The Falcon and the Winter Soldier - The Whole World is Watching

Well, that escalated quickly. One of the oddities about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, given it's shortened six-episode run, is the series is somehow both slow to advance plot while also skipping over and rushing to big moments at the same time. "The Whole World is Watching" certainly gives us the big moment, it also takes the new new Captain America (Wyatt Russell) from frustrated hero with an inferiority complex to psychopath in the space of a single episode (and that's before he chooses to juice himself with the super-solider serum which only enhances his flaws). The result is a memorable final scene that sets stage with brutal murder, a bloody shield, and several questions about where the show goes from here. While a step-up from the previous episode, the structure of the peaks and lulls continues to provide some great moments but also some hit-and-miss plot to move characters from one of these events to the next.

The episode attempts to pull back on the extremism of Karli Morgenthau's (Erin Kellyman) a little, as Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie works to try and talk the revolutionary down (and gets his sister threatened and himself led into a trap for his troubles). We also get the unfortunate hero vs. hero fight as the Dora Milaje come for Zemo (Daniel Brühl) forcing Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) into a dangerous situation which eventually (of course) allows the villain to escape and destroy most of the remaining serum which Karli had in her possession (although a single does escapes his wrath while ultimately lands in the bloodstream of the man who brutally kills someone with Steve Rogers' shield while the world is watching).