The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 5 recap: let down by a rushed ending
Huge spoilers ahead
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- Episode 5 (of 6), ‘Truth’- Written by Dalan Musson- Directed by Kari Skogland★★★
SpoilersforThe Falcon and the Winter Soldierfollow.
“The [Super-Solder] Serum amplifies everything that is inside. So, good becomes great. Bad becomes worse…”
These words are not taken from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but they could have been. When Dr Abraham Erskine, original creator of the infamous drug, gave Steve Rogers this pertinent warning in the original Captain America: The First Avengers, he was effectively summarizing the themes of a show that would debut a decade later.
Even more than in previous episodes, the core theme of ‘Truth’ is the way immense power can affect the decisions you make – or the decisions other people make on your behalf when you’ve been transformed into one of the most valuable weapons on the planet. In other words, once you’ve ingested Super-Soldier Serum, you’re constantly walking that fine line between heroism and villainy – and Steve Rogers may just have been the only person with the moral rectitude to stay the right side.
We saw last week what can happen when great power isn’t matched by great responsibility, as Captain America 2.0, John Walker, brutally murdered a Flag Smasher, instantly transforming Cap’s shield into a blood-soaked symbol of oppression. This follow-up wastes little time dealing with the aftermath, as Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes attempt to apprehend Walker in an abandoned warehouse – for some reason, this show has a bizarre obsession with warehouses.
It’s a brilliantly dirty scrap, expertly choreographed to showcase three fighters who don’t know the meaning of holding back. Walker comes perilously close to showing that shield-in-forehead might become his signature move, while Sam and Bucky’s technical augmentations are pushedbeyondtheir limits – Walker even unceremoniously tears the wings from Falcon’s back.
That it comes to Sam using his jet pack to forcibly remove Walker’s shield – snapping the Cap wannabe’sarmin the process – sums up a fight scene that manages to stand out even in a show that’s consistently raised the bar for blockbuster action on TV.
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Like the series premiere, ‘Truth’ gets the action out of its system early, shifting gears to get inside the psyches of the human beings who inhabit superhero uniforms.
Inevitably, this means the book being thrown at Walker with all the intensity of a flying shield. It turns out that Captain America killing a foreign national in a public place is kind of a big deal – enough, in fact, to see Sam and Bucky removed from the investigation – and Walker finds himself given an “other than honorable discharge” from a US Army he’s served with distinction. In fact, it’s only his exemplary record that saves him from a court martial.
And yet, despite the many questionable decisions he’s made in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier – and his false claims that the man he murdered was Lemar Hoskins’ killer – you still sympathize with the way he’s been treated. As he tells the tribunal, he’s spent his entire life living by military mandates, only doing what they’ve asked of him – and doing it well. When the finely tuned human weapon malfunctions, is it the fault of the Super-Soldier himself, or the institution that created him?
Now disillusioned with the army, but still obsessed with fulfilling his calling as Captain America, Walker may be more dangerous than ever. Especially now that the incredibly charismatic Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine has paid him a visit, seemingly looking for a way to exploit his unique set of skills.
Karli Morgenthau is also struggling to stay on the right side of the Serum’s corrupting influence. While The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has – up to now – made great efforts to emphasize the Flag Smashers’ humanitarian motives, here Karli starts morphing into a more two-dimensional villain – and she’s much less interesting as a result. Hurting the powers-that-be now seems more important to her than helping people in need – to the point she’s prepared to join forces with known criminals like the returning Georges Batroc. Helmut Zemo is clearly speaking sense when he says she’s been completely radicalized.
So it’s a big shame that he’s so marginalized in ‘Truth’. We have no doubt he has more of a role to play in theMarvelCinematic Universe (whether it’s in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier or another movie/TV show), but to have his role reduced to being carted away by the Dora Milaje seems a waste of a character who tends to be the best thing about every scene he’s in.
But make no mistake, this is Sam Wilson’s episode. From the moment he has his wings permanently clipped by Walker, he gives the story its narrative drive and heart. Most powerful are his scenes withIsaiah Bradley, as the forgotten Black Super-Soldier reveals the full tragedy of his life story. He and his fellow test subjects had no idea what drugs they were taking – he was arguably the lucky one, in the sense that his iteration of the Serum didn’t kill him – and was subsequently locked up to make sure nobody knew he existed. Even his letters to his late wife were prevented from reaching her.
Coming face-to-face with a man whose idealism has been brutally knocked out of him by the hand life has dealt him is a pivotal moment for Sam, a man who shares Steve Rogers’ belief in humanity’s potential for good. Does he believe Isaiah when he says that the US government will never let a Black man be Captain America – and that no self-respecting Black man would ever want the role anyway? Or does he set out to become the sort of positive symbol a broken world can get behind? It’s emotional, thought-provoking stuff, and once again, Marvel should be commended for engaging with essential, politically relevant topics – even when it means raising uncomfortable questions about difficult aspects of America’s history.
Unfortunately, the second half of the episode can’t live up to the promise of the first, as the longest instalment of the series so far somehow feels both flabbyandrushed. Scenes where Sam ropes in the local community to help repair the family boat – with a bit of superpowered handyman assistance from Bucky – are genuinely uplifting, and reveal that the bond between the two title characters goes way deeper than sharing a mutual friend.
But the major character about-faces – Sam deciding to accept the Captain America mantle; Bucky agreeing to reassess his strategy on atoning for his crimes – seem to happen in an instant, based around the sort of trite, over-simplistic pep talks you’d expect to hear in a middle-of-the-road soap opera.
And even with an intriguing mid-credits sequence that shows Walker seemingly retooling himself as an off-the-books Captain America, it feels like the episode endsbeforethe cliffhanger comes into play. After the haunting image of Captain America brandishing a blood-soaked shield, Flag Smashing security guards turning off the lights and Sam opening a mysterious box from Wakanda have a whiff of anti-climax. We’re not sure if we should be on the edge of our seats for next week’s season finale or not…
Get all the intel on what’s happened to Sam and Bucky so far with our recaps onThe Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 1,The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 2,The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 3andThe Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 4.
Verdict:
With a brutal opening fight scene, John Walker facing justice for murdering a Flag Smasher, and the full, tragic story of Isaiah Bradley coming to light, ‘Truth’ doesn’t pull any punches. In fact, the first half of the episode is as strong as anything we’ve seen in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier so far, a complex character study delving deep into the darker corners of the MCU.
But despite some lovely character beats shared between Sam and Bucky – maybe they can be friends after all… – the episode unravels in its closing act, as over-simplistic motivations and the lack of a proper conclusion leave you feeling the showrunners are saving too much for the last chapter. Or maybe we’re wrong and it’ll be a season finale for the ages…
Marvel-ous facts
New episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier are available on Disney Plus every Friday.
Richard is a freelance journalist specialising in movies and TV, primarily of the sci-fi and fantasy variety. An early encounter with a certain galaxy far, far away started a lifelong love affair with outer space, and these days Richard’s happiest geeking out about Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel and other long-running pop culture franchises. In a previous life he was editor of legendary sci-fi and fantasy magazine SFX, where he got to interview many of the biggest names in the business – though he’ll always have a soft spot for Jeff Goldblum who (somewhat bizarrely) thought Richard’s name was Winter.
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