Falcon And The Winter Soldier “The Star-Spangled Man” Review
Falcon And The Winter Soldier “The Star-Spangled Man” is the second episode of Falcon and the Winter Soldier. After a short recap of episode 1 the audience are finally thrown straight into the character of John Walker, the new Captain America. And boy is it interesting.
The episode. Just like episode 1. Does have one moment when it falls into the “exposition dump for the viewers” mistake. But because it’s only once and made up for by the brilliance of the rest of the episode it’s easy to ignore. There isn’t much more information revealed in this episode, though there is one hell of a cliff-hanger. More on that later.
Fake Captain America to no-ones rescue!
After our exposition filled introduction to John Walker and his co-workers and friends. The audience are finally treated to Bucky looking like he’s been through the biggest betrayal of his life. He finally confronts Sam about it and Sam just kinda laughs it off as him being too serious and staring too much. Which also leads to the best running joke of the episode (wizards really are sorcerers with hats.) Bucky follows Sam on his mission to Germany where Sam is tracking the Flag Smashers trying to convince him he was wrong to give the Shield away.
Hilarity and action ensues as the two team up to stake out the situation. I say team up, it’s more Sam having to keep Bucky from running into the situation head first. They get rumbled and both Sam and Bucky need to chase the vans as they mistake one of the Flag Smashers as a hostage. The big fight starts and both Bucky and Sam are quickly overwhelmed by the group of super soldiers. Fake Captain America shows up with his pal and helps out but doesn’t do much at all (even if he claims he did.)
Breaking the law (not really though)
Bucky and Sam are left alone after ditching Fake Captain America and go to see an old HYDRA agent that Bucky knew. He goes mad, rightfully, and throws them out. Soon after the police go to arrest Sam for no reason before they realise who he is and arrest Bucky instead. He’s bailed out by, you guessed it, creepy Fake Captain America. They’re both sent to have a therapy session together.
The therapy session goes about as well as you’d expect. Though some interesting revelations are made. Bucky admits that he’s so mad at Sam for giving away Steve’s shield because he knew Steve trusted Sam and Sam was wrong. Meaning perhaps Steve was wrong was wrong about him too.
They both leave and are met by Fake Captain America again outside. He goes out of his way to do the whole “good guy. We should work together.” Thing. But neither Bucky or Sam are buying it. They leave together with the understanding that the only way they’ll be able to solve the issue is if they go to visit an old enemy: Zemo.
Review
If I thought I loved episode 1 then I must adore episode 2. Yes alot of that is because of the Bucky and Sam interactions but most of it is because I never once felt the pacing was off at all. When it comes to action sequences this episode is much more watered down but that didn’t stop me loving it because the humour is so cleverly used. The more serious beats never last longer than they needed to. Bringing a realism to the situation that stops the episode feeling like just any old action movie. Throwing in deep storylines to get brownie points. I’m not gonna use the term masterpiece because that’s a bit much. But I felt every emotion. Laughed at every joke. Felt every part of Bucky’s fight with his own self doubt. And it’s all packed into a 40 odd minute episode.
I pray Falcon and The Winter Soldier keeps up this kind of quality writing and directing. Because at the moment, I’m enjoying it more than alot of the Marvel movies.
