I never thought the finale of a TV season could be so moving and such a letdown at the same time, but Falcon and Winter Soldier somehow pulled off the trick in spades in this week's finale, titled "One World, One People."
Reading between the lines, Sam's impassioned speech relayed the message and feelings of so many hurting people of our society who are desperate to be heard and understood, and spoke to those who continue to fail understanding the heart of the issues from which racism stems. The speech was a perfect summation of the show's strong messaging these six episodes.
Unfortunately, the speech's impact was delivered at the expense of affording enough time for everything else in the episode. So much story build-up and character growth was undermined or underdeveloped, which put a damper on the whole show.
Let's start with Karli. The episode picks up at the start of her Flag Smashers' operation to take down the GRC, which is putting to vote the motion of resetting borders and sending refugees back where they came from. This whole time, Karli is begging Sam (but really the audience) not to consider her a terrorist, and she is adamant about executing bigger plans than just tearing down empires. So what's her entire convoluted plan? Oh, she wants to gas the GRC, shoot down whoever gets in her way, hijack a fortified vehicle that's trying to carry away the representatives, and use them as hostages instead. And when Karli, the big bad leader of this terrifying Flag Smashers group, needs to make a run for it, she has no choice but to hide in abandoned buildings (if her group is so threatening, why is it so hard for her to get a ride?). What exactly did she think she'd accomplish by attacking the GRC this way, anyway? Was taking a small group of officials hostage really going to change anything?
See, Karli's character sounded nice in theory, but her story was too poorly executed to just look the other way and not notice the gaping cracks. For someone who was supposedly truly affected by the blip, she was supposed to have a unique perspective, but in the end, she was nothing more than a weak and aimless antagonist merely meant to fill a need, because, after all, someone has to be the bad guy in all this. Her Flag Smashers group is talked about like it's the next Hydra outfit, but in reality, it's little more than an after-school group that bit off more than it can chew. That's the problem when the scope of the effects that the events of the show have are largely ignored. There's no context.
Then there's the "twist" about Sharon Carter as The Power Broker. It wasn't hard to figure that out given the limited amount of characters in such a short series, but at least the face to the name was someone we knew, which I prefer to the random unknown character whom we'd inevitably have to wait to learn about later on. But still, Sharon? Really? Sure, the seeds of her bitterness were planted when we first were reintroduced to her earlier this season, but man, I loved the old Sharon Carter. She was a noble, feisty character who would stand up for what is good no matter the cost. I guess principles fade over time, huh? Anyway, the moment she reveals herself was as anti-climactic as could be when she, Karli, and Batroc (more on him in a moment) had their petty little stand-off at gunpoint. Sharon shooting Karli to protect her identity from Sam implies that Karli may finally have had a change of heart (though way, way, way too late), but it's hard to even care about Karli's ideals at that point.
The post-credit scene with Sharon didn't excite me about what's coming in the future. The irony of her being a plant within a government agency after what happened in Captain America: The Winter Soldier is not lost on me. I'm not even sure I care about the person on the other end of her phone call.
I also don't really care about Val and John Walker at this point. We technically don't even know what side they're fighting for. All that matters to Walker is he still is in the game. Setting up so many characters and stories for later is Marvel's M.O., but usually they execute it way better than this. I know a lot of people complained about feeling unresolved at the end of WandaVision (I loved the ending and thought it was a good conclusion), but "Falcon and Winter Soldier" left way too many stories open and unresolved in the moment to leave any meaningful impact.
Looking back on the entire show now, I wonder if Marvel is redefining what a cameo means, at least when it comes to their TV shows. We already got one cheap trick in Wandavision with Pietro. But we got two of those in this show. Zemo's presence was mostly a gimmick - he started in one prison and ended up in another. Sure, now he's happy that no more super soldiers exist. Big whoop. His biggest contribution was helping Bucky learn a few things (Bucky's scene with the old man was way too short and contrite, by the way). And Batroc's limited role in the show, which peaked with a short fight with Falcon, seemed more like Marvel's way of saying, "Hey, remember this dude in that one Captain America movie? He's still around!" The reveal that he's working with the Power Broker is not surprising at all, but getting shot in the end proved any lackey would've served his purpose.
At least one "cameo" was salvaged. Isaiah's story had a great, feel-good conclusion. Sam's surprise for him at the museum was truly touching. It legitimized bringing Isaiah into the mix despite his out-of-left-field introduction and even gave him a little moment for his own growth. Sam's actions, speech, and reverence for those who came before him is very Captain America-esque; he truly does represent the best of both sides of the equation that Isaiah thought he was clueless about.
What I liked about Sams' speech was he didn't have all the answers. He didn't fully understand the scope of the entire situation facing the GRC. But he wanted the government officials to finally see that they don't see the scope of everything, either. They aren't paying attention to the people they're hurting. They are just executing a plan that makes sense on paper without giving much thought to its true ramifications. As Sam tells them, we can do better. Authorities have tremendous power, and it's time they start using it to make our world a better place. Drawing on real-world parallels and issues of racism, Sam was the only one willing to have a conversation and open up dialogue between both sides, something our society sorely needs. We have too many people shouting on Twitter and Facebook, trying to shove political angles down everyone else's throats, so much so that, to use a Biblical metaphor, we don't see the planks in our own eyes. No one is trying to understand the hurt in our country; we're just trying to find someone to blame. Like Sam told Bucky last week, sometimes it's better to try and help those in pain instead of aimlessly fighting with words on social media. I will say, Sam's "We built this country, bled for it," line to Isaiah later on felt out of place (and kind of petty, honestly), as if those things are exclusive to black people, but the sentiment behind that statement was understandable, as was the follow-up about continuing to fight for it. I just wish they worded that line better.
As far as the classic Marvel factor, the finale had plenty of the coolness factor, but it wasn't mind-blowing. Falcon's suit looked frickin sweet. But the fact that he announces himself as Captain America with almost no flare (other than the aforementioned suit and camerawork focusing on visually appealing acrobatic stunts) was a swing and a miss. We also got very little rhetoric to the full effect of his transformation; we saw two random guys on the street confused about calling him Black Falcon or Captain America (WHY NOT CAPTAIN FALCON?!?). But maybe the lack of rhetoric was for the best. It shouldn't be a big deal that a black man is Captain America; we shouldn't even need to qualify him as "black Captain America," either (again, Captain Falcon! It's right there. Nintendo doesn't own that name).
What's next
So the next Marvel show is Loki, which will introduce the Time Variance Authority and hopefully give us parallel universe/alternate timeline shenanigans, but what should Marvel learn from its second outing in the television sphere?
First of all, not every Marvel show needs to play like a six-hour movie. WandaVision blended arcing plots and serial-style storytelling quite nicely while Falcon and Winter Soldier failed in that department multiple times. Sure, plenty of shows are really just long movies broken up into chunks, but pacing, executing a plan with a purpose, and providing a satisfactory conclusion are all vital to that style's success, and we didn't get much of those this time around.
Secondly, provide more context around new characters. We need more background information. I don't care if you know characters from the comics or not, just plopping them in there as if they already exist in THIS universe doesn't work. Those who don't know the comics or the characters or references are left scratching their head, but it's even confusing for those who know the comics because these characters aren't fulfilling the same role in the same way, anyway.
Lastly, as someone who loves the MCU and what it has accomplished the past 13 years, I hope Marvel doesn't forget how to tell a complete story - ending and all - while continuing to build up this universe with cliffhangers and Easter eggs. All that stuff is cool, but that's not what makes interesting, compelling stories.
Notes:
-I'm mum on big action scenes done outside at night. For my taste, it was too dark to be "wowed" by the fights, the shooting, and the acrobats. The Captain America properties are always shot and edited so beautifully, and while the cinematography was still outstanding, the darkness definitely muted my enjoyment.
-Walker's do-good action during the scene with the falling vehicle felt empty. So everyone is going to forget his brutal murder using Cap's shield? I guess working with Val indicates he'll still operate in the shadows, more as a black ops-type hero, though, so maybe "accepting" Walker is too strong.
-As the credits immediately start rolling, we get a stinger right away with the show's name change to Captain America and The Winter Soldier.
-When Falcon first introduces himself as Captain America, some official there said "I thought he was on the moon." A nice reference to the opening episode.
-As I eluded to earlier, Karli claims the movement is strong enough to continue without us (as if she was foreshadowing her own death), but is it really? No. Also, it was interesting that her fellow rebels suddenly second-guessed their radical leader before affirming their "One world, one people" motto.
Final note:
I'm going to try to pound out a few blogs in the coming weeks, but my next weekly blog, of course, will be on the Star Wars show Bad Batch. Hooray Star Wars!