I want to go on record to say I hate the shadowy cabal behind everything much more than Walker. A SENATOR being part of a hasty commision deciding to strip Walker of pension and a less than honorable discharge? Fuck that and fuck them.
I think it was heavily implied that he’s done with the wings, considering his dismissal of taking them with him (even if they were broken). Besides, how do you handle the wings and the shield at the same time?
But I guess we’ll see.
I agree, he can’t be Captain America AND The Falcon all at once. I think it was heavily implied his military friend was going to be The Falcon.
I don’t see why Captain America couldn’t have wings - especially if he doesn’t have the serum. Without wings it seems like he’d have no chance vs a super soldier, shield or not.
Depends on how fancy that Wakandan suit is, if it’s anything at all like Black Panther’s he’d need neither wings nor serum.
Just in case anyone missed it, this episode had a post-credit scene.
John Walker forging his own version of the shield. Since he’s been disavowed by the government, I’m assuming he’s not going to be USAgent, and will instead be adopting the Super-Patriot identity he started with in the comics. Or he’s really gone round the bend, and will insist he’s still Captain America. Either way, I’m thinking we’re going to see a big multi-sided fight at the GRC HQ between the Flagsmashers, GRC security forces, Sam as the new Captain America and Bucky, and John Walker as whatever identity he goes with.
Couple of things take me out:
-
“We’re dropping Zemo off in a place where he and his fellow miscreants can be broken out and appear in another series”…I mean, thats what they really said, right? Cause some rando cell in Germany or Wakanda would be a lot safer then ‘The Raft’.
-
Look I can fanwank why Sam doesn’t just buy a new boat for his sister. Or find a hundred ways to raise the money more easily then some kind of ‘Rock Soup’ scenario…but it would be nice to hear it in the show.
Other notes: I’m guessing Sharon called Batroc…I still think she’s a Skrull.
Theres a midcredit scene if anyone missed it
Also, the GRC plan (to the extent there is one) doesn’t make sense on any level.
It’s logistically difficult, it’s economically expensive, and it seems benefit free (there seems to be no PR upside “instead of refugees from all over the world scattered throughout the country, now we’ll just starve our own citizens in inadequate camps and until they die from plague!”)
The enthusiasm for starting on whatever they’re starting on seems misfounded.
Well, disavowed-ish, going by the big cameo.
I think he’s still on track to being USAgent - he’s making a new shield, which was not part of his Super-Patriot ID, and I’m guessing whatever outfit he ends up wearing is going to be a lot closer to this than this. Assuming Elaine Benes is more-or-less legit (that is, she’s arranging quasi-legal black ops on behalf of the actual US government, and isn’t secretly the Power Broker or a Hydra mole or Thanos in a wig) that’s basically USAgent, even if they don’t use the name.
They’re not doing it to their own citizens, though - they’re doing it to immigrants who arrived during the Blip, and who aren’t needed anymore because the everyone came back.
That’s true.
Comics spoiler:
I’m assuming he’s keeping the wings because in the comics Sam keeps the wings as Captain America.
It will be.
For example, in the US - all displaced refugees get rounded up* and put into camps. Meanwhile, Portugal is doing the same. The two countries do a refugee exchange. The US still doesn’t have a place to put the US citizen refugees** so they get placed into the US refugee camp where they get sick and starve. Now, in really convenient view of the US media. Or perhaps they get cast on the streets where we now have huge numbers of homeless people (but American Homeless!), where they will still get sick and starve?
The only people I see gaining from this are the airline companies. It just seems like a colossally dumb plan.
*which isn’t logistically feasable in any country with an inconvenient countryside, jungle, or desert, but I’m going with it.
**I’m assuming that’s the problem. I’m positing that during the blip, a lot of infrastructure fell into serious disrepair, and now that people are back there hasn’t been enough time to rebuild and repair.
Well, in the comics,
Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is Nick Fury’s longtime love interest and right hand. The MCU version may also be a Fury associate, so I suppose she might be recruiting John for whatever post-SHIELD organization Fury is now running. We don’t really know much about it other than it exists and seems to have some vague government ties. So…maybe. But Walker doesn’t seem like the kind of guy the “reformed” Fury would recruit. On the other, other hand, with Joss Whedon and his more hopeful portrayal of SHIELD out of the picture, maybe in the rather darker MCU that seems to be taking shape, Fury is back to scheming and using dangerous wild cards. Obviously, we’ll see next week.
I don’t think they’re just swapping camps of refugees, though. For one thing, I don’t think the refugee situation would be equally distributed across countries. After the Snap, I think you’d have a lot more people coming into the US than going out of it: even with populations perfectly halved across the globe, there’s still a lot more wealth just lying around in the US waiting for someone to claim it. Some countries undoubtedly weathered the snap better, and were able to attract more refugees that way - maybe France lucks out and enough engineers survived the snap to keep the electrical grid running, but Italy didn’t - stuff like that. As the five year period goes on, the disparities get worse. The countries that are more successful at attracting refugees are able to maintain more of their infrastructure, while the others fall apart.
When the Unsnap happens, countries like the USA and most of Europe were probably pretty close to sufficient population - less than they’d had pre-snap, and a lot of new ghost towns as people congregated in population centers, but enough to maintain pre-Snap society and even improve things. Suddenly, they’ve got their full population back, plus all the extra refugees. Meanwhile, there’s a bunch of countries - probably the poorer ones, originally - that fell into deep disrepair after the combined population losses of the Snap and the refugee exodus, who now are struggling to support their returned citizens, and can’t afford to reabsorb the people who left, while the richer countries are starting a process of restoring their returned native citizens, and filling up camps of people who emigrated during the Snap, and have been displaced by returnees reclaiming their property and positions.
It’s pretty clear putting Zemo on the Raft and buttering up Walker for future work is legwork aimed at establishing the Thunderbolts.
Re the episode: I liked this one a lot. The last couple have been uneven and occasionally clumsy but this was character focused again, a return to the first episode. Solid stuff. Way ballsier and more direct on the racial politics than I expected Marvel to get.
The Flag Smashers story is still kinda vague and wonky, but it’s become increasingly obvious there’s a ton of connective tissue missing, probably related to that speculative video I posted above. Maybe in a few years, after the current pandemic has faded and we’re less raw, we’ll get a restored series that gives this plot line its proper space. Unlikely, I know, but I can hope.
With panache.
And here I assumed JLD was an evil version of Nick Fury running something akin to a modern Hydra.
Peggy’s Niece was definitely talking to Baltoc. The closed captioning said so.
Still looks cumbersome to me. 
Eh, he was there when they announced Fake!Cap. I’m sure there was some fancy “Superhuman Initiative Commission” set up after SHIELD imploded. Probably some Military Intelligence Commission former-Hydra dorko.
An interesting reddit thread about a painting seen in Sharon’s apartment/lair and its maybe hidden meaning:https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelstudios/comments/msdrqx/hidden_meaning_behind_the_painting_we_see_with/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
Wyatt Russell is so good…I hope he doesn’t get sidelined in future MCU projects as ‘Boring angry dude’