REVIEW: The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, Season 1 Episode Four: 'The Whole World Is Watching'

 REVIEW: The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, Season 1 Episode Four: 'The Whole World Is Watching'

Out of any episode of a Disney Plus Marvel Studios series so far, this is probably the hardest to review without directly stating spoilers. So much occurs within these forty five minutes, that it is literally impossible to avoid mentioning even the tiniest of plot points. So if you haven't already seen episode four before reading this review, I highly recommend you A: Mute every Falcon And The Winter Soldier hashtag on Twitter and B: Stop punishing yourself and get it watched!

Even from the very start of 'The Whole World Is Watching', we are directly thrown into potential spoiler territory. The episode opens, you see, in Wakanda. Six years ago, to be precise, when Bucky (Sebastian Stan) was staying there with the Wakandans as the White Wolf. Ayo (Florence Kasumba) is trying to remove his Winter Soldier programming, and this is quite a bittersweet moment. On one hand, it's heartwarming to see his emotional reaction to being told he is free from the programming. On the other, you get a sense from Sebastian Stan's performance in the previous episode that maybe suspects there's still a part of the programming inside of him, so there's also something quite tragic about this whole affair. We know as a viewer he won't feel entirely free from it, and you can't help but see Bucky as a tormented figure as a result.

Later in the episode, we get possibly one of the greatest action sequences in the entire show, when the new Captain America John Walker (Wyatt Russell) makes the foolish decision to take on the Dora Milaje. Yes, this new Captain America *really* thought it was a good idea to take on Ayo and her female Wakanda warriors. At this point in the episode he's essentially like the MCU's Gilderoy Lockhart, a man who appears to believe he is stronger and more capable than he actually is.

But then at least Gilderoy Lockhart didn't actually kill anyone. John Walker, on the other hand, goes full on Homelander by the end of episode four. Poor Captain America fan Nico (Noah Mills) meets his end by way of Captain America's very own shield, in a scene that's both shocking and surprisingly quite brutal for Disney. It's like a 12-rated version of a scene from Amazon Prime's The Boys, but tomato sauce made to look like blood is all we are treated to rather than blood and guts all over the place. One of the things I like about this cliffhanger is it raises some legitimate questions for the future. With a crowd having gathered and witnessed what occurred, we could be seeing a future MCU being set up where the public are scared of the heroes rather than looking up to them. Could there be a more perfect way to set up the introduction of the X Men in the MCU's future?

There's an interesting parallel made between Lemar/Battlestar(Cle Bennett) and Sam/Falcon (Anthony Mackie) here, with two separate conversations regarding the super soldier serum. Baron Zemo asks Sam if he would take the super soldier serum if offered and he replies with a firm 'no'; meanwhile, John poses the same question to Lemar and his answer is a little different. He admits that he would. It's a great way to show the different attitudes posed by both sides. Whereas John and Lemar crave power, Sam and Bucky fight for justice rather than control. These are characters who hold strikingly different motives, and little character moments such as this are perfect ways to demonstrate these differing personalities.

Karli Morgenthau (Erin Kellyman) is a little less black and white. With Karli, you get a sense that she's fighting for the right thing, but she goes about it all wrong. Karli is like the perfect example of what could happen if a worthy cause is taken to extremes, and we see this in real life all the time with things like Extinction Rebellion and the looters and rioters within Black Lives Matter. The perfect example of this is when Karli calls Sam's sister Sarah (Adeporo Oduye) and threatens to come after her kids if Sam doesn't agree to meet her in private. It's the right ideals with the wrong execution. The Falcon And The Winter Soldier is a show that as a result feels extremely relevant for our times, conveying the same sense of uncertainty and disruption that has plagued the world as of late.

In my previous review, I mentioned my hope that the third episode would not be the only one to feature Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp). Well, I'm happy to say she does pop up here, albeit in a shortened role that's more an extended cameo than anything else. Here she agrees to track John's movements for Sam, and it works well for the episode. It would have been nice to see a little more of her, but her appearance does at least fit nicely into the narrative rather than being there for the sake of it.

Overall, 'The Whole World Is Watching' is a truly game-changing episode for The Falcon And The Winter Soldier. With the new Captain America having gone off the rails, and Ayo and the Wakanda warriors still yet to have captured Baron Zemo, it's fair to say that there's plenty of cards on the table for the remaining two episodes of this spectacular Disney Plus series. The remaining instalments, simply put, can surely be nothing more than truly epic pieces of entertainment.

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What are your thoughts on The Falcon And The Winter Soldier's fourth episode? Let me know in the comments section.