The latest episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, “The Whole World is Watching,” is truly a game-changer for the series. While it was rather light on action, even though the action it did contain was top-notch, it hit on a few deep thoughts, much of them about the nature of power and the type of person who seeks it.
As usual, the following is filled with spoilers, so if you haven’t watched the episode yet, I suggest you do that first.
The episode opens on a flashback to six years prior when Bucky (Sebastian Stan) was hiding out in Wakanda after the events of Captain America: Civil War. Bucky is with Ayo (Florence Kasumba), the Dora Milaje soldier whom we saw at the end of the previous episode. Ayo is helping Bucky break free of the hypnotic code words that turn him into the Winter Soldier, and she succeeds, setting him free from Hydra’s control. The scene is meant to reinforce the respect both characters have for each other before we revisit the present, when Ayo confronts Bucky in Riga and says she wants Zemo (Daniel Brühl). Ayo gives Bucky eight hours with Zemo to complete his mission before she arrives to take him to make him answer for the crimes he’s committed against Wakanda.
Bucky, of course, tells Zemo and Sam (Anthony Mackie) about his interaction with Ayo, which prompts them to hasten their search for Karli Morgenthau (Erin Kellyman) and the Flag Smashers. After learning about the bombing at the GRC depot from the previous episode, Zemo makes the point that Karli is a supremacist, stating “the desire to become a superhuman cannot be separated from supremacist ideals.” His biggest fear is that Karli will continue to escalate until she is stopped, which in his mind means “killed.”
The trio goes searching around the town, asking if anyone knew Donya Madani, with whom they know Karli had a relationship. Most people they meet ignore them, withdrawing from the interlopers asking questions, but Zemo manages to find a lead in a little girl he bribes with candy. He finds out where Donya’s funeral will be held but keeps it a secret to maintain his leverage over Sam and Bucky.
One thing I really liked about this scene is how Sam summed up Karli’s mission. He explains how, after the blip, all countries were willing to allow people to move freely across the borders, even countries that previously used force to keep others out. There was plenty of land and jobs to go around, thus solving many of the world’s problems. But then when everyone returned, people were displaced. Forced off land they settled on to be given back to its previous owners. Sam knows that Karli is fighting for those people, the people who were teased with a decent life only to have it snatched away. He understands Karli’s motivation even if he doesn’t agree with her actions.
Sam calls Sharon (Emily VanCamp) to find out if she has any surveillance tech she can use to find the location of the funeral and circumvent Zemo’s extortion. Sharon agrees to use her connections before impressing on him the importance of finding Karli.
Karli and one of her Flag Smashers (I’m sorry, but I really don’t know any of their names) retrieve the rest of the super soldier serum from a hiding place in a grave. Karli seems to be having second thoughts, wondering if making more soldiers is the right thing to do. But her compatriot explains that people need a hero they can look up to, one who “looks like them,” seemingly mirroring Zemo’s supremacist observations. But his deeper point is that Karli is a hero to these people because she’s been where they are. She came up from the streets, an orphan, homeless at times, so she truly understands the pain they live through. Karli says that Captain America’s shield is a monument to all of the people the world has left behind, history’s faceless and forgotten, and her resolve to continue her mission is doubled.
Back in Riga, Sam, Bucky and, Zemo go out to the funeral when Captain America (Wyatt Russell) and Battlestar (Clé Bennett) arrive. They join the trio to infiltrate the memorial. Cap wants to move in fast to take Karli by surprise to avoid casualties, but Sam would rather try and reason with her. Sam, having worked with traumatized soldiers in the past, is best equipped to talk Karli off the edge. Cap is vehemently against it, but Battlestar convinces him to give Sam a chance.
Sam finds Karli and the two talk. He tries to create a rapport with the woman, making her see that he truly understands her. There’s a moment when it seems that Sam is getting through to her, but Cap bursts in due to his impatience and announces she’s under arrest. Karli accuses Sam of trying to trick her and, rather than being taken in, she runs, prompting the episode’s first action sequence at twenty-four minutes in. Bucky chases her, but she easily alludes him.
Karli finds her way into a basement where she’s shot by Zemo. As she retreats from his gunfire, her fanny-pack holding the super soldier serum opens up, spilling the vials over the floor. Zemo begins to smash them, and Karli runs away while he’s distracted. But before Zemo can destroy all of the vials, he’s knocked unconscious by Cap’s shield. Cap sees all of the broken vials but spots one intact tucked away in a corner. He picks it up and pockets it, conveniently forgetting to tell anyone about it.
Back at Zemo’s apartment, Sam emails Sharon to ask her to keep an eye on Walker and advise him if he moves on Karli. After some discussion between Sam and Zemo about the nature of super soldiers, and Bucky and Sam about Walker’s slipping sanity, Cap and Battlestar barge in demanding to take Zemo back to prison. Sam stands in his way, and Cap is ready to fight, offering to put down the shield “to make it fair.”
But before they throw down, the Dora Milaje arrive for Zemo. Cap gets aggressive with Ayo and proceeds to get his ass handed to him. It’s only when the Dora Milaje go to strike the killing blow against Cap and Battlestar that Sam and Bucky step in. Zemo takes the opportunity to slip away, prompting the Dora to retreat when they discover their quarry has escaped.
Losing to the Dora leaves Walker shaken. “They weren’t even super soldiers,” he laments to Hoskins, so cocksure of himself that he can take on any threat. Later, Walker asks Hoskins if, given the chance, he would take the serum. Hoskins doesn’t hesitate to say yes, under the assumption that “power just makes a person more of themselves,” citing both Karli and Steve Rogers as examples of overemphasized personalities.
Karli threatens Sam’s sister to send him a message that she wants to meet. She extends an offer to Sam to join her in her mission, or at least let her go. Sam gets notified by Sharon that Walker has found the Flag Smashers. He and Bucky race off to intercept them, while Karli runs to join her team.
Cap and Battlestar search a seemingly abandoned building when Battlestar is taken captive. Cap rushes off to find him and is attacked. He fights back and tosses his shield, embedding it in a stone wall. It’s at this point we realize that Cap has taken the super soldier serum he found, and he’s super pumped up on adrenaline.
Sam arrives to find Cap fighting one of the Flag Smashers and witnesses him bend a metal pipe around his hand. He asks Walker what he did. Walker merely responds with “They’ve got Lemar.” The two rush after the Flag Smasher to find Battlestar and get jumped by two other soldiers.
Bucky arrives, and Battlestar breaks free of his bonds, and they both join the fight. Karli leaps to attack Captain America but is knocked down by Battlestar. She quickly gets to her feet and punches him in the chest, sending him flying into a stone pillar. He falls to the floor, dead.
Seeing his best friend get killed enrages John Walker, and he chases after the retreating Flag Smashers. He wants Karli but finds only one of her minions. He doesn’t care, though. After knocking him to the ground, he lifts his shield and bludgeons the man to death as a group of onlookers watch, cell phone cameras poised. The final shot of the episode is Captain America standing at full height, his shield stained with blood.
The brutality with which Walker killed the unarmed soldier is telling, and it goes back to what Lemar said about power earlier in the episode. “Power makes a person more of themselves.” That line was the perfect foreshadowing of Walker’s inability as Captain America. Over the last two episodes, we’ve seen Walker’s emotions take further control of his actions, and this final moment pushed him over the edge. We expect our leaders to be logical, cool-headed in tough situations. That’s how Steve Rogers always acted as Cap, and John Walker proved in this moment that he is no Steve Rogers.
This moment also mirrors the real-world violence perpetrated by the police. The death of George Floyd was less than a year before this episode aired and is still fresh in society’s mind. Floyd, an unarmed man, was killed by a member of law enforcement while a helpless crowd could only watch, and film, in horror. The only difference here is that Walker’s actions were committed in a fit of rage and over-emotion, while George Floyd was killed by a calm, totally indifferent cop.
But I feel that this moment was also foreshadowed much earlier, in the design of the Captain America suit. One of the flourishes on Walker’s suit is an American flag. By itself, that’s nothing unusual, but this flag is washed out, stripped of its colors, and presented in black-and-white. The flag is reminiscent of the popular-among-law-enforcement “Blue Lives Matter” flag, a black-and-white American flag with a single blue line in it. Given all of the injustices committed by law enforcement, this flag is seen by many people as a symbol of opposition, a support of the systemic brutality committed by many members of law enforcement. Many people feel that flag says, “As a cop, my life matters more than yours.” And that’s a sentiment that John Walker displayed here.
Not to mention that the cold-blooded murder of an unarmed, surrendered opponent is a war crime. A decorated soldier like Walker would know this. Every step he took in that final moment of the episode cast the entirety of the United States in a bad light.
And so far, this is what I love about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It hasn’t been afraid to call out these moments of injustice. It’s willing to paint the United States as less-than-ideal. It’s like the moment in Captain America: The Winter Solider when Cap points to the secret SHIELD helicarriers and tells Nick Fury, “This isn’t freedom. This is fear.” Only The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is elevating that message. It’s a bold stance for pop culture to take, but one that’s certainly needed.
