It was SO GOOD to see Sam take on the mantle of Cap in this final episode! :’D Watching him first appear in his new stars-and-stripes uniform was such a heroic moment! And did you see all the subtitles referring to Sam as Captain America throughout the entire episode? ? Aahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!
He’s a good man. Literally the best. He and Steve are of the same pattern, and those qualities really shone through in this episode. Him refusing to fight Karli despite the ass-kicking he was getting and the very real threat of her going to kill him is like Steve’s moment of not wanting to fight Bucky near the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and letting him beat him almost to death (after he had first accomplished his mission of bringing down the helicarriers).
Sam is good at making speeches too! Or to be more accurate, getting people to see reason. Steve’s speeches were more pithy and inspiring, but Sam gets people to think about what they’re doing and change their minds. And that’s an extremely powerful skill.
He even won over Isaiah Bradley, and helped him to get his contributions recognised in the Captain America exhibit in the Smithsonian. It’s not enough to heal 30 years of being jailed and experimented on by the U.S. government (can *anything* be enough to make reparations for that?), but Sam did what he could, and Isaiah appreciated it.
Batroc was such an annoying character though. I’m glad he’s dead. I thought he had been gotten rid of in the Winter Soldier (after Steve’s “On va voir” moment with his fluffy hair), so I was highly surprised to see him pop up in this series.
John Walker appeared suddenly and unexpectedly helped to save the day! He was so conflicted between chasing after Karli for revenge and helping to save the people in the armoured transport, but the fact that he chose to save the people instead shows that he’s not an outright villain. (Doesn’t matter that he didn’t succeed and the moment belonged to Sam instead — the fact that Walker tried was enough.) After an entire series of being an arrogant hateful ass, he redeemed himself a little to become the anti-hero U.S. Agent, thanks to “Val”. (Is she good? Bad? Whatever she feels like being that day? Who knows! ?)
And we know we’re meant to kind of like him now — or at least hate him less — because Sam and Bucky are shown acknowledging him and even joking with him. But he still has a long way to go to earn any real feelings of goodwill.
And now on to the other shocker of the episode, if you didn’t already foresee it coming in episode 3 — Sharon IS the Power Broker! ? Peggy would be so disappointed in her. Is she an ambiguous character like Val? I choose to believe that she turned against America because the government has been shitty to her, so she feels no allegiance to the country anymore; but she still helped Sam and Bucky because she likes them, not so much that she believes in their cause.
Zemo managed to get the last word in and he successfully got rid of the remaining super soldiers even when sitting in a cell on the Raft. (Or was it Val??? ?) Now all the loose ends are tied.
Bucky confessed to Yori that he murdered his son! ? I wish he didn’t, just so he could have continued being friends with him. But this friendship was also giving him too much guilt, so it’s probably for the best. At least Yori has some measure of peace in knowing what happened to his son now. When confessing, Bucky acknowledged that it wasn’t his fault because he didn’t have a choice, so he has finally forgiven himself too for what Hydra made him do.
HOWEVER, I CANNOT believe that he gave away Steve’s notebook to his therapist! ? What is this nonsense???!!! It’s the last thing he had from Steve and he just gave it away?? What made the writers think that this made sense???? ???
But other than that (HUGE) misstep, the series has been great, and exactly what I wanted it to be and at the same time, didn’t know I wanted it to be. Sam and Bucky worked together and were hilarious, Sebastian Stan blessed us with his hotness for all 5 hours, Sam took on the mantle of Captain America in an extremely satisfying way — more satisfying than if he had assumed the role from the first episode — and Zemo was the sugar daddy that we all unexpectedly came to love.
And at the end, the title card changed from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to Captain America and the Winter Soldier! ? Ahhhhhhhh!!!!! ???
