The unveiling of Sharon Carter as the Power Broker in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier felt a little anticlimactic, even if it made complete sense in terms of the character arc she’s been following off screen ever since Captain America: Civil War. Having been disavowed and named as a fugitive by the government she’d dedicated her entire adult life to, you can completely understand why the former Agent 13 is so pissed off.
That being said, the bombshell didn’t really resonate given that everyone had been expecting it since the third episode, and the real meat of the revelation was saved for the post-credits scene, which embeds the Power Broker at the highest levels of security and intelligence, a decision that’ll come back to haunt an awful lot of people, least of all Sam Wilson’s Captain America.
Steve Rogers would be horrified if he discovered the Carter name being used for such nefarious means, but nobody seems to know where he is, so it’s Sam’s problem now. And in a new interview, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s executive producer and lead writer Malcolm Spellman defended the big twist, saying it completely fits Sharon’s journey over the last few years.
“All people have to do is be honest about what they think Sharon’s been going through since Civil War, you know what I’m saying? No one else would take her in, she’d been disavowed, on the run, forced to hustle, right? It was a natural trajectory. Now, that said, Sharon’s journey isn’t over, and who knows where she’s going to end up or why she’s doing what she’s doing?”
It wasn’t the means of discovering the Power Broker’s identity that underwhelmed, but rather the execution. It was a quick two-minute scene involving Sharon, Karli Morgenthau and Batroc that flew past without any of the dialogue getting a chance to land, and there’s definitely an argument to be made that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier would have benefited from a couple of extra episodes, looking at how several plot points in the finale felt rushed.