I’ve just watched The Falcon and The Winter Soldier finale, so lets talk about it. As always, I’ll be getting into SPOILERS for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier finale, so be aware if you have not watched yet. If you want to know what I thought without the spoilers, here it is.

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is an enigma. There is a really good show trying to get out, sadly though, it cannot break through the Vibranium shielding. I honestly thought the finale was weak, predictable and just a little dull. This show seems to excel in its smaller character moments and there are a few here to whet the appetite. However it is the set up of the action scenes which has left me disappointed. Overall the finale cemented this show as a predictable run of the mill TV series with an above average budget and some nice character moments. Can’t see me watching this one again anytime soon.

Ok, to explain my issues and praise the parts I liked stay with me after the SPOILER jump.

**The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Finale SPOILERS below. **

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Let’s start with the closing screen and I think the episode title of this finale. ‘Captain America and The Winter Soldier’. Well, they got it half right didn’t they? I, and many others, have predicted that after this show is done, any sequel series would be called Captain America and…Well this is where fans differ. I always preferred the idea of Captain America and The White Wolf. My reason is that the title reflects how both Sam and Bucky have moved on during this show. Bucky has begun to leave The Winter Soldier behind, that name has bad memories for Bucky. Therefore Bucky’s name change would have been more appropriate to me, but hey ho.

Predictability

If you asked me last week what would happen this week, I’d have guessed 90% of what we saw on screen. That’s not a plus point in my eyes, I felt this show has been too predictable since Episode 1. Sharon Carter being the Power Broker was far too obvious, to the point where last week I actually thought they were baiting us for a switch. Nope, turns out it was just telegraphed from Episode 3 and felt weak as hell. Falcon would become Captain America, duh! However, I am disappointed he did not get some Super Soldier Serum. I still have the same issue I always had with Sam, he is a hero, no doubt, but not a super hero. If another Thanos threat appears, Sam better stay in the back, because he can’t even beat Batroc man to man and Rogers kicked his ass.

I also figured the Flag Smashers would do something stupid and it would fail, check. Walker would become U.S. Agent, check. Finally that there would be some sting in the tail with Zemo, which there was.

The Good

This show, and therefore the finale, works best in the smaller character moments. The interpersonal drama and psychology between Isiah, Sam, and Bucky is far more interesting that the main plot. I like Sam as the new Cap, I just want him to have the same kick ass moves Rogers did, because right now I feel they’ve made the Black Captain America a weaker version and that does not sit right with this fan. Bucky was great as always, I loved Isiah and definitely want to see more of Eli. However, the problem I have with the finale more than other episodes is that these moments were few and far between. It’s the finale right, so this is where all the action should happen and it does. However, some good action scenes here simply failed to connect with me because the whole thing felt messy.

Julie Louis-Dreyfus came back, and she was fun. Walker walking out as U.S Agent was a good scene. Erm, I’m struggling here to be honest.

The Bad

It’s official, Karli Morgenthau is now the worst Marvel villain and takes that crown from the likes of Malekith. Karli was a terrible leader and a terrible character. I think I was supposed to feel sorry for her, but didn’t. She was just a bog standard terrorist no matter what Sam said. She didn’t like the World, so lets kill people and blow stuff up to make it better.

Even when Sharon, revealed as the Power Broker and Karli had a moment of who is bad and who is good, I didn’t care. Both are horrible villains with no believable motivations. Karli wants to kill and destroy until the GRC giver her what she wants. The thing is, she doesn’t know what she wants and hasn’t considered the problems involved whatsoever. A point highlighted when Cap speaks up for their cause at the end in the right way. I also don’t understand why her followers follow her, there is no charisma there, no dark attraction which we’d normally find in someone in charge.

Sharon meanwhile has decided to go against everything she ever was, just because the government kinda forgot to pardon her for stealing Cap’s shield and giving him it back. Does anyone else think that’s an extremely unrealistic and extreme reaction? In fact, the only thing that would make sense to me about Sharon is if she is really a Skrull, which is possible still.

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I also do not get why Sam does the whole ‘I wont fight you’ thing like Luke Skywalker against papa Vader? I get he’s trying to calm her down, but it’s not working and I was honestly relieved when Sharon shot her. It was like ‘boom, you looking for this?’. If Sam had just had super strength there he really could have taken her down without killing her, oh well.

The rest of the Flag Smashers, (I bet you can’t even name a single character other than Karli) were going to be a problem, How do we keep these really boring characters around with actors we pulled off the street at the last minute, when they have super abilities? That’s not gonna work, is it? So lets just conveniently kill them all with a Bomb planted by Zemo’s old butler. How they knew that van would be where those Flag Smashers ended up, all whilst Zemo was on The Raft? Honestly, I don’t care. Zemo did us all a favor, that was him saying, we should have had him as a decent villain instead of the cardboard cutouts that were Flag Smashers.

This is not WandaVision where everyone’s crazy theories didn’t happen, it just wasn’t any good. In fact, as you’d expect there have been a ton of fake leaks around all this week. All were dismissed as being obviously fake, so no one had an real leaks. In fact, what we got was the most generic unimaginative conclusion anyone could think of. The fake leaks were actually a lot more interesting than what we got, and that tells me the writing wasn’t up to scratch here. Sorry Mr Spellman, I was not impressed at all with the cookie cutter plot and too obvious hand tipping.

The Ugly Last Word

The MCU has been great, but it won’t always hit those heights. For me, Spellman and his pitch for this show just were not good enough. I know there are rumors they had to change parts of the plot due to the pandemic, Maybe that did not help the show, but what we got wasn’t all that exciting or interesting to me outside of Sam and Bucky’s journey’s.

Hopefully like the movies did, the MCU Disney+ shows will improve as they go along. I am really looking forward to Loki, that looks crazy. However, when they eventually announce Captain America and The Winter Soldier Season 2, I’m not going to be getting excited if Spellman is head writer again. Sorry, but that’s how I feel, this show’s issues are in the script process, not the execution.

I know for a fact that some of my colleagues at LRM will think I’m crazy for disliking The Falcon and The Winter Soldier finale, but hey ho. Feel free to tell me why I am right or wrong in the usual spot below. Overall, I’d give The Falcon and The Winter Soldier a B- and the finale would get a C+. Bring on some creativity hopefully with Loki.

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