The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 2 review: The Star-Spangled Man

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 2, “The Star-Spangled Man,” continued to set up its story well with a measured approach.

The first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier takes place around six or seven months after the Blip (where everyone returned from the Snap in Avengers: Infinity War), so roughly late summer/early fall 2023.

While the Blipped Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) is occasionally working for the US military on top-secret missions as Falcon in the Disney Plus series, he did not feel up to carrying the legacy of Steve Rogers, donating the shield he received in Avengers: Endgame to the Smithsonian as part of their Captain America history exhibit.

On the other hand, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) is living in Brooklyn again and trying to live a normal life, attending therapy sessions as a repayment for violating the Sokovia Accords in Captain America: Civil War.

In other ongoing issues, Sam’s sister Sarah is trying to save their family fishing business down in coastal Louisiana, his work colleague Lt Torres (Danny Ramirez) is tracking an insurgent collective called the Flag Smashers, and the government is bringing out a new Captain America in a soldier named John Walker (Wyatt Russell).

The Star-Spangled Man

As mentioned, the new bearer of the Captain America mantle is a soldier named John Walker, who has previously been stationed as part of a special ops group in Chile. He’s gathering his thoughts in his former high school locker room when viewers meet him and his sidekick Lamar Hoskins/Battle-Star, who cautions him that “You can’t just… punch your way out of problems anymore.”

He is introduced to the public in a human-interest story on Good Morning America, but as his later actions prove, this role does have a lot more to it.

Struggling for a new world

The Flag Smashers are tracked to an abandoned warehouse north of Munich, Germany, which Sam and Bucky go to investigate, where they discover that vaccines are being stolen. A chase ensues and they lose after banter is exchanged and Walker/Battle-Star show up and meddle, as we meet the Flag Smashers’ leader Karli Morgenthau (Erin Kellyman) during the fight.

They have a network of contacts throughout the world, finding a safehouse and continuing their mostly-unknown plans. Their plans are not as well-revealed to the audience as the Purifiers on The Gifted, but it’s been stated that they believe the world was a better place during the five years with less people.

…with some of the same problems as the old one

While Sam and Bucky grapple with the weirdness that is someone not named Steve being called Captain America, they go visit an old friend of Bucky’s in Baltimore, an elderly Black man named Isaiah Bradley, who fought against the Winter Soldier in a bar during the Korean War in 1951.

Bradley was part of a secret government program to create more super soldiers, then once his usefulness was over he was jailed for three decades while being constantly experimented on, which has left him understandably bitter.

While still fuming over this injustice, Sam is harassed by the police as Bucky is arrested for violating parole by missing a therapy session, only to be bailed out by Walker and forced into a spur-of-the-moment couples counseling session with Sam.

Where things stand in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

While they do get some value out of this therapy session (mostly, frustration with Steve’s legacy not being preserved in an active way), they also encounter an antagonistic Walker and Hoskins, turning down their partnership offer by pointing out that they (Sam and Bucky) do not wait to wait for governmental red tape in order to act.

Elsewhere in the world, a member of Karli’s group sacrifices himself to an unidentified group (possibly military or police) in order to let the rest of the Flag Smashers escape from Slovakia, while Sam and Bucky decide to talk with Helmut Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) to learn more information.

While The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 2 was fairly light on action, as it had the unenviable job of furthering the conflicts and settings from the pilot episode, it did well at painting the various shades of gray that the series will hopefully explore as it continues.

Stars and scraps

• Company crossover alert, as Good Morning America is an ABC show, which is of course a sister channel.
• Of course the Custer’s Grove High School mascot would be the Eagles. That’s a nice touch, though.
• In Marvel Comics, Karli Morgenthau is a man named Karl Morgenthau, who was introduced in the mid-1980s as a villain called the Flag Smasher.
• Isaiah Bradley is a fairly new comics character, introduced around 2003. His grandson Elijah briefly appears in this episode; in the comics he becomes part of the Young Avengers as Patriot.
• While the Black Panther title is understandable within the MCU framework because of the goddess Bast, Sam does point out how odd it would sound to place “Black” in front of another superhero title for no reason.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 3 will drop on Disney Plus on Friday, April 2.