[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 2, "The Star Spangled Man."]

At the end of the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the U.S. Government, rather than keeping Captain America’s shield in the Smithsonian, decided to simply roll out a new Captain America, John Walker (Wyatt Russell). The reveal directly contradicts Sam’s (Anthony Mackie) speech earlier in the episode when he says that symbols are nothing without the people who give them meaning. For the government, Captain America is merely a branding issue, and so why not give the shield to another blue-eyed, blonde, white guy and then say that the symbol is whatever they want it to be.

But as we saw in the show’s second episode, “The Star-Spangled Man”, we see that Walker is already becoming a different kind of symbol, one that neither he nor the government intended. The episode’s prologue emphasizes that Walker is, by all appearances, not a “bad guy.” He’s humble, he’s nervous about taking on the mantle of Captain America, but he believes that it’s his duty to accept this new mission because the government said so. And when he drops in later in the episode he seems fairly benevolent about the whole Captain America thing by trying to work with Sam and Bucky (Sebastian Stan). Also, how could John Walker be racist? He’s working alongside his black best friend Lemar Hoskins (Clé Bennett).

Wyatt Russell in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Image via Eli Adé/Marvel Studios

RELATED: Let's Discuss 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's Captain America Twist

The cleverness of this episode is you need to look past what Walker is saying and what he’s doing. Through his actions, we can see Walker represents the banality of white supremacy. Too often, white supremacy is equated with Klan members in hoods or neo-Nazis or anyone who outwardly presents their bigotry and hatred in a clear and obvious way. It creates a standard that allows anything less to slip through and become accepted as a normal form of behavior with anyone who questions it being chastised as a “social justice warrior” or “overly woke” or “reverse racism” if you want to get 90s with it.

In Walker, we can see the banality of white supremacy in how he approaches the world. He didn’t ask for the shield, but it was given to him because he “put in the work.” It never even occurs to him about why the government chose him as a symbol or what makes him “right” for Captain America beyond his own personal experience. The world is limited to his individual story, his hopes, and his fears. He’s supposed to be a symbol without understanding the larger context in which those symbols function. Steve Rogers arguably became Captain America on accident, and he was put to the similar path of promoting the U.S. military, but the context of America during World War II and America now are different, especially since Steve gave Sam the shield specifically and then the government turned around and betrayed Sam to give it to a white guy rather than keeping it in a museum.

Where Walker’s white supremacy goes from passive (accepting the shield and his new title without question) to active is in how he views his mission. When Walker offers Sam the chance to be his new wingman, from Walker’s perspective, it probably seems like a nice gesture and way to keep Sam on his side. But from Sam’s perspective, it’s demeaning and belittling. The government gave Walker Captain America’s shield for branding purposes, and so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that Walker thinks surface imitation is all that’s required. Steve Rogers had Sam as a wingman, so why shouldn’t Sam also serve as John Walker’s wingman? But there’s no respect for what Steve and Sam went through or the friendship they developed. It’s simply optics, and optics are a poor substitute for mutual respect, which requires trust and sacrifice.

Wyatt Russell in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Image via Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

Walker’s white supremacy hardens at the end of the episode when he once again offers to work with Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but they politely turn him down by pointing out that they have more flexibility working independently. Walker accepts, but then menacingly tells them to stay out of his way. And this is a core tenet of white supremacy: my way or the highway. There’s no room for compromise and there certainly isn’t room for humbling yourself and finding ways to show respect to people who aren’t like you. Walker’s white supremacy coasts on the beliefs that he earned what he has and that what he has cannot be questioned (Russell plays this perfectly walking the line between affable and smarmy).

I’m not sure where The Falcon and the Winter Soldier takes John Walker from here. We obviously haven’t seen the last from him, but I will be super-bummed if it turns out he’s secretly working for HYRDA or some nonsense because right now the thing that makes him an interesting character is what he symbolizes. He symbolizes every white guy who says, “I can’t be racist because I have a black friend,” or “No one ever handed me anything on a plate.” When you don’t question these systems and seek to bring them down, you end up perpetuating them. That’s not to say that no white person ever deserves any success or anything like that, but through John Walker’s entitlement and condescension, we see how white supremacy operates without need for a hood or swastika.

KEEP READING: 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier' Asks: "Should Someone Pay the Avengers?"