Let's Talk About THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER - "The Whole World Is Watching"
Dammit, John Walker! Ugh, this new Captain America guy… he’s the worst. For those of you who thought there was hope for this character, this latest episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier smashes that hope to pieces. John Walker goes full ass-hat, makes the worst decisions, and he finally completely loses it. Like a lot of fans, I saw this coming!
Walker ends up getting his hands on the Super Soldier Serum and takes it, giving him the power of being a super asshole. He ends up spiraling into a murderous rage after Karli accidentally kills his partner Lemar Hoskins a.k.a. Battlestar, with a super-powered punch to the chest and being smashed into a pillar.
While Karli manages to slip away, Walker chases down one of her Flag Smasher pals on the street and brutally kills him by smashing Captain America’s shield on him repeatedly! Oh yeah, and he does this in public where everyone can see him and they are recording the event on their phones. This is a super dark moment as we see the new Captain America holding a bloody shield. The first time we’ve ever seen blood on Cap’s shield!
Did he freakin’ decapitate this Flag Smasher character!? Good grief. Walker’s story arc was all leading to this point. From the very beginning, he’s been insecure and frustrated by his sense of powerlessness. Walker is also going through some mental issues. We learn that he received three Medals of Honor for something he and Lemar did in Afghanistan, and whatever it was left them scarred. They talk about the lives they could've saved if they'd had the serum. Lemar ends up saying, "Power just makes a person more themselves," and we now know the kind of person that Walker is.
On the flipside, you have Sam being asked by Zemo if he would take the serum if given the opportunity and without hesitation, he says no, which tells you the kind of person he is. Sam tried to take care of things in a peaceful manner. He was hoping to talk Karli down and find a solution to ending the bloodshed. He empathizes with her sense of loss and cause, but also gives her a sense of the harm she's doing. Then impatient Walker walks in with his threatening tone and ruins the whole damn thing.
I’m loving Zemo in this story, it’s awesome how they are handling his character. He really is helping Sam and Bucky, we just don’t know to what end. While we’re all focused on Walker being the asshole of the story, Zemo has become a fan favorite, but I can’t help but think that Marvel is going to pull the rug out from under us in the end with Zemo. I hope not, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
When talking about the villainous Flag Smashers and Karli, Zemo says, "We cannot allow that she and her acolytes become yet another faction of gods among real people. Super Soldiers cannot be allowed to exist." He stands by this belief with his actions as he crushes all but one of the remaining vials of Super Soldier Serum after he shoots Karli. It’s that last vial that Walker gets his hands on after he knocks Zemo out with the shield.
Zemo’s superpower is all the money he has and his skills. He’s kinda like Batman. In the end, he runs off through a hole under a bath when Ayo shows up to get him with the all-female special forces group known as the Dora Milaje. They are there for Zemo, but things take a turn when Sam, Bucky, and Walker stand in their way because they need Zemo.
There’s a fun fight sequence here in which Walker gets his ass handed to him, which builds on his frustration. We also learn in this scene that Ayo has a trick to make Bucky's Wakandan-made vibranium arm fall off his body. It’s a pretty clever fail-safe that he didn’t know about.
The episode also offers a great little backstory on Bucky working with Ayo to heal his mind. It’s a pretty emotional scene to see the moment where Bucky was able to resist the words used to activate his Winter Soldier programming, "Longing. Rusted. Seventeen. Daybreak. Furnace. Nine. Benign. Homecoming. One. Freight car."
I loved this last episode! We’ve only got two more to go and it’s going to be interesting to see how the story comes to an end, especially with the story arcs for Zemo and Walker.