The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Episode 3

3. Power Broker

As John Walker and Lemar Hoskins trail Karli Morgenthau in Munich, Sam and Bucky head to Berlin to break Zemo out of jail. Surprised that the guy is actually filthy rich, the duo ride along in his private jet en route to Madripoor, an affluent island-nation in the Strait of Malacca that harbors a plethora of illicit activity. After a meeting with an informant goes awry, the trio are rescued by Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) who now enjoys a lucrative life in exile there trading counterfeit paintings after the fallout of her illegally aiding the Avengers during Civil War. They are led to a German scientist who claims that he has been funded by the Power Broker to recreate the Super Soldier Serum, of which he was able to manufacture 20 that Morgenthau and friends stole. Discovering that the enemy is in Riga, Zemo, Sam, and Bucky travel to the Baltic city for more intel. While Zemo and Sam enter a building, Bucky excuses himself after seeing some Wakanda tech on the street and is led to Ayo (Florence Kasumba), who has come for Zemo’s head.

Madripoor, yet another composite of Asia courtesy of Disney. The rap song being played is in Tagalog. The signposts are a mix of Hanzi, Katakana, and Devanagari. I'm not familiar with this fictional city in the comics, so imagine my surprise to see how first-world it looks like. That skyline, damn. Wow factor from the introduction of yet another fictional city aside, this episode plays catch-up with the repercussions of previous films to some characters we almost forgot about already. You get to know what happened to Sharon Carter. And now even Wakanda is involved because lest we forget, they are still pissed at Zemo for bombing the UN Headquarters and killing King T’Chaka. Of course, the thrill here still lies on the unlikely alliance with Zemo, who has a way of getting what he wants. At least the character is consistent about his anti-Super Soldier sentiments. The rest of the cast felt sidetracked by the reunion and the Madripoor introduction. Looks like we’ll be seeing more of Madripoor in the MCU. Fun.

“You must have really looked up to Steve. But I realized something when I met him. The danger with people like him, America's Super Soldiers, is that we put them on pedestals. They become symbols. Icons. And then we start to forget about their flaws. From there, cities fly, innocent people die. Movements are formed, wars are fought.” –Helmut Zemo

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