Falcon and Winter Soldier Season 1, Episode 2: “The Star Spangled Man” (SPOILERS)

John Walker is named Captain America, and Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes team up against the rebel group, the Flag Smashers.
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (2021) | Episode 2 Guide | Marvel

 

Braw they ending it right there with Zemo tho. What a tease. Another great episode and the dynamic between Sam and Bucky is really wonderful. I also liked the cold open with John Walker and how even though at the end of last week I wanted to punch his face lol it humanized him.

The introduction of Isiah Bradly into the MCU and his tragic backstory broke me as a black man and then with Sam and the cops afterwards. I do like that the MCU continues doing what the comics have done is taking real life issues and seeing them threw a comics point of view. Can’t wait for next week.

 

Man I really wanted to hate John Walker, but he seems okay haha.

It was rough when Sam said they would finish the job and then never see each other again. Obviously we figure that there will be a bromance, but damn. Cold.

 

White Wolf

 

Also, Sam and Bucky being the mean girls towards Walker gives me joy.

 

They've taken a slightly different approach with John Walker, with just a bit of dickish attitude resembling his comic book counterpart.

I love how Bucky lashes out at Sam for giving up the mantle and Shield. Currently Sam is definitely acting more self-righteous that resemblance Stark .

Its interesting that Isaiah Bradley has been introduced to mcu as another super soldier from the program. I'm going to assume that the kid with him is his grandson who will become The Patriot.

Can't wait to see Zemo.

 

WandaVision wasn't my cup of tea, but this show is f#%@ing awesome.
Mind you, The Winter Soldier is possibly my favorite MCU film.
I thought the aerial sequence with Batroc just a tad ott, although I'm a big GSP fan, but episode 2 was a step up in the right direction. Not making Walker a complete dick is great, and the Flag Smashers have a bit more depth than big standard terrorists.

I give episode 1 an 8/10 and episode 2 a 9/10.

 

What an amazing episode.

The Isaiah scene was so heartbreaking to watch .

 

Awful green screen in the truck fight aside, I found this episode much more engaging than the first. Having our heroes actually interacting helps. Always great to see Carl Lumbly though, and this was a cool way to include Isaiah Bradley, I thought.

Based on this and WV, it would seem “the people put in power after the Blip are awful” is gonna be one of the ongoing themes of Phase 4.

 

People on Twitter are really irrational about John Walker.

 

They’ve shown John Walker quite sympathetically so far. Also loved the “big three” exchange.

 

Nice action again with the 4 of them on top of the truck against the bad guys.

 

What are they saying?

 

Another solid episode. A bit heavy handed at times with the race undertones (the scene with the "Black Falcon/Black Kid" exchange made me roll my eyes), but I liked what the end result was. What happened to Isaiah was beyond screwed up as well as those Baltimore cops harassing Sam.

I don't trust Walker or his sidekick as far as I could throw them. I don't give a damn if he went to school in the hood or has a black girlfriend, something about that chin and that weird grin he makes is VERY villainous. LOL.

Maybe I'm overanalyzing but Sam and Bucky's banter is borderline unresolved sexual tension. There therapy session scene was great though.

 

The typical nasty things people say about a character they hate, which isn't that bad when the character deserves it, but at this point in the story, he doesn't. I understand being annoyed that he's the new Captain America and not being swayed by his sympathetic introduction, but people are acting like he's Zsasz or Jigsaw.

 

Very good second episode. Getting excited about what’s to come and Zemo in particular. Interesting to see how all the moving parts come together with Bucky & Falcon, John Walker/Lemar Johnson, the flag smashers and Zemo.

 

Yeah, he hasn’t done all that much wrong just yet.

 

I get the sense the Flag Smashers aren't the real baddies here.

 

I could totally buy the Black Falcon part. Like 90% of Black heroes have "Black" in their title or was basically referred to as "the Black Batman" or "the black Superman" etc. So it'd make sense in some other way that a kid in Maryland listening to his dad refer to him as "Black Falcon" and then approach Sam with that title.

 

Eh, it didn't bother me as much. It parallels what we see with irl superhero and villain naming like Black Panther, Black Mariah, Black Lightning, Black Manta, Black Vulcan, etc. and I've already seen someone saying in youtube comments that his (black) family actually called him Black Falcon before this episode to his annoyance.

 

My only question is how is Sam able to take those hits and not have some chest or joint complications. And why was Bucky having such a difficulty? Isn't he somewhat on level with Steve so he should have held his own against them.

 

I credit this show with going deeper into the aftermatch of the Blip as well as dipping deep into MCU history.

I'm kinda glad WandaVision came out first. That was like a nice appetizer and now we're in the main course. I'm guessing Loki is "dessert" (that sounds terrible)?

 

I'm gonna chalk that up to outfits made of unstable molecule Bucky was having difficulty because it was 3 Super soldiers against one.

 

I pretty much loved this episode and thought it was much stronger the premiere which I really enjoyed but this one just flowed so much better IMO in terms of pacing.

I'm already really liking Wyatt Russel as John Walker eventhough I do get the feeling it could all be front and it still wouldn't surpise me if they pulled somekind of big last minute twist with his character.

The Bucky/Sam dynamic really made this episode for me though and I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing those two interact on screen together.

The semi truck chase was dope and I'm glad they kept so much of it out of the trailers, because I wasn't expecting Walker to show up and the Baltimore scenes hit hard too, especially that Isiah scene.

Loved the Zemo tease at the end as well.