The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 1 Review: New World Order

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 1, explained

"New World Order" opens The Falcon and the Winter Soldier with a rescue, a slow turn into family trouble, and a surprise at a podium. Disney+ released the 49-minute premiere on March 19, 2021. Malcolm Spellman wrote it, Kari Skogland directed it, and the whole hour is built around one question: what do you do after you have saved the world and nobody has told you what comes next?

This pilot is a slow-burn episode with an action start. It plays like a traditional odd couple setup, two men who cannot stand being left alone with their thoughts, kept apart for nearly the whole hour. They do not share a scene in it.

The timing explains some of the pressure on this pilot. WandaVision had ended its run on March 5, 2021, two weeks earlier, and it had set the bar for what a Marvel Disney+ series could do with a smaller canvas. Episode 1 answers with a more conventional action-drama shape, trusting two familiar characters to carry the weight.

The opening mission

The pilot starts with the kind of set piece viewers expect from a Marvel property: aerial stunts, daring rescue work and high stakes. Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), also known as the Falcon, is sent against a hijacking led by Georges Batroc, played by Georges St-Pierre. With help from Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), he fights in the air and rescues Captain Vassant.

The aerial work is the pilot's showpiece, shot by cinematographer P.J. Dillon and cut by Jeffrey Ford and Kelley Dixon, and it establishes Sam as a fighter whose skills depend on gear, planning and a partner on the ground. It is a good opening for an episode that mostly refuses to continue in that vein. Torres also mentions a group called the Flag Smashers, who believe life was better during the Blip, the five years in which half of all life vanished. The line is dropped casually and picked up again at the end.

Sam in Washington and Louisiana

Sam then flies to Washington to speak at the dedication of a Captain America exhibit at the Smithsonian. He gives the shield to the government for display. When James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) asks why Sam did not take up the mantle himself, Sam answers that the shield still belongs to Steve Rogers.

The government sees Sam as the Falcon. His sister Sarah (Adepero Oduye) and her two sons see him as Uncle Sam. The distinction is the episode's real subject. In Louisiana, Sarah has been running the family fishing business alone since the Blip, and she has just accepted that selling the boat is the only way to survive when Sam turns up promising a fix.

The bank scene that follows is the pilot's sharpest. Sam is an Avenger, and he still walks into a bank as a Black man asking for a loan and gets turned down, with the reason given as poor business profits and no income of his own. The episode does not linger on the point, and it does not need to.

There is a good rhythm in the cross-cutting. Sam arrives in Washington as a hero and leaves it as a man with a shield he does not want and a sister with a boat he cannot save.

Bucky in New York

After a nightmare introduction, the episode checks in on Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). He is in mandatory therapy with Dr. Raynor (Amy Aquino), a condition of his pardon for war crimes, and he is struggling with PTSD. Like many soldiers, he does not know what to do now that there is no war to fight.

The therapist notes that he has no friends or social life. He does have one: an older Japanese man named Yori (Ken Takemoto). The episode lets viewers assume this is a man out of time seeking company his own age. In fact, the friendship is another entry on Bucky's amends list, because Yori's son is one of the people the Winter Soldier killed.

Bucky also agrees to a date with a waitress named Leah, and he ignores Sam's texts. Those details do more than they seem to. A man who once killed on command is learning to make small talk and to sit through a first date, and the show treats both as hard work. They show a man trying to behave like an ordinary person and failing at each small step.

What The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 1 sets up

The pilot's last beat sends the two plots toward each other. Torres investigates the Flag Smashers in Switzerland and witnesses a bank robbery by a member with superhuman strength, then is knocked unconscious. At the same time, the government holds a press conference to announce a new Captain America: John Walker, played by Wyatt Russell. The shield Sam gave up is already in new hands.

Danny Ramirez's Torres deserves a mention here. He is the character who raises the Flag Smashers, and he works as a stand-in for the audience: eager and quick to notice a thread worth pulling. The cliffhanger depends on him being the one who gets hurt.

The structure suggests where the six-episode series is going. Sam gave the shield away because he felt it belonged to someone else. Now someone else has it.

Themes the pilot might pursue

It is fair to ask what the show wants to be about. Marvel's Netflix series each had a central concern. Jessica Jones dealt with surviving assault, Luke Cage with Black community and corruption, Iron Fist with mental health and family, The Punisher with PTSD and veterans, and Daredevil with vigilante justice. WandaVision, released earlier in 2021, dealt with grief and how it can turn into wish fulfillment.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier looks like it will focus on veterans, and on what it costs to return to civilian life. That would be a distinct take. Frank Castle channeled his PTSD into violent retribution; Sam is trying to get back to a normal life after vanishing for five years, and Bucky is going to therapy even though he does not always act in the best of ways.

The Blip also matters in this episode in a way it has not elsewhere. Sam's family business is a direct casualty, and the Flag Smashers' ideology is a reaction to the world coming back.

A small complaint

One cliché sticks out: the man out of time is pressured to date. It happened to Steve Rogers, and now it is happening to Bucky. With Steve it made sense, because the audience understood he was holding out for Peggy. Bucky has no epic love story that viewers know of, so the running gag has less to stand on.

Verdict on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 1

For most viewers, this is a solid premiere, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 1 is at its best in its quiet moments. The stunt work is good, Mackie carries the family material with ease, and Stan gives Bucky a quiet, wounded presence. The episode is slower than its trailers promised, but that restraint is a choice.

The weakest spot is the separation. Because Sam and Bucky share no scenes, the title pairing feels like a promise the pilot cannot keep yet. The strongest is the bank scene, which gives a superhero show a real-world problem and refuses to solve it with a punch.

Anyone deciding whether to continue past The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 1 should weigh it as a setup hour, not a statement of the series. Watch it for the bank and for Yori. Skip nothing, since the final press conference only works if the viewer has spent the hour with Sam and the shield.

Sources

• The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Wikipedia — episode list, cast and release dates