This week it certainly feels like The Falcon And The Winter Solider has moved into fifth gear. We’re now half way through and we’ve finally met all of the characters we knew were in the show from promotional material. Plus with a few extra faces along the way. Baron Zemo’s introduction was great and it now seems like Marvel is trying to make him into another Loki. It was an unexpected turn of events that Bucky decided to help Zemo escape and they’re now working together. This is an interesting dynamic which will surely result in further buddy cop antics. We also see Zemo become more like his comic book counter part. He’s got much more regal clothing and he’s of course wearing the iconic purple mask that was teased in the trailers. He seems to want to keep that mask out of Sam and Bucky’s view, meaning that there’s still stuff he’s hiding from the pair, but more on that later…

There’s also the reveal that Zemo is Sokovian royalty. Now this is a big stretch but this could mean we’re getting ever closer to the reveal of Latveria. A similar fictional Eastern European nation with a very famous leader…Victor Von Doom. As stated, this is a big jump and probably won’t be something we’ll see in the course of this series. But the door is certainly open.

Sharon Carter was also finally revealed after killing the thankfully short lived Selby. Though this episode seems to have given her her whole purpose to the story. Since she can’t leave Madripoor, it doesn’t seem like she’ll be doing much else other than congratulating our leads and thanking them for her pardon once the series is over. That being said, her presence here was greatly welcome. She had some fantastic action sequences to show off her skills and obviously helped out a lot in giving us more information towards the origins of the Flag Smashers’ serum.

It should be noted that Madripoor is a fictional location that originates from the Marvel comics. It is most commonly associated with X-Men storylines. The internet has sadly been burned before with Marvel TV trying to theorise over X-Men characters appearing. WandaVision and Ralph Bohner is not quite the same as Madripoor however.  Madripoor is a location that is now confirmed to exist in the MCU, it’s not like Quicksilver possibly coming from another dimension. On the other hand, it is just that, a location. This doesn’t obligate Marvel into introducing any X-Men in the future, it’s just a nice reference. This doesn’t mean the door to the X-Men isn’t open, but given Marvel’s recent history of teasing the Mutants, it would be a waste of time hoping for anything out of this.

We also learn that the person in charge of Madripoor is the Power Broker. In the comics, Curtis Jackson is a wealthy businessman that has partnerships with the likes of Red Skull in an effort to take down Captain America. The character has appeared in the same story arcs as The Flag Smasher, so his presence here isn’t uncalled for. It seems that the Power Broker is the man behind the Flag Smashers’ serum as he’s the one who funded the scientist we see in the cargo tankers. Isiah Bradley is indeed the man behind the serum, but not wittingly as was previously theorised here. Power Broker’s true identity has not yet been revealed in the course of this episode but he surely will be by episode 6, but more on that in theory time…

In this episode we also get a lot more important information about Karli Morganthau. She has someone she cares for who by the end of this episode dies of Tuberculosis. This adds further ammunition to the Flag Smashers being sympathetic. Karli having a sad back story of a refugee carer with TB is probably going to be discussed by the end and it will be the justification for her blowing up several people in Lithuania at the end. We can also now confirm that Karli is indeed the leader of The Flag Smashers as the man who Torres thought was the leader was quite clearly seen in this episode taking orders from her. Both of course were being shown having a normal conversation, showing them to be human beings. Which is great writing, but it also makes it even more obvious of their inevitable siding with Bucky and Sam.

The scenes we saw with John Walker and Hoskins were great and revealed further his unworthiness of the shield. We see Walker lose his cool with the German man and from that interaction we can see that as the series goes on we will have further comments on America being the world’s police. Zemo makes further comments in this regard on the plane journey to Madripoor.

We also see right at the end the unexpected reveal that the Wakandans are getting involved in the story. This makes sense since Zemo did kill their last king. It will be interesting to see how they refer to T’Challa throughout the series or if they mention him at all. This series was written before Chadwick Boseman’s untimely demise so it may be disappointing should it seem like there was originally a plan for Black Panther himself to be a bit more involved. After all, T’Challa was the one that ultimately captured Zemo.

Theory Time: Baron Zemo is the Power Broker. It would seem weird to introduce a brand new character that seems to be behind everything in the last few episodes of the show. Zemo is clearly up to something and obviously knew quite a lot about Madripoor. It would make sense that he is the secret leader especially given his access to a wealth of money and resources. He’s also had a history of double crossing and espionage so having a secret identity is not something that would be beyond him.

The series is now rocketing off. Make sure to check back here next week. But in the meantime, do you have anymore theories? Agree with the ones we’ve made. Tweet @TheREALFreddieD and @CoastalHMedia and tell us what you think.

The Falcon And The Winter Soldier is streaming weekly on Disney+