Saxsoon said:

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I don't shout WTF often while watching tv, but that last shot. The bloodied shield is a ****ing image for sure.

I love that Sam's grief counseling is a major part of his character. Huge scene with Carli. Dora Milage are badass and love the cross pollination of Marvel properties.

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Alright. I'm hyped to watch this episode this evening now!

Walker is officially off the reservation.

That was the best episode yet. Also, I was kinda cheering on Walker. I liked Hoskins, and I was really hoping he just murdered Karli already, cuz she sucks. Not sure I have much sympathy for her left.

Dr. Not Yet Dr. Ag said:

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That was the best episode yet. Also, I was kinda cheering on Walker. I liked Hoskins, and I was really hoping he just murdered Karli already, cuz she sucks. Not sure I have much sympathy for her left.

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I'm not a fan of Walker, but Karli looking on in horror after he smashed that dude is so lacking in self awareness. I have no sympathy for her either.

Oh.my.god. that was....just wow. The best episode yet. I thought it ended at the perfect moment too. Just wow. Both karlie and walker are struggling so much between whats right and whats wrong. Ends justifying the means and so forth. Neither of them are inherently evil but what zemo said is really coming to fruition. Man....i dont know who to root for or against outside of bucky and falcon. Oh and the wakanda women were so awesome. I laughed so hard with bucky and the arm scene.

Yeah, I hate Walker, too, but just wanted him to get some revenge. However, my hate for Walker is primarily because I think they have done well at making you hate him, whereas, we are supposed to feel sympathetic for Karli when she is such an unsympathetic character. Also, I just get so bored watching her in her non-action scenes.

Saxsoon said:

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I love that Sam's grief counseling is a major part of his character. Huge scene with Carli. Dora Milage are badass and love the cross pollination of Marvel properties.

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Very much agree with Sam, there was some interesting stuff brought up in their conversations. We've never really heard anything about the political ramifications of the blip before but it's a super interesting area to explore.

Also glad to see Karli get some more depth in this episode, we haven't really seen enough from her to buy in as the leader of this revolution IMO but we're seeing more.

The Dora Milaje was awesome.

I want an Agent 13 hustling art and kicking ass in Madripoor series.

Like others, seriously mouth wide open at the end there. Though one note that I'll spoiler tag in case anyone is skimming and hasn't watched yet...

How did Walker not just decapitate that dude? I feel like a Super Soldier with a shield of the strongest metal on Earth would just need one swipe to Marie Antoinette somebody.

Actually covered in their chat with Nagel last week, he mentions how he reworked the formula to be subtle and enhance their abilities without changing their appearance.

This was addressed in last episode where the scientist that developed this serum deliberately removed the elements that changed the physical appearance of super soldiers. He said he "perfected" it.

He was too overcome with anger to just decapitate and go. He had to pound and pound.

That final shot, though....blood on The Shield!!!

Fightin TX Aggie said:

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There was a political aspect to episode 4 that I don't want to derail this thread, but if you are interested, you can comment on the thread I started on F16:

https://texags.com/forums/16/topics/3192932

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I'll comment just to give kudos and thanks for putting that on 16-chan instead of this thread. May you be an example to all.

I love the shades of grey in which this show operates. No one is a clear antagonist or fully in the right either. (Except for maybe Sam?)

They've done an amazing job of getting us to empathize with Karli and dislike John Walker. But then they throw in that great scene between Walker and his buddy and you see his perspective.

Everyone believes they're doing what's right, and I love that we don't know how it'll play out.

The only thing I'm sure of is Walker won't have the shield much longer.

I think it's pretty obvious that everyone is supposed to dislike Walker.

But, let's give credit where credit is due: Wyatt Russell is crushing it as this unstable Captain America. To be so dislikeable and mentally and emotionally unstable and still be doing such a good acting job is just so cool.

This was such a "Holy sh*t" episode. Best one yet. Even the action fight scenes were movie-quality for a Disney + show.

Fightin TX Aggie said:

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There was a political aspect to episode 4 that I don't want to derail this thread, but if you are interested, you can comment on the thread I started on F16:

https://texags.com/forums/16/topics/3192932

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Appreciated, and to be honest the responses illustrate exactly why I generally prefer to avoid those discussions here.

I think it's an interesting topic to actually discuss, but not when the ratio is 5:1 in favor of people who think that even being sympathetic to the idea makes those people not worthy of being Americans. There's no room for a reasonable exchange of ideas there.

Scattershooting:

- Personally, I didn't take Sarah's comment to mean race. I thought it meant what we've seen of her so far: a struggling, lower-class, blue-collar worker who's trying to provide for her family and feels like the government doesn't care. The system is failing the people like her, and these are the kind of people the Flag Smashers are trying to help.

- Episode finished strong. Lemar was likable. Walker going ape**** was inevitable. But man, what a way to go about it.

- Overall: I'm still struggling with this show. We're 2/3 through and I feel like still I don't really know what it's about yet. It's not really an effective political thriller because the GRC and the Power Broker are faceless entities whose actions we're only told about. The Flag Smashers don't seem organized or charismatic enough to have attracted a following, or to pull off these heists. We'll get something intriguing like the 1950s experimental black super soldier but we haven't really circled back to that in any important way.

It almost feels like a Netflix MCU show. I know this thing has a big budget, but it doesn't always feel like it. It's mostly people expositing while traveling, and then punching each other in a hallway or shipyard or on a semi on a CGI road. Let's free the bad guy because we need him, oh no he got away.

It's like you've got the ingredients to be a successor to CA: Winter Soldier, but it hasn't really come together at all yet. And it's only got about 100 minutes left to do so in a satisfying way..


Edit: I'm hoping I'm wrong on this. Maybe it's taking its time and isn't wearing all its themes on its sleeve for all to see in every single scene. I'm just worried we'll get through the next 2 hours and not know that much more about Bucky and Sam, and Zemo and Sharon were just swinging through to fill a generic role, and the Power Broker is revealed to be someone who will just appear in later things or something like that.

One thing I really like about it is something the MCU does really well, IMO, and that's the continuity of the story from one movie/show to the next. In this show, the creation of the GRC to handle the fallout of the "blip" is a great idea that adds to the realism of the MCU and how things happen.

If that makes sense......

And that is why you don't accept candy from strangers.