Falcon And Winter Soldier Episode 1 Recap: Catch Up Before Episode 2

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, the second MCU TV show, has arrived on Disney+, just two weeks after the finale of WandaVision. And with promotional efforts for the upcoming Loki show already rolling, it's clear that the Marvel Cinematic Universe train will slow for no one, even after it is unceremoniously stopped for a year by a pandemic. Though the tone and style of Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes' thriller-flavored show is much different than the sitcom fantasy of Wanda and Vision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is already rolling out some major shake-ups to the MCU status quo. So, with that in mind, let's take a look at Episode 1 and break down the biggest moments. It's never too early to start those theory engines racing.

This week was all about establishing exactly what Sam and Bucky have been up to since Avengers: Endgame. It probably won't surprise you to learn that neither of them has been having an especially great time.

Sam may have retired from the Air Force in an official capacity back before his Winter Soldier introduction, but now that he's a public superhero with no super team, it would seem he's gotten back in the saddle--at least in some capacity. Falcon has been working with the military on missions where an official government presence isn't the best course of action, like the dicy plane hijacking seen here by our old pal, Batroc who was last seen being thwarted by Steve Rogers after he tried to hijack a boat with SHIELD operative Jasper Sitwell on board.

It's doubtful we'll see Batroc again in any meaningful way, but there's always a chance. More likely, this moment was meant to be a parallel with the opening moments of Captain America: Winter Soldier and Batroc will make way for bigger, badder villains like Zemo and the Flag-Smasher terrorists.

Meanwhile Bucky is finally in therapy, getting help for his extremely traumatic life--though he seems a bit less-than-thrilled to be opening up to anyone. He's struggling with horrific nightmares of his time as the Winter Soldier and doing his best to make amends by using his scattered memories to track down HYDRA leftovers and bring them to justice. He's also proving that old habits die hard with his new pal Mr. Nakajima, an ornery old man who Bucky rescues from a fight in an alleyway. Sound like someone you remember? Bucky's introduction back in Captain America: The First Avenger involved him intervening in a very similar fight between a bully and Steve Rogers.

And then we have Sam's new friend, Joaquin Torres, who comics readers will recognize as the person who steps in as Falcon when Sam becomes Cap. Keep a close eye on him as the season progresses because it's very likely he's going to be a bigger part of Phase 4 moving forward.

If you're wondering about the actual events of Endgame and how they play into all of this, don't worry--we get an answer for that too. We last left the shield in the hands of Sam Wilson after Steve Rogers, eldery and retired, passed it along--but that doesn't mean Sam is going to give up his Falcon title right away. Sam opted to drop the shield off somewhere he figured it actually belonged: the Smithsonian museum, home to the Captain America exhibit we saw back in Winter Soldier. Rhodey even dropped by to lend some support at the ceremony, though it's pretty obvious he's not completely sold on the idea of Sam passing up the mantle.

In addition to moonlighting as Falcon and making public donations to museums, Sam is also struggling with his family's fishing business, currently kept afloat (but only barely) by his sister. Even Sam's celebrity can't help them overcome their financial woes and, it turns out, being a superhero doesn't actually come with a hefty paycheck--Sam doesn't have the collateral to get a business loan (though the banker is more than happy to make things incredibly awkward by continually asking Sam for selfies while also being incredibly unhelpful). This is our first glimpse of the ways The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is planning on dealing with things like racial inequality and racism as Sam tries to navigate his civilian life, something the showrunners have spoken about at length.

Finally we have the episode's biggest cliffhanger: the arrival of a new Captain America, and it's not Sam or Bucky. The new hero isn't named in the episode, but from casting announcements and context clues, we can assume this is John Walker, AKA US Agent, played by Wyatt Russell. In the comics, US Agent is a villain and anti-hero who got his start as a pretender Captain America called the Super Patriot, who stepped in to take over when Steve temporarily quit. He represents the sort of zealous nationalism that is antithetical to what Steve Rogers stood for.