“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” : Episode 5 Review - Life is a Highway, and a Boat

By Rob LoAlbo

Photos courtesy Marvel Studios

This week on TLC’s This Old Boat - skipper Sam calls in some local favors to restore a legacy with a new paint job! And just when you think you’re watching the wrong streaming service because you found yourself right in the middle of a musical carpentry montage,the emergence of a new big bad and some international terrorists are here to prove otherwise. 

Beginning moments after the last episode ended with the bloody murder of an errant and seemingly slow-running Flag Smasher, John Walker spends time beating himself up before Bucky and Sam get the chance to. They only want the shield back, but Walker’s not ready to give it up, blood spatter and all, so then it’s showdown, throwdown!

“Why are you making me do this?!” screams John as he pounds Bucky into the pavement, giving us police brutality vibes. If they’d just listened to him and complied, thus becoming a team, don’t you know that John wouldn’t have to treat them this way? He then shouts down the senators who are stripping him of his Cap title, letting them know that his actions are not his fault because he only lived by their rules: he’s only who he is because of them! He’s the real victim! Watching him lie to Lamar’s family makes him all the more despicable. Walker strolls past a “Cap is Back!” propaganda poster like the failed studio cash-grab sequel that he is.

It’s these circumstances that set up the entrance for the most influential of Hydra members, a character who may strongly change the future Marvel landscape (Selina Meyer? Elaine Benes?): Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, more commonly known as Madame Hydra. Just who is she other than a fashion maven in high heels and hoop earrings? In the comics the character is a Hydra leader/triple-crossing Russian sleeper agent from Leviathan/former SHIELD spy - in short, she’s the less savory version of Nick Fury. (Given her Russian roots and the upcoming Black Widow film, it’s entirely possible that she might show up there, too.) She hands Walker a card and tells him to answer the phone when she calls. Very ominous!

For Sam, this episode is all about identity and costume choices. “I AM Captain America!” Walker shouts and rips off Sam’s wings, and just like that Sam spends the rest of the time contemplating what outfit he should wear next. Once getting a hold of the bloodied shield, Bucky drops it at Sam’s side as if to say, “None of this would have happened if you’d just accepted it in the first place.” With Joaquin Torres inspecting the broken wings as Sam tells him to “keep ‘em,” the act foreshadows Torres’ probable future as “wing” man to Sam’s ultimate new role. (So at least Sam’s refusal has that inevitable casting choice working out for us.)

But a black man becoming Captain America isn’t as easy as it seems, according to snubbed Isaiah Bradley. Challenging the American ideal for what our heroes look like, he calls it as he sees it, that a blond hair blue-eyed “great white hope” is all we can envision, also echoing the Westernization of the church’s savior image. Being black, heroic, and American just isn’t a trifecta that Bradley can embrace and America can grasp. 

Bradley’s fraught journey and experimental status again parallels the Tuskegee experiments, something we alluded to earlier in the series. He’s served and been served up by a government that created “that white man’s shield” only to deny it from him because of his color. It’s a scathing indictment on not only our country but also on the Marvel Universe itself, who up to this point hasn’t embraced a lot of diversity until Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther changed the landscape. Bradley and Sam physically and metaphorically stare each other down, with Bradley wanting to disappear into the landscape and stay dead and Sam wanting to do something for change - because he thinks that times have changed. Yet the more they change, the more they stay the same. 

This episode is all about Sam’s emotional journey from taking down Walker who is destroying a legacy, to finding his own roots and rebuilding a legacy through the metaphor of the boat. With Bucky’s help (looks like he was programmed with more than just the skills to assassinate!), Sam and Sarah work on their parent’s fishing vessel in the hope of selling it, but selling off a legacy isn’t as easy as it seems. When Sam and Bucky bond over a game of catch-the-shield, you just know that he’ll decide to neither sell off that boat nor pass on the name of Cap: both are legacies that people spent too much time building for Sam to just throw them away. Bradley’s advice that “no self-respecting black man would ever” pick up that shield is taken under advisement. Selling a legacy, to Sam, is selling out, but preserving a legacy and our history, even history that’s been erased over the last 500 years - that’s the real fight to win. Isaiah’s time might be over, but there are those who can pick up the mantle and fight for him.

WIth so much time for Sam, it’s Karli who gets the short shrift this week, given only a small scene of panic and despair as the walls close in on the Flag Smashers and their cause. The pressure is on for them to pull one last heist, so it’s seemingly bombs away with some buildings and GRC military leaders.

Also drawing the short straw this week is Helmut Zemo who is sent packing with the Wakandas once Bucky decides to spare his life. Given the feedback that Daniel Brühl has received this season, it’s hopeful to know that his return seems inevitable, as the Dora Milaje are imprisoning him on “The Raft,” the prison/waiting room for expatriate superheroes and surly supervillains. (Think Arkham Asylum, where no one stays a resident for too long.) They sail off into the Wakandan sunset, but not until they fulfill one last Wintery Soldier request, most likely a nano-tech suit that is teased at episode end.

AND THANK GOD, Sarah is back after being stuck in the background since episode 1. Adepero Oduye again brings the heart and feels with her love of people and brief flirtations with Bucky, who’s all smiles now that he’s got his sea legs.

As for Sharon Carter? She’s still just as mysterious as ever arguing with some mysterious French-shouting villian over the phone. If only we could think of someone we’ve come across before who was bad, French, and in prison. (Hint - check the closed-captioning and you’ll see this famous leapers’ name!) Now the real question isn’t if Sharon is bad, but if her bad is just a facade for some clever undercover work.

It’s an episode not as jam-packed with action as last week’s, but where it lacks in fists it makes up for in emotional gut-punches. Thematically rich, it’s an hour well-spent with one of the most enjoyable and generous shows on tv right now. Sure there are a few too many musical montages of training, boating, and Bayou-ing, but it’s all building something special and societally important. Where WandaVision was a commentary on our collective grief, TFATWS exposes our collective prejudices and skewed approach to patriotism. And that next week looks like a terrorist plot unfolding with Sam in a new suit and old enemies resurfacing, it’s clear we’re in for a cathartic massive showdown in New York, once again.

Next week: Angry arts and crafts time, with John Walker!

Star City Rating: 4 out of 5