Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 4 catch-up
*** WARNING: The following review contains spoilers for all current episodes of Falcon and The Winter Soldier ***
Last week Falcon and The Winter Soldier introduced us to an old enemy in Daniel Brühl’s Helmut Zemo, helping Sam (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky (Sebastian Stan) track down the leader of the Flag-Smashers, Karli Morgenthau (Erin Kellyman). This week, start with a glimpse of the past, and a chilling vision of the future.
The episode begins with a flashback to Wakanda, where Bucky is ridding himself of his Winter Soldier programming with the help of Ayo (Florence Kasumba). It’s a nice little scene that gives some light notes to Bucky, after so long being a tortured soul. Back in the present, we pick up where episode three left off, with Ayo confronting Bucky about Zemo. She wants to bring him to justice for killing the former king of Wakanda, but Bucky insists he needs time and buys a few hours.
With John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Zemo, Morgenthau and now the Wakandans all pulling in different directions, this episode tries to define who we should be rooting, but intriguingly adds to the shades of grey. Sam and Bucky look for Karli by asking about her recently passed mother, finding only uncooperative followers who resent the authorities they work for. Zemo, in a brilliantly creepy scene, lured the local children with sweets in order to find the location of the mother’s funeral.
What’s interesting is that the series is becoming a battle of perspectives as much as it is weapons. Karli obviously sees herself as a freedom fighter, and while Sam doesn’t agree with her methods, he sympathises were that feeling of being excluded in your own home. At the same time, Zemo insists she is a supremacist – a super soldier, by their nature, will move toward supremacy eventually, citing everyone except Steve Rogers as an example.
John Walker and Battlestar (Clé Bennett) catch up with the trio, demanding answers about Zemo and insisting they simply take down Morgenthau. Sam believes that he can reason with them, and Zemo uses his knowledge to keep the new Cap from arresting him straight away. Sam attends the funeral and talks to Karli alone. The pair find common ground, but an increasingly jittery Walker, who has felt inferior because of his lack of super soldier-ness, grows impatient and bursts in. Cue a big fight, where all the key players become scrambled around a maze-like building. Zemo finds Morgenthau and shoots her, spilling the remaining vials of Super Soldier Serum. Zemo destroys them, and Morgenthau’s plan along with it. As she escapes, Walker catches up with Zemo and knocks him out with the shield, finding one last vial of the serum and pocketing it.
And so we get to a very interesting moment in the story. Walker, thus far, has been a bit irritating and smug. This week we got to see some insecurities behind that square jaw, and a hint that this ego might soon be super powered is very interesting indeed. But will he take it or not? We don’t have to wait long to find out.
Back at Zemo’s apartment, the group plan their next move before Ayo and her soldiers swoop in, demanding Zemo. A fight breaks out between them and Walker, with Bucky and Sam eventually getting involved when it’s clear they are out to kill. Ayo and company make short work of them all, literally disarming Bucky and humiliating Walker, who looks like he’s seconds away from downing that serum like a cheap shot. In the melee, Zemo escapes. While he may be the shadiest character in the show, you can’t help but grin when he evades captures once again.
Now safe, Morgenthau contact’s Sam’s sister Sarah (Adepero Oduye), telling her she believes Sam means well but that she can’t trust her. She implies harm to her kids, before telling her to pass a message on to Sam. There’s an interesting dynamic here, where Sarah (who is struggling financially with no help from her government) also disavows Walker. “My world doesn’t matter to America, so why should I care about its mascot” she says in a chillingly poignant moment.
What’s interesting about the MCU/Disney+ shows so far is that they move away from the lines of good and evil (one of Morgenthau’s minions literally says as much in one scene). We understood why Wanda did what she did, but at the end of WandaVision it’s made clear that, to the people of WestView, she’ll always be a villain, and that’s just how it is. In Falcon and The Winter Soldier, both heroes will fight for what they believe in, but also acknowledge that the star on their uniforms doesn’t mean hope for everyone. For a show that threatened to be more of the same early on, these developments make things much more interesting.
So, we come to an explosive finale. Sam gets the message and meets with Morgenthau, who offers him the chance to join her. It’s revealed the real plan is to kill Captain America, with Battlestar captured. Learning they’ve been duped, Sam and Bucky race to the Flag-Smashers base where they join Walker, who appears to be a lot more… super… than when we last saw him. Walker, clearly having taken the serum, is going toe-to-toe with Morgenthau, who still has the better of him. However, Battlestar saves his friend by throwing himself in front of one of her blows, which instantly kills him.
The Flag-Smashers flee, with a raging Walker chasing one down and beating him to death with a shield – THE shield – as locals watch on in horror. We close with a striking low shot of Walker standing tall, the shield stained with blood.
Now that’s how you end an episode! For all the moral vagueness and philosophical discussion, you do need characters to point to and say “they’re no good”. Whatever the motivation, Walker has clearly overstepped the line and will perhaps become a supervillain. With the potential for allies now limited, Morgenthau also seems in a lot more jeopardy, while Sam and Bucky have to wade through the chaos to do what’s right. For the first time this series, we can’t wait to see what comes next.
New episodes of Falcon and The Winter Soldier are available every Friday on Disney+