The Shoemaker Bugle

By Brandon Nunez

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has just finished wrapping up its first season and its last using the moniker Falcon, with it being changed to Captain America by the season’s end. It has the two main deuteragonists to Captain America in Falcon/Sam Wilson and the Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes. Their roles are reprised by Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan. Other past MCU characters have reprised their roles such as Daniel Brühl as Baron Zemo, Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter, and Florence Kasumba as Ayo.

The plot centers around Sam and Bucky’s recovery and rocky relationship post-Endgame and on dealing with Sam giving up the mantle of Captain America given to him by Steve. John Walker (Wyatt Russell) is soon issued the mantle as Captain America by the U.S. Government, and the story also follows his descent from Captain America to a possible antagonist stripped of his title. As John is slowly becoming less and less like Captain America throughout the show, Sam becomes more accustomed to taking over the role and does so by the end of the season.

Sam also begins to find out the dark truth of the U.S. super soldier serum and shield post-WWII and the people of color affected by it. Bucky begins to figure out a way to make amends for his crimes as the Winter Soldier in a self-respectful and honest way, that isn’t just avenging. All the while he is trying to stop Karli Morgenthau (Erin Kellyman) and her group called the Flag Smashers, who wish for a world without borders through means of super soldier violence as it was a post-Thanos snap.

However, Karli also deals with the aftermath of her killings as well as those affected by the actions of the governments trying to stop her and wonders if the cycle of violence is all her doing and is it worth continuing for a post-Endgame world. The show contains themes of self-worth and loathing, American identity, identity in general, ideological differences in worldview benefits, cycles of violence, and racism.