'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier' finale completes its ambitious hero's journey

While more conventional than "WandaVision," Marvel's "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" explored a bracingly provocative theme over its six-episode run -- namely, can a Black man in good conscience take up the mantle of Captain America?

In essence, the six episodes served as a protracted origin story, picking up where "Avengers: Endgame" left off. Yet Steve Rogers' parting wish that his friend Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) take up his iconic shield -- a wish shared by Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), a.k.a. the Winter Soldier -- overlooked the decades of struggle that, in different ways, those characters missed after World War II.