Why Falcon & The Winter Soldier Need Civil War’s Zemo

The second episode of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier reintroduced Daniel Brühl's Captain America: Civil War villain Helmut Zemo, suggesting that he could be the MCU's Hannibal Lecter. Having ed the ranks of the MCU villains not killed off thanks to Black Panther's intervention at the end of Civil War, Zemo was locked up for his crimes (including murder), his story assumed over. But then the Disney+ show has brought him back for what could be a key role in Sam and Bucky's investigation of the Flag-Smashers.

While the first two episodes of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier have featured major action sequences that make it far more like traditional MCU fare than WandaVision, the longer-form structure offers a greater opportunity for narrative depth. Taking a lead from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the show is channeling 1970s espionage stories with distinctly modern subtexts of racial identity issues and class conflict. It is both timeless and a timely answer to both modern society and the fallout from Avengers: Endgame and has proved itself more than willing to expand typical moral boundaries. The return of Zemo in a new position fits that embrace of grey areas.

The question now is what part Zemo can play in the rest of the show and whose side he will be on. Civil War's ending seemed to suggest that he was deflated, still emotionally raw enough after the death of his family to be suicidal, but ultimately that he was successful in his plan. It was, after all, his machinations that broke up the Avengers and led to their fractured state at the beginning of Infinity War as he planted the seeds that tore the team apart from the inside.

Why Zemo Is Key To The Flag-Smasher's Secret

Flag Smasher in Falcon and Winter Soldier

In Sam and Bucky's perception at least, Zemo is important to understanding who the Flag-Smashers are because he's the key to HYDRA. They're following the logic that HYDRA was the last known source of super soldier serum in the run-up to Civil War, and thus that Zemo would be aware of the organization's dealings with the serum that might have paved the way for them to get into the hands of the Flag-Smashers. The wrinkle in that particular timeline is the presence of Power Broker, as mentioned in episode 2, but there remains a chance that he could be HYDRA-d. An alternative theory suggests that Zemo himself is the Power Broker, pulling strings from within his cell like a true Kingpin-like figure.

Zemo's access to HYDRA's secrets - and thus those they stole from SHIELD when they infiltrated Nick Fury's organization prior to Captain America's discovery of the corruption - could also explain why he's been locked away and forgotten about. In short, he knows too much and his precise knowledge of the history of super soldier programs in the MCU makes him uniquely qualified to help Sam and Bucky provided the source traces back to HYDRA.

Will Zemo Work With Sam & Bucky?

The end of the episode may have only shown Zemo very briefly, but the implication is clear: Zemo could well become the MCU’s answer to Hannibal Lecter. Thanks to his access to HYDRA’s innermost secrets during the events of Captain America: Civil War, he knows how they recreated super soldier serum and presumably their plans beyond the soldiers he personally deactivated. The question that’s not answered here, of course, is motive, because, on the face of it, Zemo has very little incentive to help. He’s locked up for crimes that aren’t reasonable pardonable (given that he wasn’t under any sort of HYDRA control like Bucky) and even if he wasn’t, it’s established that he has nothing to live for.

The only logical solution is that Zemo recognizes an opportunity in Bucky and Sam visiting him that reignites the same fire in him. He may not seek freedom before they arrive, but the revelation of Captain America’s reemergence and the change of perception of superheroes after Endgame may be what motivates him to seek freedom to right that injustice. Given that it’s established already that he is a more zealous version of the character and more closely linked to the comic book iteration, some form of additional extremism seems likely and using Sam and Bucky as pawns to get his freedom feels more likely than working with them. They are his avowed enemies, after all, and to work with them would be to dishonor his family. So while he may use them to escape, him turning face and creating an alliance is probably unlikely. Intriguingly, of course, that would mean that Zemo's arc would effectively copy Loki's storyline from Thor: The Dark World.

Zemo Could Reveal More Captain America Secrets To Falcon & Bucky

Daniel Bruhl as Zemo in Falcon and Winter Soldier

Though Zemo is initially identified as a potential HYDRA informant, he could actually reveal more information that is equally revelatory. Part of that could be the secret hidden past of the Captain America project. While Isaiah Bradley's part in episode 2 was only very brief, what he said hinted at a far bigger revelation from the comics. Specifically, Bradley's treatment and imprisonment is pulled directly out of Truth: Red, White & Black, the story revealing the dark secrets of Project Rebirth that drew real-world parallels with the plight of the Tuskegee Airmen. Bradley's trauma has already been very heavily hinted at in the episode, as he referenced being locked up and experimented on and his blood being taken, which could well be the true source of the super soldiers within the Flag-Smashers.

In the comics, Elijah Bradley, Isaiah's grandson - who actually also appears in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier played by Elijah Richardson - became Young Avengers team member Patriot, inheriting Isaiah's powers supposedly from a blood transfusion. Though it was subsequently revealed to be a lie, the precedent does exist, since She-Hulk's powers were gifted thanks to a transfusion from Bruce Banner, her cousin. The fact that Elijah brought up his blood being taken feels like a smoking gun and Zemo may be the key to filling in the gaps, given that HYDRA's infiltration of SHIELD may have revealed the same key information. Given that Sam is wrestling with his identity and the show has embraced issues of racial conflict already, it would be an intriguing development to see how he further reacts to more of the secrets of Project Rebirth and the treatment of Bradley.

Next: Winter Soldier Might Be Even Stronger Than Captain America In The MCU