[Analysis & Review] The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 4 [Easter Eggs & Theories]

Hello!

Today I’m writing about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 4, which dropped on Friday 9 April — the points worth flagging, the theories, and my predictions for where all of this goes next.

In this post I’ll briefly write up the things that caught my eye on the first watch and the Easter eggs, and then get into the theories.

Spoilers ahead

The WandaVision episode reviews, from back when it aired, are here!

Click the image below for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode reviews!

Contents

What I’ve been into lately

I’ve started photographing Hot Toys figures for fun recently. Camera is a ZV-1, shooting RAW and editing in Lightroom.

This time I shot in Tachikawa.

• 

• 

• 

• 

I made a video as well

Nothing whatsoever to do with films or TV, but I went to the Hiroshi Yoshida exhibition and the Kashiwa Sato exhibition the other day, so I turned that into a video.

Episode 4, “The Whole World Is Watching”

Turkish delight

The sweet called Turkish delight that turns up at the start is

A Turkish confection made by adding starch and nuts (walnut, pistachio, almond, hazelnut, coconut) to sugar. It is known in the Mashriq, the Balkans and Greece, and in Europe and America as well. In English it is called Turkish delight, meaning “the delight of Turkey.” The texture is soft and springy, close to Japanese yubeshi.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_delight

that.

In the first Narnia story this sweet is treated as the sweet of desire, a forbidden apple of knowledge sort of thing. Second time watching — wait, I know this sweet from somewhere

As for why it was treated as the sweet of desire

In The Chronicles of Narnia it appears as what you might call the “forbidden apple,” the thing Ed, a son of Adam, gives in to. But according to one account, the original recipe for Turkish delight is said to have used cannabis, and in slang “Turkish delight” is said to mean sweets with cannabis in them. If that is true, then it really is a forbidden sweet you must not lay a hand on.

https://allabout.co.jp/gm/gc/79241/2/

is the story.

Well, I had no idea.

Irony

Nico of the Flag Smashers says

and then gets butchered by Captain America right after — the irony really landed there. He seemed like quite a decent guy, which makes it sad.

Social media

Sam and the others get their location exposed on social media, and social media is clearly a keyword in this show

On top of that, Bucky tearing up the bar in episode 3 gets filmed the way the first image above shows, and there’s a similar scene at the end of episode 4 — it really feels like the show is putting a lot of weight on this. My guess is that this social media thread is (probably) going to be what gets Sam recognised as Captain America the world over.

Zemo never wavers

Zemo’s stance on the super soldier serum doesn’t waver an inch, and honestly he’s so cool for it

What the message was

“Playing at revolution is over.

Give the serum back. Or I’ll kill you.”

The message Karli had been getting was from the Power Broker.

So the mystery of the message that came in episode 1 is solved right here!

John takes the serum

Just as predicted, he went and took it after all~ lol

And it feels like it’s amplifying the worst parts of John, which is seriously bad news.

Lemar dies

Lemaaaaaaaaaar (I cried)

After episode 3 I thought Lemar would turn superhuman too and go off the rails, and instead he dies and becomes the trigger for John going off the rails (I cried)

Captain America, fallen

He went and killed an unresisting suspect with the shield, in front of a crowd

Well now — never thought I’d get to see mild splatter like that in the MCU.

Wait, am I watching The Boys?! is where my head went lol

The thing I want to flag is the contrast with Steve.

Steve actually raises the shield over Tony in Civil War exactly the way episode 4 does, but unlike John he brings it back down in order to stop the fight.

I think the closing stretch of episode 4 finally drew that decisive difference between the two men all the way out.

After finishing episode 4

Who’s the huge guest star?

It’s been stated outright that episode 5 has quite a surprise in it

「ファルコン＆ウィンター・ソルジャー」第5話は超重要回！ 謎のキャラクターも登場へhttps://t.co/wcEjROsO4a

「ソーとの共演を見てみたい」脚本家が示唆。#ファルコンウィンターソルジャー #ファルコン #ウィンターソルジャー #マーベル

— THE RIVER (@the_river_jp) April 11, 2021

Well, who could it be?? The Netflix lot like Jessica Jones, the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. crowd, or Doctor Doom?? lol

Added around 15:00 on 16 April 2021

It’s started to feel to me like Sharon and Cap had a child during those five years, and that that child is Cap.

And the prediction is that that child becomes the next Cap!

Where the story lands

Two episodes left from here, so let me predict what kind of ending this show arrives at.

For what it’s worth, I still think the show ends with Sam taking on the Captain America name after all. So I’ll write about the bits that look like setup for that along the way.

The contrast around the serum

• John and Lemar take the serum if it’s there

• Sam doesn’t

That contrast is superb, but it also looks like it feeds into the question of whether what made Steve Captain America in the first place was having the super soldier serum or not.

What’s next for Bucky

As for Bucky’s brainwashing, the Dora Milaje stated outright at the start of episode 4 that he has overcome it, so that probably won’t be touched on again.

The problem is his past crimes. He has felt guilty about people like Yori this whole time, but as of episode 4 nothing has been resolved at all. Or rather, it doesn’t get touched on.

What’s next for Zemo

Zemo got away nicely lol

Any more screen time than that and the story would get muddled, so for now it looks like he won’t be involved much in the main plot.

In the comics he was a HYDRA executive, so if the finale drew something like him restoring HYDRA to power~ that would be fun!

Ah, but he might come to kill the Flag Smashers and Isaiah, who are tied to the super soldier serum.

What’s next for Karli

Karli felt a connection in her conversation with Sam and looked quite likely to rethink things

But at the end of episode 4 John kills one of her crew, so from episode 5 onwards the Flag Smashers, and the people all over the world who have been swayed by their thinking, look set to spiral further and further out of control.

What’s next for John

After episode 4 I thought John would either go on the run or end up under house arrest with the US government, but watching the trailer above, maybe the three of them work together.

Recognised as Captain America through social media

Right — having rambled through all of that, my personal prediction for how this show settles is that Sam works with John and the complete inheritance of Captain America is carried out by way of social media.

What I mean by that is

• The Flag Smashers and their like going out of control worldwide is a certainty
• Social media is one of the show’s themes?
• Captain America should be someone who is superhuman in spirit, not a question of having the serum or not. And should be someone who leads people
• In the trailer above it looks like they work with John. Even John reflects on it and wants to stop the Flag Smashers
• Sam’s low profile is setup for it shooting way up from here?

All of those come together: John and Sam and the others team up and fight the Flag Smashers, footage of it goes up on social media, and people all over the world are moved. And Sam becomes a genuine hero, and decides himself to become Captain America and be the one who leads the world.

— that’s what I think happens.

• Added: Bucky also accepts who he is now and apologises to Yori face to face

— I think that happens too.

About episode 5

[Analysis & Review] The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 6 [Impressions & Easter Eggs]