The latest episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is titled “Truth,” and there is no better title for the information it contains. After last week’s explosive ending, John Walker must face the truth of his actions. Sam revisits an old ally and learns the truth behind the country’s actions, and the audience even discovers some truth to a beloved ally of Captain America. But even after all of that, there’s still plenty of truth left to uncover as this episode creates more questions than it answers. So, let’s just cut to the chase and get into it, because this is gonna be a long one.
As usual, what follows contains massive spoilers for the latest episode, so back away now if you haven’t watched it yet.
“Truth” opens with John Walker (Wyatt Russell) retreating to an empty warehouse after publicly executing one of the Flag Smashers for the death of his partner, Lemar Hoskins (Clé Bennett). He is wracked with emotions: fear, anger, guilt, shame. It’s almost enough to make the viewer empathize with what he’s going through. That is, until Bucky and Sam show up to try and convince him to surrender the shield. That’s when Walker doubles down on his actions, justifying what he did and lashing out at Sam and Bucky (Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan) for not seeing things his way. A rather epic battle ensues as Sam and Bucky work together to stop Walker and take the shield away from him. They manage to do so, but it leaves them weak, and Sam’s wings are destroyed.
We can also talk about the immense symbolism of Walker fighting with blood on the shield, not concerned at all with how it looks. A white soldier, brought up through the ranks, taking every order that’s given to him ignores all of the atrocities perpetrated by his country, unconcerned with the optics. However, as soon as Sam recovers the shield, he looks at the blood with dismay and tries to wipe it off with his bare hands. He understands the meaning of the shield, what it stands for, and he’s hurt and embarrassed at how it’s been sullied.
The next scene finds Torres (Danny Ramirez) catching up with Sam and Bucky. Sam explains how the GRC is hunting for Karli, and though they’ve taken many of her abettors into custody, she’s in the wind. Bucky leaves to find Zemo, and Torres tells Sam that the brass has taken jurisdiction of the hunt for Karli. Sam takes the shield and leaves, leaving behind the broken wings. When Torres reminds him of them, he tells him to keep them.
John Walker is brought before a panel to face the actions of his crimes. He’s stripped of the title of Captain America and discharged from the military. He tries to explain the extenuating circumstances behind what he did, but the panel refuses to hear it. This angers Walker, and he lashes out at them. He shouts at them that he’s done everything they told him to do in their service and feels betrayed that they are turning their backs on him.
After walking out on the hearing, he laments to his wife the struggles that come along with being Captain America. He’s approached by a mysterious woman. She introduces herself as Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (but most viewers will probably recognize her as Julia Louis-Dreyfus). She empathizes with his actions, explaining that he did the right thing in taking the serum. Her overall goal is to make an asset of Walker, but for what purpose? She leaves as abruptly as she arrived, leaving only a blank business card behind.
At this point, we check in with Karli (Erin Kellyman) and the Flag Smashers. They return to their previous refuge to find it completely empty. A note left behind explains that the GRC shut it down for abetting fugitives. Karli recalls the people in her life she’s lost and becomes angry that at how hard she has to work to just be citizens of the planet. She vows to redouble her efforts to make the world pay for betraying them.
Bucky finds Zemo (Daniel Brühl) at the memorial in Sokovia. They have a brief exchange about what it will take to stop Karli, and Bucky holds a gun on Zemo. Zemo is afraid for his life, knowing what’s to come. But when Bucky pulls the trigger, we learn that the gun is empty. Bucky doesn’t want to kill Zemo because that’s the way of the Winter Soldier, a path he never wants to go down again. Instead, Bucky hands Zemo over to Ayo (Florence Kasumba) and the Dora Milaje, who will bring Zemo to the Raft, the high-security super- villain prison. Before they leave, Bucky asks Ayo for one more favor.
Meanwhile, Sam heads back to Baltimore, shield in tow, to meet with Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) again. Isaiah outlines all of the injustices the American government perpetrated against its own soldiers, soldiers who happened to be Black, and how his experiences made him bitter. He and his team were sent for a mission, and many of them were taken captive. Isaiah wanted to save them, but the government was willing to write them off. Instead, Isaiah defied orders and goes to save them, an action nearly exact to what Steve Rogers does in Captain America: The First Avenger. But instead of being hailed a hero, Isaiah was arrested and experimented on.
In the thirty years Isaiah was in jail, he was denied all communication with the love of his life, and she died without ever speaking to him again. It was only by the graces of a nurse who took pity on him did he escape, the nurse having him declared dead. Sam wants to tell Isaiah’s story, but Isaiah refuses, saying that if the government knew he was alive, he’d be dead for real. Isaiah knows that times haven’t changed and that racism is still alive and well. The government erased Isaiah from history, as they’d done for 500 years, and there’s no way they’ll allow a Black man to be Captain America, adding, “And even if they did, no self-respecting Black man will want to be.”
Isaiah’s words hit Sam hard, and though he doesn’t say it, he feels them to be the truth. He experienced the government’s racism when they picked Walker to be Captain America, even though Steve gave him the shield. And given that betrayal, why would Sam want to title anyway?
After leaving Isaiah’s, Sam decides there are more important things to do and he returns to his sister’s home to help her fix the family’s boat. He rallies the neighbors and everyone who owes his family a favor, and they all pitch in and help get the boat in semi-running order. Bucky shows up to give Sam a case, a favor he called in from the Wakandans, but he decides to stick around to help with the repairs.
After a fun montage of the boys doing manual labor, we return to John Walker, who is visiting the Hoskins family to tell them what happened to Lemar. When he’s asked if the person John killed was the one who killed Lemar, John answers yes, and it’s a little unclear if John is lying to justify his actions or if the super-soldier serum is somehow making him misremember the events. Whatever the reason, he shows actual sadness for the loss of his friend. When he leaves, he discovers a poster of himself as Captain America, and he gets something in his head.
Checking in with Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp), she’s still in her stronghold in Madripoor, on the phone with an unseen contact. She’s offering them a job and based on the shouting in French from the other end, we assume that it’s Batroc the Leaper (Georges St-Pierre). We don’t get any details on the job, but Sharon makes it impossible for him to say no to.
After a few more repairs to the boat, Sam and Bucky have a practice session with the shield in Sarah’s (Adepero Oduye) front yard. Bucky explains how he never understood the ramifications of a Black man carrying the weight of the shield and apologizes to Sam for giving him crap for giving up the shield.
It’s a touching scene with the two of them burying the hatchet for the tension between them and coming to terms with the loss of Steve Rogers. But it’s also pretty funny given the action they’re doing as they converse. It’s like the scene in The Room where Johnny, Denny, and Mark toss the football around. This is just two dudes getting in touch with their feelings while they throw the vibranium shield. But it’s also underscored by the seriousness of Sam convincing Bucky to make actual amends for his actions, starting with just one person on his list.
Back on Sarah’s boat, Sam is ready to paint over the boat’s name in preparation for selling it. But Sarah decides that she can’t; the boat is her parent’s legacy, and she can’t get rid of it. This doubles Sam’s resolve to hold on to the shield; he considered Captain America his own family, and Cap left him the shield as a part of his legacy, and he can’t get rid of it so easily. So, he trains, learning how to use the shield. He stumbles at first, but after a while, he gets the hang of it, being able to throw and catch it while doing some impressive stuntwork. It took us five episodes, but we’ve finally hit the point where Sam Wilson decides to hold on to the mantle of Captain America.
We catch up with Karli and Dovich in New York when they are approached by Batroc with a case of weapons. Dovich is unhappy to be working with criminals, but Karli reminds him that they are criminals. Karli tells Batroc that they plan to infiltrate a nearby vote by the GRC and activates her sleeper soldiers.
Later, the GRC gathers in a secret location in New York and argue about the efficacy of passing the Patch Act, which authorizes the placement of 20 million refugees back in their home countries. During the confusion, some of Karli’s soldiers slip in under the guise of security employees and take control of the room.
Sam, watching the news about the Patch Act vote, gets a call from Torres, who tells Sam that he got a ping from Karli in New York. Sam puts two and two together and understands why Karli is there. He finally opens the case Bucky gave him from the Wakandans, but then the credits roll, leaving us wondering what’s inside.
However, we’re finally treated to the first mid-credits scene of the series. In it, John Walker is hard at work in a workshop, hammering out metal, soldering the pieces together, painting them a familiar red, white, and blue motif. The pieces are meant to become a new shield, and we assume that since he can no longer be Captain America, that he is going to adopt a new identity. Comic fans will know who this is, but fans of the MCU are in for a treat.
There’s only one episode left in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and there are still so many questions that need to be answered. What’s Contessa Valentina’s deal? How is she going to utilize John Walker? What’s in the box, Sam? What’s in the boooox? (Sorry, slipped into my Brad Pitt for a second.) I assume it’s a new set of wings, designed and built by Shuri for Sam’s new take on Captain America. It seems like Bucky had the insight into Sam to know that he would follow in Steve’s footsteps and prepared for that very moment. If this is the case, it should be a very dramatic reveal for the last episode.
And we really have to wonder what Sharon is up to. She was eager to help Sam and Bucky when they arrived in Madripoor, and later, though somewhat reluctantly, when Sam asked her to track Walker and Hoskins. Is she actually in cahoots with Karli and the Flag Smashers and only used Sam as a means to find them? Or is she a double, double agent, working for some other organization to help bring Karli down by bolstering their actions? I know there have been theories about Sharon being the Power Broker, but her providing weapons to Karli would seem to contradict those theories, however at this point, it still can’t be ruled out.
I’ve been very interested in the intrigue The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has presented over the last five weeks, and with only one episode left, I’m champing at the bit for the wrap-up. I have no doubt it’s going to be explosive.
