Last week's season finale of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier saw Sam Wilson embrace his destiny and step up as the new Captain America, while John Walker - who had been serving as the Sentinel of Liberty - donned the mantle of U.S. Agent after putting his quest for vengeance aside to rescue the Flag Smashers' GRC hostages.
For many, taking Walker down a redemptive path so soon after he'd had been depicted as a murderous loose canon seemed like a strange decision (you'll find our thoughts on that here), and there's been some debate about what exactly the show was hoping to convey. Had the character been absolved, or were we supposed to believe he was pulling the wool over Sam, Buck and the government's eyes?
In a new interview with io9, director Kari Skogland outlines what she was trying to get across.
"Well, we left it a little vague on purpose but at the end of the day," she says when asked how she wanted the audience to feel about Walker. "I wanted people to like him. And I think everybody does like him. Now, they went through a period of not liking him at the beginning because he started out feeling like “Wait a second, is that the guy?” But then, through the calibration of performance as such, we realize he’s coming from a very earnest place. No matter what’s going on, he really does want to be a good Cap and he wants to do the right thing. Now, when his ego gets involved and the Dora Milaje take him down and he goes, “Oh, my God. I’m in over my head,” [that] sort of compels him into a conversation with Lemar and then we realize there’s a bead in there that’s missing. He’s actually a bit of an imposter."
How Walker's story progresses as U.S. Agent under Val's control remains to be seen, but Julia Louis-Dreyfus' mysterious Contessa certainly seems to have her own less-than heroic agenda.
What do you guys make of Skogland's comments? Were you happy with the way Walker was depicted in the TFATWS finale? Be sure to share your thoughts in the usual place.
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