‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’ Recap: ‘Power Broker’

Written by Shae Rufe

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Three of ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’.

This week’s episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was not viewed at 1 a.m., mostly because I realized how crazy that was, and also when your dog gets you up at 6:30 a.m., a bedtime of 2 a.m. isn’t completely realistic. Did I still try? 100% yes, because I’m not a quitter! I am, however, not as young as I once was. Still, waiting weekly for these is slowly killing me, and it’s probably that I just have zero patience.

Spoilers? Of course!

Okay, so, I have to hand it to Zemo for trying the words, I just do. Is it a d*ck move? Yes. Does it make me hate him even more than I already do? Yes. But also, it does serve the purpose that it needs to. Bucky really did get healed in Wakanda. Despite what Zemo says, Bucky is completely different. Are those trainings still there? Probably, but at least it’s the bad ass fight moves, and not the mindless control. Still, Bucky is struggling with all of it and he’s handling it as well as can be expected. Breaking Zemo out of prison isn’t the smartest move, Sam has a lot of good points on that. None of that stops Bucky from doing it though, mostly because he doesn’t bother to tell Sam until after it’s all said and done; that’s bad friending right there. The thing is, Zemo has information that they need. He’s currently their only lead in tracking down the Flag Smashers, even more importantly, tracking down and stopping the Super Soldier Serum.

John Walker is of course off doing his damnedest to be the best Cap he believes he can be. Wyatt Russell does the best job at making Walker unlikable while you kind of feel for the guy just a tad. Now, before I continue with my review, I am going to bring up that Russell is just an actor portraying a character. This is extremely important to remember because he is actively receiving death threats for playing John Walker. Now, I have personally written about this type of thing before, actors receiving death threats for the characters they play, and it still shocks me that in 2021 people think that type of behavior is acceptable. Let me make myself extremely clear, it is never okay to send a death threat to anyone. We at NTG are against hate and we adamantly stand with Russell and his portrayal of John Walker. If you do not like his portrayal, by all means, stop watching the show. It is a show. It’s not real life. The fact that people are sending an actor death threats is not a new concept, but it will always be a disturbing one.

Anyway

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Walker and Hoskins are on the Flag Smashers tail, and they even find out where they last stayed and barge right in. Now, Walker is a lot more quick tempered than Steve (the world’s worst friend) ever was. He all but assaults the homeowner who helped the Flag Smashers and has to be talked off the ledge by Hoskins. They’re grasping at straws, however, and don’t have any more leads. Unlike Bucky and Sam who now have Zemo, who legit is a Baron and super rich. Well, happy turn of events, because getting to shady places is a lot easier to do when there’s a private jet involved.
 
Madripoor, the super random criminal island like place with a rough part of town and a rich part of town, ends up being the most amusing bit of this episode. They’re all playing a part here, to get the info on the Serum they need. Sam’s impersonating a literal criminal lord, Zemo gets to be himself, and Bucky has to play the mindless Winter Soldier again. It goes well, until it doesn’t... their cover gets blown, and our heroes would probably be dead if it weren’t for a mysterious helper. We knew Sharon Carter was coming back, we just weren’t expecting her to be... well... there. She does show up and save them, even gives them a safe haven for a minute while she agrees to help them. It takes some serious convincing from Sam, but even she finally agrees to help them in exchange for a cleared name. Turns out she’s been on the run since the events of Civil War. I guess the CIA didn’t take too kindly to her helping Steve and Sam out back then. And apparently everyone else just forgot to really help her. Well, that’s not fair. Sam, Steve, and Natasha were on the run before the Blip too.

Sharon’s help pays off though, and they soon find the man who’s been making the Serum. He was able to figure it out from lasting blood samples from Isaiah Bradley, you know the first Black Captain America that the government locked away, treated like a lab rat, and then erased from history? It’s a tense exchange, but we do find out their there was enough Serum taken by Karli to make 20 Super Soldiers. And then Zemo ruins the interrogation by killing the doctor and they all have to escape before the bounty hunters find them. The action sequences really blend well into this show, giving it a theatrical feel that real speaks to the quality of how well this show is done. While they’re off to their next lead, Sharon stays behind, and Walker finds out that Bucky and Sam freed Zemo from prison. That can’t be good at all. Even better is the end of the episode. While Sam and Zemo go off to explore the next possible line that’ll lead them to the Flag Smashers, Bucky goes on a little walk and finds an old friend from Wakanda.

Oh yeah, did I mention Karli hits up a GRC building, steals its supplies, and totally blows it up with people still inside? ‘Cause yeah, that totally happens and she... is a little more extreme that we originally suspected. I don’t see this ending well at all.

So! What can we expect next week? A lot more action, for one, and maybe we get to find out what’s really up with Sharon... I don’t fully trust her. We are halfway through the series already and I really wish this series was longer than 6 episodes.

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