Chicago Redshirt

I can rationalize Nina being a bad guy and yet helping Jack as much as she did in a couple of ways. First, the Big Bads that season, the Drazens, had their crazy-ass ornate plot to have both Palmer and Bauer suffer and die in a nasty way. So it could be that Nina in assisting Jack could have been doing so in order to serve him up for the Drazens' ultimate revenge. Or it could be that Nina was hired by one set of bad guys without much knowledge of the other set of bad guys. Or Nina assisted Jack to keep her cover intact with CTU. Or she let her lust/personal feelings for Jack motivate her to do things that she probably shouldn't have as a mole until her professional mole obligations got in the way. I vaguely remember the showrunners did a quasi-explanation of the twist somewhere and it wasn't terrible. And after all, there was material in the show that suggested that she was the traitor early on, namely that key card. (She debunked the key card evidence by saying she and Jack were on a romantic weekend together on the date it mentioned, but apparently she either gaslit him about the weekend it was or she somehow fixed the date on the keycard to read that weekend to give her an alibi? I dunno). Anyway, as you can see, I have vast fanwanking powers. Fear me! But try as I might, I can't rationalize Sharon as the Power Broker. The trouble with the notion that Sharon didn't know Zemo was going to kill Nagel: 1. Of course she should have known that would be part of Zemo's agenda. Zemo revealed his whole agenda is to avoid the existence of super-soldiers and the like in Civil War. How would Sharon think he would not try something similar with Nagel? That is "Dany forgot about the Iron Fleet" levels of stupid. 2. Even if Sharon thinks that either Zemo is a changed person or that Sam and Bucky would keep him in check and prevent him from killing Nagel, we can't escape that there are just no benefits to letting Sam and Bucky know where Nagel is. There just aren't. The best case scenario for the PB from them talking to Nagel would be Nagel not saying anything to them. .Which the PB already has basically achieved by not revealing Nagel's location. Other bad-for-the-PB scenarios include: Someone gets the information about how the SSS is made and the PB loses a monopoly on it, possibly the ability to make it at all; Our Heroes take Nagel into protective custody or arrest him; Nagel either reveals who the PB is or gives clues to her identity; The killers she sends after Our Heroes themselves are killed. I don't know that Sam really interacted with Walker during that fight, and Bucky basically just trusted Walker to have enough hero in him to not let a bunch of GRC people plunge to their deaths. I don't see Sam and Bucky inviting Walker and Mrs. Walker down south for a shrimp boil any time soon.

Didn't finish Witcher so I don't know about it. Game of Thrones follows four main families. One of them, the Starks, have as their family animal dire wolves, and so some of them get called Wolves, and one was called the Young Wolf. But I don't think any were known as "the White Wolf.." The show also featured as a chief villain a race of supernatural beings called White Walkers (who happen to start off closest to the Starks), so it may be a mix of those two concepts.

Because I'm sane (mostly) and have worked through grief for the losses in my life, I know that I would not hold a single person hostage to let me live in a fantasy scenario where I didn't suffer those losses. But I'd be a big fat liar if I were to say that it would not be tempting on some level, or that I would certainly would be strong enough to resist the temptation especially if experienced the temptation as Wanda did -- not as a Faustian bargain, but just caught up in the middle of it at the height of my grief. And I am cynical enough to think that a good percentage of people who were still fresh in grief might be tempted too. "Given the chance and given your power, I'd bring my mom back. I know I would." is what she said, which is slightly different and less unethical than "If it took enslaving a town, I would do it" or "You were totally justified in doing what you did." There is nothing unethical about saying that Wanda could have kidnapped and enslaved thousands more to her delusions. It's a matter of fact. Now whether one is going to credit that fact with much significance because she didn't happen to create the Hex in NYC or start to expand it beyond Westview is another matter.

I'm right there with you except as to Zemo. I don't think he was any less villainous here than he was in Civil War. He murdered Nagel. He attempted to kill Karli and only didn't succeed because she was covered in plot armor that only gave way in the finale. His henchman murdered another three or four people. I don't think that the show woobified Zemo. I think confronting Zemo was an important character development for Bucky. It also allowed the writers to have things happen that would not likely have happened or at least raised questions, like Sam and Bucky's ability to globe-trot, or whether they would kill to stop the super-soldier serum from becoming ubiquitous.

Monica was a victim of Wanda. She didn't need to speak empathy for the victims. She knows first-hand their suffering. What is remarkable to me about her is that having experienced that suffering, she still had the perspective that the best way to deal with the situation is not to attempt to blow Wanda off the map but to show compassion and understanding toward her.

I think a couple of things would differentiate it from the concept behind SS: a Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers squad would be operating in the open, indeed would be playing to the public, as opposed to the covert nature of the Squad, and the Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers would be operating entirely voluntarily as opposed to because they have bombs in their heads or because they want to shave time off of their sentences.

The notion that Sharon would deliberately put Sam and Bucky and herself at risks because she thinks the Madripoor assassin community just isn't quite good enough to get them doesn't make much sense. Putting up $58 million as a reward could attract new players or could mean that there are so many players that one of them gets a lucky shot off. If Sharon is a human, I don't see how she would be blind to the serum being a trillion dollar thing and how she would do anything to risk its continued existence.(I could buy that Skrull Sharon wouldn't necessarily care about money or the chance to have enhanced people around her. Regardless of whether Power Broker Sharon were interested in selling the serum or keeping its use for herself, the Power Broker has a vested interest in not having other people know who Nagel is, where Nagel is, what the serum is or how to make it. She has no conceivable incentive to lead Sam and Bucky to him If they wanted to go this route they could have changed things to make more sense --- just have Our Heroes get a lead on Nagel independent of Sharon. The notion that Sharon wants the Super Soldiers to come work for her is a big retcon. If the Power Broker did, seems like killing off the one dude and sending threatening texts is not the way to go about it. Also, with the serum secure, Power Broker Sharon could give it to any 20 or 200 people and would have no need for Karli and her band of people. We come back again to: why risk people knowing about the serum? Even if we are to conclude that Power Broker Sharon deemed Nagel a liability -- which is something there's no support for, since as far as we know Nagel is the only one who knows how to make his version of the serum -- it still doesn't make sense that she would not just take Nagel out herself and would tip Sam and Bucky to his location. She easily could have just sent men to kill Nagel, take his notes and equipment at any time. What I meant was after the one attempt to track Karli and the Supersoldiers down, we do not see any further efforts by the Power Broker's men to hunt them down. If the Power Broker were someone else, there's the ready explanation for this that the Power Broker isn't able to catch any leads as to where Karli and her crew are. However, Sharon knows that Karli is in Latvia and literally has a satellite tasked to the area. It makes little sense if she was the Power Broker that she made no use of this knowledge to attempt to use her men to capture or kill the Flagsmashers. A long game player would probably not have pissed away ta trillion dollar asset like the SSS for the benefit of getting people who already implicitly trust her to trust her maybe a little more. Sharon does not really need Sam or Bucky to get herself a pardon. She could presumably have gotten one if she really wanted one at any time, particularly if she has a few million lying around.

I'm assuming the offer to Nikki was basically an unpaid internship at a GR restaurant. I think the restaurant term is "stage," pronounced like "stazj." While it would be cool and all to have on your resume, having to pay to get to wherever the restaurant was and support yourself while you got that experience seems like it would be a drag.

The Immortal being Abraham Lincoln was kinda cool. But how did JWB take him out? Also, I kinda like that Amber knew that Mark was Invincible, but it makes her pretty unreasonable to not have just confronted him about being Invincible. To be like, "Wah, you were blowing me off because you were literally saving the world and I'm angry because you wouldn't talk to me about it" strikes me as some serious passive-aggressive BS.

When Sharon is on the phone with someone after being reinstated, she talks about the notion that although they don't have the SSS any more, she'll now have access to government secrets and tech. Again, putting aside the stupidity of mustache-twirling within a few yards of the government building, she should realize that not having the SSS is a trillion-dollar loss. People upthread have speculated that maybe this Sharon is a Skrull, and I guess if that's the case it would make more sense. Such a person isn't necessarily in search of money or even the power that the SSS could bring. But of course, if she's a Skrull, she should be able to get access to government tech and secrets anyway by shapeshifting into people who have that clearance.

Apropos of nothing, I understand that there was a comic book miniseries or version of the Avengers that had a bunch of Black heroes team up. Was it any good? Would it be too much to hope that there might be a MCU version that would pair Monica, Sam, Rhodey, Luke Cage and/or others?

Karli claimed to be thinking about recruiting Bucky. And she did enough research about Sam to know where his sister and nephews lived. So I think it's safe to say that she knows (or should be expected to know) enough about Bucky to know that he served in WWII and he fought Thanos. It would have been so easy to tweak the line to be like, "You know what it's like to fight in a war larger than yourself. You fought against Nazis. You fought Thanos." Just like in real life, some people recognize celebrities and some people don't. Part of it depends on context. Of the Baltimore cops, one didn't recognize him at first. In this episode, a cop instantly said Sgt. Barnes. As to Sharon, it's still problematic and nonsensical for her to be the PB no matter how you slice it. I don't know why wanting a pardon and reinstatement could conceivably be worth it to her. As the Power Broker, she apparently has a vast fortune and resources. The downsides of her situation are she supposedly can't go home and her parents don't know where she is. Even assuming that is true and she wasn't playing Sam and Bucky, such things are small prices to pay to have enough money that you can drop $58m as a possible reward to get Bucky, Sam and Zemo. But let's say that she does have a burning desire to get a pardon and reinstatement to SHIELD. She should be able to get these things without giving up Nagel. In fact, if she is actually the Power Broker with all the connections the name implies, she is absolutely sucktastic at the job if she can't get a pardon that when Staring Murder Machine did. And even if she felt like she needed to engineer something to make it a sure thing, she could do something smarter than risking a person who is the mind behind a trillion dollar formula. There are better ways to keep up appearances than to kill a person who might represent a lead to Nagel, then to lead Our Heroes to Nagel, then to either have assassins truly try to kill Our Heroes and possibly her just hoping that none of them get lucky or to orchestrate an elaborate fake ambush that plays out even while Our Heroes aren't there to witness it.

Giving up the person who created a new viable Super Soldier Serum is a major unforced error. It's like sacrificing your queen to take a pawn, risking your golden goose. No normal person, let alone a criminal mastermind, would do it. Being Sharon Carter, she already had the Avengers (or at least Sam and Bucky) in her corner. So it doesn't do anything for her to make them more grateful.

One presumes that the general public in the MCU knows some of Bucky's backstory, and that Karli as someone who took the super-soldier serum and someone who would do some basic research into someone who had attempted to thwart her plans would have at least the basic understanding by this episode that 1. Bucky fought Nazis in WWII and 2. Bucky fought Thanos in IW and Endgame.

Help me understand the logic of why Power Broker Sharon would lead Bucky/Sam/Zemo to one of her most valuable assets in Nagel instead of just blowing them off, leading them on a wild goose chase, feeding them to the bounty hunters, etc. Also, the implication was that the Power Broker was the one who put the bounty on Sam, Bucky and Zemo. If so, help me understand the logic behind that. Help me understand the logic behind Power Broker Sharon not dispatching her own men to take out Karli and the supersoldiers when she had reason to suspect that they were in Latvia thanks to Sam and Bucky. The only logic behind her being the Power Broker is from the perspective that it would be unconventional for the mystery of who the Power Broker was to be solved with a previously unknown person, which left really two candidates if they were going to reveal PB's identity: Sharon and Senator Dickhead.

Kinda mixed about the episode. Basically, was not in love with all the action stuff or Sharon=Power Broker because that is a twist for twist's sake. It really seems hard to square her being the Power Broker with her leading people to Nagel, for starters. Don't so much love the rehabilitation of Walker. The action scenes were choppy and hard to follow. On the other hand the things I loved I loved, in no particular order: 1. Redwing 2.0 2. Sam taking the mantle up 3. The Isaiah/Sam scene and Isaiah finally getting his due. 4. Changing the title card to Captain America and the Winter Soldier. 5. The scene of the Wilson family business seemingly thriving.

I should add: a reasonable jury could find Walker guilty of murder, voluntary manslaughter or not guilty by reason of temporary insanity, or even (although it would be jury nullification IMO) not guilty because of justifiable homicide. The argument for the latter would go something like: Despite the seeming appearance of helplessness, Nico is a super soldier who could bench motorcycles. He was wanted in connection with various terrorist acts, including the murder of 11 people. He had just come off of being complicit in the murder of Lemar Hoskins. Experts will tell you that regardless of what he was saying and how he was acting, Walker was right to suspect that Nico was playing possum and remained a threat even while on the ground.

Walker's reaction to Bucky saying "he didn't kill Lemar, John" was a scoff and shaking his head. That could equally go with each of the categories I laid out above. 1. He could be thinking, "These guys think I'm the crazy one, but Nico totally killed Lemar!" 2. He could be thinking "I can't believe these guys are going to argue semantics and technicalities, when Nico is obviously an accomplice in killing Lemar." 3. He could be thinking, "Damn, my gaslighting didn't work. Time to change the subject."

In at least U.S. law, there is a concept called "transferred intent." If A intends to shoot and kill B, but C jumps in the way of the bullet, A is still guilty of murdering C even if A never intended to do C any harm. There is also a concept called the felony-murder rule, which holds that if A and B are committing an inherently dangerous felony (say a bank robbery) and someone dies during the that crime, A and B are guilty of murder. That is true if A kills the person, B kills the person, a cop kills the person, the person, the person who dies is a fellow criminal C, and various other scenarios. Also "premeditation" when it comes to murder does not have to be an elaborate scheme. The intent to kill can be formed in a second. So operating under those principles, Karli's killing of Lemar is nothing but murder. She was trying to kill Walker and hit Lemar instead. Giving her the benefit of the doubt that she wouldn't have intentionally tried killing Lemar, it still doesn't matter. Had Walker been able to control himself and simply captured Nico, there's no doubt that he could have been tried for murdering the 11 people at the base Karli blew up and that he should be found guilty. As to Walker's understanding of Nico and his complicity, there's a few possibilities, and I don't know if there's a concrete best one: 1. Walker truly believes that Nico personally caused Lemar's death and thus his actions in killing Nico were justified. He told the Hoskins that he got Lemar's killer because he actually thinks he did. 2. Walker understands that Nico did not personally cause Lemar's death but is talking about Nico being guilty because he is an accomplice. He tells the Hoskins family that Nico was the killer either to spare them pain or him embarrassment. 3. Walker understands that Nico did not personally cause Lemar's death and but tries to put the blame on Nico as part of a coverup/spin control that starts with Bucky and Sam and continues with the Hoskins family.

Yeah, Kara should be able to muster the enthusiasm for finding her father that she does for being able to get a dumplings feast! It seems to me that all the Arrowverse shows except for Superman & Lois and maybe Batwoman seem tired. Maybe that's partially the pandemic, maybe it's just that the rest have had their run, maybe it's me as a viewer. But it feels particularly acute with Supergirl that the actors and writers seem to be playing out the string more than anything else. I assume things are already in the can at this point and not much can be done to change course. But a quick rundown of what I see as the problems with the present status quo: 1. Having Kara separated from everyone else is a bad idea. The show's strength has always been the relationships Kara has with J'onn, Alex and the rest of the cast. Now we're deprived of that. We're also deprived of her doing Supergirl things by virtue of this extended Phantom Zone plot 2. Too many characters to try to service. Back in the day, it was about Kara/Alex/Jimmy/Winn/J'onn with Cat drivebys. Now it's Kara/Alex/J'onn/Brainy/Dreamer/M'Gann/Kelly with a side of Andrea/William. I'm sorry but I don't care all that much about J'onn/M'Gann's romance, Brainy/Nia or Alex/Kelly. 3. The show is in dire need of a better caliber of villain. Lex is past his expiration date. The Phantoms aren't particularly scary or interesting or fun to watch. Nxy could maybe get the job done, but right now it's one-sided since she has powers and Kara doesn't. Maybe she gets Kara back to Earth soon and then a powered Supergirl can fight her?

Yeah, it seems weird that Our Heroes can't think of anywhere to get actual Kara DNA given they have access to her home, the Tower, the Fortress of Solitude. I forget what has happened with the DEO in the current continuity, but presumably they could get actual DNA from various treatment of her over the years when she was depowered or weakened by Kryptonite. And at the same time "digital DNA" apparently counts. I don't like that this many years into things, J'onn, Brainy, and Lena all need pep talks about things that should be relatively obvious. But as long as people are going to be talking through their trauma, maybe it would have been a good idea to have the character who is a psychiatrist by training help people work through their grief and loss.

Wait, she was married to dude, without telling dude that she had been a serious relationship with a woman, let alone their boss's daughter who was still in their orbit. They totally dropped that plot thread, right? No mention of him for like a season now?

Very true. I wish Marvel would make a one-shot or an animated movie/mini-series -- something -- showing Isaiah in his prime. We already have quite a few plot points that seem like they would be interesting to flesh out -- his origin, his fight with Bucky, his rescue of his fellow POWs, his being framed, the experiments and ultimately his escape. Animated movies are one of the places where Marvel has traditionally been behind DC, and this might be a good place to try to catch up.

One thing that I don't think people commented on previously (or if I missed it, apologies, but it deserves being said again): Isaiah's backstory about some of his colleagues being captured and the Army writing them off is a parallel to what happened in Cap: The First Avenger. (except even worse because instead of just writing them off, the Army was getting ready to kill them). Steve and Isaiah both went rogue and both launched a successful rescue mission. But instead of fame and flirtation, Isaiah got screwed over. imprisoned,, experimented on, etc.

Also, i get how Safiyah could get the conclusion that Batwoman had used a Desert Rose to cure herself of Kryptonite poisoning (as opposed to having enlisted the aid of Supergirl/Superman like we have been screaming that she should have). But what makes her think that a) Batwoman would still have that Desert Rose after she used it to cure herself or b) Ocean would be the best person to send on this mission to find Batwoman given that she just had Alice stab him in the heart and she has a whole bunch of operatives to choose from?