Enemies of my enemies are my friends
The halfway point of The Falcon and Winter Soldier painted different shades of color on a couple of established characters, and it shed some light on the evil plans going on in the background, all while wrapped in a sleuthing spy mystery thriller.
As we were led to believe at the end of last week's episode, Zemo plays a prominent role in episode 3, titled "Power Broker." But he didn't factor in quite the way I expected. Instead of the powerful Zemo using influence to break out of prison, he instead is fortunate enough that Sam and Bucky are stupid enough to bust him out themselves. And instead of getting back to his evil ways, he decides to join forces with them.
What I also didn't expect was Zemo's...charm? He actually had a dignity and light-heartedness to him, quite different from the doom-and-gloom, wiley persona he had in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He actually makes some banter with Bucky on their plane ride to Madripoor, the location of the main portion of the episode. The humor in this episode as a whole was some of the best of any MCU entry in a long time. Falcon's reference to not scooting up the seat like in Captain America: Civil War was great, and their funny exchange about proper action-movie protocol while trying to evade an explosion in the shipyard was perfectly timed.
Back to Zemo, I also expected him to try to escape from Bucky and Sam, who only kept a loose eye on him (he had several opportune moments to do so), but he apparently didn't feel the need. Yeah, he's definitely up to something. Maybe he wants in on the secret plan Sam and Bucky spelled out for him when recruiting him in the first place, huh? Later on, Zemo finds a hidden gun and shoots the target of their mission - the scientist who has recreated the super soldier serum - during Sam and Bucky's questioning of him, as if it was some big twisty moment. I guess Sam and Bucky won't start a P.I. business after their superhero gig is done.
Still, for the purposes of keeping the story and continuity clean, the scientist had to get shot. We find out some sorely needed backstory about Isaiah's involvement in the recreation of the serum, and the scientist reveals that Karli, the Flag Smashers leader, stole everything he made, which suggests the super soldiers out there now are the only ones left. I sure hope so, because this whole "Secret Super Soldier" plotline is already outstaying its welcome; I would guess Marvel wanted to assure us they wouldn't leave loose ends here, which I appreciate. Now the only chance of that is if some of these secret super soldiers aren't found in the final three episodes (which is totally possible, but it's not like they're building up towards an ARMY of secret super soldiers).
The cold-blooded fallout of a superhero's life outside of fighting the "Big 3" continued to rear its ugly head with the emergence of one of my favorite characters (and one of my wife's least favorite characters): Sharon Carter returns! Sharon, though, has had a "rough" life since the fallout of the Hydra-S.H.I.E.L.D. debacle in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. She's had to lay low and do some shady things to survive, which, understandably, has given her a gritty, tough edge we haven't seen in her before. A hardened good guy is a fun, refreshing take, especially when the good guy has to do bad things to stay afloat. Of course, everyone wants to point their finger at someone other than Sharon for her rash decisions as we gain an incredible perspective of the side effects from the continued fallout of Captain America: Civil War. Sharon knew she was risking her job when she decided to help out Cap in that movie (though it could be argued she couldn't have had any true inkling of the sheer magnitude of her decision), but no one came back for her, which was awful. Whether it's because of the blip that cause Sam's situation earlier this season or the government forcing Cap and his allies to live on the run like Sharon, the tearing down of the picture-perfect superhero life continues to give these characters more dimension and new motivations.
Despite all that she's been through, Sharon would've made Cap proud for deciding to help Bucky, Sam, and Zemo because she still wants to do what's right. As the guys got caught up in a shootout, she proves to be their guardian angel and helps them out. The action sequences in general felt a little more violent and visceral than usual, yet it was fitting for being in the criminal underbelly of the bad part of the city. Watching Sharon get her hands dirty throughout the episode was quite exhilarating (her awesomeness level went up a factor of 10 in this episode).
We don't get much time with Walker or the Flag Smashers. Near the end of the episode, Karli and one of her cohorts give us some insight to their motivations (Karli cares for kids, and she even mentions she would be a teacher in another life), and she even hints that the mysterious Power Broker can't force his will on them anymore now that they have the serum. I like how all the alliances between the Power Brokers, the Flag Smashers, Walker and the U.S. government, and Sam, Bucky, Sharon, and Zemo are all blurring. It should keep us guessing until the end.
At the end of the episode, we get a pre-credits stinger. Bucky breaks away from the group for a moment and finds a secret visitor: Ayo! It makes sense that Ayo and Bucky would have a connection after his time spent in Wakanda. But Ayo is still mad at Zemo for what he did to Wakanda's royal family, so it'll be interesting to see if Bucky needs to protect Zemo in the same way Cap protected him. Maybe this is how Bucky understands what Steve truly thought of him now? There's still a lot left to dissect with these characters. I just hope three episodes is enough time, though this week's longer runtime was nice.
Notes:
-So theories are running wild about who the Power Broker is going to be. It needs to be someone who has a lot of money, obviously, and maybe somebody who is motivated to take down either the U.S. government in particular or other government entities in general, and it may even be someone who has a bad history with the Avengers since the Flag Smashers liked things the way they were during the blip (read: without the Avengers intact). It would be really cool if they brought back characters from previous MCU entries, like Justin Hammer, who perfectly fits the mold, especially because he's already done something like this with Whiplash. It would be interesting to see if Sharon Carter turns out to be a traitor since she's hardened and bitter, but I hope it's not; I still think she has some of that character that took part in Steve's revolt. The Power Broker also could be someone we haven't met yet, or heck, it could still be Zemo, which would add credence to why he hasn't ditched Sam and Bucky just yet. Whoever it is, hopefully it's fun reveal moment, and maybe a little more significant of a villainous twist than "Agatha all along" in WandaVision (though I loved what Kathryn Hahn did with that character).