I really like this idea… but I agree with others that it is not at all clearly conveyed, if it’s in fact what the writers intend. What makes things confusing to me is that they’re kind of mixing national borders and economic justice together willy nilly. Not to say that those two concepts aren’t potentially very intimately linked… but they’re certainly not laying out the connection between them particularly clearly.
Look, there are WAY too many loose ends for only one more episode. And it’ll take another half dozen 'til everything makes sense.
So, Marvel, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, please end Episode 6 with “Stay tuned next week for… The Continuing Adventures of Falc ‘n’ Bucky!”
Some of the plot threads will surely carry over to future movies and shows. I’d expect this last episode to have a final confrontation with the flag smashers, but plot threads like the Power Broker and Julia Louis-Dreyfus will be left open for the future.
It would be pretty fun for them to say that this is the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but Captain America and the White Wolf is coming soon.
Re the slight wonkiness of the surprise appearance by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, advance reporting has it on pretty good authority that the character was originally going to make her MCU entrance in the Black Widow movie, which was supposed to have come out last year. Which means her scene here, in the original story scheme, would have been a re appearance, confirming and solidifying her presence as an ongoing force in the MCU and enlarging on her motives. Instead, COVID disruptions left the movie delayed, meaning this scene now functions as an introduction and an initial explanation, which it obviously doesn’t do especially well.
I’m now curious to see Black Widow to see whether the character is still there, or if it’s been re-edited somehow in the interim to reflect the new storytelling sequence. If the movie is largely or entirely unchanged, this could be somewhat instructive in terms of the original intentions. And that means future re-watches will probably benefit from seeing the shows according to the plan rather than the actual release order.
Well that was an unsurprising and somewhat lacklustre ending.
Really enjoyed the finale. It pretty much wrapped up every story line, and set up a few more (US Agent, Sharon Carter as a shady dealer, new Cap, Valentina de whatever). The only one I wasn’t totally sold on was Sharon – I don’t really buy that she went totally self-serving, when there weren’t even hints of that in her prior appearances. And it also sullies the Carter name, which is a pretty sacred one in the MCU.
I’m really glad they’re keeping Walker. A great performance and a great character.
Agreed. I was really hoping for something that wasn’t by the numbers to the beat expected, to happen. And the only things that happened that were not completely expected were things of no importance.
Nice new Wakandan outfit though.
I thought it was fine, wrapped up the story as well as could be expected, moved the characters along to where they need to be for the next film, got the soapbox speech in, yadda yadda yadda.
My nitpick for this one is the last post-credits scene. I know it’s necessary for easy exposition, but it always bothers me when the Bad People just have open cellphone conversations explicitly setting out their nefarious plans right in public.
“YES, THE PEOPLE IN THE BUILDING I AM STILL STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF WERE ALL FOOLED AND DID NOT REALIZE THAT I AM EVIL AND WILL BETRAY THEM MUAHAHAHA sorry? A grande latte, please. Thanks. ANYWAY, HERE IS MY PLAN TO COMMIT TREASON…”
I’ve been really enjoying the series up 'til now, but that finale was rough. Sam’s big speech to the GRC guys was terrible. “I’m a black man wearing the stars and stripes, but you could be an insane god or an angry teenager!” What the hell? Given the themes they’d touched on in the series, I was expecting Sam to echo Dr. King, or Nelson Mandela. Instead we got Kanye West?
I liked the action scene with the helicopter. Glad John Walker is sticking around, although I wish they’d played his heel-turn out a bit more. He bounced back pretty quickly from killing that dude two episodes ago. I’d have liked to see him go a bit darker before his big redemption move, make it seem like he’s maybe going to go full super villain first.
There’s no way that’s the real Sharon Carter. This has got to be a setup for Secret Invasion, and that’s actually a Skrull.
Yeah, the series didn’t really so much have character arcs as character loop-de-loops… We get anger-killing to patting Bucky on the back Lincoln quoting in the space of two episodes?
Same thing with Karli. She’s giving orders to kill people as a diversion one minute, then nearly tearfully apologizing for killing Lemar the next, then throwing cars down buildings for whatever reasons, then dying with an ‘I’m sorry’, getting the full (reverse) Pietà moment?
Also, I think I didn’t really pay attention at a crucial moment. What exactly was the Flag Smasher’s plan with the hostages? That somehow wasn’t really clear to me. At some point, it seemed to just be, OK then we’ll just kill them because—what?
Sharon being the Power Broker still doesn’t make much sense to me, given her actions in the earlier episode. (But if she is a Skrull, was she then a Skrull in human disguise wearing a facemask disguising her as a different human? Not that she really used that disguise to any great effect…)
I liked the combination of wings and shield (the other thing I confidently predicted wrongly) better than I thought I would. Also liked the makeshift shield pretty immediately getting dented and bent; I thought the sound design there was really great—it sounded like something cheap and shoddy, which emphasizes what a formidable weapon the original is.
Anyway. Overall it was fine, but didn’t really do anything new with its ingredients, and took some odd twists and turns (which I’m sure can be chalked up to the redacted plotline, at least in part). It’ll be interesting to see how the developments it’s set up play out.
I guess it was pretty goofy, though in the moment it struck me as “yes, that’s indeed how comic book heroes inspire the powers that be to do the right thing!”.
That’s a great point. I hope this is the case. And if so, I wonder where the real Sharon is.
I loved it…My nitpicks:
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The whole Sharon and her angles on hiring Batroc and possibly getting Sam killed…even if she is a Skrull…is super-murky.
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Someone was complaining about Sams speech. 75% of the problem is that dumb dumb dumb dumb suit. “In a worrrrrrld where the MCU has painfully tried to make their heroes look more realistic and less comic-booky”…it sticks out like a sore thumb. The whole time Mackie looked like he was thinking “I cant turn my head hardly and this is heavy as hell.” They didn’t even design it so Mackie could take off a helmet or something so we could see his whole face.
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Good thing Isiah was ok with being a wing of the Captain America museum! Cause it all flys directly in the face of what he was telling Sam.
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Theres gotta be a superhero Ebay somewhere. “Shells expended in the Avengers Battle for Earth!!-$1000 each!”
“John Walker makeshift shield!!! Authenticated!!-$50,000!!”
Here’s a possible Sharon Easter Egg i just saw on a recap video. They didn’t mention it but it gave me an idea…its a super-tiny thing…after all the hubbub is over and Sam and Bucky approach Sharon as she leans against a car and his holding her wound. The camera pans down to the wound, Sharon lifts the cloth to look at the wound and then the camera comes back to Sharon as she looks up at Sam and Bucky.
We know Sharon is wounded. Sharon knows she is wounded. Its a completely unnessecery camera shot…it creates a sense of urgency where there is none. We don’t learn anything new from it…unless Sharon is making sure in her wounded state that she’s holding her human disguise together.
Maybe Mephisto is a Skrull!
No, you’re the Skrull!
It helps if you get the quote correct:
Has a slightly different impact when put that way, and in context.
That would be an awesome B Plot/Easter egg/whatever.
Not if my goal was to make fun of a dumb speech.
It’s a freakin’ comic book movie TV show - what the heck are you expecting?
Better.
I’m…not sure I was right about anything. Walker is USAgent, in pretty much the comic book costume, not Super-Patriot. Sharon is the Power Broker, not a deep-cover Fury asset (although I’m really hoping she turns out to be a Skrull). Oh, well.
So, why did Zemo have his butler blow up the super-soldiers? Just general principles?
I’ve also got to say, the randomly fluctuating threat levels that the super-soldiers posed bugged me. In the end, a whole group of them get taken down without a fight because…some cops point guns at them. And Karli gets killed by a double tap from an ordinary handgun. I guess at least now we know why the U.S. government apparently gave up on recreating the serum back in the '50s. It’s not actually that much use…
Also, I’m usually ok with comic book physics, but when Sam, who is still human, supports the armored car with his arms, the show lost me.
I don’t think they really had much of a plan. They had a Cause. They wanted to take them hostage to try to use them as leverage or bargaining chips to somehow force the GRC and the various governments of the world to erase the borders and make things like they were after the Snap. It was Underpants Gnome level of planning, though. And when it fell apart, Karli wanted to kill them on general principles to make some sort of statement. Even her inner circle didn’t seem to know what she was trying to accomplish at that point - they seemed to be following her just because they were in too deep and didn’t have any better options.
And I’m personally ok with all of that. It’s actually a pretty realistic depiction of militant extremists. In the real world, they’re pretty much never Zemo-style two-steps-ahead super-genius masterminds. I don’t want to bring specific real world examples of politically motivated horror into a thread about a fantasy show, but the Flag Smashers seem pretty typical of real world “terrorists” (sorry, Captain America, I know you don’t us using those labels anymore). They may have carefully thought out operational plans to carry out specific attacks, but they pretty much never have any coherent strategic plan beyond, “Just do that but more, until magic happens, and we win.”