Falcon & Winter Soldier Asks 5 Big Questions After Civil War

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 3 harkens back to Captain America: Civil War with the return of Baron Zemo and Sharon Carter, posing some interesting questions about the MCU in the process. Episode 2, “The Star Spangled Man,” saw Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes team up begrudgingly to battle Karli Morgenthau’s Flag-Smashers, ultimately deciding that they needed to speak with Zemo about HYDRA’s super-soldier experiments. At the beginning of Falcon and Winter Soldier episode 3, “Power Broker,” they do just that.

The eponymous duo does more than just speak with Zemo, however, as Bucky orchestrates a prison break to help the Civil War villain escape. The odd trio then heads to the lawless island nation of Madripoor in search of the new super-soldier serum. While there, they run into an exiled Sharon Carter, who helps them find the scientist responsible for crafting the serum, Dr. Nagel. The group gets a lead on the Flag-Smashers, Zemo kills Nagel, and Black Panther’s Okoye shows up a fun last-second twist.

“Power Broker” continues to build out the post-blip MCU world in interesting ways, but some of the new developments also leave big questions hanging. Characters like Sharon and Zemo haven’t been seen since Captain America: Civil War, leaving a pretty big time gap largely unexplored. Here are the biggest questions from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 3.

How Does Baron Zemo Know So Much?

Daniel Bruhl as Baron Zemo in Falcon and the Winter Soldier

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 3 dramatically expands on the character of Baron Zemo. However, not all of those additions seem to fit with the version of the character seen in Captain America: Civil War. Zemo mentions that he spent years hunting agents of HYDRA, yet the gap between Avengers: Age of Ultron and Civil War – the time when Zemo became fixated on the Winter Soldier program – is only about a year.

In actuality, Zemo spent a pretty brief amount of time studying HYDRA, and then about seven years in prison. So how does he have active contacts all over the world, who still recognize and respect him? How does he know so much about HYDRA when he spent a relatively short amount of time studying them? He was certainly obsessive, and as the son of a wealthy family, he had many resources at his disposal. But even still, the level of expertise and street-smarts Zemo has in Falcon and Winter Soldier seems off. These discrepancies can be chalked up to retconning, but there could also be some in-universe explanation, such as if Zemo had contact with anyone else during his time in jail.

What Role Has Madripoor Played In The MCU?

Falcon and Winter Soldier Trailer Madripoor

The lawless island nation of Madripoor – a classic locale from the Marvel comics – has finally been brought to the MCU in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Sam, Bucky, and Zemo visit the wretched hive of scum and villainy to get a lead on the super-soldier serum used by the Flag-Smashers, and they end up getting in more than a bit of trouble with agents of the local kingpin – the Power Broker. In the relatively short amount of screen time spent in Madripoor, Falcon and Winter Soldier hints at some big MCU players being tied to the island. That begs the question, how has Madripoor impacted past MCU stories?

With no real laws, no extradition, and no prying eyes from the outside world, Madripoor would have been – and likely was – an excellent resource for groups like HYDRA, AIM, or Ulysses Klaue’s arms dealers. The MCU has seen so many dangerous underworld figures come and go throughout the years that Mandipoor certainly played a role in at least some of their stories. Perhaps some of those ties will be revealed when the Power Broker finally shows themselves.

What Has Sharon Carter Been Doing Since Captain America: Civil War?

Sharon Carter returns to the MCU in glorious fashion in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 3, but her appearance in Madripoor raises some curious questions. It’s unclear exactly what all Sharon has done to make such a comfortable life for herself on the cutthroat island, but the implication is that she’s been working in various underworld capacities since going on the run from the U.S. government. One particular detail makes that story a bit more confusing, however.

It was previously canonized that Sharon Carter was a victim of the Infinity War Snap - or at least the Avengers believed her to be snapped. If she really had been, that means that while she would have had a couple of years to build her reputation on Madripoor, she’s been gone for half a decade. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier doesn’t take place that long after the Blip brought all Snap victims back to life, and Madripoor doesn’t exactly seem like the kind of place where a person’s belongings are held patiently when they disappear. It seems highly unlikely that Sharon could have rebuilt her station on the island so quickly after being brought back to life, so it's likelier that she, like Scott Lang, was only one of the allies thought to be snapped but hadn't actually been, and she's been operating in deep cover all along.

Who Is The Power Broker Really?

Falcon and the winter soldier real villain power broker

Sam and Bucky’s trip to Madripoor sheds a bit more light on the MCU’s Power Broker, but the shadowy figure has yet to take center stage. That leaves the question of the Power Broker’s identity hanging. A few possibilities are that the Broker could be a former HYDRA figure (given the interest in super-soldier serum), a former MCU villain with ties to dangerous technology (like Justin Hammer), or an entirely new character. Sharon Carter also seems a bit suspicious, both because of her cushy setup in Madripoor, and because of the mysterious car she gets into near the end of “Power Broker.” And of course, given the heinous U.S. government experiments revealed in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, some American agency could be involved as well.

Who Was Leading America’s Super Soldier Program?

Why Bucky kept Isaiah a secret from Steve Rogers

When Sam, Bucky, Zemo, and Sharon find Dr. Nagel in Madripoor, he reveals that his super-soldier serum was only successful because of the blood samples taken from Isaiah Bradley when he was wrongfully imprisoned. He also reveals that he vanished in the Snap midway through his work on the serum, which means that the U.S. government was performing super-soldier experiments as recently as Avengers: Infinity War. That’s not a shocking development, but it does beg the question – who was behind the recent experiments, and how didn’t any of the Avengers know about them?

One explanation is that, after the events of Civil War, the U.S. decided to create new superheroes to replace the ones they’d lost. Captain America going rogue was obviously undesirable for the Pentagon, so it would make sense that someone somewhere decided to create more loyal super-soldiers. However, it doesn’t quite make sense that characters like Nick Fury, Black Widow, and War Machine had no idea the experiments were going on – unless, of course, they were extremely covert. Since super-soldiers count as sentient weapons, it's possible that the U.S.’s experiments could have been connected in part to SWORD, not to mention illegal under the Sokovia Accords, tying the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to those of WandaVision.

Next: Falcon Is The New Captain America, Bucky Is The New Steve Rogers