The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Series Review: Episode 3
What are you willing to do for what you think is right? This is the primary question that episode 3 of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier tries to answer. This episode reintroduces us to Zemo, the main antagonist of Captain America: Civil War.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Bucky thinks that they need Zemo to find the super soldiers, and talks to Sam about “hypothetically” breaking him out of jail. Sam obviously objects to breaking out the man who framed Bucky, and tore the Avengers apart. But right as he voices his objections, Zemo walks into where they are talking.
Zemo takes Sam and Bucky to a garage with cars he owns and grabs a bag, as welL as a purple mask. He tells them that they have to find a woman named Selby, and they board Zemo’s personal plane to Madripoor. As it turns out Zemo is rich: he is a baron, and his family was rich before Sakovia was destroyed by the avengers. They discuss Steve, and the heroes which they idolize, and that it can be dangerous. We get a quick scene with Karli Morganthau as she comforts a dying friend, and grieves over her loss. This scene begins to humanize the flag smashers showing us that they are not necessarily bad people.
When Sam, Bucky, and Zemo arrive, they all have to pretend to be someone to blend in. Zemo acts as himself, Bucky pretends to be the Winter Soldier, and Sam pretends to be a man named Conrad Mack. They are picked up and driven to a bar where they are tested. Sam is forced to drink a glass of whiskey with some snake meat in it. Bucky is tested when some enforcements come at the group, and Zemo pretends to command him in Russian to attack. He beats up seven people, and everyone in the bar pulls out guns. The bartender tells them that Selby will see them. When they meet, Zemo tells Selby that they want to know about the super soldier serum. In exchange, he will give her Bucky. She tells him that there is a doctor named Wilfred Nagel who is making it in Madripoor. Then Sam gets a phone call from his sister Sarah. Selby tells him to answer it on speaker. It goes well at first, but then Sarah calls him Sam, and Selby commands her men to kill them. But as she does a sniper kills her. Everyone in Madripoor gets a bounty for Zemo, Bucky, and Sam’s death. They scatter and Sam and Bucky are cornered, but the mysterious sniper kills the men chasing them. The sniper reveals herself as Sharon Carter. The great niece of Peggy Carter, Steve’s old friend.
She takes them back to her apartment where she is hosting buyers for works of art. They discuss why Zemo, Sam, and Bucky are here, the heroes, and the super soldier serum. During the party, Sharon informs them that she found the doctor so they set out to capture them. They go to a shipping yard and find the container they are looking for. At first it appears to be empty, but Zemo discovers a secret passage inside. They find the doctor and begin to interrogate him, but bounty hunters find them, and Sharon starts to fight them off. Nagel explains he recreated the serum from an American subject. This likely alludes to Isaiah from the last episode. Nagel also explains that his serum was more discrete than the original one, meaning it did not directly alter the subjects physical appearance. He explains he was dusted before he could finish his work, and when he came back, the Power Broker, the boss of Madripoor, offered to fund his work. He made 20 vials of serum and Karli Morganthau stole all of them. We then see Sharon fight more bounty hunters outside before running into the tank. As she does, Zemo takes a pistol he found and shoots Doctor Nagel. As they try to hold him down, a rocket hits the tank they were in.
When they all wake up from unconsciousness, Sam, Bucky, and Sharon are trapped in a gunfight under a destroyed container. As they are running out of ammo and are pinned down, Zemo puts on his mask from atop another container and fires at a gas pipe, and creates and explosion near the bounty hunters. They defeat the bounty hunters, and Sam, Bucky, and Zemo drive away. We then see the flag smashers and Karli having a conversation with another of their group. This is used as a way to humanize the flags smashers and show they are normal people. Sam and Bucky find out about a woman named Donya Madoni, who Nagel mentioned. She is the woman who died who Karli cared about. They learn she died in Riga, and Zemo tells the pilot to head there. We also see the flag smashers burn down a building with soldiers in it after stealing their supplies to give to refugees. Finally the episode ends with Zemo, Sam, and Bucky arriving in Riga. Bucky then goes to an alleyway where he meets with a Wakandan soldier who says she is there for Zemo.
This episode was great. It expanded the story very well. It started to finally reveal the real story to us. The episode also had a few twists, including Zemo, Sharon, and the Wakandan soldier at the end. It will be interesting to see how the show wraps up with only three episodes left. We have quite a few plot points which will likely converge at the finale and bring the story to the close. So far though, all the episodes have been great.
