Warning: SPOILERS for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Finale - "One World, One People," and Sam's journey towards being Captain America.

Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) warned Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) against becoming Captain America but it was Bradley who had a change of heart in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier's finale. After Sam debuted as the new Cap and helped stop the Flag-Smashers, Isaiah realized he was wrong about a Black man taking up the star-spangled shield and costume.

Bradley is one of the most tragic figures ever introduced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Injected with the Super-Soldier Serum without his knowledge in the 1950s, Isaiah was the lone recipient who didn't suffer debilitating side effects. Bradley was deployed in the Korean War and even successfully destroyed the Winter Soldier's (Sebastian Stan) cybernetic arm. However, when Bradley orchestrated a prisoner break out and disobeyed orders to rescue a regiment of Black POWs, he was unjustly imprisoned for 30 years. Worse, Isaiah was experimented upon by the U.S. Government and by Hydra as they hoped to extract the secret of why the serum worked on him. Meanwhile, Bradley's existence was wiped from the history books during his incarceration. It was only because a nurse took pity on him and engineered Bradley being declared dead that he was able to escape and eke out a living in solitude in Baltimore, Maryland, where he is cared for by his grandson Eli (Elijah Richardson).

Related: How Powerful Sam Wilson Will Be As Captain America

Sam was shocked when Bucky Barnes took him to meet Isaiah, and later Wilson returned with Captain America's shield in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier episode 5 to hear Bradley's full story. Isaiah sternly warned Wilson that what happened to him could also happen to Sam because he believed the U.S. Government would never let a Black man be Captain America. Further, Bradley admonished Sam that "no self-respecting Black man would want to be" Captain America. However, Sam comes from a different generation and carries more hope and optimism, in part because he personally knew Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). Wilson ultimately decided that he would accept the mantle of Captain America along with the baggage (good and bad) that comes with the shield. By the end of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, even Isaiah Bradley came to believe Sam was right to become Captain America.

Isaiah Bradley Statue in Falcon and Winter Soldier

Isaiah saw Sam Wilson's finest qualities for himself when the new Cap gave an impassioned televised speech to the leaders of the Global Repatriation Council after Sam, Bucky, and John Walker (Wyatt Russell) saved them from the Flag-Smashers. Bradley was not only stunned by the sight of Sam's Captain America costume of stars and stripes but he was also heartened by the fact that the GRC leaders listened as the Black Captain America explained how they were failing the very people they were purportedly trying to help.

When Sam returned to Baltimore once more, Elijah had to admit, "You're special." But Sam was also humble and recognized the fact that his road as Cap will be difficult and that he could even die. Even so, Wilson wants to show everyone a better way forward as Captain America. Part of that way forward is to finally make the government own up to its disgraceful past, so Sam took the Bradleys to the Captain America exhibit at the Smithsonian where he revealed he commissioned a statue of Isaiah Bradley to tell the hero's story.

Although Isaiah told Sam he wanted to stay buried, Bradley was really acting out of decades of fear and unfathomable pain. As the new Cap, Sam ensured Isaiah Bradley, one of the lost victims of the darker aspects of Captain America's legacy, gets to finally have his time in the sun. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier was about Sam Wilson reexamining what it means to be Captain America, earning the shield, and deciding the Cap's future for himself - and it was all the more important that Sam made a believer out of Isaiah Bradley.

Next: Falcon & Winter Soldier 2? Everything We Know

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