The Sam and Bucky Show: Finale

[owlmoose]

Mostly great, with one significant complaint and a couple of more minor ones.

We tend to watch TV with subtitles on these days, and -- for this episode only -- when Sam was in uniform, the subtitles referred to him as Captain America. I loved that. I loved the title change at the end. Some other things I enjoyed: the helicopter chase, Bucky trying to talk Karli down, Bucky making amends, everything about Sam and Isaiah (no matter how unlikely it seems to me that the Smithsonian would put up a museum exhibit about a living American citizen without his permission - EDIT: forests_of_fire reminded me that Isaiah was declared dead to facilitate his escape from prison, so I officially withdraw this objection), everything about the BBQ scene at the end. Sam and Bucky are a team for real now, and it's pretty great.

I do not buy Sharon's heel-face turn at all. They needed to build up to that a lot more, and give us much better reason than "Sharon felt abandoned by the team". Not to mention that I also find it highly unlikely that neither Steve nor Fury would have tracked her down after the events of Civil War and brought her back into the fold. I mean, Steve broke Sam (and presumably Wanda, maybe some of the others) out of the Raft! You're asking me to believe that he then left Sharon to rot in Madripoor? Nope, sorry, can't do it. It's a characterization fail at so many different points that I can't really accept where it ended up: Sharon as an arms dealer mole in the service of the US government. That's a story they could tell, sure, but they haven't done the work to tell it.

I also wish that Walker had required a little more image rehabilitation, but I don't know much about U.S. Agent; maybe he's not really in the public eye. I'm a little more along for the ride on that one, so we'll see where it goes, and if he ever even turns up again.

Still, I can forgive these things for a show that had so much to say about power and privilege and who gets to be a hero. Especially when part of the answer is that Sam gets to be a hero. It's being reported that showrunner and creator Malcolm Spellman is working on a new Captain America movie, and I for one am excited to see it.

Comments

[worlds_of_smoke]

no matter how unlikely it seems to me that the Smithsonian would put up a museum exhibit about a living American citizen without his permission.

Isaiah said that the woman who got him out of jail wrote up paperwork to say that he died. So as far as the US government knows, Isaiah Bradley is dead.

I do not buy Sharon's heel-face turn at all.

GODS. A THOUSAND TIMES THIS. Biggest pile of out-of-character BS since Cap abandoned Bucky to decades of torture just to live a life with Peggy. (In my headcanon something happened and Cap got stuck.)

I don't know much about U.S. Agent; maybe he's not really in the public eye.

Well, Val is Madame Hydra in the comics. It hasn't been confirmed that she's Madame Hydra in the MCU -- they just share the same name. But I doubt that Feige allowed the writers to pick that name for no good reason. So I'm pretty sure she's Madame Hydra.

I think it's pretty clear that Walker's working with (if not for) Val now. If that's the case, I think there's no way Walker's going to be doing shit in the public eye. I think, at the very most, he'll be doing governmental shadow ops. With Val's potential link to Hydra, I think it'd be more likely that he's working for Hydra now, even if Val doesn't clue him into that fact until she corrupts him enough that he's a-okay with working for literal Nazis. I'm not sure he's quite there yet, but he doesn't have far to go.

[owlmoose]

Thanks for the reminder that Isaiah is officially dead! I'd totally forgotten that part of his story. I've edited my post accordingly.

Well, Val is Madame Hydra in the comics. It hasn't been confirmed that she's Madame Hydra in the MCU -- they just share the same name. But I doubt that Feige allowed the writers to pick that name for no good reason. So I'm pretty sure she's Madame Hydra.

I had figured that she was a comics canon character but didn't know who, so that's good to know. (The only Marvel Val I know is Val Cooper, a government agent with ties to the X-Men.) Given HYDRA's history in the MCU, it seems likely that there are still government connections there, just not overt ones. I suppose we'll find out eventually!

[worlds_of_smoke]

haha. First thing I did after I watched her introductory episode was google Val's name to figure out who the fuck she was. XD I'm pretty sure that Hydra got their tentacles in deep enough that having their SHIELD cover blown isn't enough to get rid of them. But Val's also into organized crime, so there's that angle too.

[chase_acow]

Sharon is a problem. With what they gave us, there's no amount of speculation on our part that can be proved right at any point before they decide to tell us. It's upsetting. Like the moment she used a chemical attack on that dude in the van, I was done. Someone else pointed out, why would she lead them to the guy that made her serum if she needed the serum to cement her place as the Power Broker? So many things make no sense.

I really hope we get a season 2 with all these characters to fix some of these plot holes.

[grammarwoman]

I had the exact same problem with Sharon's storyline that you did, for the exact same reasons. I have to hope that she's: a) brainwashed, b) a Skrull, c) someone else entirely behind another chameleon mask, or d) being set up for a bigger/better storyline, because what we got was garbage.

I enjoyed the rest of it, even if Sam's speech to the GRC was perhaps a touch hokey, but I love that he prefers to de-escalate and solve problems with his words. Go Sam!