum back? Has she gone full villain? If not, and it’s a big “if,” she would have to be part of some insanely complex, deep cover operation in order to justify her actions. It’s one thing to take part in criminal activities in pursuit of some big fish. It’s quite another to send a high kicking Algerian to assist in the murder of someone you were just hanging out with! Someone you were ostensibly helping when you could have just refused his call!
What’s In The Box!?
Perhaps I am expecting a little too much from a show on Disney+, but with this episode, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier really seemed to be trying to say something. With one episode left there may be time for it to wrap things up in a way that brings everything together, but that’s a lot of balls it has in the air.
The show has already thrown away what I thought would be an interesting way to bring the X-Men into the MCU by releasing an aerosolized version of Nagel’s new and improved the super soldier serum that slowly mutated and gave us mutants, but there is still hope in the form of Bucky’s Wakandan gift.
More than just a new set of wings for Sam, I really hope it’s some form of updated Captain America suit. One that is uniquely Sam’s. Not the government’s, not Steve’s, but one that Sam can wear with pride, one that honors Isaiah, while charting a new path.
So Sam finally becomes Captain America and everything falls into place for sSeason 2… and we start the wild speculation all over again.
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