Sorry I'm late. I saw the final episode on Sunday and I'm going to give my thoughts on the episode and the series overall, along with a little question for discussion and debate (as long as we keep it civil!).
First off, I knew it. I knew Sharon was going to be the Power Broker! I totally knew it! Something about that call in episode 5, her fancy place in Madripoor, etc. were all hints at best and dead giveaways at worst. I like that, personally. It shows how superheroes and being affiliated with them haven't helped her, but have rather made her more jaded and villainous, a living exhibit A to some of the points Zemo makes. Some of the best villains around are ones of the hero's own creation, so I'm kind of excited to see where this goes.
Now, Captain Falcon. He showed us his moves, alright. The suit was clean, Redwing returned and better than ever, and some of the things he was doing with the shield were downright sick! I wish the fight with Batroc was longer, though. Also, I will say that it also shows the power difference between Sam and Steve, too. While Steve straight up laid Batroc out and after putting up the shield, Sam had a bit more difficultly and required the shield, which shows the difference in strength between the two as well as showing that Sam doesn't have all the experience that Steve does combat-wise. However, we get to see some of Sam's strengths that Steve doesn't have, like aerial manuverability and how he CHUCKED THE SHIELD LIKE ZEUS WOULD CHUCK A LIGHTNING BOLT. And it was glorious to watch.
It was also kind of crazy to see how Zemo was right about literally everything, even though I kind of expected that. He said Karli was too far gone to be reasoned with, and that was correct. He said there was only one way it could end, which was with killing Karli, and that's exactly what happened. Even though Zemo was only on screen for like a few minutes, it was still one of my favorite scenes in that episode. He had his butler kill the remaining Flag Smashers! That was incredibly big brain. Gotta give it up for everyone's favorite dancing Baron, who supplied us with great entertainment, philosophical banter, and a treacherous necessity to the team for a great deal of the series.
Back on track, Walker showing up was a welcome surprise. He came in with a vengeance, got jumped by several Super Soldiers, chased down Karli a bit and had a little bit of a back and forth in close-quarters combat with her, and then... Probably my FAVORITE scene in that episode. Walker is faced with a choice: let Karli get away, or save the Senator that stripped him of his title and gave him a "less than honorable discharge". After how he snapped on the one Flag Smasher, it almost seemed like the choice was clear.
But he decided to save the people instead. This is character development. That is how you do a character arc, people! Take notes, write this down. Character arcs like this start with a lie the character believes. For Walker, it was that he was capable enough of being Captain America and that Sam and Bucky owed him respect because he had the title. He started off with a negative arc, facing insecurities of living up to Steve's legacy and fails in several areas. The belief in the lie that he's automatically worthy (pun intended) to be Captain America and his insecurities around it were only enhanced by the Super Soldier Serum (e.g. "I am Captain America."). However, after deciding to choose violence and avenge Lemar by killing Karli, that dilemma forces him to choose, putting him on track for a positive character arc. You even see this when he chooses to help Bucky and Sam stop the Flag Smashers afterwards. He's not trying to demand authority like he was when he was dubbed Captain America. In fact, he's alongside Bucky behind Sam in one scene (which made my bros and I go "John Walker has joined the Party"). He doesn't even protest when Sam says he's Captain America, which show's that he's developed some humility in that regard, and it's all topped of with him having a new identity, his own identity as U.S. Agent. Honestly, Walker was one of the best written characters in the entire series, and Wyatt Russell did an awesome job with the role.
Now, let's talk about Karli. I think Spinosaurus gave sentiments I agree with, saying that "the show kinda failed to make Karli and them as sympathetic as they intended to be". I agree, and I kind of think that's a good thing, personally. I don't like too many sympathetic villains. There are villains like MCU Thanos, who I can understand in terms of their goals, but I'll never sympathize with. But yeah, had they not tried to basically say "she's a sad girl with a hard life, sympathize with her!", I think the execution of her character would have been better. For crying out loud, there were better things they could have done instead of trying to force us to sympathize by having Sam carry her bridal style to an ambulance (and she left Sharon in the car garage, despite not knowing that she's the Power Broker). They probably should have tweaked that seen a bit, as well as anything else that tried to make us uber sympathetic toward her, tbh. Heck, we've seen that life during the Blip sucked (e.g. Ronin pursuing criminals out of vengeance, Thor resorting to alcohol to cope, Steve in a meeting with other sad dudes), it would have been interesting if she was written as a nihilist of sorts.
Along with this, let's talk about the Flag Smashers as a group. I kind of cringed when Sam said they weren't terrorists. Uh, gassing the GRC, requiring an Avenger, a Captain America and former HYDRA assassin to track down and chase across several countries isn't considered a terrorist group? Don't those actions sound like the unlawful use of violence and intimidation in pursuing political aims? If you answered yes, congratulations! You agree that the Flag Smashers are terrorists. However, aside from that tidbit about them, I kind of thought he was straight spittin' at the end.
I liked the tribute to Isaiah Bradley that Sam made, and the apology to Nakajima that Bucky had to do. Both were incredibly touching scenes in that episode.
Also, the scene where Sharon was pardoned gave me "Revenge" vibes. I've never seen that show, all I know is that she was on it, but those were the vibes I got when she walked out after being pardoned for some reason. Don't judge me.
I also heard that Malcolm Spellman is working on the 4th Captain America movie, which is good. He also talked about less signposting, so twists won't be as obvious to us going forward. Plus, that allows for some consistency for continuing from the series.
Speaking of the series, here are my thoughts on the series as a whole. I felt it was a little slow paced, with action not really being as prominent until about episode 3 or 4 depending on how much action tickles your fancy for qualifying as action-packed, but made up for that by asking great philosophical questions about what it means to be a hero that represents an entire country, whether or not you should jump at the chance to accept power that turns mortal men into demi-gods of sorts, how battles from superheroes and villains affect aspects of the world, etc. It also delved into political topics with grace, except for when it didn't and got too in-your-face for my taste, but would revert back to not being as "preachy", for lack of a better word. It had a collection of great characters like Zemo and John Walker, realistic arcs for Bucky and Sam, but somewhat lackluster antagonists in the form of Karli and the Flag Smashers mainly due to trying to make characters too sympathetic (though they did a good job of showing what a radical group with a cult-like following would be like when dealing with superheroes and such). Overall, I thought the series was pretty good. I've recommended a few co-workers and friends watch it, and I think I'd still do so.
Now, I also mentioned something for discussion/debate. Here it is:
There are some people that love Sam becoming the new Captain America, since out of everyone else, he's best suited for that position. However, there are others who feel like giving him the mantle of Captain America takes away from him as Falcon, which would cause people to see Sam Wilson more along the lines of "Black Captain America" instead of "Falcon who took up the mantle/title" of Captain America, and would even argue the same thing with Bucky (not that he'd be White Captain America for somewhat, but that it would take away from him as the Winter Soldier, etc.). What are your thoughts on this?
EDIT: If you read all the way through this massive post I did, you're a real one.