Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Episode 4 Easter eggs and everything you missed

Episode 4 of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was…eventful, to say the least. Its ending sequence will probably live in our brains for a very long time, but lots of other stuff happened too. The Dora Milaje showed up to stop Baron Zemo’s good time. Karli Morgenthau and her Flag Smashers got so close to expanding their lineup of Super Soldiers - but ended up crossing a deadly line instead. Speaking of deadly, our new Captain America is about to learn what TikTok is the hard way. 

Episode 4, titled ‘The Whole World is Watching’, was chock-full of little easter eggs and references to the comics most of these events are based on, as well as callbacks to previous events in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Let’s run them all down!

The Winter Soldier gets better

Episode 4 opens by establishing Bucky’s relationship with Ayo, a member of the Dora Milaje who has come for Baron Zemo. She helped him get rid of Hydra’s murderous brainwashing six years ago, after being used as their resident assassin without a conscience for decades. As Ayo recites the exact words Hydra used to ‘reset’ Bucky into his Winter Soldier programming, Bucky sees flashes of all the terrible things he’s done. We even see him kill Tony Stark’s parents, an event that fractures The Avengers in Captain America: Civil War. Sebastian gives a powerful performance as Bucky, who in a short span of time experiences a range of surging emotions going from hopelessness to unbearable guilt, and finally, total freedom after all these years.

The Dora Milaje are hiding in the shadows of Latvia in this episode, biding their time as Bucky and Sam race against time to stop the Flag Smashers. Ayo had previously given Bucky eight hours to make use of Zemo before turning him over, presumably because the two had a shared friendship. The Dora Milaje don’t cut corners in their pursuit of duty however, so it makes sense that they wouldn’t just return to Wakanda and give Bucky more leeway to do what he needs to do. Zemo killed King T’Chaka, which caused his son T’Challa to succeed him as king of Wakanda. The Dora Milaje are tasked with protecting the king and they failed, so you can see why they’re so intent on getting justice for T’Chaka. 

Episode 4 also laid early groundwork to show us why Sam Wilson deserves to wear the Captain America shield so much more than John Walker. He has an unfailing sense of moral righteousness that very few characters in this series have, despite their claims otherwise. When Zemo asks if he would ever take the Super Soldier serum, Sam immediately says no. Walker on the other hand, appears to be jealous of Bucky and his super-abilities in this episode, and feels like he’s failing to live up to his predecessor because he lacks the physical strength to do so. While Walker would rather march into a Flag Smasher base and arrest Morgenthau, Sam would rather have a conversation with her - avoiding violence entirely. 

It’s also worth noting that by this point, Walker, Zemo and Karli have all made various pitches to Sam’s ideals to have him join their respective sides. Sam’s turned them down every single time. Despite the abrasive nature of his and Bucky’s relationship, Bucky is the only person who’s ever stood by Sam’s side and insisted that he do his own thing. The two share a mutual understanding of one another and bickering aside, that’s why their partnership works. 

It’s a bad time to be a Captain America fan

Karli Morgenthau and her Flag Smashers were in a sticky situation. Desperate to add more people to her cause, Morgenthau retrieved her remaining batch of Super Soldier serum vials and brought them back to their Latvia base - which was soon attacked by Sam, Bucky and a colourful assortment of heroes. You’ve got to admire the dedication Zemo has to his cause, though. This version of the character wants as few superhumans running around the world as possible, and didn’t hesitate when he was presented with a vial of the serum for himself. He smashed it, and continued smashing the rest before John Walker entered the fray and secretly pocketed one last vial. 

To Walker’s credit, he didn’t take it immediately. His partner Lemar Hoskins aka Battlestar tells him that taking the vial would only make him more of the person he already is. Funnily enough, he’s not the first guy in the MCU to think this way. The serum’s creator Abraham Erskine said that, “The serum amplifies everything that is inside,” in Captain America: The First Avenger. That’s true of power, in general. It doesn’t change a person, so much as it shines a light on who they have really been all along. When Steve Rogers got the serum, he sought to save lives. When John Walker got the serum…he took a life.

After being defeated by the Dora Milaje, Walker takes the serum, unable to turn its power down (where Sam could). After the whole group takes on some Flag Smashers and one of them holds Walker back, Lemar runs afoul of Morgenthau - who punches him all the way into a pillar. Walker’s partner and friend dies instantly. Henry Jackman’s usually-kinetic, drum-pounding score ramps up in the background eerily as tension between these characters reaches new heights. 

Captain America then finds the person who held him back and slams his shield into his chest, killing him almost instantly. This scene is an obvious callback to Captain America: Civil War, where Steve Rogers fought Tony Stark and upon lifting the shield and briefly considering the unthinkable, brings it down on the arc reactor instead. That powers down the suit, but keeps his friend alive. The Flag Smasher met a different fate, unfortunately. We even saw him confess that he grew up a Captain America fan earlier in this episode, which lends his death no small amount of dramatic irony. 

That final shot of Walker with a bloody shield was the perfect end to a tragic episode. If you saw that scene and thought, “Hey, that looks like a comic book cover!” you’d be right. Walker standing with a bloody shield is an interesting callback to the first issue cover of Marvel Comics’ Civil War event, where Steve stands with a similarly bloody shield. The thing is, the blood on Steve’s shield is metaphorical - whereas it’s quite literal on Walker’s. This new Captain America is afraid that he can’t live up to his predecessor, and he’s quite right. On every level, he has failed to fill the shoes Steve Rogers left behind. 

What happens next? 

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier producer Nate Moore recently talked about the next episode, saying, “[Episode] Five really gets to be the culmination of the theme. And I do think both from an acting standpoint and from a filmmaking standpoint, it's our strongest episode.” That’s quite exciting to hear, but it’s not entirely surprising seeing as everything’s already coming to a head. Zemo’s escaped the clutches of the good guys. John Walker executed a Flag Smasher publicly, in such a brutal way that one can only assume that the U.S. government is inches away from disavowing him entirely. 

The Dora Milaje are still players in this story. This recent loss will only spurn the Flag Smashers onward and into more violent territory, and Karli Morgenthau might now be beyond a simple talking-to. We also have the mysterious Power Broker working in the background, and Sharon Carter helping out from Madripoor. There are scores to settle across the board, but this might all be just a bit too much for Sam and Bucky to handle alone. 

Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.