‘Falcon & Winter Soldier’ Easter Eggs – More Human Than Human
We go from chaos magic weirdness to post blip spy games in first episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.
This a very different experience than WandaVision.
Spoilers below the GIF.
Like WandaVision, this show happens after the blip – millions disappeared and suddenly reappeared after five years. That has changed the fabric of society in ways that have nothing to do with magic or demi-gods or mutants (MCU Sam doesn’t have his comic book couterpart’s ability to talk to birds). We are now solidly in augmented and/or fancy tech-equipped humans doing stuff territory.
The episode starts with Sam risking his life in a high-octane rescue with helicopters and Georges Batroc (last seen in Civil War) in a wingsuit, which solidifies the series as an action spy thriller in its first 5 mins. He has returned to serving his country with his talents and cunning.
via Marvel Studios
But, there’s more to the Falcon than fighting. At the end of End Game, Steve Rogers gave Sam his shield. As his story continues in this series, he turns the shield over to the Smithsonian for display. The talk he has with Rhodey after the ceremony is the most we’ve gotten about what it’s like to live after the blip. Sam says he feels that the shield belongs to someone else and that he can’t take up the mantle. This choice doesn’t go the way he wants it to, but we’ll get back to that.
Now we meet Bucky again, dealing with nightmares from his time working for Hydra as the Winter Soldier. The therapy scene is a great reintroduction and a look at what he’s been doing for the last few years. The cocky guy we saw in The First Avenger is there under the pain, trying to deal with being who he is and what he’s done at the behest of others.
Along with taking out the remnants of Hydra in parking garages, he’s attempting to right wrongs with a friendship with the elderly father of one of his victims. In that desire to make things right, makes Bucky is keenly aware of what he’s cost others and how his experience affects how he relates to those around him. At least at this point, he’s unable to confront it. It really humanizes him.
Sam goes home to visit his sister in Louisiana (they’ve moved his hometown from Harlem) where he finds out what’s going on with the fishing business his parents started. His sister, Sarah, is doing all that she can to keep things going, but she’s set to sell everything to start her life anew. Along with Bucky’s therapy, this is where the writing shines in this episode.
Sam isn’t a billionaire like Tony Stark or a Master of the Mystic Arts like Stephen Strange. He’s an Avenger, but he’s still a military contractor that gets paychecks like the rest of us and he’s vanished for 5 years so his credit is crap. He attempts to help save the family business by getting a loan, but ultimately fails. The banker loves Sam’s Avenger status but not his paperwork. Setting the blip aside – this is something military members and small, family-owned businesses deal with every day. It really grounds this story and makes this business of superheroes less romantic.
After learning where our heroes have been, it’s time to see where they’re going next: a mysterious gang known as the Flag-Smashers represented by a red hand. They want a world without borders and represent a radicalized underground that’s on the rise (hi, Helmut Zemo). Lt. Torres (Lt. Joaquin Torres took on the Falcon mantle at one point) is added to the team because he’s tracked them and a dangerous encounter with their leader.
The Flag-Smashers likely get their name from a character seen in the mid 1980s – Karl Morgenthau aka Flag-Smasher who ran ULTIMATUM aka The Underground Liberated Totally Integrated Mobile Army To Unite Mankind. There are some Red Skull connections in there, as well as some to Roger’s Captain America. It’ll be interesting to see how tight the connections to the comics will be.
The episode ends with a new Captain America (aka John Walker) carrying Steve’s shield and a disappointed Sam. In the comics before Walker became Captain America, he was Super-Patriot and he was given the mantle by the government rather than Steve Rogers. Not good things happened in that storyline.
This is what I was hoping for. The first episode is a good running start for the series, and I can’t wait to see Bucky, Sam, and Lt. Torres working together.
If it’s one thing I learned from WandaVision, it’s to be more conservative with quick takes:
- Lots of callbacks to all of the Cap movies
- We’re going to see a lot of 1980s Cap in this series
- Rostov in Bucky’s notebook: Red Barbarian?
- Weird thing in the credits: Madripoor
What did you catch in this week’s episode?
