Falcon and The Winter Soldier- Episode 1 Review

Starting with a Cap voice-over call-back to Endgame, Falcon and the Winter Soldier puts on the track shoes and runs. The tense hostage situation that Falcon peacefully negotiates was another Marvel action sequence that makes its predecessors proud. Sam takes care of all the bad guys, but it seems the French-speaking leader of the band of rogues made it out safely and we will all have to wait to see how that unfolds later. Cap’s funeral seemed like it could be a passing-of-the-torch, but we all know by now that Falcon is a humble person and does not insist on grabbing the mantle of his dear friend.

We first met the Winter Soldier in the second Captain America film and his intro to this series was a very startling flashback. I could not help but wish Bucky will reveal more to his therapist but then again, he has made a couple of new friends. Seeing Sam’s unknown family back in New Orleans was a wonderful character exploration which shows that Sam is unlike both Cap and Bucky. He has a family and a legacy that is still around for him. It would be nice to see a complete turn for the Wilson family’s business and I think series fans will hopefully be rewarded later.

The saddest moment came to us by Yori Nakajima, whose friendship with Bucky seemed to be because they are both old timers. However, whether through fate or by coincidence (hard for this observer to figure out) Yori is the father of a man whom Bucky killed while on a Hydra mission. Speaking of Hydra, the new terrorist group, The Flag Smashers, seem like a chaos group whose mission is to compile wealth. I did not understand why they would rob a bank, but I am intrigued to learn who the super strong leader of this group is.

Finally, my speculation now is that the new Captain America could be the masked leader of The Flag Smashers. Not only does the audience not know what either man's faces look like, but the strength of the masked leader would be on par with the serum that Cap himself took during WWII. It would explain that superhuman strength and the startling new presence of the replacement Captain America. I do not know who this new Captain America is (or could be) but I for one already do not like him.