You are not Captain America.

The episode starts with John Walker, after he killed one of the Flag Smashers. For a second he seems to feel guilty for what he did, but instantly flips a switch and goes back to being a crazed psycho. Sam and Bucky come in trying to take the shield back and away from John. The three then battle it out, Bucky tries telling John that it doesn’t end well going down the dark side. John replies saying he’s nothing like Bucky as the shield is dripping in blood, symbolizing how John already is down that path. Bucky is able to take the shield away for a second, but since John has the Super Soldier serum he is able to hit much harder against Bucky, disabling his arm. John tries to kill Sam the same way he did the Flag Smasher, but Bucky saves him. Sam and Bucky try to take the shield away from John and by doing so having to break his arm, Bucky then gives Sam the shield.

Kyle commented, “John needs to be locked away.”

After everything calms down we find out that Karli went to NYC for a big attack. Bucky takes off to look for Zemo, Torres then shows up explaining how the government stripped John Walker of being Captain America. Sam gives Torres his wings that John broke, which is a reference to Torres taking the Falcon mantle in the comics. In Washington D.C. we watch as the government strips John Walkers of all his military rank, benefits and Captain America title.

We then get our first big cameo of Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ character Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who in the comics is Madame Hydra. She was a Russian sleeper agent who joined Shield early in her career. She talks to Walker and seems to know everything about him and what he’s done behind closed doors. She tells him to answer when she calls and leaves.

We cut to Bucky finding Zemo at the Sokovia memorial, he tells him that he’s going to stop trying to kill Bucky. Bucky tells him that they’re going to do things their way and Zemo seems like Bucky was going to kill him, but ends up showing he unloaded the clip. Dora Milaje then shows up and tells them that they’re going to bring Zemo to the Raft.

Kyle commented, “hopefully this is the set up for the Thunderbolts.”

Bucky asks Ayo for a favor, which is Sam’s new Falcon suit based off of the Falcon Captain America costume from the comics. Sam goes back to Isaiah Bradley’s house to get the full back story on what happened to him in the 1950’s. Isaiah references the Red Tails 332, which is The Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African American pilots from WWII which is real world history. Sam asks why he didn’t just become the next Captain America, he explains that they wouldn’t let him be the next Cap because he is black. He talked about during that time the Super Soldier program experimented a lot on a squad of black soldiers with the serum, with many of them dying, with it only working on him. During one of the missions they went on, they got captured, the military commanders of the time wanted to bomb it and destroy all evidence of what they were doing to them. Isaiah went rogue to save their lives, brought them back, but ended up dying because of the side effects, which is what Steve did to the ones who were captured by Hydra in the first Captain America movie. They then put Isaiah away and started doing tests on why the serum worked on him.

Chell commented, “it’s sick what they did to him, justice is coming his way.”

Sam tries to convince him to go public but Isaiah replies saying they would kill him on the spot. Sam then goes back home to go fix the boat, then Bucky shows up to help out and deliver the new suit. During this time John meets up with Battlestar’s family talking about how he avenged their son’s death even though he has not.

We jump to Sharon Carter, she reveals that she was the one who released Batroc the Leaper in episode 1 and hired him to capture the military personnel. We later find out that she hired Batroc to arm the Flag Smashers for their attack on the GRC.

Back at Sam’s, Bucky wakes up to Sam’s nephews playing with the shield, foreshadowing Sam training with it later. Bucky explains to Sam why the shield means so much to him, saying it represents his family, the last thing he has left of one and Caps book of lists. Sam tells him that he needs to help others to find closure, which is Yuri and Bucky killing his son as Winter Soldier.

Chell added, “I’m glad he’s going to tell the truth.”

We jump back to New York, Karli activates all the sleepers in the area, to get ready for their attack on the GRC. Later the GRC set up the meeting to depart the refugees, the members of council seem to care but the government official who was behind the Captain America things just wants to blow past the meeting and just make it happen. The Flag Smashers then infiltrate the meeting to which we will see the rest of that in the next episode.

We end episode 5 with Sam unboxing his new suit but the audience will have to wait until episode 6 to see it. We get a post credit scene of John Walker forging himself a new Captain America shield, going full US Agent.