THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER: Episode 5 Review

Well, what a change of pace! Episode 5 closed a lot of chapters and set everything up for next week's finale.

As predicted, our protagonist John Walker goes full berserk after taking the serum. He definitely "becomes more of himself", and his insecurities get the best of him. Cue in the awkward three-way fight scene where three grown men for their favourite toy. I might be a little unfair, though I did think it looked a little ridiculous.

The US government fires Captain America just as quickly as they hired him after getting the shield from Sam. Again, I think this episode gets quite political, and not so subtly. America trying to sweep their dirty business under the rug? Sounds familiar?

Turns out our surprise cameo was none other than Julia Louis-Dreyfus playing Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. It seems like she's the new head of Hydra, because we can never enough of those little parasites. She seems like she'll make a very intimidating, calm and collected villain, and I can't wait to see her in future films. She recruits John Walker and I'm assuming she plans to hire the remaining flag smashers to create her own super soldier army. Is she trying to take over the government or does our Contessa have more ambitious plans?

Speaking of villains, the biggest twist of the episode was the Sharon was in cahoots with Batroc, and instructs him to kill Sam. At this point, all signs point to her being the Power Broker, as she didn't go into the warehouse to meet Nagel. Then again, why would she try to help them in exchange for a pardon? It's a good turn of events, but I do hope to see more of her journey from righteous SHIELD agent, Peggy's grand-niece, to Karate-savvy Crime Lady. If the explanation is she just got too bitter after all the time in exile, well, that just isn't strong enough. She knew what she was getting into and she volunteered to help Steve. Perhaps now that he's gone and there's no chance of getting with him she thought, "what's the point?"- fair enough, Sharon.

Let's talk about Sam. His journey about being a black man who's offered the Shield is interesting, too bad it hasn't been a consistent part of the storylines. Because this show is both The Falcon AND The Winter Soldier, there's a lot at stake. Perhaps too much. Isaiah is used as a plot device to get into Sam's head, and his finally accepting his role is just a little too sudden, but welcome nonetheless.

It's nice that Marvel is tackling these racial issues, but of course, I can't help but ask, why now? Is it too little too late? It's also very on the nose and, whilst it's very important to take a stance, I feel it would have been more effective to just keep being inclusive as a franchise and normalise black, asian and minority ethnic groups (in the US) as being multi-layered characters with storylines which don't necessarily involve racial struggles, like Black Panther. I feel like this is the way forward, though I don't mean to minimise the current climate of non-acceptance in the Western World. But I digress.

I could have been spared yet another training montage - let's face it, at this point he's one of the very few Avengers left who is not enhanced at all. After fighting Thanos, I feel this dimension has been kind of outgrown.

Let's talk about Bucky. the Waitress, Ayo, now Sarah? We're really catching up on lost time, are we? And who can blame him. Apparently, he is going to serve the people he's wronged one by one. That sounds very boring. Let's watch another Amenders movie, shall we? No thanks.

Let's talk about their relationship. Why do they insist on being all standoffish with each other? "We just have a friend in common" - What do you two need to prove, exactly? Do you realise no one cares? Just be friends and be done it, I'm really getting exhasted by all this macho energy and the competing throughout a boat fixing montage.

To summarise, what is this series missing? Flashbacks. Flashbacks of John in Afghanistan, flashbacks of Isaiah during the war and being experimented on. Flashbacks of Bucky doing his Avenging. Steve dying. Instead of having us endure conversations between two men in a room, Show us, don't tell.

P.S. I'm going to miss Zemo.

P.P.S. Torres is going to be the new Falcon - but is he going to have a role in the upcoming releases? Not in phase 4 I don't think.