Disney+ recently released their new series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Episode 1 released last Friday, with more episodes coming out each week. The season will have six episodes and follows Sam Wilson, or the Falcon, as he reintegrated into life as a civilian after being “snapped” for five years (an integral concept and dilemma within the MCU). We also follow Bucky Barnes, or the Winter Soldier, as he experiences the same thing. However, they each deal with this new reality in different ways. Falcon starts working with the US Air Force on special operations. Bucky is pardoned of his crimes as the Winter Soldier, as long as he seeks out therapy, and “makes amends” with the people who he had dealings with as the Winter Soldier.

Episode 1 begins with Sam in a freefall chase off the border of Liberia. His mission is to rescue a US Air Force captain who has been captured. He succeeds with seconds to spare. The episode then goes on to see Sam give Captain America’s shield over to the US government. It is placed in a Captain America exhibit in a museum. At this point in the episode, the focus switches over to Bucky, who awakes in the night after having a nightmare of a previous assassination he comitted. He then goes to see his therapist who talks with him about his nightmares, and the conditions of his pardon. One of them is that he has to “make amends” with all the people he had dealings with as the Winter Soldier. He recounts when he helped arrest a senator that he helped to put into power when he was with Hydra. He then goes out to lunch with a new neighbor and friend, an old man named Yori. Then Yori asks out the bartender on Bucky’s behalf. 

The episode then switches over to Sam again. We see his struggles with his family business. We are introduced to Sam’s sister and his nephews who run their family fishery business. Their business is on hard times, and Sam and his sister try to get a loan from a bank, but they are unable to because Sam did not exist for five years. We once more return to Bucky, as he goes on his date with the waitress from the restaurant. They play Battleship, talk about Bucky’s family, and drink beer. Then the waitress mentions Yori’s son and Bucky leaves. It’s implied that Bucky killed Yori’s son. Bucky tries to go and tell Yori the truth, but is too scared to. 

Sam then receives a message from the military captain that helped him rescue the Air Force pilot earlier in the episode. The captain had been investigating a group called the Flag Smashers, who are a group of anarchists that believe that life was better during the snap, and want to go back to the way things were. The captain was investigating a group of them, and sent the footage to Sam. He then turns and sees the nightly news. On the news, a government official introduces the new Captain America, and a man walks out brandishing the shield that Sam just gave up.

This episode was a good start to the series. It reintroduced us to the two main characters, while expanding the story and planting the seeds for new plots. The episode showed the two main characters and gave them each plenty of time to expand their stories, and shows us what they have been doing. It was a good idea, on the part of the show, to give them each their own segments of the show instead of starting them off together. We can likely expect that they will meet up and go on some mission in the future episodes. 

Overall, the opening episode was a good start to a series with much potential.