Today's The Falcon and The Winter Soldier kicks off with a commercial for the Global Repatriation Council which better explains their place in the post-Blip world before we catch up with Captain America as he continues to pursue the Flag-Smashers at their behest. The guy we saw helping them last week spits in his face, and John Walker loses it, screaming "Do you know who I am?" Talking to Battlestar, he decides that they need to pick up on Sam and Bucky's trail. The latter meets with Zemo in that secure facility and gets an apology of sorts when the villain makes it clear that what he did to him was never personal. As the two title heroes debate whether to break Zemo out, we learn that Bucky has already done what he needed to help him escape, and after an awesome sequence, Zemo arrives to help our heroes.
Meeting in a garage full of priceless vintage cars, Zemo retrieves that familiar purple mask from one of them, and explains to Sam that his family was royalty until the Avengers destroyed Sokovia; yes, he's a Baron. On the plane, Zemo is looking at Bucky's list of amends, and Sam points out that it's the same book Steve had when he came out of the ice. After an argument about Marvin Gaye, we see Kari Morgenthau say goodbye to her mother. In Madripoor, the trio is undercover, with Bucky forced to be the Winter Soldier again. Interestingly, when he's forced into a bar fight, it seems he enjoys taking those thugs out a little too much. We learn that Power Broker rules Madripoor (the villain is a he, so it's not Viper), and the unexpected allies then meet with Zemo's contact Selby. Things quickly go awry, and a bounty is placed on their head before Sharon Carter intervenes and takes them to safety.
She's not the woman she once was and has been forced to become a criminal in Madripoor acquiring and selling fake art. She takes some shots at the heroes, and clearly no longer believes in what America - and more specifically Captain America - stands for. Dr. Wilfred Nagel is responsible for cracking the Super Soldier serum, and they track him down to a shipping yard. At gunpoint, he reveals that he cracked the serum while working for the C.I.A. (using Isaiah Bradley's blood samples). However, he vanished during the Blip, and when he came back, the program had been shut down. As a result, he turned to the Power Broker and created twenty samples, all of which were stolen by the Flag-Smashers. This version of the serum also doesn't change the subject's appearance and is more subtle than the version which transformed Steve Rogers. As Sharon fends off some bounty hunters outside, Zemo guns Nagel down, and a huge explosion follows. Donning his mask, Zemo kills the men after them, while Sam and Bucky continue to bicker.
After asking Sam to make good on his promise of getting her a pardon, Sharon remains in Madripoor and tells a woman she meets with that they have a "couple" of big problems. Sam and Bucky, meanwhile, head off with Zemo. The Flag-Smashers attack a GRC base, but Kari takes things a little too far when she blows it up with people still inside (knowing the Power Broker needs them seems to have given her a renewed sense of confidence). Captain America believes Sam and Bucky assisted in Zemo's breakout and is going off the books to track them down. Elsewhere, after learning more about Isaiah, Sam wonders whether he should have destroyed the shield, but Bucky ponders becoming Captain America himself by taking it from Walker as he still believes in what it stands for. Landing in Latvia, Zemo wonders whether the Avengers ever bothered to visit the memorial for Sokovia after it was destroyed and picked apart by neighbouring countries, but as he and Sam head into Zemo's apartment, Bucky finds a small device on the ground and follows its trail back to a surprise guest star.
It's Dora Milaje second-in-command Ayo: she's here for Zemo!