Recap / The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 5 "Truth"

In the aftermath of Walker's public spectacle, all sides regroup and prepare for the next battle.

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Tropes:

• An Aesop:
  • You can't let anyone's opinion dictate your identity or your self-worth, even from those you look up to the most. This is what Sam had to deal with throughout the series so far. Despite Steve seeing him as worthy of the shield, Sam was afraid to take it, mostly out of fear that no-one would accept a black man as the new Captain America. Also, Isaiah's own experiences made him believe that no "self-respecting black man" should ever want to don the mantle. The pressure of trying to live up to Steve Rogers's Captain America (and everyone seeing him as an Inadequate Inheritor) is part of the reason that Walker snapped. Also, Bucky is trying to get closure for his past as the Winter Soldier, but is afraid of how the people that he's hurt might see him if he confesses.
    Sam: It doesn't matter what Steve thought. You gotta stop looking to other people to tell you who you are.
  • While race relations and politics in America are still bad, some things are better, in part because good people stood up and fought to make a change. Isaiah Bradley is entirely within his rights to be angry and bitter at the government for imprisoning and abusing him. He is justified in his fears that they'll kill him if they find him again after everything he has suffered since the 1950s. He may have suffered, and he may be right that Sam would become a target if he picked up the shield, as well as believing that those in power may never accept a black Captain America, but it's because of all his suffering and the suffering of others like him that Sam must pick up the shield. Because if no-one stands up to challenge the injustice, then nothing ever changes.
  • The power of community is more important than super strength or fighting skills. Sam as the Falcon can't get help from the bank, but he can call in favors from everyone his parents helped out over the years and a whole crowd shows up with the replacement parts necessary to fix the family trawler. Buck sticks around to help Sam patch it up.
• All for Nothing: When Isaiah Bradley heard that his fellow soldiers would be blown up in a POW camp by the government to "hide the evidence," he mounted a rescue to bring them back to safety. All he earned for his troubles was thirty years in prison being tortured and experimented on, and the brothers-in-arms that he rescued didn't even live for long afterward anyway due to the serum failing them.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • Walker tells Lemar's parents that the man he killed was the one responsible for Lemar's death. Was that to give them a measure of peace, or a Self-Serving Memory?
  • As it turns out, Sharon and Batroc are linked, as she previously got him out of prison to do a job for her that cost him half his team. It is unknown if this was the hijacking from episode 1 or something else.
• Ambiguously Evil:
  • Sharon reveals that she either broke or bought Batroc out of jail, then hires him out to Karli for double his regular fee, knowing that he wants revenge on Sam. It's not clear whether Sharon has decided to betray Sam, considering that Batroc was once unwittingly a double agent for Nick Fury.
  • Due to the character's various affiliations over the years in the source material, and the fact that she was supposed to debut in Black Widow, it's left unclear if Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is a straight-up villain.
• Artistic License – Law: In-universe; the court orders Walker to return the shield (not realizing that he lost it), but Contessa says it exists in a "legal gray area" and they really can't enforce their authority over who has it. Really, it was property of Howard Stark, and he gifted it to Steve. If not Howard, then definitely Tony. Then Steve gifted it to Sam... He gave it to the Smithsonian. Was that a permanent gift?
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • In the last episode, it appeared that Zemo was looking to flee from the Wakandans, but in this episode, we see that all he wanted to do was to visit the Sokovian memorial and was waiting for Bucky to catch up.
  • The Dora Milaje, instead of bringing Zemo back to Wakanda, promise to send him to the Raft.
  • Bucky picks up the shield after he and Sam defeat Walker, and initially seems like he's walking off with it... but then he drops it next to Sam before leaving.
• Bait-and-Switch Silhouette: When Val shows up in the distance nearing Walker as a blurry silhouette, her swaggering walk and coat make her look like Nick Fury for a second. Then the camera focuses on her high heels, so that idea goes out the window.
• Breather Episode: Aside from the intense fight between Sam and Bucky versus the insane John Walker in the opening moment, which concludes before the title card, the rest of the episode is spent dealing with various characters' personal arcs and less on the political thriller side. Sam and Bucky get some closure with Sam finally deciding to take up Captain America's mantle, and Bucky successfully brings Zemo to the Wakandans peacefully. Justified, as with Karli underground and the US government stepping in after Walker's actions, there's not much for the heroes to actually do. Things end on a more dramatic note, however: Karli decides that enough is enough and prepares to launch an assault on the GRC summit in New York assisted by Batroc, while in The Stinger, Walker assembles his own shield with an insane look in his eyes after being "other than honorably" discharged.
• Brutal Honesty: Sam tells Bucky that the latter's attempts at "making amends" have been more about letting Bucky seek closure and feel better, when instead he should be helping his victims feel better, and it's the first step to moving away from allowing other people to define who he is, whether it be Steve or HYDRA.
• The Bus Came Back: Batroc is back, supplying the Flag-Smashers with equipment and ready to take on the Falcon again.
• Call-Back:
  • Sam and Bucky's fight against Walker mirrors Steve and Bucky's fight against Tony in Captain America: Civil War, complete with Bucky throwing the shield on the ground next to Sam's head just like Stevee did to Tony in that movie.
  • Sharon mentions getting Batroc out of an Algerian prison, referencing his fate after his initial MCU appearance.
  • In Episode 3, Zemo pointedly asks Sam and Bucky whether they have visited the Sokovia Memorial. Guess where Bucky finds him after his escape?
  • Sam tells Bucky that instead of making amends to make himself feel better, he needs to make others feel better by giving them the closure that only he can give. Sam may not know this, but Bucky knows a person like that: Yori, the old man from the first episode.
  • When Bucky confronts Zemo at the memorial site in Sokovia, Zemo admits that he actually has no ill will towards Bucky, nor does he view Bucky as a Super Soldier that needs to be eliminated like Karli or John Walker. This is a continuation of the previous episode, where Sam questioned Zemo about Bucky.
• The Cameo: Julia Louis-Dreyfus appears in one scene as Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
• Category Traitor: Isaiah tells Sam that "no self-respecting black man" would ever want to be Captain America.
• Cliffhanger: Karli makes her move on the GRC summit in New York, Sam completes his training with the shield and prepares to move out in the new Wakandan suit that Bucky got for him, and Walker is seen constructing a new homemade shield, using his Medals of Honor to adorn it and his mind seemingly set on revenge.
• Central Theme: As the episode's title suggests, it's "truth".
  • Walker murdering a helpless man in front of cameras show the world his true nature and gets him stripped of his rank and titles. He then lies to Lemar's parents that he killed Nico because Nico killed Lemar, when the truth is that Karli was the murderer and Walker just killed the first Flag-Smasher that he managed to catch, blaming the group as a whole.
  • Sam tries to navigate the Awful Truth of how Isaiah Bradley was imprisoned, and is clearly still weighing the ramifications of keeping it a secret or letting the truth be known, because it is part of the Captain America legacy that he's trying to honor.
  • Sam helps Bucky realize that the way to really make amends is by telling the truth to the people that he hurt.
  • Most importantly, after much soul-searching and training, by the end of the episode, Sam is finally ready to take on the mantle as the true Captain America.
• Combat Breakdown: As the fight with Walker drags on, Sam loses the wings on his flight suit, Bucky's vibranium arm is short-circuited, Walker's left arm is broken, and all three can barely move by the end, with Bucky the only one who's even able to walk.
• Combat Pragmatist: Bucky and Sam resort to breaking John's arm when it becomes clear that he will not surrender the shield.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Sam and Bucky trying to disarm Walker of his shield is similar to how Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and the Guardians tried to remove Thanos's gauntlet in Avengers: Infinity War. In this instance, they succeed.
  • Walker tries to murder Sam with the shield the same way that he killed Nico in the previous episode, but this time Bucky stops him.
  • The way that Bucky picks up the shield after the fight with John and drops it at Sam mirrors how Steve dropped the shield at Tony after their fight in Siberia.
  • Torres notes that Bucky is back to two sleeves after tearing one off the last time they met.
  • While Bucky is working on the boat during the Hard-Work Montage, there's a shot of him fiddling with and flipping a bottle opener like a knife, like how he used to handle knives as the Winter Soldier.
  • The way that John Walker is first heard pounding with a hammer before being seen forging his new shield is similar to the sound of Tony Stark forging his armor.
• Covered in Scars: As proof of all the things he suffered for 30 years, Isaiah shows off a massive and nasty scar on his abdomen.
• Cruel Mercy: The Senate giving John an "other than honorable discharge." He doesn't get court-martialed or jailed because of his previously spotless record in the military, but he does lose his rank, benefits, pension, and the Captain America mantle and shield. Combine that with his permanently ruined reputation, and Walker is more or less a pariah.
• Death by Adaptation: Isaiah's unnamed wife (Faith in the comic) died while he was still in prison. In the comic, she survives to the present.
• Death Faked for You: Isaiah only got out of prison because a sympathetic nurse forged some documents to declare him dead.
• Death Glare: After they defeat Walker, Bucky picks up the shield, walks over to Sam and drops it next to him. He follows that with a wide-eyed look that says, "This is what happens when you give it up!" before walking off.
• Death Seeker: Zemo looks at peace while staring down the barrel of Bucky's gun and seems a little disappointed when the hammer clicks down on an empty chamber.
• Deconstructor Fleet: Due to suffering racial prejudice, Isaiah's backstory ends up being a dark reflection of Steve's arc from the first movie. Like Steve, Isaiah broke away from command to rescue his comrades, fellow African-Americans who had been experimented on with the Super Soldier serum, while the Government wanted to bomb the camp to cover up the evidence of the tests. While Steve was hailed as a hero, Isaiah was imprisoned and dehumanized by the Government, who wanted to cover up his existence. It's why he flatly rejects Sam's attempt to offer him the shield out of respect.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • The parallels between Isaiah Bradley getting the super serum and the Tuskegee Experiments are further amplified when Isaiah mentions that he and his boys never even knew what they were getting (unlike Steve and his cohorts, who did), being told that they were getting tetanus shots when instead many of them got unstable versions of the serum.
  • Walker being severely reprimanded by the council (but not arrested) for murdering a helpless man in front of cameras while serving as a government-sponsored agent, and the overwhelming public anger that entails, brings to mind similar reactions to police shootings. Walker's career also suggests that he has done some very distasteful things in the past for his government and been honored for them, and is only being punished now because his actions were captured on video and created a public embarrassment, similar to many earlier cases of police misconduct being ignored or swept under the rug until modern phone technology recorded undeniable proof, as well as some officers' feeling of betrayal for being reprimanded now after only following past examples.
  • Sam and Bucky throwing the shield around is like a couple of friends playing frisbee.
• Dramatic Gun Cock: Bucky draws attention to his pistol three times when confronting Zemo, first by slightly shaking his hand, then by disengaging the safety^note despite the SIG-Sauer P226 not having an external safety, and finally by cocking the hammer.
• Due to the Dead: Bucky finds Zemo at the monument to Sokovia.
  Zemo: I thought you'd be here sooner.
• Empathy Doll Shot: Karli picks up a stuffed animal as she laments the GRC raiding the refugee camp in the aftermath of the previous episode, then drops it as she hardens herself to strike back at them.
• Face Death with Dignity: Zemo calmly waits for Bucky to shoot him, and he even gives a slight nod when Bucky raises the gun. He only slightly flinches in surprise when it turns out that the gun is empty.
• A Father to His Men: Isaiah mentions that he broke out of his holding facility to rescue his men from a POW camp, especially after hearing the top brass say that they wanted to bomb the camp to eliminate all the evidence.
• Fiery Cover-Up: Isaiah was sent to prison after going rogue to rescue several of his men that the government had planned to blow up in a POW camp to hide their existence.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Buck spends the day helping Sam patch up the boat, Sam lets him stay the night, then they spend the morning working on it some more before heading out and training so Sam can handle the shield. Bucky also apologizes for not considering Sam's complicated feelings about being given the shield.
• Foil:
  • Walker and Isaiah Bradley, both being super soldiers and patriots whom the US government eventually rejected after they went rogue. Walker committed extrajudicial murder in public to get revenge for a fallen comrade, while Isaiah disobeyed orders to save two of his fellow super soldiers from a POW camp that his own superiors were planning to bomb to hide their existence. Walker was an openly government-sponsored (and conveniently white) Captain America who, though publicly shamed, dodges jail time thanks to a lifetime of service mitigating the embarrassment that his actions brought upon the government. Isaiah was a covert operative who was imprisoned to prevent the government's public image from being tarnished by what they did and were planning to do.
  • Isaiah and Steve. Isaiah says that he broke out of his holding facility to rescue his black comrades from a POW camp, much like Steve once did, only many of Isaiah's men didn't survive for much longer, and this act of heroism was why he was imprisoned, tortured, and experimented upon, where Steve became celebrated as Captain America.
  • Walker and Bucky. Sam tells Bucky that his problems are because Bucky has been 'making amends' to make himself feel better, when he should be trying to bring closure to the Winter Soldier's victims. Bucky spent the first episode unable to tell Yori the truth out of fear of how Yori would see him in that light; for the same reason, Walker lies to Lemar's parents that he killed the man who killed their son (though Walker to some extent has even convinced himself of that lie).
  • Karli and Walker. Both illegally obtain the super serum to fight for what they consider right, and both lose their close friends (and to each other, no less). As a result, both get more unstable, cruel, and unscrupulous, losing sight of their initial noble goals and becoming criminals.
• Friendship Moment: Sam and Bucky fixing up Sam's family's boat is the first time that the duo are working to build something together instead of fighting and destroying. This actually starts because Bucky gifts Sam with a new vibranium suit, and later Sam gives Bucky some sage advice to really make amends for his victims. After this, they continue to insist that they aren't friends, but it's clear that that's the farthest thing from the truth.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: A low-key version. Upon determining that he and Sarah don't have the tools or supplies to fix the family boat, Sam decides to request help from the local community. They immediately rally to help him and Sarah, having been friends with their parents, providing them the replacement parts. Bucky later arrives and provides a good deal of the needed labor.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Walker is finally taken down by Bucky picking him up and swinging him around by his feet, while Sam charges with his thrusters and slams the shield into Walker's back.
• Hard-Work Montage: Sam and Bucky fixing up the boat takes several days, and a good bit of help from neighbors. There's a lot of wrenching, carrying loads, and Bucky ripping railings off with his metal arm.
• Heroic BSoD: The episode opens with John Walker running into an abandoned train yard and breaking down over the previous episode's events.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Bucky has become this to the Wakandans for breaking Zemo out of prison. Even though Zemo's being sent to a much more secure facility, Ayo tells Bucky to stay out of Wakanda for a while, which he agrees is for the best. However, Ayo is willing to provide him with a new suit for Sam upon request because he's made it up to her by delivering Zemo.
• Humiliation Conga: After losing Lemar and killing Nico, Walker has the shield forcibly taken from him by Sam and Bucky, earning a broken arm in the process. He then returns home to boos from the public (when not long before he had been idolized), is stripped of his role as Captain America, and is given an "other than honorable" discharge from the U.S. Army, meaning that he can no longer be referred to by his rank or receive veteran's benefits for the rest of his life. He's not even allowed the dignity of defending himself, which he tries to do anyway, but it falls on deaf ears. And to rub salt in the wound, they demand that he return the shield, not knowing that he lost it.
• Hypocrite: John accuses the government of being this, pointing out that they never objected to the kills that he made when there weren't people with cameras around to see them.
• Hypocritical Humor: Sam assures Bucky that the people in his town are the nicest, most tolerant people on the planet, but also that if he catches Bucky flirting with Sam's sister Sam will have one of his neighbors dispose of his body in such a way no one will ever discover it.
• I Did What I Had to Do: This is how Walker justifies killing Nico, believing him to have been responsible for Lemar's death. It's also what he tries to present to the council when they strip him of his rank and privileges.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • Bucky apologizes to Sam for both himself and Steve because neither considered the pressure and racial prejudice that Sam would be put under for being given the shield.
  • Lemar's mother tearfully thanks John for killing the man who killed Lemar so that he can have justice in death. The guilty look on John's face suggests that some part of him knows that the real killer is still out there, despite insisting that Nico was responsible up until then.
• Insistent Terminology:
  • John Walker is given an "other than honorable" discharge from the US Military, which is a dishonorable discharge in all but name, as it would be politically embarrassing to have a Captain America who was dishonorably discharged.^note Truth in Television as the Other Than Honorable (or OTH) discharge does exist in the military, used for those who messed up somehow but not bad enough for the military to court-martial them. It's the go-to method for getting rid of a soldier who drove under the influence or failed a drug screening, revoking most (but not all) veteran benefits for the offender.
  • Sam and Bucky will work together. They're co-workers. They're not a team.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Isaiah invokes this, saying that his men being kept in a P.O.W. camp were being considered as evidence to be eliminated by the brass, and that those men were his brothers, not "evidence", and that's why he set off to rescue them instead.
• Jerkass: The US Senator who wants to steamroll the Patch Act argues that the GRC has enough soldiers to enforce it, whether the refugees agree to it or not.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While John is fully in Never My Fault mode and refuses to acknowledge that what he did to Nico was immoral, he correctly points out to the government committee that his actions weren't different from everything else the government previously ordered him to do during his military service. They're clearly only punishing him because they're being a Slave to PR and need a scapegoat.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope:
  • Discussed by Sam and Bucky, who correctly predict that Karli will only double down in response to Walker murdering Nico and the GRC coming down on the refugee camp. Sure enough, she heads to the US and decides to attack the GRC directly in New York, even noting to Dovich that they are criminals in the eyes of the world at large when he objects to working with Batroc, a hired gun.
  • Walker himself is falling even further down the slope, refusing to take any responsibility or demonstrate any remorse for his public murdering of Nico, still trying to convince everyone, including himself, that he was right to do so, even outright lying to Lamar's parents about who his real killer was. And by the end of the episode, he's seen constructing his own makeshift shield with a murderous look in his eyes, making it clear that his mind now harbors nothing but thoughts of revenge.
• Know When to Fold Them: Zemo allows himself to be taken in by the Dora Milaje with no resistance, likely because he knew that he wouldn't be able to fight them off or evade them for long, and because he already succeeded in his goals of preventing the creation of any more Super Soldiers (well, other than Walker) and discrediting them in the public eye.
• The Lost Lenore: A big reason why Isaiah Bradley is so bitter about the American government is that his wife died while he was in prison, all the while thinking he was dead.
• Madness Mantra: Walker keeps repeating, almost to himself, "I am Captain America."
• Mildly Military: Walker is in dress uniform but still has his Perma-Stubble, which is unprofessional for a highly decorated soldier in front of such a hearing. Either he is in uniform or he is out of uniform; there is no halfway mark. As it's a signal of his instability and they're giving him an other than honorable discharge, the committee was probably happy he looked so disheveled, as it lent more justification to their decision.
• Mood Whiplash: While Walker and his wife are discussing him being "other than honorably" discharged and Lemar's death, Val enters the room and turns the drama into a comedy routine, if with a dark, foreboding undertone.
• Mundane Utility: Invoked by Sam, who wonders why Bucky uses a wrench when he could just use his metal arm. Defied by Bucky, who simply doesn't think about it since his metal arm is his non-dominant one.
• Musical Nod:
  • Continuing from the last episode, Civil War's theme plays prominently during the vicious fight between Bucky, Walker, and Sam, highlighting the similarity to that film's similarly brutal climactic showdown.
  • An even darker version of the theme also becomes John Walker's Leitmotif during the episode.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Zig-zagged with Walker; during his shock-induced breakdown at the beginning of the episode, Walker thinks out loud that Lemar said they shouldn't confront Karli and angrily questions his own refusal to listen, which of course led to Lemar's death, while at the same time justifying his actions to himself.
  • Played straight with Sam; after Walker is incapacitated, Sam starts to realize the true price of him giving up the shield as he wipes the blood from it.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: After inviting him to stay the night, Sam tells Bucky not to flirt with his sister. Bucky does not heed that instruction.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The episode is named after the comic series that introduced Isaiah Bradley, Truth: Red, White & Black.
  • When Joaquín asks Sam what to do with the damaged Falcon wings, Sam tells him to keep them, referencing Joaquín taking up the "Falcon" mantle in the comics after Sam became the new Captain America.
• Never My Fault:
  • Karli sees the GRC shutting down the Riga displaced persons' camp she used as her base of operations as an unjustified reaction, despite the inhabitants sheltering and assisting the Flag-Smashers, even after they murdered several GRC employees and one US military officer (if accidentally). She also views the deaths of Donya Madani, Matias, and Nico as a result of the GRC's actions, which is a lot more justified in Donya Madani's case since she succumbed to an illness that she only contracted due to being displaced. Matias and Nico, on the other hand, were killed following Karli's own risky plans.
  • John's ranting breakdown during his trial shows this on two fronts to both him and the U.S. Government. John refuses to accept that what he did was wrong or that he was deserving of being punished. Still, on that same token, he accurately accuses the government of using him as The Scapegoat for the debacle and washing their hands of him now that they see no more use for him.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: By Walker's own admission, Sam and Bucky were on the verge of talking him down in the opening scene, but Sam telling John that he needs to hand over the shield is what gives Walker the impression that Sam just wants to take the mantle for himself. Since Walker is so fixated on being Captain America (especially after taking the serum), he reacts poorly to the demand, and things quickly escalate from there (not helped by Bucky openly expressing that he's more than ready to fight Walker).
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Sam and Bucky give one of these to John Walker when, driven rabid by grief and the effects of the Super Soldier serum, he refuses to surrender the shield to them. In the process of disarming and neutralizing him, they are forced to break his arm, sucker-punch him in the head, and swing him bodily into the path of the shield to knock him out.
• Not Helping Your Case: John Walker angrily shouting at the council members during his "hearing" doesn't help his argument that he should remain as Captain America, though since the committee was issuing a summary judgment, he wouldn't have affected the outcome even if he had kept his mouth shut.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: Batroc insists that he doesn't care about Karli's cause, he only wants revenge on the Falcon. She explains that her plan will fulfill both their goals by stopping the GRC vote on the Patch Act, which they both know that Sam will respond to.
• No True Scotsman: Not that it's hard to blame him for his beliefs given his past experiences as a black man in the military, but Isaiah Bradley feels that any black man who would want to be Captain America has "no self-respect."
• Obvious Stunt Double: The face of Aaron Tony, Anthony Mackie's stunt double, is clearly visible during the more acrobatic sections of Sam's climactic training montage.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Bucky has spent most of the series acting cold, dismissively rude, and antagonistic towards Walker because he believes that Walker is unworthy of being the next Captain America and is all for forcibly stripping Walker of the shield and mantle. The fact that he is acting nice towards Walker for the one and only time here shows how much Lemar's tragic death and it's effect on Walker affected him, as he knew fully well Walker was starting to fall into the same dark path as he did when he was the Winter Soldier and also after he had just been saved by Steve with no memories and sought revenge only to find it hollow.
• Overly Long Name: Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. You can call her Val for short, just not to her face.
• Plot Parallel: Sam calls in favors from Sarah's neighbors to get Sarah the help she needs fixing their boat. Bucky calls in a favor from the Wakandans to get Sam the help he needs to fly again.
• Product Placement: Sam and Bucky can be seen drinking Heineken beers on the boat after working on it.
• Punny Name: Partway through his training montage with the shield, Sam runs past his nephews, who call after him, "Uncle Sam!"
• Remembered I Could Fly: When one of the pipes on Sam's family boat springs a leak, Bucky grabs a wrench to help tighten a fitting. When Sam asks him why he didn't just use his metal arm, Bucky mutters that it doesn't always occur to him because it's his non-dominant hand. Subverted in a later scene when Sam is trying to pry a piece of railing off the boat, only for Bucky to use his vibranium arm to easily pull it from its mounting.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • In the episode's opening fight scene, Sam and Bucky are forced to fight John Walker tooth and nail to give up both the shield and, by extension, the role of Captain America; this is punctuated with Walker using levels of violence both with the shield (still caked in Nico's blood) and at one point his bare hands that were previously unheard of, and definitely unbecoming, for someone in the role. When simply trying to pry the shield from his grip doesn't work, Sam and Bucky are forced to break his arm to make him let go, in a moment reminiscent of the Avengers attempting to remove the Infinity Gauntlet from Thanos and knocking him out with the shield itself, before Bucky ultimately tosses it next to Sam, reaffirming that it is rightfully his.
  • Furthermore, Walker rips off Sam's wings, symbolizing that Sam's time as the Falcon is coming to an end and that he must move forward and claim the Captain America mantle for himself. Lampshaded in a conversation with Torres.
    Torres: Hey, you forgot your wings.
    Sam: Keep 'em.
  • Once he retrieves the shield, Sam tries to wipe the bloodstains off it with his hands, but barely manages to clean it, as if to imply that the legacy of Captain America is now permanently tainted, no matter how hard Sam tries to reverse it.
  • As Sam practices with the shield, he's fine when it's moving slowly but can't seem to catch it when it returns to him at full speed, showing that he's still reluctant and afraid of the shield. After a few more rounds of training, he starts catching it just fine, complete with acrobatics. Even his first successful catch is not in the practice ring but on the docks, where he's most comfortable.
  • Sam's nephews playing with the shield comes after Isaiah Bradley remarked that no self-respecting black man would want to be Captain America, implying that Bradley is wrong, that there are young black kids who look up to that symbol of hope and freedom and would be happy to become that symbol. It's reinforced after Sam's Training Montage when his nephew AJ reverently traces the outline of the star at the center of the shield as Sam holds it, wordlessly beaming with pride at his uncle finally taking up the mantle.
  • In Karli's Empathy Doll Shot in the cleared-out camp, she picks the plush toy up off a table, but when she leaves, she drops it to the ground, showing that for all her good intentions, her actions are going to leave the very people she's fighting for worse off.
  • The case that Bucky gives to Sam on behalf of the Wakandans (implied to have something to do with Sam's transition into Cap throughout this episode) is symbolic of Sam taking up the mantle of Captain America as a black man, with the help of other black people and with the support of his friends who know and believe in him.
  • Walker has begun constructing his own homemade shield. On the one hand, he's painting it to look identical to the original, indicating that he still views himself as the worthy successor to the mantle of Captain America. But he's also adorning it with his own Medals of Honor because the shield now represents not just the symbol of America but John's own pride and his personal quest for vengeance.
  • The two Flag-Smashers who have secretly installed themselves as part of the GRC summit's security team whisper to each other "One world, one people" to affirm their allegiance, very similar to the famous "Hail HYDRA" call. This illustrates Sam's point that Karli and her followers started with noble goals but are now becoming a terrorist group that enforces the same kind of ruthless tactics as organizations like HYDRA that they hated.
• The Scapegoat: Following the PR nightmare of Walker beating a man to death in front of witnesses in a foreign country, a Senate committee strips him of all rank and fires him, even taking away his pension.
• Ship Tease: Bucky and Sarah exchange some flirty interactions with one another, admittedly in part to deliberately annoy Sam.
• Shout-Out: Two of the men who help Sam fix the boat are named Tommy and Carlos after Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who performed the Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.
• Sickening "Crunch!": There is a crunching sound when Sam and Bucky break Walker's arm to take the shield from him.
• Sole Survivor: Isaiah tells Sam that he used to be part of a team that had also been dosed with the super-soldier serum, but he's the only one of them who has survived, the others either dying in battle or killed by the serums that they were given turning out to be flawed.
• The Stinger: After the Creative Closing Credits, John Walker is seen forging his own shield from sheet metal, using his Medals of Honor to adorn it with his own touch.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Bucky and Sam feel pity for Walker as the captain had lost his best friend, and tried to calm him down into giving the shield. Bucky, for one, compares Walker's desire for revenge and brutality to his own past as the Winter Soldier, having felt and experienced for himself how hollow revenge would be and how wrong it is to resort to brutality, though Walker's condescending attitude makes him tell Bucky that he's not like him. Ultimately, though, it doesn't amount to anything as Walker refuses to hand over the shield, resulting in Bucky making up his mind and beginning the fight. Sam did still try to reason with him, though, and after beating him, when he learns that juridsiction will be taken for Walker, he is visibly saddened.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Subverted. Sam tries to reason with Walker to stop and surrender the shield, but Walker's increasing madness makes him nigh-unreasonable, and he and Bucky ultimately have to take him down to get him to stop.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: When Dovich voices his displeasure that the Flag-Smashers are now hiring Batroc, a known wanted criminal, to take care of Falcon, Karli responds with barely concealed incredulity that they are criminals, which contrasts where she started.
• Tough Love: Discussed a couple of times throughout the episode.
  • When Sam is complaining about his sister's cautionary behavior towards him, Bucky suggests that she has his best interests at heart.
  • Sam later says this himself as a way to teach Bucky how to properly make amends.
• Training Montage: Sam goes through one with the shield after talking with his sister, gradually improving his throwing skill with it between workout scenes. He needs to be able to throw it and catch it at random targets while on the move.
• The Unreveal: We never get to see what's in the case Bucky drops off with Sam, but given it's a favor from the Wakandans, it's gonna be fancy and loaded with vibranium.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: Bucky tries to appeal to John this way, stating he's "gone down the same road" and it won't end well. He's talking about how he's helped in dispatching HYDRA, technically a form of vengeance after all they did to him, but it definitely didn't make him feel any better with all that he had to do as the Winter Soldier, so despite John's condescending beliefs, he had the right to appeal to him in that way. This actually also applies at Bucky's attempts at making amends: As Sam states it, Bucky is ultimately "avenging" rather than "amending", which is why things aren't getting any better for him. Bucky has been trying to feel better by taking away the ill-gotten gains of people he enabled as the Winter Soldier. It's going nowhere because what he's actually haunted by is the pain of his victims, and this crusade of his, as well-meaning as it might be, doesn't do anything about that suffering. Only in helping them with their sorrow will Bucky be able to make a difference.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • John Walker descends into ranting madness over the course of the episode in the fallout from his bloody murder of Nico in the previous episode. He hallucinates over what he had done, tries to murder Bucky and Sam, and finally screams at the Senators when he is "other than honorably" discharged and not allowed to attempt to justify himself at all.
    John Walker: I live my life by your mandates. I dedicated my life to Your. Mandates! I only ever did what you asked of me, what you told me to be and trained me to do! And I did it. And I did it well.
  • Karli has a brief one after discovering that the GRC had raided the Flag Smashers' hideout and recalling over the people she'd lost during her crusade.
    Karli: How many times do we have to pay with our lives just to be citizens of this goddamn planet?!
• Villains Act, Heroes React: It's mentioned at a couple of points that, with Karli having gone underground, there's nothing more that Sam and Bucky can do until she surfaces again. At the end of the episode, Karli lampshades (if not invokes) this; knowing that Sam will react to their attack on the GRC, she brings Batroc on board with the promise that he can kill Sam upon his arrival.
• Weapon for Intimidation: Bucky points a pistol at Zemo's face and pulls the trigger, but it turns out that Bucky took the bullets out.
• We Are Everywhere: The Flag-Smashers now even have people inside the GRC who help them infiltrate their conference.
• Wham Line:
  Val: Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Actually, it's Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
• Wham Shot: Near the end, we see Karli sitting at a park to rally up more Flag-Smashers for the fight ahead. Then the camera pans up to show where their big meeting is taking place: New York City.
• Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: As Walker fights Sam and Bucky, he screams that they're forcing him to hurt them.
• Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: In the opening scuffle, Bucky is quick to remove Walker's gun, but Walker barely seems to acknowledge that he has a firearm at all, focusing fully on using the shield as a weapon. Justified by his current state of mind and his obsession with being Captain America.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Sarah tells Sam that, despite all the times he left his home to go and be a soldier or an Avenger, not once did she ever think of him as running away. These kinds of speeches must run in the family.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: John Walker's trial is framed as the U.S. Government doing this to him. Disgraced and having caused an international incident, they strip him of his rank, pension, and titles. John fires back that the government has always requested this type of work in the past, and only doesn't like it now because people see him doing it.

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