One of the biggest plot points of the second episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier turns the idea of Captain America completely on its head.
SPOILERS. Obviously.
The second episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has arrived, and just like with WandaVision, now that all the pieces are in place after the re-introductions, it winds up being a lot more fun, and a lot more interesting.
Episode Two – titled The Star Spangled Man – wastes no time in getting Sam and Bucky together on screen, zipping over to Germany for a truck-top fist-fight with a group of super-strength rebels calling themselves The Flag Smashers.
After they’re then formally introduced to the new Captain America, aka John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and his side-kick Battlestar, aka Lemar Hosking (Clé Bennett), Bucky decides it is time for Sam to meet someone from Bucky’s long, violence-filled past.
Continuing the globe-hopping feel of the show, they wind up in Baltimore, where we meet Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly), who was, in a sense, Captain America during the Korean War, and while Steve Rogers was still very much frozen in ice.
We find out that Bradley was given the same Super Serum that was Steve and Bucky were given, and he was sent in to Goyang in South Korea to take Bucky out, and managed to all but kill him.
However, when he got back to America, he was promptly put in prison for 30 years, and tested on non-stop by the government, and by his mention of “even your people weren’t done with me” to Bucky, he is referencing Hydra being a part of that, too.
We are also introduced to what appears to be Isaiah’s grandson, Eli Bradley (Elijah Richardson), and on the latest episode of TBR Spotlight: The Falcon and the Winter Solider [LISTEN from 35.45 below] Rory and Eoghan break down what his character’s arrival could mean to the future of the MCU:
In the comic books, Bradley was one of a number of African American soldiers that the US government tested the Super Serum out on at the height of World War II. The inspiration for his character’s creation came from the very real Tuskegee Syphilis Study, in which African American men in Alabama in 1932 were lied to about a case study on syphilis, promised medication that never arrived, and were told the study would last for six months, but in some cases, went on for over 40 years.
For Bradley, in the comics, after being sent into the depths of Germany and emerging to only survivor of a suicide mission, he donned the costume and shield intended for Captain America, before being captured by German soldiers. He was eventually freed and made it back to America, where he was imprisoned for treason for “stealing” the Captain America shield, and put in jail for life. He was eventually released, on the day of President Kennedy’s inauguration, and while his past is mostly kept a secret, he became a legend and a hero to the black communities in America.
In the show, there appear to be some slight detail changes – World War II becomes the Korean War, defeating the Nazis becomes defeating Bucky – but the aftermath remains the same: the black Captain America was quietly swept under the rug.
It is Bradley’s mention of “your people” that sends Bucky and Sam in the direction of Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) at the end of the episode, who seems to have remained imprisoned since he attempts to destroy the Avengers in Captain America: Civil War.
How this will all tie-in to the Flag Smashers having access to the Super Serum, as well as the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it mention of the Power Brokers, we’ll have to wait and see…
The third episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier arrives on Disney+ on Friday, 2 April.
In the meantime, you can check out our conversations with Kari Skogland, the series director, and Malcolm Spellman, the series head writer, right here:
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