Let’s Talk About Sam and Bucky in Couples Therapy in Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Sam and Bucky were in couples’ therapy in the most recent episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, with Dr. Raynor. Christina Raynor, played by Amy Aquino, was trying to get Bucky and Sam to open up to each other, and it resulted in the two sitting laces no spaces with their legs and having a staring contest.

Talking with TVLine, Aquino opened up about Dr. Raynor and her thinking with a patient like Bucky—who, you know, is a 106-year-old super soldier who was brainwashed by HYDRA for decades. So, not the easiest patient:

That’s why she sees her job with Bucky as a life-and-death thing. If anybody’s likely to have PTSD, it’s probably the 106-year-old soldier who was made to kill people that he actually liked and believed in. She just sees him as a person who needs help because she knows that when she went through it, she wasn’t a soldier, and she was just having to deal with these memories and having to find a way to hang on to herself and her humanity, despite the things that she was forced to do.

But what was so interesting about Sam and Bucky’s joint session is that it felt very natural and fun until it was suddenly a punch to the gut:

Everybody was having fun with it. It was the moment that you could have fun with, but then they were able to let it go where it had to go, which is the big revelation that Bucky has. My biggest challenge was not stopping them too early because [director Kari Skogland] was letting them improvise. It would be insane not to with these two guys who are so smart and have such a strong relationship, because that’s where all of this gold was coming out.

It is frankly what has made this show so good. The chemistry between Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan has always been there, it’s why so many of us clung to these characters in the first place. So, to see them both shine in these roles and work together so well in Falcon and the Winter Soldier is incredible and led into a hilarious yet heartbreaking scene.

Watching as Bucky finally had his breakthrough, telling Sam and Dr. Raynor that he felt like if Steve was wrong about Sam being Captain America, then he was wrong about him, is something that, for me, has been a long time coming. Bucky Barnes, even when he was still struggling with the programming of the Winter Soldier, didn’t show much emotion. He tried to sort through it all himself, and to see him finally have a break and share his emotions and what it means to have someone like Steve believe in him? It’s a lot and I hope there are more moments like this between Sam and Bucky as the show goes on.

(image: Marvel Entertainment)

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