The first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is here, and we’re breaking down all the big moments on the series premiere, “New World Order”. Sam Wilson, a.k.a. The Falcon, is struggling with what to do about Captain America’s shield in the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame, and taking a side-trip down to New Orleans. Meanwhile, Bucky, a.k.a. The Winter Soldier, is dealing with the sins of his past and going on dates. But while these two Avengers deal with personal issues, in the background Sam’s sidekick Joaquín Torres is investigating the mysterious Flag Smashers, who might be a big threat than anyone realizes. From The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Easter eggs, to Marvel Comics references, to who that new Captain America is, we break it all down on this week’s episode.

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Full Episode Transcript

Alex:                 Welcome To MarvelVision, a podcast about Marvel the MCU and now Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which premiered today on Disney+. It’s finally here. It was suppose to be the first Marvel series on Disney+. Turns out, as you all know, it’s the second, to come out after WandaVision. That’s what happens in the real world. That is some real truths.

Justin:              It’s crazy to say it’s finally here when literally WandaVision just ended. We’re spoiled. We’re spoiled is what it is, and now we’re diving into it like “Oh, we finally got this next one,” and we’re already doing it. We’re already here.

Alex:                 I had to watch Marvel Studios’ Assembled for a week instead of my friend adventures with my super friends. Very upsetting.

Justin:              Yeah. I know. I had to take this time off and look at my family members and my pets.

Pete:                Oh. Oh, gross.

Justin:              Yeah. Just-

Alex:                 No thanks, man. No thanks. So as usual, or maybe you’re tuning in for the first time because you’re more interested in Falcon and the Winter Soldier than potentially you were in WandaVision, we go pretty heavily into spoilers on this podcast. That’s what we talk about here. So go watch the first episode right now before we get into it. We’re going to talk about some of our general thoughts on the show, how it kicked off, how it kicked off potentially compared to WandaVision, but we’ll also be talking about Marvel Easter eggs, references from the comics, anything that we picked up, and speculation for the rest of the show.

Alex:                 So let’s start off with our first thing. From your guys’ perspective, WandaVision, I think, in a very surprising way, really raised expectations before Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which I certainly wasn’t expecting going into WandaVision. That was a huge hit, global domination just built over the course of the run. Obviously, there was a lot of consternation about the last episode and how it went. I liked it, for my note, but this is a very different show. This is much more straightforward MCU.

Pete:                Wait. Wait. Wait.

Alex:                 How did this first episode strike you?

Pete:                Wait. What about the last episode? There was conversation? What did you say?

Alex:                 Consternation. Just there were people that I think were a little upset about how certain things turned out with the last episode of WandaVision.

Pete:                Oh, really?

Alex:                 Yeah.

Pete:                People were … Oh, okay. I didn’t know.

Alex:                 Yeah. I mean, it was a huge surprise to me too that-

Pete:                You’re using big Cornell words. You’re going to lose our audience. You know what I mean?

Alex:                 No. That’s fair.

Pete:                Let’s not flex our knowledge on us all the time. You know what I mean?

Justin:              Oh, my god. When you say consternation, just use a smaller word, like butt angry.

Pete:                Yeah. There you go. Thank you. Yeah.

Alex:                 Lot of butthurt fans out there. Okay.

Justin:              There you go. Now you’re speaking to the people.

Alex:                 Let’s talk about Falcon and the Winter Soldier though and this first episode here. It’s obviously very different from WandaVision, but given those expectations going in here, given what you knew about the series, just broad strokes, how did the episode strike you?

Pete:                Well, I also feel like it’s tough because it has to follow WandaVision now, which is such a quirky, huge hit, and I feel like that is a little tough because it’s a little bit straightforward. But what I really enjoyed was there’s a lot going on. It’s not just a simple kind of action thing, which I was happy about. There’s a lot going on with these two gentlemen’s lives, and it’s like we’re just really kind of digging into where they are. I thought it was fun. I was impressed with a lot of it and how quickly … I was surprised that there’s still, by the first episode, because we’re only getting a small handful here, that they’re not already together and kind of working together. So I was a little like “Oh, no. We didn’t get them together in the end,” but that’s the only-

Alex:                 You got to save something for episode six, man. That’s what it’s all building to.

Pete:                Oh, don’t. I can’t do the whole thing apart. I don’t want to do the whole thing apart.

Justin:              We’re just going to see them passing each other in a hallway now and again like “Hey.”

Alex:                 Game of Thrones style.

Justin:              Yeah. I mean, I think the biggest … When you talk about WandaVision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier, it’s … If the TV show Friends … If they’d released Joey first because of a pandemic, it would have been a little bit harder to see what’s going on.

Alex:                 I’ll give you one better. It’s if they released Episodes first.

Justin:              Yeah. Okay. For all you Matt LeBlanc heads out there, you must be loving-

Pete:                Is that a shot against Joey?

Alex:                 No. Episodes was literally about him playing a Joey-type character on a show and commenting on the idea of television based on both Joey and Friends. So yeah. It feels like it’s skipping a beat. It’s like they jumped ahead and then they’re going back to the thing that should have come right after Endgame.

Justin:              But it’s interesting because I think so much of all the commentary, the consternation, the butt anger about WandaVision was because the potential was all over the … Everyone was like-

Pete:                Was huge. Yeah.

Justin:              … “Fantastic Four. Al Pacino is Mephisto. Who’s going to be … The Mandarin’s rings are going to be hidden,” all this stuff, and it wasn’t that.

Pete:                Also, Paul Bettany’s joke, which was hysterical, kind of fueled the fire for it as well, which didn’t help.

Justin:              For sure, but what I think … If the original order had been preserved and Falcon and the Winter Soldier had come first, I think there would have been less of that, because what we see in this first episode of Falcon and the Winter Soldier, to me, is like this is like the bridge from Marvel movies to television. It’s like has the same pace, the same type of storytelling as the first act of a Marvel movie, where lots of actions, a little bit of introducing stuff, some table setting. The main characters don’t even meet here.

Pete:                But you got Rhodey also being the bridge as well.

Justin:              Rhodey pops in, but people aren’t like “Are we going to see War Machine?” It’s like “No. He’s here. He’s already here.”

Alex:                 Yeah. He’s here.

Justin:              He’s watching.

Alex:                 Yeah. He left. He came here, and then he left.

Justin:              Yeah. He’s out of here. It was nice to see him. It was a drop in.

Pete:                Yeah. It was nice.

Justin:              I think-

Alex:                 He was on set that day anyway. So they just added him in.

Justin:              That’s how Holleywood works, you know?

Alex:                 Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Justin:              It’s like “Hey. Pop in.”

Pete:                Hey. You going to be around for something we’re shooting later? Because that would be cool.

Justin:              We’re shooting this thing over here.

Alex:                 Yeah. No problem. What do I have to do? Is this like a Black Monday thing? Or what’s going on?

Justin:              Yeah. It is. They tricked him. But I don’t think there’s going to be that kind of speculation for this show, because it is just starting in a different place, and its expectations are sort of right where we thought they were going to be, and that’s good. I was psyched to watch this, but it is such a different viewing experience, to your point.

Alex:                 Yeah. The thing, I had a blast watching this episode, like I think you guys are getting at. It’s very relaxing to watch this show, in a certain way, because WandaVision … You have to have this hyper attention while you’re watching it for all the details, everything that’s happening in every frame. That’s what was so wonderful about that show is the amount of different levels that it was working on. Here, it felt like “Ah, I’m back in the movie theater. I’m watching a Captain America movie,” or whatever, “It’s pretty cool. Just got to chill out, watch two handsome dudes have a good time kicking butt. Let’s have fun.”

Alex:                 But on the flip side of it, and this may have to do with the WandaVision expectations … I certainly talked about this a lot during the WandaVision podcast, and I think I was pleasantly surprised. What happens here is this really does feel like we’re making more of a six-hour movie thing, which is typical for streaming but I don’t love on TV and I don’t love in the weekly release format. It’s the sort of thing that I might totally change my mind on watching the second episode because we’ll see what happens.

Justin:              Your mind’s about to change.

Alex:                 We’ll see what happens, but it’s the sort of thing that I feel like, if you’re into the MCU like we are, you jump into this episode, you’re in, you’re happy, you’re good, you’re having a good time. If you’re not sure about the MCU, I think this is the sort of thing you might actually want to wait until the second or third episode so you get more of a chunk and have more of a sense of what it is, unless, of course, you’re really into bank loans and fishing, in which case this is the show for you.

Justin:              [crosstalk 00:07:59].

Pete:                Come on, dude.

Justin:              Yeah.

Pete:                I mean, that’s really what I want. I want to know. Is he going to get bank loans as easy as I can? Because he’s got that star power, and what’s nice to know is that he’s still like me if I went in there. I wouldn’t have my numbers. I mean, the last five years have been a shit show, but-

Justin:              Yeah. You pop into the bank and just ask for a loan sort of whenever you’re passing by, right?

Pete:                Yeah. Exactly. It’s kind of in my route, you know?

Justin:              Hey. You got a loan for your pal Pete?

Pete:                Yeah. Hey. Just checking. Remember that loan I applied for a couple years ago?

Alex:                 Pete, for the last time, banks don’t work like a slot machine. Okay?

Pete:                I’m just going to keep pulling that lever. Hopefully [crosstalk 00:08:36]-

Alex:                 That’s what bank tellers are. You’re pulling their arm.

Pete:                He doesn’t seem cool with it.

Justin:              He’s a one-eyed bandit. That’s the thing. Or one-armed bandit. That’s what it is.

Pete:                I just wanted to say, though, I agree with you a little bit, but also, the action and stuff is kind of stressful. It was a pretty close call a couple of those times, but overall, I agree with what you’re saying, but I do disagree, though, with Justin with … There are fun little things that, because I’m WandaVision trained, I was like “Oh, what does that mean? Okay. Oh, my god. Those hand prints on the mask could be a crossover with Lord of the Rings. That looked very much-“

Alex:                 They’re a bunch of Uruk-hai?

Justin:              Yeah.

Pete:                Yeah. So I was like … You know? Just my mind is trained from WandaVision. So it’s hard to kind of shift into neutral.

Alex:                 Well, I do think-

Justin:              I’m so sorry. You’re saying it was trained by WandaVision? You’ve one mad. [crosstalk 00:09:30].

Pete:                Oh, right. Right. Right.

Alex:                 I mean, that’s part and parcel with the MCU and superhero movies, right? We do look at every frame and every scene for Easter eggs all over the place. WandaVision just took it to the Nth degree, just to an insane amount where there were those Easter eggs in every single frame hidden in little corners. Here, it’s thing like … I mean, I jotted down a couple of things. There weren’t much, but things like, oh, Erin Kellyman, who people probably know or might know as Enfys Nest from the Solo movie, from Solo Star Wars, plays Karli Morgenthau, one of the Flag-Smashers, and the original Flag-Smasher was Karl Morgenthau. That’s not the sort of thing where it’s like “Oh, shit. They put an I on the back of her name.

Pete:                Whoa.

Justin:              What do you think it means?

Alex:                 But it’s like “Oh, yeah. That’s a reference to the comics. That’s cool.”

Justin:              Yeah, but we’re doing a lot of comparison, but this show … The whole opening sequence, the amount aerial … If we want to get into the episode a little bit-

Alex:                 Yes. Let’s please.

Pete:                Can we, please?

Justin:              First off, we start with the shield, and I don’t think we want to diminish this to be like “This is just a dumb movie-“

Pete:                Well, first off, let’s really talk about first off we see him ironing, which is a relaxing thing to do. It seems like he starts his day right.

Alex:                 That’s a reference to Iron Man. Did you know that?

Justin:              A little Easter egg.

Pete:                How did I miss that?

Alex:                 Yes.

Justin:              Easter egg.

Pete:                Right out of the box. Oh, man.

Alex:                 On a similar very Pete-focused nose, did you notice that sweet shield case that Sam had that he put it in?

Justin:              Yeah.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 That’s very cool. I wonder if he got that custom or he went to-

Justin:              Merch.

Pete:                Yeah. It looks like it was custom.

Justin:              I would think so. It’s hard to know what size shield someone has. It’s like-

Alex:                 Hey. Can I get that shield case over there, the one in tan? Not the black one or the red one, please.

Justin:              One shield case fits all. I’m so sorry, but to … It starts with the shield, which I think, to get into some of the beginnings of themes for this series, I think it’s like symbolizing. An object like the shield is this symbol, and Sam treats it with this respect, and he’s like “I can’t bear this. It has the weight of history,” and so he puts it away. He puts it in this museum, and nobody else seems to think of it that way, or at least not the US government here, as we find at the end of the episode, and I really like that.

Justin:              I think the idea of functional symbolism or functional patriotism, what stuff actually means to people versus the way we revere things that start to lose their meaning … That, to me, is what I took out of this first episode, and I think that’s a great theme, and just real quick, I think it’s reflected in the credits. The credits are a smattering of graffiti on these sort of icons, and I think that may be what the credits are getting at, that there’s these iconic things all around the country, all around our world, but the graffiti are the people saying something. They’re the people on the street. They’re putting their ideas out there, and I think the mixing of those ideas is what we’re going to get into in this series.

Alex:                 Yeah. That seems spot-

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 Oh, go ahead, Pete.

Pete:                I was just going to say yeah. I really do like what they’re doing, this setting up of the weight of things, this symbolism. What does that mean? What does it mean to different people taking it for different things? But also, the fact that we picked up right where Falcon left off of like “Yo, man. This ain’t my shield,” or “I feel like I’m not good enough to rock this,” something that’s like he holds such reverence for it … It’s not like he’s not considering it. It such a big thing to him, and it means so much. So I love the fact that that’s where we are with him, and I also like this exploration throughout this episode of symbolism, like with the mask and the graffiti, and I’m glad you pointed that out, Justin.

Alex:                 Well, to that point, what I was going to say is about tearing down the iconography. I think that really ties into the villains as well. I love the idea of the Flag-Smashers, the idea that they’re people who lived through the Blip, thought it was great, and want to go back to that. That’s really fascinating. That sets them up as really good villains, the opposite of what Captain America is supposed to be, whoever Captain America is at the time. We didn’t meet Zemo at all in this episode, but we’ve seen from the teasers that his thing is about tearing down superheroes. So that’s iconography from another angle, and I think you’re right. I think you’re absolutely spot on. That’s exactly what it is. The other thing, of course, is legacy, which is another very obvious theme from Cap passing it down to Sam and Sam saying “No. That’s not me. I’m somebody else,” to Bucky dealing with his own legacy, which I thought was really interesting.

Justin:              Bad legacy.

Alex:                 Yeah. Very bad legacy-

Justin:              [crosstalk 00:14:09] legacy.

Alex:                 … and making friends with an old man because he killed his son. That was super sad.

Pete:                Oh, my god, and the fact that he had to hear it from him, and then also when he was on that day, it’s like it was so clear as day, but how do you do that? How do you say that to somebody? You know what I mean? Oh, unbelievable.

Justin:              Yeah, and I love the way they positioned Falcon and Winter Soldier in two very different places, with Falcon trying to bear the weight of this legacy, and Winter Soldier doing the same thing but from a negative place. So he has to come to terms with his legacy while Falcon has to prove that he has earned what was already given to him, and I think that’s really cool, and the fact that they introduced the new Captain America, the U.S. Agent type character … The end of this episode is the nexus point. This is the dude who feels unbothered by any legacy but also has the legacy in his hands.

Pete:                I was worried we were going to get the kind of … At the end of it, I was like “That better not be fucking Hydra Cap,” because I can’t deal with that. That would just be too much, because they did bring up Hydra, and then it was like there’s this new Cap, and I was like “Please. Please don’t let … I can’t deal with this.”

Alex:                 Well, I mean, I don’t think … You’re talking about, if people haven’t read it, there’s an arc in the comics where Captain America, due to some time travel, I believe Cosmic Cube as well, shenanigans, ends up reliving his whole life but being loyal to Hydra the entire time. Pete hates that arc. I thought it was pretty good, but that’s how we’re different people, I guess.

Pete:                Well, sometimes it’s fun to go places in comic books that you don’t want to go in real life, and sometimes it’s just too much to handle and you don’t like it.

Alex:                 I don’t know if this makes you feel any better. My theory currently right now is that U.S. Agent Captain America is not Hydra, but he is very racist. Do you feel better about that?

Pete:                Oh, wow.

Justin:              Nice.

Pete:                What kind of shit is that?

Alex:                 I’m just wondering.

Pete:                No. I don’t feel better. That’s-

Alex:                 I’m just throwing out a little thought experiment there, Pete.

Pete:                I don’t want it. Oh, my god.

Justin:              Think, Alex, like he’s a bad guy, but just a lower-case-B bad. He’s a bad guy.

Alex:                 Just a terrible guy.

Justin:              He’s not a bad guy.

Alex:                 He’s a terrible guy.

Pete:                Oh, all right. Well, I don’t like where this is going.

Justin:              But let’s into the actual bones of the episode. This aerial opening sequence I thought was just wild. Just in all sorts of ways It feels like it was so hard to do. I love all the flying, all the Batroc going … I assume that’s Batroc, because how many French-speaking villains are there out there? Jumping, not squirrel suiting, out of a chopper, into a chopper, out of that chopper, and then into yet another chopper. This guy … He’s great at leaping.

Alex:                 He is. I was a little disappointed at first that Batroc the Leaper wasn’t doing enough leaping, but then he started leaping places, and I was very happy.

Justin:              So much leaping. Quantum leaping.

Alex:                 By the way, that is Batroc. That’s Georges St‑Pierre, who played him in … Was it the beginning of Winter Soldier? I think it was the beginning of Winter Soldier.

Justin:              Yes.

Alex:                 Yeah, and fought him there.

Pete:                Sure.

Alex:                 There was a little more leaping and kicking and stuff going on there. I did want to mention two things about Batroc while we’re talking about him. I love the fact that he doesn’t have the ridiculous Batroc costume or mustache from the books, but he still has a Batroc-colored jacket. He has a purple jacket with little yellow around it, which I thought was very nice, and it also …

Alex:                 This doesn’t come up at all. This is just mentioning it to mention it, but I was thinking about it during the Batroc stuff. You guys probably remember this one, but there was this Captain America and Batroc one-shot by Kieron Gillen and Renato Arlem, and if you want a great Batroc story, anybody out there, search out this issue, because the whole idea of it is Batroc says “I can’t beat Captain America. I just can’t. That’s not a thing I can do. So what people hire me to do is slow him down. So I say ‘Okay. You pay me a certain amount of money. I’m going to slow him down for five minutes. I’m going to slow him down for 10 minutes while you get away as far as you can and do your thing and he’s distracted fighting me.'” It’s so cool, such a fun one-shot, and if you enjoyed Batroc’s appearance here at the beginning of this series, that’s a good one to check out.

Justin:              Yeah. It’s good. Poor Louie the pilot. He seems Sam playing peekaboo, and he gets killed almost instantly.

Alex:                 Yeah.

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              [crosstalk 00:18:30].

Alex:                 There’s another comic book character that appears here though, and I really liked him in this episode. He’s very different from how he is in the comics, but we met First Lieutenant Joaquín Torres, who’s played by Danny Ramirez in the show. He is a character … I don’t know if this is a spoiler. I kind of think that it may end up being, but he is the new Falcon when Sam Wilson takes over Captain America. He was introduced in Captain America: Sam Wilson #1. I don’t think they’re going to go this route, but in the comics, he has actual bird wings due to a mutation that’s done to him by Hydra. So whatever it is, it’s setting him up as Sam’s Falcon.

Justin:              Sam’s Bucky.

Alex:                 Yeah. Sam’s Bucky.

Justin:              Sam’s Bucky.

Alex:                 Exactly, which I think is kind of great. Did you like the-

Pete:                Yeah. That’s kind of-

Alex:                 … character, Pete? Because he was created by Nick Spencer.

Pete:                I-

Alex:                 I was thinking about how much of a trick to make that, and I decided not much of a trick.

Pete:                Yeah. I like your build up of how important the character is for it, but I do like them together, and just because … You don’t have to like everything that somebody does. You know what I mean? Sometimes writers do amazing things, and sometimes they make choices and you’re just like “I don’t know. Okay.” Yeah. Yeah. You know-

Alex:                 But I do think the actor is good. I enjoyed the actor. I think he’s a fun presence on the show. His action sequence with the Flag-Smashers I thought was cool and tense later in the episode. So I enjoyed him. I was not expecting his character. So that was a pleasant surprise for me.

Justin:              Since Sam is a little more serious than Bucky on the other side of the show, it’s nice to have someone there to lighten it up, and then on the Bucky side, Bucky’s just like … He’s depressed but also like “I don’t know. I’m screwing around here too.”

Pete:                I enjoyed him in the therapy. Even though it’s kind of hard for him, it was kind of fun the way he was playing it, and the back and forth between him and the therapist was very enjoyable.

Alex:                 That was a great sequence too. I mean, the aerial fight was awesome and super long and very MCU and a great way to kick it off, but getting a flash back to Winter Soldier, I thought, was a very nice surprise, and then, like you’re saying, I was surprised at how funny the therapy session was and Bucky’s whole storyline. There was still sadness. There was still some action in there, but the date that he goes on later was cute and funny, and him interacting with Yuri, the old man, was also kind of fun. You don’t expect, going into a Bucky storyline, that you’ll be laughing while you’re watching it, but I did.

Justin:              This guy’s fun.

Alex:                 He is.

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              Underneath that metal arm is a funny bone, I guarantee. That therapist was me, right?

Pete:                Well, she’s been taking a lot of crap from him over the years, and I think she was lashing out at him. She was like “Oh, you think I’m going to go back and forth with you? I’m sick of …” and the whole threatening to write stuff down was just … Oh, that’s fun. That’s real fun.

Justin:              Yeah. I like how tiny the notebook is that Bucky has when he’s crossing his names off, very similar to a lot of standup comedians. So maybe we’re going to see him do an open mic.

Alex:                 Now, do you think Bucky making a list is a reference-

Pete:                And checking it twice?

Alex:                 … to when Captain America made a list? It’s like an Easter egg, right? Remember when he made the list of movies he needed to-

Pete:                Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah, and albums and stuff. Yeah.

Alex:                 Now Bucky’s making a list. I think that’s an Easter egg, and I’m going to go on record saying that.

Justin:              Yeah. I only make lists as a reference to the Marvel movies I love so much.

Alex:                 Me too. Absolutely

Pete:                Well, they say in this … They’re showing that old people make lists. So congratulations, guys.

Alex:                 Wow. I am 106.

Pete:                Yeah.

Justin:              Also, I do love him being so up front with like “I’m 106 years old.” All that stuff was really fun, and Bucky’s storyline really mixes sort of those sweet moments with all the sadness, and I think, until he meets up with Falcon and we get sort of the buddy side, I feel like it’s going to be a lot of grappling with that stuff.

Alex:                 Yeah. Now, what did you think of the whole Sam visiting his sister, fishing boat, loan storyline?

Justin:              I thought it was crazy they slipped into an episode of Netflix’s Outer Banks there for a while-

Alex:                 Just very briefly.

Justin:              … which was fun.

Pete:                Well, New Orleans is a nice touch, especially for Anthony Mackie, who that’s where he’s from. So having that in there is kind of nice, but it is. That’s why I like the layers of dealing with somebody disappearing for five years in the Blip. It’s not just things that happened in old movies. The fact that there’s people still dealing with this stuff is cool.

Justin:              A hundred percent.

Alex:                 When you say old movies, you’re talking about Avengers: Endgame?

Pete:                Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Justin:              Famously, in-

Pete:                It feels so long ago.

Justin:              Yeah. Famously-

Alex:                 I don’t honestly remember. Was that a talkie?

Justin:              Yeah. There was a-

Pete:                One of the first.

Justin:              There was a train coming right to the camera, and then the Blip happened. I agree with you, Pete. Having the Blip have big ramifications is … It feels so comic book in the best way, and it just makes you feel, as a viewer, like “Oh, everything matters. I’m so glad I know what all this is,” and Alex, like you were saying earlier about the Flag-Smashers stuff, that feels like such a great justification for all that.

Justin:              Then here we see the economic ramifications for Sam and his sister going to the bank try to get a loan for their family business, not getting it, because they don’t have credit for five years. It’s just like that feels like something banks would do, and you have this banker being so fan-y towards Sam for him being a superhero. We touch on race here, economics, the struggle of all of those things in America, which again, through Sam and all the symbolic … him passing the shield, all that stuff, it feels like it’s all going to come together in a great theme that is not just like these guys have to fight and get the shield back. It’s like no. We’re dealing with America, in a way, here.

Pete:                Also, I really like the brother-sister tension. You know what I mean? The way that they kind of banter back and forth really feels like a brother-sister relationship. I like how the fact that he’s defensive that he’s been gone, and she had to kind of work through all of it and just want some recognition for that, and he’s so defensive he’s not really giving that to her, and the fact it affects how they banter. I really like that, and I’m excited for how this is all going to kind of unfold and what it’s going to mean for the bigger picture for Sam.

Alex:                 Now, Pete, you mentioned this. Anthony Mackie is from New Orleans. Sam Wilson in the comics is from Harlem, and they actually changed it to New Orleans on the show for Anthony Mackie. He said “Hey. I come from New Orleans. Let’s shoot it down there. What do you think?” and they were like-

Pete:                Yeah. Why not?

Alex:                 … “Sounds great,” and he’s like “And my family works fishing, just like my family,” and they’re like “Sounds great,” and he’s like “And I’m eating some crawfish at one point,” and they’re like “I don’t think we need to do that, specifically, but-“

Pete:                No. They should do that. Oh, my god. Yeah. Are you kidding me?

Alex:                 Well, they haven’t done it yet.

Justin:              He’s like-

Alex:                 We’ll see if it …

Pete:                He’s smart. He’s like “Hey. Listen, I want to go home. I want to visit my family. I want to have some crawfish. So let’s make it all part of the character.” You know what I mean?

Justin:              Then he’s like “I want Jet Wings,” and they’re like “Okay. Okay.”

Alex:                 One little other thing that … Again, it’s not an Easter egg. It’s just part of the show, but in the comics as well, the boat is called Paul and Darlene, and Sam’s parents in the comics are Darlene Jeffries and Paul Wilson. So that’s that reference there. There you go.

Pete:                Nice.

Justin:              Again, Alex, I think these are just regular eggs.

Alex:                 Yes. These are just-

Justin:              They’re not Easter eggs.

Alex:                 … good old scrambled eggs.

Pete:                Nothing wrong with that. Now, let me ask. Is LAF real? Because that’s a horrible name for a villain group.

Alex:                 I think it’s L-A-F. It’s not-

Justin:              L-A-F.

Alex:                 It’s not like the Laff Hut, though that would tie into why Bucky’s keeping that list.

Justin:              Yeah. Exactly.

Alex:                 You’re going after-

Justin:              He’s making a lineup.

Alex:                 I was going after the Laff Hut. You’re going after the Laff Hut?

Justin:              It’s going to be-

Alex:                 They have a three-drink minimum. That’s out of control.

Pete:                If you want to steal … like “Oh, we’re LAF. Look out for us,” it’s like L-A-F? Really, guy? That’s your move? I mean, unless they’re laughing at how ridiculous everything is. I don’t know. It pulled me out for a second. I was like “Is this real? What is going on with this?”

Alex:                 Well, wait until episode two where they introduce The Chuckle Club.

Justin:              Yeah.

Pete:                [crosstalk 00:27:08].

Justin:              Well, it’s like how a lot of people are scared of clowns. Clowns are meant to be fun, but they can be scary.

Alex:                 We’ve kind of broad-stroked through this, but were there any other specific things that jumped out to you, things that you guys liked?

Justin:              I love-

Pete:                I love … Oh, go ahead.

Justin:              I love that-

Alex:                 I love you. Oh, [crosstalk 00:27:27].

Justin:              I love you.

Alex:                 Oh, my god.

Justin:              I love the way at the end of the episode when Sam’s sister is like “You got to watch this,” and it’s the press conference where they’re introducing the new Captain America, and the way they shot this, I thought, was so nice. It’s shots from the press conference, and then you see a close up on Sam’s hands, his fingers closing around his other hands, and you see him just boiling in these very small ways, and not just boiling, but he’s mad. He’s upset. He’s just feeling lost. It was such a nice little sequence that wasn’t an action sequence but still had all these great, tense moments for Sam.

Alex:                 Yeah. I agree, and Pete, I don’t know if you know this. Wyatt Russell, who plays U.S. Agent, AKA the new Captain America … You know who he is? Could you recognize him?

Pete:                No. I couldn’t tell. He had a fucking mask on.

Justin:              Your uncle.

Pete:                What?

Justin:              He’s your uncle.

Alex:                 No. Wyatt Russell is the son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn.

Pete:                Oh, wow.

Alex:                 Yeah.

Pete:                That Wyatt Russell.

Alex:                 Yes. I figured you’d like that.

Pete:                Cool.

Alex:                 You love those people. You love Kurt Russell.

Justin:              And Goldie Hawn.

Alex:                 You love Goldie Hawn.

Pete:                Yes. I do. Overboard is a classic. I mean, come on.

Alex:                 You watched both The Christmas Chronicles.

Pete:                [crosstalk 00:28:39]. Yes. That’s true. Speaking of shouting out other movies, the battleship date moment was real nice and a nice nod to Battleship the movie. I feel like that was a nice, enjoyable moment there, you know?

Alex:                 Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Justin:              Yeah. No. Everybody-

Pete:                Is that an Easter egg? Did I get one?

Alex:                 Yep.

Justin:              That’s not even an egg.

Alex:                 That’s like an apple, maybe.

Justin:              Yeah. That’s an Easter apple.

Pete:                We talked in general about the therapist stuff, but I also really liked the breaking of the rules, and he was like “That should be rule number one if it’s so important.” Yeah. The back and forth there was just a lot of fun.

Alex:                 Yeah. Couple of other things I’ll call out that I just jotted down. Again, like you’re saying, they’re eggs. They’re not Easter eggs, but I feel like a lot of people are going to speculate about the conversation that Falcon and Joaquín have where he says “Hey. I heard that Steve is in a secret base on the Moon looking down at us.” I think that was just a joke, but things that … I immediately was like “Oh, is that a reference to something? Is that a reference to the comics? What’s going on?” because Bucky actually lived on the Moon for a while as the watcher on the wall in the comics. I was like “Are they saying that? Nah. It’s just a joke.”

Justin:              I doubt they’re saying that, but I did think that was weird. That was a weird thing to very specifically bring up, and then Sam sort of said it back to him.

Pete:                Yeah, and then he echoes it. He’s like “Yeah. [crosstalk 00:30:08].”

Justin:              So I don’t know. I think it could be a larger reference to … If we want to start to spin up the old nonsense speculation top, the MCU is moving into space pretty specifically. Maybe there’s something to be said about that.

Alex:                 The other thing, and I couldn’t believe this was a real thing, but on the MCU wiki, there is a page for the Moon. It’s a very long page describing everything that happens on the Moon, but right at the top of the Moon wiki page, there’s a quote from Yo-Yo from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to Phil Coulsin where she says “I always thought you guys had people hiding on the Moon.” So I think this is another case when people are going to look … “Oh, they made an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. reference. They’re bringing them in. Here we go. It’s going to happen.” It’s not going to happen, folks.

Justin:              There were a ton of S.H.I.E.L.D. references. They were like “This shield. The Captain America shield.” Look at all that. It’s great. S.H.I.E.L.D. fans got to be psyched.

Alex:                 The shield fans.

Justin:              Exactly. That should be one fan base.

Alex:                 I think Michael Chiklis is going to show up.

Justin:              Oh, you mean The Thing?

Alex:                 What? Fantastic Four. They’re coming.

Justin:              It’s here. It’s here.

Alex:                 It’s happening.

Pete:                Oh, my god. The Chiklis. I did like seeing the fact that he was upset as I was that somebody else was taking up the mantle of Captain America without kind of checking with him, because it really did feel like, if anybody was going to do it, it would have to be him. So to see, like you said, the tension, I was like “That’s your job. What are you doing just being cool with it right there?” Yeah. There was a lot of cool acting moments that were kind of impressive.

Alex:                 We did touch on it in a jokey way earlier, but I do think it’s actually really important that they had a conversation just solo between Rhodey and Sam at the same time. I don’t think we’ve actually seen that on screen in the MCU before, having two black men having a conversation with each other about something. It comes from a black writer, Malcolm Spellman, and like you were touching on earlier, Justin, they don’t hit it very hard, but I think, as we go on, a lot of this series is going to start to be around race more and more as we get into it.

Justin:              I agree, and I’m excited to see the MCU go there. Let’s talk about some real stuff, and I think they’re doing a good job of setting the stage to actually get into real issues alongside really cool fights.

Alex:                 Awesome. Can’t wait. Before we wrap up here, what is on your Vision Board for the next episode? That’s a leftover from our WandaVision days, but also the podcast-

Justin:              It’s not leftover. We planned it this way.

Alex:                 Yeah. Exactly, but what are you looking forward to the next episode? What’s on your Vision Board, Pete?

Pete:                Well, I’m just wondering, because I enjoy when the little thing pops out of his jet pack there-

Alex:                 Redwing.

Justin:              Redwing.

Pete:                … but I’m just … Yeah. I’m just wondering if he could set it for maim instead of murder, because that robot was taking people out like crazy. I was like “Oh, shit. This show’s just straight up murdering people right off the batt.” So it’ll be interesting to see if maybe they dial that back now that they’ve gotten our attention a little bit or how it kind of unfolds.

Justin:              Do you think that Sam’s worried that he’s sort of training his replacement with Redwing, like Redwing’s just going to start to be Falcon because-

Pete:                Yeah. I think Redwing is like “Yo. I think this is my job.”

Alex:                 It’s like-

Justin:              When the robots just take our jobs.

Alex:                 It’s like I always say. Redwing gives you bulls.

Pete:                Oh, wow.

Alex:                 That too much?

Pete:                Wow.

Justin:              You sound like a broken computer. I think you might have been replaced.

Alex:                 I think a screw popped out of my head when I said that.

Pete:                You got to turn down your dad jokes a little bit. I think it’s a little high.

Alex:                 Right. I got to adjust that, Pete.

Justin:              Dadbot 2000.

Alex:                 Justin, what about you? What’s on your Vision Board?

Justin:              I want to see the guys get together. I want to put the ampersand in Falcon and Winter Soldier and see them come together perhaps over this new Cap news.

Alex:                 I’m looking forward to Zemo. That was the big thing obviously left off the board completely. I love Zemo. He’s one of my favorite villains.

Pete:                Oh, my god.

Alex:                 I thought he was so good in Civil War as well.

Pete:                You’ve got the color purple in this. You got a little purple.

Alex:                 Yep. Yeah. My favorite movie. My favorite Oprah movie as well.

Pete:                Oh, my god.

Justin:              Wow.

Pete:                Wow.

Alex:                 But-

Justin:              You do an Oprah film festival every couple nights, right?

Alex:                 Every couple of nights without fail. Absolutely. Watch through her entire filmography. No. I love Zemo. I think he’s a great villain, and I’m excited to see what’s going to happen. We’ve already set up these great villains with the Flag-Smashers. How is Zemo going to enter in there? Are we going to have a villain team-up? We set up the heroes. Now we set up a little bit of the conflict. It’s only going to get more complicated from here, and that’s very cool.

Justin:              Yeah, and obviously in episode six when Al Pacino shows up as Mephisto would be … That is going to be fun.

Alex:                 I cannot wait. The Thing, played by Michael Chiklis, is going to kill him.

Justin:              Putting on the old rock suit.

Alex:                 I still have it in my closet. Anyway, if you want to support this podcast, patreon.com/comicbookclub. Also, we do a live show every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM to Crowdcast and YouTube. Come hang out. We would love to chat with you about Falcon and the Winter Soldier. iTunes, Android, Spotify, Stitcher, or the app of your choice to subscribe and listen to the show. Also, on iTunes in particular, if you could rate us and leave a comment, that would be much appreciated. That helps us out quite a bit. Comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and more. MarvelVisionPod on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Until next time, remember, Redwing gives you bulls.

Pete:                Oh, boy.

Alex:                 Yep. Spring. [crosstalk 00:35:37].

Justin:              Keep your eyes out for those Easter apples, you dad robots.

Pete:                You doubled down on it.

The post MarvelVision: The Falcon And The Winter Soldier – Episode 1 – “New World Order” appeared first on Comic Book Club.

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