***SO MANY SPOILERS AHEAD***
For those of you who only know bookish me, today is the day you find out about my intense love for all things MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe, if that’s not your thing). A couple of years ago, I decided to sit down and watch the entire MCU, movies and TV shows, in chronological order leading up to Avengers: Infinity War. It brought a shit ton of traffic to my lifestyle blog, and more importantly, it turned me into a diehard MCU fan. Just to be super clear, I do not read the comics, I have never read the comics, and I have no plans to read the comics. But I am very invested in these characters, and I consume everything in the MCU with a positive attitude. That’s not to say I don’t have issues with the material, but I definitely go into these movies and shows expecting to love them, and I usually do. You’ll see more and more of these types of posts popping up here as we get back to the real world and movies are a thing again, so you’ve been warned!
Alright, a little background on my relationship with TFATWS before we dive in. If you follow me on any social media platforms, or you’re signed up for my newsletter, you know of my deep and abiding love for Sebastian Stan. Sebastian is serving as my hero inspiration for my current work in progress, and to say I’m obsessed would be a bit of an understatement. So even if I didn’t love the MCU with all my heart, I would have been watching this show just for the peak hotness of Sebastian Stan. (Anthony Mackie is also very, very nice to look at, so all around, good stuff.) I also just have always loved the relationship between Bucky and Sam because they are basically an enemies to lovers rom com, which I am here for. So let’s check out this masterpiece, episode by episode!
Episode 1: New World Order
This is our first chance to catch up with Sam and Bucky since they returned from the Blip at the end of Endgame. We’ve seen little snippets of the world post Blip, both in Spider-Man: Far From Home and WandaVision, but this episode, I think, gives us a bit more of a close up as to how things have changed and how people have been handling it (not well, shocker). The episode opens with Sam running a mission to stop Batroc (Georges St. Pierre) from kidnapping a military hostage. Sam is working with Lt. Torres (Danny Ramirez), who is investigating a new terrorist organization called the Flag Smashers, but Sam has to leave to head back to DC, where he is donating Steve’s shield to the Smithsonian. When we catch up with Bucky, he is living a seemingly normal life (for Bucky anyway), going to therapy and trying to make amends for some of the harm he caused as the Winter Soldier. Sam returns to his family home in Louisiana to try to help his sister Sarah (Adepero Oduye) save their parents’ fishing boat. At the very end of the episode, it is revealed that the US government has taken possession of Cap’s shield and given it to John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and named him the new Captain America. (No end credits scene.)
So not going to lie, I was not immediately captivated by this opening scene. I mostly try to ignore Marvel’s relationship with the military, and this felt like really strong propaganda. I don’t know that we have ever seen a Marvel hero full on completing missions for the military before? I don’t know, but I didn’t love it. And then, of course, watching Sam give away the shield was rough. Even though I didn’t explicitly know what was going to happen, I knew it wasn’t going to be good. Probably my favorite part of this first episode was watching Bucky go to therapy because literally every character in the MCU needs therapy and we should normalize the shit out of it. I also really liked getting to see Bucky and Sam live their normal civilian lives. Bucky going on a date, Sam being an uncle (I love that he’s Uncle Sam). It did bring up an interesting question: How do the Avengers make a living? (And why doesn’t Sam, who is a veteran, receive any sort of pension?) And props to everyone who had a hand in creating John Walker because I hate him immediately.
Episode 2: The Star-Spangled Man
John Walker is introduced as the new Captain America, going on a publicity tour and in general being a tool. Bucky shows up and questions Sam for giving up the shield, then decides to accompany him on his mission to go look for the Flag Smashers and their leader Karli (Erin Kellyman). They find them in Munich, but when they attack the Flag Smashers as they are attempting to steal medicine and supplies, they find out Karli and her friends are super soldiers. Walker and his best friend/partner Lemar (Cle Bennett) show up to help, but the four of them get their asses handed to them. Walker wants to work with Bucky and Sam but they refuse. Bucky and Sam are determined to root out how the Flag Smashers got super soldier serum, so Bucky takes Sam to meet Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), a Black man who was given the serum around the same time as Steve Rogers. Isaiah and his comrades were injected without their knowledge and then studied and experimented on by the government. Isaiah was the only one to survive and spent most of his adult life in prison, being constantly tested by the government until a nurse helped him fake his death and escape. Isaiah (understandably) wants nothing to do with them and Bucky and Sam leave. When cops arrive to question Sam for being Black, they find that Bucky has a warrant out for missing court-mandated therapy. Walker gets Bucky out of jail, but Bucky and Sam still refuse to work with him. Bucky tells Sam there’s only one person who can help them uncover super soldier serum secrets (say that ten times fast), so they head off to see Zemo. (No end credits scene.)
There are some pretty brilliant moments in this episode. Bucky and Sam fall right back into their rom-com style banter and I love every second of it. The fight scene on the top of the trucks is fantastic, but the highlight is the end when Bucky and Sam are rolling around together in the grass (I could probably write a full on essay about how this show is actually a rom-com). One of my favorite recurring themes of the show is Walker consistently getting his ass beat by women. Here for it, every time. Watching the scene with Isaiah and then the whole cop encounter right after it, right now in this current moment, it’s a lot. I love that there’s a Stop the Violence sign in the background when the cops are harassing Sam. I don’t know that the show always gets it right when it comes to racism in America (and everywhere else), and I am certainly not the person to make that judgment, but I really liked that the show didn’t shy away from having the conversation. When Sam and Bucky have their couples therapy session (again, rom-com), that moment when Bucky tells Sam if Steve was wrong about Sam then he was wrong about Bucky is so perfect. Steve is the only one who ever believed in Bucky, and now he feels so alone. I love that the events of the show start to bring him some closure and healing.
Episode 3: Power Broker
Bucky visits Zemo alone in his cell and when Zemo tells him he has information about the serum, Bucky breaks him out of jail. Zemo takes Bucky and Sam to Madripoor, which is basically a lawless adult version of Treasure Island. The trio meet with a woman who gives them the name of the doctor who recreated the super soldier serum, but when Sam gets a call from his sister, their identities are exposed and the whole island turns on them in exchange for the bounty now on their heads. They are rescued by Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) who has been living in exile ever since she illegally helped Cap in Civil War. Sharon helps them find the doctor, who tells them he made twenty vials of the serum which were all stolen by Karli. The doctor gives them the name of a woman close to Karli before the bounty hunters descend, shooting up the place. Zemo kills the doctor, but everyone else manages to escape. Sam, Bucky, and Zemo head to Latvia, where this woman who Karli is close to recently died. The Flag Smashers bomb a building belonging to the GRC, the government entity that is supposed to help those displaced by the Blip. A couple of people are killed in the explosion, and the rest of the Flag Smashers aside from Karli seem uncomfortable with the violence. In the last scene of the episode, Bucky is confronted by Ayo, one of the Dora Milaje, who is not happy (to say the least) that Bucky broke Zemo out of prison (reminder that Zemo was responsible for the death of the King of Wakanda, and that Ayo and the Wakandans took Bucky under their wing at the end of Civil War). (No end credits scene.)
Walker isn’t a huge player in this episode, but it doesn’t take long for him to become an entitled white man being like don’t you know who I am give me whatever I want, and yeah. The more and more we see of him, the more he becomes a pretty stellar representation of everything wrong with America. I love how the breaking out of jail scene is reminiscent of Luis from Ant-Man narrating. I want more of these in the MCU. Zemo is terrible, but I also low-key love him in this show. The dancing, the fur, the Marvin Gaye. Here for it. One of the biggest missteps of this show (I think) is not giving us more time with the Flag Smashers, and Karli in particular. Erin is fantastic, and what makes the group interesting is that most people probably agree with them. I wish their motives and experiences would have gotten some more depth to them. Sam and Bucky continue to be hilarious, between Sam yelling “I can’t run in these heels” and Bucky complaining about Sharon being awful now (I like her better awful, Sharon in the movies is kind of meh for me). I would have liked to see a little less gun violence in the show overall, given *America*, but not going to lie, Bucky’s hand to hand combat fights are somehow super hot? Not into violence, but definitely into Bucky. I love that we got a repeat of the not moving the seat up bit. And I love the appearance of Ayo. The Dora Milaje are fucking badass and need their own show immediately.
Okay, so I was going to do the whole show in this post, but it’s already long AF so I’ll save the rest for another post. Have you watched TFATWS? I want to know all your thoughts!