The Falcon and the Winter Soldier - Episode 2 - Review

The second episode of Falcon in The Winter Soldier needed to make up a lot of ground in making the villain known setting up more of the mystery and giving us more of the banter that we we're expecting from the titular characters, but it seems they went in a different direction.

I really enjoy the fact that Sam and Bucky both have issues of their own to deal with and that we're not just jumping straight into them being A level superstar heroes. That being said the dynamic that I have now feels misplaced compared to what they've had in the past and while there is a little part of me that agrees with Bucky’s POV, Sam doesn't seem to have a reason as to why it just does. Their pair up feels more like an extended introduction to each other, in that neither really knows nor trust the other, but we know that's not the case because they fought together in the past. As the episode progressed and we got to a moment where they were able to confront their issues, Bucky did try and Sam didn't and I feel like that entire aspect is going to impact everything going on down the line and I'm not sure I like it.

One thing I know I don't like is the introduction of the new Captain America, John Walker, the character alone is fine, a highly decorated soldier who has a few medals to his name, and while he himself admits that he doesn't feel ready for the role, he seems to be embracing the wrong aspects of it. The opening moments where he's in the locker room trying to psych himself up for heading back out onto his old school field is nice and it does put everything into perspective for the type of man he is, but at the same time if the moment he puts on the helmet he ends up feeling more like a caricature of Captain America. Rushing in to try and save the day in Germany, he's not showing any particular skills that make a Captain America, he just has the shield and even then he very easily reverts to a gun to try and get the job done and kind of feels like the opposite of what Steve Rogers Captain America would have done.

The problem that I have is that new Captain America is not interesting enough to care about, as he seems to be more open to the benefits of the role than anyone else might have been and on the other side Sam and Bucky seems all stalled in their friendship and the reason as to why seems cheap. I want the dynamic to work between the title characters and I want the new Captain America to feel like a real version of the character and right now neither feel like they're living up to their potential, plus this is all exacerbated by the fact they introduced a super soldier from the 1950s, and the whole reason they're hidden makes no sense. Sam's point as to why didn't Bucky tell anyone, makes some sense, but they're trying to make this fit into the timeline we know, but just saying but he thought the guy had been through enough, felt lazy. This of course means that Howard Stark, Peggy Carter, Nick Fury and any of the higher ups in S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra, either knew about this character and chose to keep it a secret or didn't know, and at no point did anyone ever go, hey why don't we ask that guy.

Third pillar for all that happened in the show was this hand group, the flag smashers, who appear to have fans willing to break the law to hold them up and give them some protection. I do understand why it's a bit of a mystery, we now know a little about who they are and what their goal is, but the Robin Hood stick is perhaps the laziest way at explaining why we should care about these people. Ok, so they're stealing much needed medical supplies and providing them too displaced people sounds like a good thing, but at the same time you know there's more behind it and as a Marvel product you know that it'll be a twist that changes the dynamic, it is their m.o. by this point. So understanding that the perception of his group will change, trying to build them up as something now is something again that I can't get behind, which is seemingly a bit of a trend for this episode.

One thing I did enjoy was the intense fight scene on top of two semi-trailers as their careening down and narrow German road, and what we've seen plenty of fights in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I think this has to be the one that is just the most dangerous and grounded. The action of the fight felt slow to begin with but picked up and maintained decent pace and by the time it came to an end I had trouble trying to process what I'd seen, it wasn't because there was a lot of cuts in the fight or the choreography was complex, but more to do with the fact that everyone was in dark colours on top of identical red trucks with a lot of trees behind them. Simply making one truck a different colour would have been a simple way of removing any confusion, but even with that it was still a very well executed stunt.

Given that Falcon and Winter Soldier is 6 episodes long, I was hoping for more out of the second episode then we got. The big reveal that the people in the masks are super soldiers is actually not a reveal when they confirmed that in the first episode and tie that down with a new Captain America who goes from being unsure, to seemingly embracing the wrong aspects by the end, just seems wrong. Oh let us not forget the addition of super soldier from the 50s that we've never heard of before, not when Hydra was embedded in shield nor when Tony Stark hacked all of S.H.I.E.L.D. secrets, or when Black Widow released them all to the world, at no point nobody knew about a retired super soldier. Well the episode was enjoyable; it wasn't what needed to happen and the forced relationship drama between Sam and Bucky needs to be knocked out sooner rather than later.

The Score

8.0

The Pros

+Learning more about Bucky's struggles was nice

+Amazing stunt on a pair of moving trucks

The Cons

-Sam refusing to clear up his issues with Bucky

-Mysterious Super Soldier than no-one ever heard about

-A rebel group compared to Robin Hood that will change before long