I enjoyed this show overall and the final episode is a satisfactory conclusion to the theme of global politics in a world that is still reeling from the aftermath of the fight with Thanos in the movies. I also have to give credit to Marvel regarding their well written inclusion of race politics and our very own perception of the society we live in. It infuses the show with a lot of relatability and makes the journey of Sam Wilson all the more poignant. His last speech, however, seemed a little too preachy moralistic to me and even made me cringe a little. It is an odd speech considering the intention of the show to leave absolute light and absolute dark behind and show us a lot of grey area.

I did enjoy seeing the growing relationship between Sam and Bucky, even though I feel that Bucky got the short end of the stick when it comes to character development. It is obvious that he is not treated as an equal in that regard, which led to a lackluster and rushed final scene that was wholly disappointing. On the plus side, all the other small scenes that he had over the course of the show keep confirming me that Sebastian Stan is a fantastic actor when he gets the right material.

Daniel Brühl as Zemo is top notch, but Daniel Brühl as an actor is always top notch. I am not really into all the memes that have flooded the internet, though, and I think they slightly take away from the impact he is supposed to have on the strong convictions of Sam and Bucky.

Karli Morgenthau and her Flag Smashers never really grabbed me. Their motivations seem very muddled and Karli as a character remains completely flat and one-dimensional. This might not be entirely the fault of the writers or the actors, because there was supposed to be a major sub plot that had to be removed due to current events in the real world. Regardless, they don't really work in this series as a relatable foil for the downtrodden people on the planet.

Sharon Carter is... not Sharon Carter anymore. They completely changed her character from the movies and while that change might be understandable from a world-building perspective, it remains to be seen whether it leads to anything worthwhile when she shows up again in future Marvel projects.

The big standout of this entire show is John Walker, played brilliantly by Wyatt Russell. Instead of giving him the lazy antagonistic role to Sam Wilson that everyone expected, the writers decided to make him an extremely interesting character. Capable but flawed, good intentions but questionable executions. He surpasses all the typical super hero and super villain tropes that we are used to by now and I can't applaud Wyatt Russell enough for the way he plays that character. He is the greatest takeaway from this show and I am looking forward to seeing him again in the future.