Falcon & Winter Soldier asks 5 big questions after the Civil War

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 3 recalls Captain America: Civil War with the return of Baron Zemo and Sharon Carter, asking some interesting questions about the MCU in the process. Episode 2, The Star Spangled Man, saw Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes reluctantly team up to fight Karli Morgenthaus’s Flag-Smashers, ultimately deciding that they needed to speak with Zemo about HYDRA’s super-soldier experiences. At the beginning of Falcon and Winter Soldier Episode 3, Power Broker, that’s exactly what they do.

The eponymous duo do more than just talk with Zemo, as Bucky orchestrates a prison break to help the Civil war escape a villain. The strange trio then head to the lawless island nation of Madripoor in search of the new Super Soldier Serum. While there, they meet Sharon Carter in exile, who helps them find the scientist responsible for making the serum, Dr. Nagel. The group takes the lead of the Flag-Smashers, Zemo kills Nagel and Black panthers Okoye shows a funny last second twist.

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

How does Baron Zemo know so much?

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 3 greatly expands the character of Baron Zemo. However, not all of these additions seem to match the version of the character seen in Captain America: Civil War. Zemo mentions that he spent years chasing HYDRA operatives, but the gap between Avengers: Age of Ultron and Civil war The moment Zemo became obsessed with the Winter Soldier program is only about a year old.

In fact, Zemo spent a fairly short time studying HYDRA, then about seven years in prison. So how does he have active contacts all over the world who still recognize him and respect him? How does he know so much about HYDRA when he has spent a relatively short 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 intelligence that Zemo has in Falcon and Winter Soldier seems extinct. These discrepancies can be attributed to reconnecting, but there could also be explanations in the universe, such as if Zemo had contact with someone else while incarcerated.

What role did Madripoor play in the MCU?

The lawless island nation of Madripoor, a classic Marvel comic book location, was finally brought to the MCU in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Sam, Bucky, and Zemo visit the miserable Hive of Scum and Wickedness to get a head start on the Super Soldier Serum used by the Flag-Smashers, and they end up having more than a little bit of trouble with the agents of the local king the Power Broker. In the relatively short time spent on screen in Madripoor, Falcon and Winter Soldier alludes to some great MCU players tied to the island. This begs the question, how has Madripoor impacted past stories in the MCU?

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Without real laws, extradition and prying eyes from the outside world, Madripoor would have been and probably was an excellent resource for groups like HYDRA, AIM or Ulysses Klaues, the arms dealers. The MCU has seen so many dangerous underworld characters come and go over the years that Mandipoor has certainly played a role in at least some of their stories. Maybe some of these links will be revealed when the Power Broker finally shows up.

What has Sharon Carter been doing since Captain America: Civil War?

Sharon Carter returns to the MCU in a glorious way in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 3, but his appearance in Madripoor raises curious questions. It’s unclear exactly what Sharon did to make such a comfortable life on the ruthless island, but the implication is that she has worked in various underworld capacities since she fled the U.S. government. One particular detail makes this 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 it was broken. If she really had been, that means that while she would have had a few years to build her reputation on Madripoor, she had been gone for half a decade. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier doesn’t take place so long after the Blip brings all the Snap victims back to life, and Madripoor doesn’t exactly look like the kind of place where a person’s belongings are patiently kept when they go missing. It seems highly unlikely that Sharon could have rebuilt her station on the island so quickly after being brought back to life, so it is more likely that she, like Scott Lang, was just one of the allies who would have been broken but hadn’t been, and it ran in deep coverage from the start.

Who really is the power broker?

Sam and Buckys’ trip to Madripoor sheds some more light on the MCU’s Power Broker, but the dark figure has yet to take center stage. This leaves the question of the identity of Power Brokers open. It’s possible that the Broker is a former HYDRA figure (given the interest in the Super-Soldier Serum), a former MCU villain tied to dangerous technology (like Justin Hammer), or an entirely new character. Sharon Carter also seems a little suspicious, both because of her cushy setup in Madripoor and because of the mysterious car she rides in towards the end of Power Broker. And of course, given the heinous experiments of the U.S. government revealed in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, an American agency could also be involved.

Related: Theory: Flag Smashers Attempt To Destroy Captain America

Who ran the Super Soldiers of the Americas program?

When Sam, Bucky, Zemo, and Sharon find Dr. Nagel in Madripoor, he reveals that his super-soldier serum only succeeded thanks to the blood samples taken from Isaiah Bradley when he was wrongly imprisoned. He also reveals that he disappeared in the Snap halfway through his serum work, meaning the U.S. government was performing super-soldier experiments as recently as Avengers: Infinity War. It’s not a shocking development, but it does raise the question of who was behind the recent experiments, and how did none of the Avengers know them?

One explanation is that after the events of Civil war, the United States decided to create new superheroes to replace those they had lost. Captain America going rogue was obviously undesirable for the Pentagon, so it would make sense for someone somewhere to decide to create more loyal super-soldiers. However, it doesn’t make sense that characters like Nick Fury, Black Widow, and War Machine have no idea what experiments are going on unless, of course, they’re top-secret. Since super-soldiers count as sensitive weapons, it is possible that the US experiments were partly related to SWORD, let alone illegal under the Sokovia Accords, linking the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to those of WandaVision.

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