The Ringer-Verse - 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier' Episode 1 Instant Reactions

Episode Date: March 19, 2021

Van Lathan is joined by Charles Holmes to discuss their instant reactions (with spoilers) to the premiere episode of 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.' They discuss how far these characters have come in the MCU and then highlight the big reveals and questions after Episode 1. Plus, their thoughts on where the series could go and how the MCU could pass on the mantle of Captain America. You can follow 'The Ringer-Verse' on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Hosts: Van Lathan Guest: Charles Holmes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you are listening to the sound of my voice, not on earth anymore, you're officially in the ringer verse. We told you that we were doing it and we are officially doing it now. Now, we're here on the Friday episode, which is an instant reaction episode. Like I told you guys, I'm impulsive. And we're going to be talking about our instant knee-jerk snap judgment reactions to the Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Now, there's going to be another show hosted by the equally as nerdy, Mallory Rubin, that is going to get deeper into the actual meat of the show, theories, parsing it apart, doing the whole deep dive.

That's going to come on Tuesday. But for right now, me, my friend Charles Holmes here, host of the Ringer Music Show. Of course, you know me, Van Laithen. Of course you know me. I just pull a, don't you know who I am? That's not what I'm in. That was rough. You introed me and then you like, but you don't know what.

I'm like, man, God damn. You don't have to son me like that. Oh, my bad. Oh, some high alerting with Van Lathen and Rachel Lindsay. I am super excited because this is the first Disney Plus Marvel launch or release, should I say, after Wanda Vision. And the standard is set pretty high, if you ask me. But before we get into the show itself.

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Tell me a little bit about before you even saw the initial episode here, where you felt like Bucky and Sam's characters were going into this post-in-game. What are the questions you had? What are the thoughts that were on your mind about both of these guys? I think the bar was set high because, in my opinion, if we're talking about the number one MCU movie of all time, it has to be Captain America Winter Soldier. So, like, I even think the Captain America franchise is arguably the best

franchise in the whole MCU. We're talking like... And the whole MCU, not just solo franchise, in the whole MCU. I just think, let's just do solo. Because, like, competing against maybe Guardians or Avengers is a little bit. But, like, if we're going up against Thor,

Iron Man, I think Captain America is still... You couldn't be more right. I was this, I would say Wanda Vision, I was a little eh on in terms of just excitement. But, like, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, because I love those characters, because we had seen them in Winter Soldier, Civil War,

everything, I'm like, man, they have to pull this off. And I think, like, correct me if I'm wrong then, but this was supposed to be the first show out the gate. So this is the one that they really believed in to kick off this whole Disney Plus era. So I was just like, ahead of it, I'm like, man, if this ain't like four out of five stars,

five out of five stars, Disney and Marvel are going to have a problem. It was the most natural sequel to what we saw in endgame because it was an immediate continuation of the story. Now, obviously, you got Spider-Man Far From Home, which came after endgame. But in terms of that actually took Peter somewhere else. But in terms of a direct sort of this happened and now this happened, this movie was probably, this show, shall I say,

is probably more the direct, okay, after the events of this, now you have to see where these guys go in terms of putting their worlds back together. I will say this, though. I thought that they actually had. had the most to prove with this series. Talk about it. Because with Wanda and Vision, in terms of their place in the Avengers, I felt like they had a lot more going on than both Sam and Buck, at least of late, right? Okay.

Those two guys did not figure very prominently into either Infinity War or in game. You know, Bucky is hardly in Infinity War at all until the end. He's barely in the movie. So it was almost jogging our memory to come back to those characters. Meanwhile, Wanda Vision, they had some really dramatic moments, super dramatic moments, like, in those films. And I was interested to see kind of what they were going to do with these two guys. I really was. Then I have to ask you, what did you feel about?

Let's go, let's rewind to end game. What do you feel about where they left, Bucky and Sam? that's really where the movie kind of ends with old cap handing over the shield to Falcon. And obviously, if you read comics, you know there's so many comic books setting up the who is taking on the Captain American mantle. So what were your thoughts when you were in the theaters seeing that play out? Well, the first thing I thought was, you know, you don't want to give this man like two months of training to figure out how to become Captain America because he never. even, it seemed, I'm not gonna lie, as much, it seemed a bit premature. It seemed like, okay, here's the shield, you're now Captain America.

It really seemed like Steve ever set Sam up to be that. It didn't really seem like that at all. I mean, we've seen the evolution of Sam's character since we're in a soldier, but not to any degree that it really made you believe that he could go and then be Captain America. Oh, I was surprised in the theater. I was just like, he didn't give it to. Bucky, because at least, like, we had seen Bucky's evolution over those three

Cap movies where I loved Anthony Mackey in all of them, but he did not have the most emotionally meaty, like, substantive, like, things to say. He was like, he was the sidekick. He was, like, saying witty banter, whereas, like, Bucky, he went through a whole emotional journey. So when, like, Cap was like, all right, Sam, is your turn? I was like, I was like, all right, how they can pull this off? Man, let's tell the man how to throw it. Like, what's going on? Like, you, he's just been kind of, he literally has been taking orders from Cap for this entire time.

It didn't seem like he was being groomed to become the next Captain America. Now, okay, look. So that's our initial thoughts. Here's the, going into this, I got to let you guys know something. Mallory's show on Tuesday is going to get to all your mailback questions. It's going to be a deep dive show. It's going to be more of a probably holistic reactive show, you know? Things will be out then.

You'll know them. This show, though, there's going to be some spoilers in case you haven't seen it yet. We're the Midnight Boys. We're boom, boom. Listening to this stuff, watching this stuff,

reacting to this stuff. So from here on out, if you haven't seen the episode, there are going to be some spoilers. Just got to let you know that. Now, let's get into the premiere episode of the Falcon and the Winter Soldier for Disney Plus.

It picks up, Following the events of endgame, you have Sam, big huge action piece with Sam Wilson, which is interesting. Even that was interesting to me. You never really got to see Falcon doing all of this ass kicking on his own. He's normally an assist character, like a Marvel versus Capcom, too. Just bring a man real quick, do his thing, gets back out of the screen. But it was easy, it was interesting to see him on point. And we had a cameo from one of our favorite baddies from Captain American.

America Winter Soldier. Backchalk the Leaper was back. Ooh, deep cut, deep cut, Captain America villain. Love to see it. They got George St. Pierre back out there to do his same thing. And he escaped once again. So we might see him, we might see him again. From there it goes, we get into Sam's home life. We see that he is now reconnected with a sister who is having problems, deciding whether or not to keep a boat that is in the family. You get some real backstory on who Sam Wilson is here. and sort of the things that exist outside of him being capped sidekick. From then, we're dealing with Buck.

Buck is exactly where you'd expect him to be. If Hydra had implanted all types of murderous thoughts in your minds for generations, then you might be seeing a psychiatrist too, which is exactly what it is that he's doing. He is trying to figure out how to readjust into a world that really, to be honest with you, he played a huge part in its dysfunction. You see him going back and reliving some of the heinous, terrible things that he does that he had done,

things that will go on to kind of play themselves out. And the ramifications of those things, shall I say, as the episode continues. From there, what you really get is sort of the seeds of what this story is going to be about, kind of turn up. One thing that I didn't mention before is Sam Wilson actually refused the mantis. of Captain America. He did, he did. Which is a huge thing that happens early on.

Steve gave him the shield, and you see him talking to James Rhodes, where he donated the shield to the Smithsonian. He didn't even keep it. He wants to give it to the Smithsonian, and he wants to put Caps of legacy up in the museum.

And from then on, you sort of kind of start to see what the villains of the show are going to be, although we know there's some big bads coming. You start to see some of the flag smashers doing their thing, And the show ends with somebody else who, if you're a comic fan,

you know exactly who this person is, taking up the mantle of Captain America. That is a quick recap. Charles, did I miss anything? The biggest thing, my favorite, you miss my man, Bucky getting out there, getting out there in the world, going on Tinder. You know what I'm saying?

After 106 years, he's back out on the day and scene. He's having a little bit of trouble. What did you think? I think it's going to be tough. I mean, what do you want? I think it's going to be tough. I think Bucky's got a challenge to be out there. Number one, there's not a lot of stuff he doesn't know.

And number two, he's got a check or pass. I mean, a guy like Bucky is just waiting to be canceled. Like, they're going to cancel. But he's got a lot of red in his ledger. I was more so wondering about like his DM sliding game. You know, does, because I was looking at kind of how he was talking to this, to this fair lady. And I'm like, man, he's not ready for these. this DM like.

He's definitely not ready for it. He showed up with flowers. What's wrong with showing up with flowers, man? Wait, what's wrong with that? Yeah, what's wrong with showing up with flowers? Bro, it's not 1950. We ain't doing that. I did not devote my life to listen

into as many future mixtapes as I did to be bringing no flowers on the first state. Oh my God. So now you just, here it is. First of all, think about how far he's come, though. He's shown up with flowers to a date. He was a homicidal maniac like two or three movies ago. That is a huge, huge deal.

Yeah, let's give it up for Bucky. Let's give it up for Bucky. He's changed a lot. He's changed a lot. So your overall thoughts on the episode itself, you watch it, you thought what? Loved it. Loved it. You know, word on the street, on the ringer street is I'm the biggest

hater on the site side. You know, people get at me from being a little bit of a negative Nancy. But they pulled it off. They pulled it off. I was a little bit iffy on Wanda Vision, but between the opening action sequence, between them giving us a day in the life of Sam and Bucky, what is there to hate?

What is there to hate about this show? They did everything that they needed to do. They took what they could never do in the movies. They could have never had this type of episode in the movies where you're getting to see the characters and their families and their life and their struggles, and they pulled it off. So I really want to hear why you're being such a hater

and you're being such a downer on this episode. Wow, you jumped to it before I even got a chance to tell the people. Sorry, I was getting some texts from our boy, our producer TD, saying, you know, be ready for Van. Well, here's the thing. Here's the thing. I was not as impressed with the opening action sequence as you were. I think the opening action sequence to me is indicative of the challenge that Marvel is going to have with Sam Wilson's character. They really have used Sam Wilson's character over the course of the MCU

to basically get his ass kicked by a bunch of different people. Ant Man kicked his ass. Rumbleau kicked his ass. Bucky kicked his ass. Bucky kicked his ass. So wherever you see him, you really see him as really a complimentary guy. Even when James Rhodes lost his legs, it's like they would even let Sam have a cool moment. thin when he was when he was crippled.

Remember, Vision shoots a beam. By the way, Vision, that seemed like a kill shot there, dog. Like Vision, like, Vision, everybody was pulling their punch and Vision's like, let me use the Monsone and take somebody out of the sky. He's going for Sam, right? He's going for Sam, who doesn't have armor on, by the way. He has a suit some wings. He doesn't have, he's not an iron arm, owner.

And Sam, in a cool moment, flips out of the way. And then that beam hits Rody, Rody, and then Rody falls. then he is injured. Even in that moment right there, what happens at the end of that scene? Sam, who was incredibly agile to get out of the way, comes down, goes, I'm sorry, scene ends with Iron Man,

repulsor blasting him out of frame. Like, with him taking the L. So having a character that took Ls all throughout the MCU, now you have to believe that he's going to win some fights, I feel like even in that joint right there, the fact that he saved the guy, was great, but it still didn't seem like it was amazing or very much

fun to watch Sam Wilson in combat. Let me push you on this a bit. Name me a MCU character that's not named Black Panther, a black character who they have served well throughout the history of the MCU or anybody connected to Wakanda. That question makes no sense, Charles.

Every black character in the MCU has been a sidekick. I know, but you just said take away Black Panther or everybody in Wakanda. Well, then you're, you can't, you can't, you say, okay, that's like saying, take away LeBron James and tell me what the Lakers have. What do you, like, what do you mean? No, see, you're dodging.

You're dodging. I'm not dodging. We got war. We got War Machine. We just watched Wanda Vision. So we saw Monica. She was just the sidekick. She took the bullets for the little white kids.

What do you mean? She was a sidekick. She literally took bullets for the little white kids. They just introduced her character. They've done this to a lot of people. the whole time. To me, the way they introduce these characters is typical. Like they do the, besides the big guys, the OG Avengers that got origin stories.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Besides the OG Avengers that got origin stories, like single origin stories. The thing is, they introduce these characters much in the same way that they introduced comic book characters in the books. Like the Avengers comic was actually used as, it was used as a breeding ground for new comic book characters. You give them a small little thing. See, people like them.

then you give them their own thing. All of these characters we're talking about, by the way, Armour Wars is coming out for a war machine. Sam's finally get, but what I'm talking about more is this. I'm talking about, has enough legwork been done to make Sam Wilson in and of himself?

And by the way, by the way, even in this right now, this is not the Sam Wilson story by itself. This is Sam and somebody else. Has there been, forget about whether or not he's black or not. Have they done enough to make us care about Sam Wilson's story? which is going to be the challenge here.

I'm not saying that they can't do it. They do everything else. They almost never miss. But the challenge here is going to be taking the character that was kind of inserted for the comic relief that would drop the one-liners and then building something out for him that makes us care about his adventures.

And I think that in the first episode, even though it was a good first episode, I saw some of those struggles represented on the screen. Did you care, let me ask you question, do you care about Sam Wilson's story, the backstory with him and his family in the boat? Did you care about that?

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I'll tell you why. So I came in and I do agree. I will agree that his character was not served that well. I actually think Anthony Mackie, like, for what he was given throughout all those movies, did a good job in terms of, like, charisma

and like doing as much as he could. He has, like, on the left or like when he's fighting Spider-Man, those are some of the funniest moments in all of those movies. Now, watching the first episode after, they did some very smart things. Originally, the Sam Wilson characters from Harlem in the comic books, and immediately taking him and putting him in the South, giving him a family, giving him a life. I was just like, all right, bet now he's already off jump. He's a more three-dimensional character. I can, I understand him.

I understand a little bit of what's driving him. Even the story beat of him giving up the shield to me was very, very smart. Because, like, if there was any, like, you know, you know in history what they do to black men that are symbols. And if I'm Sam Wilson, I'm like, man, I really don't know if I'm trying to take this shield up right now. Like, see, that was one of the things that I connected with the lease. Nah, it's my time to be Captain America. Yo, it's like, you're thinking about it from, you're thinking about it from the nerd angle. You know what I'm saying?

You're thinking about it from a, like, man, like, I've always wanted to be Spider-Man. Or if I've always wanted to be Batman, but if, like, we're taking, like, the real world implications of it, do you see what they did to Malcolm? You see what they did to Colin Kaepernick? Do you, like, let's be real? Charles, and Avengers end game, Falcon flew through the air and stabbed one of the outriders with his wings and killed him. I think that he's beyond.

He's fought intergalactic foes. He's been all over. I can't believe that there's any realm where Sam is thinking, I don't want to go out like Colin Kaepernick. Stop, no, bro. You are, no, no. Like, this is like, because, like, as a writer, like, even I was like, man, there is no, there is no way that after Steve gives him this shield,

that Sam, like, all of a sudden is going to be like, uh-huh, uh-huh, I'm going to, I'm going to be running around and my name's going to be Captain America. Like, for real, like, even the racial implications of you, a black man running around in a flag and defending a racist country. Wait, he got to unpack that shit. He needs to go to therapy before he puts us on. That makes no sense, though, because he's been running around behind Captain America for the last six years.

So why would you want, well, hold on. Stop. Why would you want to, I think this is interesting? Why would he be okay with being a sidekick to the guy, but not okay with being the guy? God. Doesn't make any sense. Like, here's the thing. And if we look, even at the comic books, the minute that Sam makes any type of mistake, you know,

it's all over the news. This is why you can't have a black, a black person in the Captain America costume. You got Fox News devoting their entire network lineup to Captain America. Like, he has to take some time. He has to get in a zone. Like, even Barack Obama. They just didn't let him go into the White House. He had to have a whole campaign, okay? People had to believe in the hope, all right?

You got to sell the American people on the hope. You're wilding right now. You're wilding. When I tell you, when I tell you, you're whaling, you're wilding. So Sam Wilson goes around the world, fighting with Captain America, taking orders from Cap, being Cap's guy, fighting in the name of all of these things, and also remember something else about Sam. Sam is a patriot.

He served. So his relationship to America is one of honor and duty and sacrifice. Yes. And that to me is what the mantle of Captain America really means. It's America's number one soldier. Now, we could parse through the political implications of that, and everybody, I'm sure, has their own opinion. But I know that Sam Wilson believes it.

I know that he thinks it's a big deal because we've seen it in action. My thing is it is not so much about whether or not he would want the mantle because he has some sort of political disagreement with it. My thing is, would he want the mantle because he felt like he was ready for it?

And the fact that he gave it back to me makes a lot of sense. It makes sense that he wouldn't think he was ready, but it wouldn't make sense, it doesn't make sense that he doesn't want to go out there and achieve even more. That's what, that's what, that's what I can't.

I think he wants to be Captain America. And even you said, like, by the end to end game, like, Captain America hasn't even taught this man how to throw the shield? So I do think there's just trepidation of, like, how do I not only be Captain America? How do I fill Steve Rogers' shoes? He comes from, quote, unquote, the greatest generation.

So I got that. It's not that, like, I want Falcon to end up in the suit. But it makes sense to me, he's like, man, like, how do I live up to this man who was fighting? Hitler. That's some big boots to fill. I know. I know. I get it. But what I'm saying is

he fought Thanos. And I'm like he fought Thanos and he's out there. And by the way, he didn't, he did not fight thanos. Let's not, let's not rewrite his thing. He fought. He fought the outrides. But here's the thing. Steve also asked him to do it.

So if his thing, if I'm, if if you know the group text that I would have been on like with my homies, the minute that I get the shit, I'd have been like, yo, bro, guess what? Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, y'all know who Captain America is? And they'd have been like, Steve Rogers. I'd be like, nah, dog.

And I would have sent it back with a picture of me holding the shield. And then, you know what I mean? I'd have had to, I'd have literally, if I was Sam Wilson, I'd have bought out Poppy out here in LA. I've been at the club. I'd have had made entertainment throw a big, Sam Wilson is Steve Rogers party. Everybody come in, wear your red, white, and blue.

I'll be up there behind the booth with the chill. You know what I'm saying? No, you're a better man than me. I would have looked Steve, I would have looked Steve dead in his old man, white eyes, and I'd be like, hell no, bro. No, man. Take this shield back.

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All right, let's talk about where Bucky is. Were there any unanswered questions that you had about Bucky Barnes after end game? Oh, yeah, there were tons. I think what I wanted to know is we got all of his winter soldier journey of him, like, being brainwashed, cap saving him, going to Wakanda, but we never really got a nice bow on him,

on him just being a regular person. And that's, I think, one of the really good things about this episode is we got to see what it's like for a guy who's over a hundred to step back in modern, like, modern times. And the funniest stuff is just seeing Bucky have to go on a date, but also make, not funny, is make amends for all of these people he killed. Did you think his character was served in this episode?

Yes. So if you're a comic book fan, you kind of know how these things go. I always wondered about this and how they were going to reconcile this with his character in particular. If you're a comic book fan, you know that one moment Magneto is, you know, on Asteroid and with the Acolytes, doing everything that he can to subverse humanity. The next moment Magneto is in the X-Man, the leader of the X-Man, you know. So one moment, White Queen is completely out there being a member of the Hellfire Club and all that. The next moment, White Queen is running Xavier's school.

So these characters, their motivations and their interests, some of them, wax and Wayne over time. Like they come and they go in terms of what it is that they believe. And they change and they evolve. And it doesn't matter what they've done before. For a lot of them, they're accepted when they decide that they want to do good, right? We've seen this happen before. But with Buck, he was such a murderous killer in Winter Soldier, right? And the only person in that movie, almost annoyingly so at times, that was completely trying to, like, relate to him was, you know, Captain American.

And that happens in Civil War when he loses it again. And so seeing him without that rudder, which is what Steve Rogers was, was going to be interesting. No Steve Rogers in this. So the guy who was making everything better, the guy who was giving orders to Sam and making everything better for Buck is not around. What do those two guys' worlds look like without Steve?

That's another thing. Steve loves Buck. That's his friend. You might think that he'd have stuck around for a couple months after endgame to try to help reintegrate this man into society. Would you go let him be happy in this alternate universe with his wife?

I know. I'm just saying, but no, but I am on a huge, I think it's interesting. I'm more interested in Sam's story on a hero level, and I'm more interested in Buck's story on a human level because even, even Steve didn't have all of these things that he had to make amends for. He just had missed a lot. Buck has missed a lot, and he's haunted and haunted characters always make for good shows. Wait, so I have to ask you really quick, so we don't belabor Bucky, but.

me personally as a comic reader, I loved Bucky as Captain America more than I loved Sam Wilson, Edrew Baker, arguably the number one Captain America comic book writer ever. Do you think there's a chance we'll see Bucky in the Captain America costume by the end of it?

Why I have two Captain Americas? Because to me, this could have easily just been the Falcon and they put the Winter Soldier for a reason. So do you think there's any way we end up with two Captain Americas by the end of this? I don't know. I think Captain Americas are like quarterbacks. If you have two Captain Americas, then really you have no Captain America.

If you have two quarterbacks, really you don't have any quarterback, right? So I think somebody's got to have the mantle. Here's the thing. I'm really interested in one question from this. Mantle making. Can the MCU get into mantle making? Because remember, all of these different things are mantles. Iron Man is a mantle.

The Black Panther is a mantle. Captain America is a mantle. But still, though, for true fans of these things, no one is Iron Man except for Tony Stark. No one is Black Panther except for Tachala. I know that Shuri had a long run as Black Panther, and I may remain Black Panther right now if I'm, if I'm, but Black Panther still is connected to Tchala.

And for most people, Captain America is Steve Rogers. Now, those people are the people that don't have, Like those people are the people that read these issue and issue out in the comic books. The question is, can the MCU convincingly make either Bucky or Sam Captain America and have people really believe

that that person is fit to lead the Avengers? I was in the movie theater crying over into the Spider-Verse when Miles Morales becomes Spider-Man. Crying, Miles Morales is my Spider-Man now. Like, if Sony can do that with a Spider-Man movie, I have the utmost faith in Marvel that we will,

We want to see Reevee Williams as the new, as the new Iron Heart or Iron Woman or whatever they call her. We're going to believe that Sherry can become Black Panther. Come on, man, you got to give Feigey and Crew a little bit more credit than that. Oh, I'm not giving them credit. I'm not giving them credit. I'm asking the question. I think it's a fair question to ask.

You know, you spent 10 years with a character. You spent 11 years with a character. And you've seen the growth. You see all of this stuff. And you just wonder if they can do it. And like I said, it's hard to do even in the comic books. But we'll see. And I think those are the questions that I have when it deals with Bucky's character.

Can he become a standalone character in here? I think they're doing that. I have that question with both of them. I believe in them. You know, if the wire can switch up, you know what I'm saying? And make us care, you know, Friday night lights can do it. The MCU can do it. So let me ask you this.

What was the biggest revelation that you had from this episode? There are a couple of things that were gone out there. Also, you know, some of the villains, the seeds were planted. We saw an enhanced out there that was, we saw the flash smashers out there, and they looked enhanced, kid got beat up. But we're not to the big bads of this. Beyond that, what was the biggest revelation you took away from this episode? Biggest revelation to me is the bank loan scene.

They ask a question that the MCU has never asked. I agree. This is my saying, we have the same answer here. Go ahead. When they introduced Spider-Man, what do we know about Spider-Men throughout all the comics, all the movies. He's dead, bro. They totally jumped that.

They're like, nah, he's an intern for Tony Stark. He got all this high tech, boom. We had never, nobody had ever asked, and that's what was weird. Like, all of those other movies were, like, about, like, the economics of being a superhero. So part of me as a black man watching it, I was like, damn, we really, we don't got, rest in peace, we don't have our Black Panther anymore. Rest and peace, Chabotovos. The first, the first black African-American superhero,

that they got in the MCU, we're gonna show him trying to take a load. I was, it was an interesting scene. I had issues with it, and I'm still trying to wring with that with you. You are so hung up.

You are so, you are making, you're making me feel like I'm Chris Harrison or something like that. You are like, you are so hung up. You think it was a black thing that he was asking for the load?

He needs a loan. No, no, no. I was thinking that part of his story being like, all right, this is what a black, what happens when a black man gets a load. I'm like, damn, I know this.

Like, couldn't we save that for Peter Parker? Like, go back to him flying all over. Like, let's go back to him, like, defeating Hydra agents. Like, damn. What's going on? You know, but, like, this is my thing. I had that same scene as a big revelation, but for different reasons. Okay. A lot of the other things in this particular episode weren't really revelations. Obviously, somebody else took up the mantle of Captain America at the end.

We know who that guy is. We know who that guy is going to be. U.S. agent, you know. as far as Bucky's struggling, Bucky readjusting to life. We saw that a lot. I just want to make sure that we cover this. You see how Buck is trying to

sort of reintroduce himself to society, society to him. You know, he has a friend that he made, an older Asian man, and there are some skeletons there. Bucky just can't seem to outrun his past. He's trying, he's trying in every single way to be a modern man

with sort of the ancient demons that he has. But the reason why I thought the revelation, the bank loan scene was also the same thing is because I look at that scene as this. I know that people become Avengers because they want to be Avengers, right? They want to help, they have special skills, they have special abilities,

they want to be an Avenger. I'll be honest with you. If I fight intergalactic enemies and go all over the world doing this, I'm not asking nobody for no loans, okay? I'm going to say, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm going to be honest with you. And I bet he could.

I bet he could, but maybe he doesn't want to. Maybe he's too proud. Man, you are not the Falcon. Every single time we go back, it's like if I was the Falcon, you ain't the Falcon, man. I'm going to be real with you. Stark Industries. Who is this?

Oh, hi. It's me, Sam Wilson. Put me through to Pepper Potts now. Like, put Pepper on the phone. Oh, hey, Pepper. Sam. You know, I'm down here. My sister got this.

busted-ass boat. And I hope you remember that I fought aliens about two months ago. I fought aliens about two months ago. And I'm wondering if you can maybe help us out. Because remember, you're the world's leading, leading tech company. And we are probably only need about $50,000. I'm not asking you to build the Avengers compound down here in Tuscaloosa or wherever it is. I'm not asking you to come down here and build a high school or do any of that stuff. I'm saying for what it costs for a half of a microchip inside of Ironman's suit, we just need to save the ball. I want to ask again, I think, to be honest with you, that makes a lot of sense.

That to me, like if you need the long- Damn, Sam is proud. We know this. Falcon is a proud. He's proud, bro. He's proud. He's a very proud guy. But what I'm saying is I think he's earned that.

He has. I'm not arguing that. He has. But part of his character is he doesn't want to ask because we're also, he's a soldier. We know he's a soldier. So part of it feels like it's his duty to protect America. It's his duty to protect the planet. So that scene, it rings true to me.

Like I'm not calling up Pepper Pots like being like, all right, yo, pepper, you got $50,000. I feel bad. He's a soldier. Soldiers get paid. You don't go over there. Shout out to all of my, I come from my family, guys in the military. Shout out to my cousin Rara, who bravely served in the Marines. When he came back, he had had all kinds of shit because he would go to the PX and he

would buy like the stuff the electronics right over there. He was stationed in Okinawa out there, brave guy, my uncle Charles, no longer with you, brave military men there in the Latham family. They go, they do anything. But they get paid. They get paid. Probably not enough if you ask them. Right.

But I mean, what I'm saying is, Sam. deserves a little back pay, is all I'm saying. He does. And shout out to my family. My dad, you know, we're going to the, you know, the commissary on base, right prices on food. You're a military kid. Yeah, I'm a military kid. So you know that they get paid.

I know my dad was proud. Like, if my dad had Pepper Potson's phone and be like, yo, like, I'd be like, dad, ask for the thoughts. He's like, nah, man, we're good. And I'm like, so I get Sam. I get it. I get why he wouldn't. Is there anything about this episode that you feel.

like, tell me what the burning questions that you have are coming out of this pilot. You've seen everything. It was kind of like a setup pitch. They gave you the one big action piece. And of course, they gave you the action piece in the flashback that Bucky had. So you saw Winter Soldier in action again, Homicidal Maniac. Give us some of the questions that you have coming out of this. All right.

Big question. This is a big question, all right? I was talking to the head writer, Falcon and the Winter Soldier before we got. on asking him about, you know, what should we read? Blah, blah, blah. He's going on. And he did not say this, but after everything he said, I was like, all right, all right. I think there was a Black Captain America before Steve and part of Falcon's journey is going

to find him because in the comics, they had truth, red, white, and black. And it was all about the black man that they tested the Super Soldier Serum on. I think that's going to be a big part of like the revelation and opening up the MCU and Sam realizing, hey, man, you're not the first black captain America. Go do this thing. Am I crazy for that? No, no, no, no, no. That's something that's

been well established in the comic books that, you know, other heroes had taken the serum and you see some of these guys, you know, it doesn't work quite as well as it work for Steve Rogers, you know, Steve Rogers. And there's a reason for that. We're not going to get crazy off into the nerd thing, but there's something, all of these guys

that you think is accidentally that they didn't die, it's not accidental. There's something that they're born with that allows their powers to manifest in a way that doesn't kill them when they get hit by gamma rays or take Super Soldier's Shurm or whatever it might be, at least in Marvel Comics. But I like the Flacksmasters here because it's another example of how the blip sort of affected the MCU. And I'm really, the blip is such a comic book thing to do in the MCU, which is very much

grounded as grounded as it possibly can be for the fantastic stories that it gives us. So I'm interested to see all the ramifications of the blip, not just with the Flack smasters, but how it shapes the new world that we're in, things that happened and all of that. So that's a grander things. But also I'm looking to see how this particular series, which is going to run six weeks, is going to ingrain itself into the DNA of the larger MCU. Because the thing with Wanda Vision was, I think for a lot of fans, hands. They believe that Wanda Vision would start smaller. It wouldn't be a circle. They thought it

would be, how can I put this? They thought that Wanda Vision would be this never-ending line, right? It would start small or start almost intimate with the shows and then just grow and grow and grow to the end to what we got Reeway Richards fighting. Mephisto, you know what I mean? Like at the end of it, everything. But that's not what happened with the show. What happened with the show was the show told It's story, right? And it gave us hits to what was going to happen. I wonder if Falcon and the Winter Soldier is going to follow that same lead, or if at the end of Falcon and the Winter Soldier,

we know something significantly more about the grander MCU than we did before we went into it. Those are the questions that I have moving forward as well. I mean, big question I have. He did not show up in this, but, you know, they're bringing Baron Zemo back. they're giving him the iconic purple mask. Oh, he's got to be in the next episode, for sure. My thing is, and one thing that, like, the writers and directors have been saying is, like, everybody,

especially the villains in this, whether it's U.S. Agent, whether it's Flaxmashor, or Baron Cimo, they think they're the heroes. Possibly, do we guess something like the Thunderbolts? Oh, oh, that's interesting. Like, where you get actually a team for, you get actually the Thunderbolts, you get a team for them to be up against,

like those guys team up. That would be interesting. So I don't know if it'll happen in this, but, you know, we got Patroc the Leaper. Coming back, he's not dead yet. Zemo, U.S. agent, Flag Smasher. I think there's a reason why they're setting up all of these, like, mini-villains that could potentially be their own spinoff, could be like the big bad of the whole season. So that's kind of what I'm looking for.

Okay, cool. We'll see what is. Now look, hey, hey, guys, once again, good first episode of Falcons and the Winter Soldier. we're going to be here every single Friday to give you more of this. You have to send your mailback questions in, though. You have to really, really assault Mallory with these mailback questions.

I want her to have so many mailback questions she doesn't know what to do. She doesn't know how to answer. She can handle it. And send those mailback questions to at ringerverse. At ringerverse on social media. R-I-N-G-E-R-V-S. There's going to be a bonus episode.

Sunday. There's going to be a bonus episode of our reaction show this Sunday as we react to Zach Snyers Justice League now. But we're done. We're done. Instant reactions over. Go to Disney Plus. Watch the Falcon and Winter Soldier.

Make sure that you are a part of all the discussions that we have here on the Ringgerverse. I'm Van Leithen of Higher Learning. I'm Charles Holmes of the Ringham Music Show. We out.