John Walker Proves Karli and the Flagsmashers Are Right
John Walker is one of the most interesting characters in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier. The perfect soldier and imperfect Captain America, John is one of those characters you love to hate. It would be easy to give the shield to a flatter character to emphasize that the shield belongs with Sam, but to do so would be a disservice to the show.
By giving the shield and title to John, the writers didn’t just create a brilliant antagonist to Sam and Bucky but one that proves the point of the Flagsmashers. John is living evidence that their cause, if not their means, are just. Not only does John represent the systems they wish to destroy, his rise and fall as Captain America demonstrates how those systems fail the individual.
The Government’s Hand
The Flagsmashers seek a world without borders. They want to recreate the time before the Avengers undid the Blip, a time that even Sam says brought the world together. While Wandavision was a very independent foray into a post-Blip world, The Falcon & The Winter Soldier shows that bringing back 3.5 billion people has consequences. There are large numbers of people who are displaced and live in refugee camps that dot the world.
The Global Recommission Council (GRC), a body of government constructed to help put the world back in order, own many of these camps which are often unfunded and underfed, making Karli and her Flagsmashers a hero of the people. Their raids retrieve food and medicine for those who are disadvantaged.
In comes John Walker, hunting Karli to bring the super soldier to a perceived justice. He works alongside the GRC’s police, raiding camps and arresting people — notably, people who are assumed to have helped Karli but rarely with any evidence. We see this clearly in episode 5 when the Latvian camp gets shut down, its inhabitants arrested, and their possessions left in piles exposed to the elements.
John gives a face to the GRC. It would be easy to have just the police raid but mixing in John makes the raids a little more personal than a group of armored men storming into the camps. It also serves to highlight Karli’s cause. John is effectively a blunt instrument, a hammer raining down on the refugees regardless of actual guilt. He is indiscriminate and ruthless, traits that come to a head in the fourth episode, “The Whole World Is Watching.”
The Fall of Captain America
John Walker’s time with the shield was brief but notable. If only for that time he executed somebody in broad daylight in the middle of a public square. John doubles down on the horrific act in the following episode, claiming it to have been necessary and falsely attributing the death of his partner Lamar to the man he killed.
It’s a sobering moment. We’ve seen John is aggressive throughout the show and is seemingly aware of his issues. We see this when he expresses concern to Lamar over taking the super soldier serum and how it might change him. This scene digs a little bit into John’s backstory. All we know of John is that he’s a highly decorated soldier, but he mentions a past mission in this episode that he clearly harbors a lot of guilt and trauma from, though the details are concealed.
This trauma is central to John’s character and role in the story as it proves Karli is right to challenge the system. In episode 5, “Truth,” John is not only stripped of his title of Captain America but given a dishonorable discharge, and nearly court marshaled. John tries to protest to no avail but says something crucial to understanding his character: “You made me.”
John Walker does not just symbolize a broken system but is its product. The system both enables and exploits the broken soldier.
Enabled and Exploited
John Walker may be a victim of the system, but this doesn’t justify his savage behavior. He was correct, however, in claiming that his mental condition is at least partially the responsibility of the military. He has PTSD and other traumatic issues that are evident in his behavior, if not spoken of directly.
This can be reasonably linked back to his tours in Afghanistan and the “worst day of his life” he references while talking to Lamar about taking the serum. John has a skewed sense of justice, seeking it at the end of whatever weapon he finds in his hands, be it gun or shield. It’s implied that John’s anger issues run further back than his trauma; Lamar is an old friend who references John’s tendency to solve issues with his fists.
John is a dangerous man, and the government enables him by looking past obvious mental issues to make him Captain America. Their reasoning behind this is clear: John is the perfect American soldier. Blond-haired, blue-eyed, three Medals of Honor. John is the face the government wants to put on America, but their enablement and exploitation of a soldier no longer fit for duty creates an international incident.
This enablement is also exploitation. At one point, John may have been a good person. He may have truly had the ideals he tries to embody as Captain America, but any true patriotism has been long lost. John was molded into a weapon by the government at the cost of his mental stability. And when the inevitable occurred, he was discarded like a broken shield.
It doesn’t justify John’s actions nor absolve him of them, but his trauma and the exploitation of the government makes him a fascinating character. The Falcon & The Winter Soldier has proven itself to be a show about the traumas of the past, the effect they have on the present, and how the individual is exploited by the institution. John Walker represents the worst of these in a complex shell, making him far more than a one-note villain.
