Relationship Spotlight: Sam Wilson & Bucky Barnes (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier)

Before seeing The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, I was excited for it on the grounds of 1) Marvel, duh, and 2) I love the characters of both Sam and Bucky. The 11^th-hour developments for Sam in Endgame gave me even more reason to look forward to it. However, none of my excitement really stemmed from the fact that it was the two of them together in a series. While there are some amusing bits between them in Civil War, I found the humor there a little forced, and I wasn’t eager for the “buddy cop vibes” I heard other fans crossing their fingers for. The series has some element of that dynamic between them, but it also digs deeper and gets at something that I find much more interesting (some spoilers.)

We need to start with an important establishing fact: Sam and Bucky have never been friends. Not really. When Steve learns about Bucky’s tragic history in The Winter Soldier, of the decades he’s spent being mindwiped and brainwashed in order to turn him into an assassin for his enemies, Sam is sympathetic but of the opinion that Bucky might be too far gone. “I don’t think he’s the kind you save,” he warns Steve. “He’s the kind you stop.” Jumping ahead to Civil War, Sam joins Steve in flouting the new Sokovia Accords and some of their fellow Avengers, first to save Bucky from being killed by police and later to follow Bucky’s lead to a pressing threat. This is where we see the Sam-Bucky slightly-forced comedy duo. Their mild bickering cements the idea that Sam is doing all of this to back up Steve, not because he’s in any way favorably disposed to Bucky.

Throughout the movies, Sam and Bucky’s only major connection is Steve. They’re both his friends, not one another’s, and each reflects a different part of Steve’s life. Steve is all they have in common, and by the time The Falcon and the Winter Soldier comes around, we can add that they’ve both fought Thanos’s army (though it’s not like they were buddies on the battlefield,) but Steve is no longer there. The only connection between them now is the absence of him, and as the question of the shield and Steve’s legacy arises, these two men who’ve never been inclined toward one another find themselves fighting alongside each other to protect that legacy.

Don’t get me wrong: there’s still a good amount of that buddy-cop bickering that a lot of fans wanted to see. For me, some of it remains clunky (like the manufactured “couples therapy” bit) while other jokes land well (like Bucky’s disdain for Sam’s characterization of “The Big 3” and their subsequent banter.) But I find the deeper stuff much more interesting.

At the start of the series, these are two guys who don’t really understand each other, but they think that they do, which is where they get into trouble. Bucky thinks Sam “abandoned” the mantle Steve left him and is thus not the person Steve thought he was, not recognizing how much more fraught the issue of stepping into the role of Captain America is for a Black man. Sam has a tendency to discount Bucky’s extensive trauma, prodding at Bucky’s often self-serious tone with jokes and banter, and it’s not until he sees the way Zemo scratches at Bucky’s old wounds that what Bucky’s been through seems to hit home for him.

The mission they undertake together – a bit fumblingly at first but with increasing cooperation and respect – helps them come to these realizations about one another, and that’s where we see them start to develop a genuine friendship that’s based on more than just the guy who’s no longer there. As they get deeper into the mission, Sam periodically checks in with Bucky to see how he’s coping, especially when Zemo forces him to pretend to be the Winter Soldier again. As someone who’s always appreciated Sam’s background as a guy who led a support group for struggling veterans, that’s the kind of care I wanted to see from him. In turn, Bucky comes to respect and understand Sam’s initial reluctance to take up the shield, and he apologizes on Steve’s behalf for the lack of forethought in having expected it of him without considering the nuance involved. By the end, when Sam and Bucky have a heart-to-heart while training with the shield, the moment feels earned. Something happens between these two over the course of the series, and they end the season in a very different place from where they start.

Sure, Bucky literally getting “invited to the cookout” in the last episode is a little corny (what are you doing showing up with a store-bought cake, Bucky??), but it’s a testament to how far this relationship moves over the course of this series that I can buy Sam extending the invite, as well as Bucky accepting it. And besides, the corniness is worth it for the shot of Bucky casually talking to Sarah while three kids dangle off of his vibranium arm, which is quite possibly the cutest thing the MCU has ever done.

If we’re treated to another season of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, or if Bucky joins Sam in the new Captain America movie, I’ll be eager to watch – not just because of these two characters but because of how they are together.