The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Series Review: Episode 5
This episode was an excellent one for character development. We get to see the interactions between characters and each other very well. After the shocking events at the end of episode 4, we watch as Walker runs by abandoned train tracks, clearly in distress.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
He has some flashbacks about the flag smasher he killed. He runs into a building, having flashbacks about Lemar. This was a great scene, and Wyatt Russell, the actor, did an excellent job in this scene. Sam and Bucky walk in and try to convince Walker to come with them, and give them the shield. Walker gets defensive, and they fight. Sam tries to tell Walker that he is not himself. Walker tears off Sam’s wings and is about to kill him with the shield, but Bucky tackles him. They take the shield from Walker and leave.
We see Bucky and Sam in an empty building and talk about how the GRC are conducting raids for Karli, but she has disappeared. Tores (Sam’s friend from the first episode) walks in and tells them that things are not going well with Walkers incident. As Sam walks out, he takes the shield, but tells Tores to keep the wings. We then see a military court case against Walker where he is stripped of his title, and authority as Captain America. He tries to object but is silenced. He gets angry, and leaves the courtroom. Walker and his wife are talking when a woman with the name Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, or Val, approaches them. She agrees with Walker, and tells him she will be in touch.
The scene transitions to Karli and the flag smashers. They revisit the original refugee camp. Karli is very upset at the death of her friend. She then has a monolog and says “it’s time.” We then are taken to Sokovia, Zemo’s home, and see him at a memorial. Bucky walks up next to him. Zemo talks about Karli, and that she is beyond saving. He tells Bucky he should kill her. Bucky then holds a gun up to Zemo and primes it. He pulls the trigger, but it is empty. He then drops the bullets out of his other hand, and the Wakandans take him away. Zemo tells Bucky he crossed out his name in his book, and the Wakandans take him off to “the Raft.” Bucky then asks one of the soldiers a favor, and the scene cuts. Sam then goes to see IsAiah. He brings the shield to IsAiah. They discuss patriotism and Captain America. Isaiah shows Sam some letters and pictures from his wife. He tells Sam that others were given the serum, but it was sometimes unstable. He tells Sam the story of how he saved the other soldiers from a POW camp. Then for 30 years they experimented on him to see why the serum worked. A nurse took pity on him and claimed he was dead. He shows Sam a picture which the audience can’t see. Sam tries to convince IsAiah to come out of the shadows, but he doesn’t want to. Sam leaves and calls his sister and tells her he is coming home.
Sam and his family are working on the boat. Sam then calls in some favors from old family friends to help with the boat. Before long, tons of people are helping out with the boat. Then Bucky shows up to help out too. He drops off a package from the Wakandans. Then they have a montage of Sam and Bucky fixing the boat. They take a moment to talk about Karli and how to approach the problem with her. Bucky says he is going to leave, but Sam wants him to stay. Sam still hasn’t opened the box Bucky brought. We then see Walker talking with Lemar’s family. He tells him that the man he killed was the guy who killed Lemar, even though that is not true. Lemar’s mother is clearly devastated. Walker leaves the family. We then get a quick transition to Sahron on the phone with a man speaking in France. It is interesting how mysterious Sahron has been these past few episodes. They might be setting her up for a more important role in the future.
Bucky then wakes up to Sam’s nephews playing with the shield. He smiles as he sees them put it down. He walks out into the pier and goes into the boat to help Sam. It’s nice to see their relationship growing as friends in these scenes. We then see Sam practicing with the shield with Bucky. Bucky that he is sorry how he reacted to the shield. He felt that the shield was the last thing he had left. Sam tries to tell Bucky to go and really make amends with some of the people in that book. They say their goodbyes and head off in different directions. Sam returns to the boat, and he and Sarah start to repaint it. They have a heart to heart about life and sacrifice. Sam then has a training montage with the shield where he practices throwing it and using it. We then see Karli speaking with the man from the plane in the first episode. He is looking to get back at Sam as well. Interestingly, this is also the guy who Sharon was talking to on the phone earlier. Likely meaning that she is playing both sides. Karli activates a beacon on her phone, and many people in the park come near her. Sam watches on the news as the flag smaShers gather outside a GRC building in New York. Tores tells Sam that that is where the flag smashers are likely to target next. The senators are arguing in the building, and two security guards secretly hack their computers. We switch to Sam for a second, as he opens the box from the Wakandans, and the episode ends.
This episode was more of an emotional episode. It was good for a lot of character development especially between Sam and Bucky. Walker also got some time in the spotlight, and we saw how broken of a man he is. It was great to see the bonds Bucky and Sam formed working on the boat together. They have quite a few loose threads going now, and some of them will likely not be resolved in this show, but branch out into others as well.
