Black Panther Almost Made John Walker’s Captain America Public Kill Mistake

Warning: SPOILERS for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 4 – “The Whole World Is Watching”.

Captain America John Walker (Wyatt Russell) publicly murdering a Flag-Smasher is The Falcon and The Winter Soldier‘s most shocking moment but King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) almost made the exact same mistake in Black Panther. It’s an interesting parallel between the two superheroes after Black Panther was introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Captain America: Civil War.

T’Challa became the Black Panther for revenge after his father King T’Chaka (John Kani) was killed in the bombing of the United Nations in Vienna caused by Baron Helmut Zemo (Daniel Bruhl). Consumed with the desire for vengeance, T’Challa believed Bucky Barnes AKA The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), who Zemo framed, was responsible. As the Black Panther, T’Challa pursued Barnes and crossed paths with the Avengers, but he sided with Team Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) against Team Cap, which was protecting the innocent Winter Soldier. T’Challa chased Barnes from Europe all the way to Hydra’s secret Siberia base, where Zemo was lying in wait to expose and destroy the remnants of the Winter Soldier Program. Crucially, Zemo confessed that he caused the UN bombing that killed T’Challa’s father and he shared the truth that he orchestrated the Avengers’ collapse. T’Challa saw that his own quest for retribution mirrored Zemo’s, and he chose not to spare the villain’s life rather than fall down the same twisted route.

In The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, John Walker was faced with a similar situation as T’Challa did in Civil War – but the new Captain America gave in to his desire to kill his enemy. Much of the show’s portrayal of Walker emphasizes how he is unable to match up to the Captain America mantle, as Sam (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky regard him with understandable suspicion, and he’s outclassed by both the superpowered Flag-Smashers, and the Dora Milaje, who have no superpowers. Episode 4 of the season confirms the crucial difference between the two versions of Captain America, as Walker – now enhanced by super soldier serum himself, and having flown into a rage after his teammate was killed – uses his powers to murder a Flag-Smasher named Nico (Noah Mills) in public. Interestingly, T’Challa faced an identical moment of truth in Black Panther.

When T’Challa, Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), and Okoye (Danai Gurira) went to Busan, South Korea, to capture Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis), they ended up pursuing the vibranium thief in a breakneck car chase. T’Challa was in full Black Panther regalia and he ultimately caused Klaue’s car to crash. When he got his hands on the villain who once stole tons of vibranium and murdered Wakandan citizens, T’Challa was so enraged that he nearly killed Klaue in full view of the innocent bystanders watching. It was because Okoye and Nakia arrived to talk Black Panther from making a terrible mistake that he spared Klaue’s life.

The incident in Black Panther is repeated in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in uncanny ways. Both John Walker and T’Challa were in full costume chasing an enemy who murdered people they cared about in a foreign country. Klaue and Matias were fearful of the out-of-control superheroes out for their blood. The shocked civilian witnesses immediately started recording the spectacle on their cellphones. When Nakia and Okoye pleaded with T’Challa to stop the murder he was about to commit, they reminded their King, “The world watches!” Meanwhile, the title of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 4 that ends with John Walker committing cold-blooded murder is “The Whole World Is Watching”.

The key difference, of course, is that Okoye and Nakia were there to stop T’Challa’s worst instincts from taking over and cause him to make a terrible and tragic mistake. There was no one to talk down John Walker because the person who would have done it, Battlestar, was who he was out for blood to avenge. It’s because T’Challa was surrounded by his loyal friends and loved ones that the Black Panther didn’t murder Klaue. No one was around to stop John Walker from letting his grief and anger push him too far in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, but Walker made the worst choice imaginable of his own volition.

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