If you are just tuning in, you might want to head over to my first post covering episodes 1-3. And as with last time, so many spoilers are coming your way! You’ve been warned! Just want to put it out there now that episodes 4 and 5 of this series are phenomenal. Like some of my favorite moments in MCU history happened in these episodes, and the performances all around are stellar. So let’s take a deep dive!
Episode 4: The Whole World is Watching
At the end of episode 3, Ayo of the Dora Milaje shows up and we know shit is about to go down. In the beginning of this episode, we see a flashback to Bucky in Wakanda and Ayo testing him for the first time after he’s been cured of the brainwashing Hydra did to him. Back in the present, she tells Bucky he has eight hours with Zemo before the Dora come for him. Zemo takes Bucky and Sam to the refugee camp where Karli is going to be holding a funeral for her caretaker. Walker and Lemar show up, but Sam convinces them to let him have some time alone with Karli to try to talk her down. Karli and Sam actually have a good conversation and seem to understand one another. Sam is probably the one person who could actually get through to Karli, but Walker barges in and Karli accuses Sam of setting her up. In the ensuing fight, Zemo manages to destroy all of the remaining super soldier serum vials except for one. Walker finds the last remaining vial and pockets it. Back at Zemo’s apartment, the Dora Milaje come for Zemo, but Walker doesn’t want to hand him over. The Dora proceed to kick Walker’s ass so hard. Sam and Bucky reluctantly join the fight against the Dora, even though Bucky especially doesn’t want to fight his old friends, especially considering he doesn’t even like Walker. During the fight, Zemo escapes and the Wakandans leave. Karli calls Sam’s sister Sarah to low-key threaten her and Sarah arranges a meeting between Sam and Karli. The meeting turns into a fight and Karli accidentally kills Lemar. It becomes obvious during the fight that Walker has taken the super soldier serum, and he kills one of the Flag Smashers in revenge once he realizes Lemar is dead. Walker is caught on camera violently beating the Flag Smasher with his shield. (No end credits scene.)
This episode was freaking brilliant. The beginning scene, watching Bucky first be terrified that he is going to turn into the Winter Soldier as Ayo is reading the code words, and then his absolute pure joy when he realizes they no longer have an effect on him. It’s an absolutely gorgeous moment and Sebastian Stan nailed every single nuance of it. What I really love about this episode other than Sebastian is the way it clearly shows the juxtaposition between Sam and Walker. Sam takes a calm approach with Karli, trying to talk to her and hear her concerns. Walker gets his ass beat by some kickass women, cries about it, takes a serum to get more power, and then brutally murders someone for the sole purpose of revenge. It could not be clearer who Captain America should be. The Dora Milaje (why do they not have their own show yet????) are amazing in this episode, as always. “The Dora Milaje have jurisdiction wherever the Dora Milaje find themselves to be”–fuck yeah they do. Nothing made me smile as much as watching them beat Walker’s ass. And then when Sam tells Bucky they should help Walker and Bucky responds with “Looking strong, John”–perfection. Sebastian goes from this heartbreaking, crying emotional scene in the beginning to one of the funniest lines of the show. This is why I love him. Lemar also has a great line in this episode, about power making someone more of who they already are inside, which again, draws the line between Sam and Walker. The last shot of this episode is rough, watching Walker murder this guy in cold blood while a crowd of people stand around and film him, watching helplessly. Given *the world* it is both upsetting and topical. Watching the blood drip from the shield is some pretty stellar imagery. Overall, an episode that is as important as it is entertaining.
Episode 5: Truth
We dive right into this one first thing, with Sam and Bucky demanding Walker hand over the shield. When he doesn’t, the three have a pretty epic fight resulting in Sam’s wings being destroyed and Walker’s arm being broken. Bucky gets the shield, drops it at Sam’s feet and leaves. Bucky heads to Sokovia where he knows Zemo will be, and hands him over to the Dora Milaje. Ayo lets him know he is not welcome in Wakanda, and that they will be taking Zemo to the Raft (the big prison floating around in the middle of the ocean). Sam leaves his destroyed wings with Torres and heads back to America, where he goes to talk to Isaiah. Isaiah basically tells him no Black man should even want to be Captain America, and Sam heads back home to Sarah’s. Walker is discharged from the military and stripped of his title of Captain America, but is then immediately approached by Countessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) who is apparently going to put him to work. Back in Louisiana, Sam sets out to fix his parents’ old fishing boat, with the help of his neighbors. Bucky shows up to also help out. Bucky and Sam start training with the shield and have a frank conversation about their relationship. Bucky heads home and Sam continues to train. Karli and her team plan an attack on the GRC in New York, with Batroc coming along to kill Sam. At the end of the episode, Sam is opening a box from the Wakandans that Bucky delivered to him. Credit Scene: Walker is making his own shield because he’s a whiny little bitch who can’t accept the consequences of his actions.
Lots of thoughts on this one! I love this opening scene, when Walker tells Sam and Bucky they don’t want to try to take the shield, and Bucky just says “Yeah, we do.” There’s no question of them letting Walker continue to have it after what he did, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them beat his ass. The scene with the military court is really interesting because Walker actually makes some good points–he is exactly what the military made him out to be. The military made him this hot-headed, aggressive killer, and though it isn’t explicitly said, there’s definitely this underlying assumption that had Walker not had an audience and/or been filmed, this wouldn’t be happening (sound familiar?). Julia Louis-Dreyfus is perfection in this role and I’m so excited to see where this character goes. The last twenty minutes or so of this episode fully cement the show as a rom-com and you cannot change my mind. Bucky and Sarah flirting is hilarious, Bucky waking up with a smile on his face was just the best, and the convo Sam and Bucky have was so honest. And I am always, always here for a training montage. I loved every second of this episode.
Episode 6: One World, One People
The Flag Smashers begin their attack on the vote happening at the GRC. Sam flies in in his badass new Captain America suit, courtesy of the Wakandans. Bucky and Sharon tag along to help. Bucky is able to rescue some of the people being held hostage, but the real hero is Sam, who saves multiple groups of people who are trying to evacuate the building. Walker shows up and the foursome head out to try to find Karli. Sharon finds her first, and it is revealed that Sharon is the Power Broker as she tries to convince Karli to come back and work for her. Batroc overhears and Sharon kills him. Sam shows up and tries to talk to Karli, but Karli refuses to listen and keeps attacking Sam until Sharon shoots and kills her. Sam carries Karli out to the waiting paramedics and has a frank conversation with the senators and powers that be about how they are screwing everything up. It remains to be seen if anything will actually be changed, but they at least listen as he is speaking. Once the situation is resolved, Bucky heads home to Brooklyn and confesses to Yori. Walker is given a new outfit by Valentina, who dubs him US Agent. The remaining Flag Smashers are blown up in their van courtesy of Zemo’s butler. Sam has a display honoring Isaiah added to the museum exhibit about Captain America. In the end scene, we see Bucky joining Sam and his family for a cookout. Credit Scene: Sharon is given a full pardon and offered her job back. As she walks away from the courthouse building, she makes a phone call to prep her associate to be ready to sell all kinds of secrets and information.
This episode had some real highlights, and some real moments that made me not happy. Seeing Sam in his new uniform, watching the captions change to Captain America, seeing the title of the show change at the end, I legit cried. I loved seeing him step into the role he was meant to fulfill and I am very much here for my new Captain America. I loved watching Bucky help people and rescue them, and realize he is doing some good. The resolutions both Sam and Bucky come to were really spot on. I think both of their characters had a complete arc in the show, but also left plenty of room for them to continue on in the MCU, which is basically all I want. But there were quite a few things I was not a fan of. I did not want to see Walker get any sort of rehab and while I, and most others, still hate him, I didn’t like that he was a part of the final takedown, and even got a bro nod from Sam after the fight was over. Walker is trash and I don’t want anyone to try to tell me differently. I also really didn’t love that Karli and the rest of the Flag Smashers were killed. I don’t think that needed to happen, and I wanted to have the chance to get more of their story. The lack of development with Karli–knowing her motives and her experiences–was really the main thing missing from the show for me, and I was annoyed they killed her off rather than leaving it open for her to do something else in the future.
Overall, I loved so much about the show as a whole. I think it was entertaining, funny, heartfelt, while still being incredibly relevant and poignant. I loved that they didn’t shy away from the hard topics, I loved the frank conversations that were had about race and power and brutality. And, obviously, I loved being able to watch Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie be vulnerable and hilarious and hot as fuck for the past six weeks. I’m here for that literally any time.
Share all of your thoughts and feelings about TFATWS friends, I want to talk about this show forever!