WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
As the 4th episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier comes to an end, we have finally come to the climax of the story. We see the characters all having their revelations and the showing their true colors. This episode was probably the best episode out of the series yet.
Starting off with Sam, for the whole episode he tries to employ a more passive technique to convince Karli Morgenthau to stop terrorizing people. While his method seems to actually work the most, it is foiled by John Walker. Sam seems to not really be against the Flag Smashers themselves, but only their methods of achieving their goals.
Bucky, on the other hand, seems to be more focused on keeping Zemo safe as long as possible from the Dora Milaje. He goes along with Sam’s plans and trusts his passive approach to the flag smashers. His resentment for John also seems to grow in this episode, as we see him get angrier and angrier with John’s actions. One thing I’m still waiting for is to see the side plot between him and Isaiah from the second episode, because that is still left pretty open-ended. I also want to see him to be more vocal, since for now he seems to be more of a side character.
John Walker had the biggest change in the episode. Every episode he seems to get angrier and angrier due to the pressures of having the title of Captain America and not getting the respect of the Falcon and Winter Soldier. This comes to a climax this episode, when he finds one vial of the super soldier serum. He is conflicted with whether or not to use it, and the audience is left in the dark about whether he did or not, until he bends a bar in half during a fight with the Flag Smashers. After the death of his friend, we find out the effect that the serum can have on someone. At the end of the episode, we see John at full rage, with the now-famous shot of him with the bloody shield.
As for Zemo, he seems to be the least evil person on the show, surprisingly, and he is mostly just trying to survive being murdered by everyone that sees him. While he is very helpful in the episode and helps Sam and Bucky out, he has to escape when the Dora Milaje comes after him. I really like Zemo’s character; he adds a lot of color to the show. I really want him to see him in his full costume, with his purple mask, more often.
Overall, this was a great episode and I personally cannot wait to see how it’s going to come to an end. The final image of John with the bloody shield has to go down as one of the coolest shots in TV history.
