Spoilers The Falcon and Winter Soldier discussion

Its exactly what Steve would want.

 

Is old man Steve dead?

It's not their Steve.

So it's not even their shield.

So it's a shield and a Steve.

He probably has an opinion.

Even if they have to recast with Clint Eastwood, he will make a fine Director of SHIELD one day.

Shit.

Wyatt Russel, son of Kurt Russel?

Are they gonna recast Steve Rogers with Kurt Russel?

It's like...

"Okay, I'll do it, I'll be another one of your shitty little comic book characters, but you have to do me a favour... You need to give my dead beat son a job. He's living at home, and I'm sick of it."

 

Well his two closest friends are talking about him to each other in the past tense...so yeah, probably?

 

Yep son of Goldie and Russel....

 

It's not just the act of returning the stone. Obviously if you mess up while getting the stone (IE: letting Loki escape), you've created a new timeline.

I heard he's on the moon. I hope he doesn't run into Maximus the Mad...

 

By using the same technology he used to time travel. He was supposed to return a few seconds after he left. He didn't. He did decades later.

 

He didn't use the Stark time travel doohickey to return to the present though. If he did, he would have appeared on the time travel pad, not on a park bench... unless Stark built one into the bench without anyone else knowing.

 

Who else thinks Sharon Carter is the Power Broker?

 

I wish we had gone into the Princess Bar. You never know if you're going to run into a short hairy runt with claws and an eye patch.

And the return of Ayo played by Florence Kasumba! That's a pleasant surprise. It seems like she's destined to have more lines in the MCU than simply "Move or be moved". She was in Civil War, Black Panther and Infinity War (not to mention the first Wonder Woman) so it's nice to see that they remembered her and are going to develop her further.

 

My guess was that she sympathizes with the flag smashers and helped Karli steal the serum.

 

The return of Ayo was wonderfully unexpected! I kept thinking to myself with each mention of Wakanda and its connection with Bucky that I wanted to see a more direct connection in the series. I didn't actually think it would happen so I'm very happy to see Ayo show up. I had been mostly thinking about their relationship with Bucky but of course their immediate reason for being present is because of Zemo.

Of course we knew Zemo was going to break out of jail...but I hadn't foreseen that Sam and Bucky would aid him in that endeavor as a necessary evil to help track down Karli and the rest of the Flag Smashers. At every junction, I kept expecting him to betray them for his own means and I thought when he put on the iconic purple mask, he would be done with them. I'm not entirely sure what his long game is yet but he clearly needs them just as much they need him. I'm curious to see how that plays out.

I figured Sharon would manage to stay on her feet while on the run since we last saw her, but I didn't expect (once again) that she would be in such a cozy set-up in the Madripoor underworld. It makes you wonder if...

Now that you mention it, that does seem like a real possibility.

 

Except for the fact that it was the Power Broker who sent the bounty hunters after them. Why would she put herself in the middle of that? Not saying it isn't the case as it would make for an interesting twist, I'm just saying that I see that as a potential flaw in the theory.

 

Certainly and while I'm not entirely keen on Sharon turning out to be a villain (or at least a sympathetic antagonist), on the surface that possibility is an intriguing curiosity.

 

And speaking of sympathetic antagonists, I was starting to develop a little bit of sympathy for Karli until that last scene. She was right with what she said last week, there's no coming back from that.

 

I always thought Robert Moses was The Power Broker. But, hey.....

As for Wyatt Russell- I think he's doing a fine job as a guy trying to do a job he's been ordered to do. But, without Super Soldier powers, most of these guys seem wildly out of their league physically.

 

If that had been the case he would have appeared back on the quantum teleport pad as the old man he now was. He wouldn't have been sitting on a bench wearing normal clothes carrying a backpack with a shield in it.

 

Plausible deniability? It wouldn't be the first time in movies and TV that a villain or hero put themselves in harm's way to ingratiate themselves to the other team.

 

I wasn't expecting that turn for Sharon. We all assumed she got a pardon too, but the Government wasn't in a "Pardons for all!" mood I guess.

So...we know she was one of the ones snapped. But she wasn't with Steve and the Secret Avengers in Infinity War.

Did she just part ways with Steve after Civil War and has been off the grid since then? Or did she become a Madripoor hustler only after she was restored?

What I'm getting at is....we know Steve kind of abandoned her with his choice at the end of Endgame....

....But did he actually abandon her far earlier, right after Civil War?

Zemo might have a point about people looking up to heroes too much. Putting them on pedestals.

 

I got a real 24 vibe from this episode. Jack, whoops, Bucky, breaks a bad guy out of jail in order to locate a next-level bad guy. Jack and Jack, er Bucky and Sam, go undercover as bad guys to locate more bad guys. Sharon turns up in the Tony Almeida-type role as a former colleague, now somewhat of a rogue, but still essentially a goodie - or are they? Big action scene in shipping containers. Sprung bad guy murders someone but our guys have to keep tolerating him to get the job done. Meanwhile, Walker and Battlestar are the equivalent of the new CTU guys who are seemingly more by the book than our heroes, but may not be entirely what they seem.

 

I found the reaction of Walker interesting, i.e. most likely a portent of things to come.

He took on that mantle thinking playing hero would be fine but the spotlight is centered on him now and he comes up empty so nerves are starting to get thin. Steve would have handled this differently and it shows the difference between them. It's pretty obvious there is a meltdown coming when Walker decides to use ever more rigorous methods which may bring him into conflict with Sam and Bucky, who may become the defenders of Steve's legacy.

I'm just waiting how Sam will reaquire the shield and if we will actually see him training with it ( or its a huge misdirection on Marvel's part and they're either pre-shot season 2 scenes or way at the end of this season).

It was nice to see Bucky going all in, he got a bit sidelined in Infinity War and Endgame just shooting guns but then again these were fights way above his level. A bit chilling to see him slip back into Winter Soldier mode complete with emotionless facial expression ( even holding that while Sam is struggling to down that Snake drink ).

Zemo will bite them in the ass hard, i'm pretty sure but then again those two might have planned for it because they know he's a master schemer and i'd be sad to see them played completely again.