Sharon Carter as the Power Broker is dumb!

Looking back on Falcon and The Winter Soldier I have to say I enjoyed the series and rate it as highly as WandaVision. However, there is one glaring plot point which had me angry when the shows credits finally rolled. As you can tell by the title, it is Sharon Carter (Emily Van Camp) being revealed as the Power Broker. Having built up the mysterious criminal overlord the reveal of Sharon Carter was a let-down as it didn’t follow her characters progression and also has some major plot holes attached to it. Now we are expected as fans to try and theorise a way to make the character fit with what we have seen, but with more appearances of Sharon expected making these theories could be pre-mature and get debunked in her next appearance.

Firstly, my biggest issue with the reveal is that it creates a plot hole. In episode 3 when in Madripoor Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) says that he knows the Power Broker by reputation. This line can mean one of two things. It either means that Zemo learnt of the Power Broker in prison or Sharon Carter has been a double agent before Captain America: Civil War when Zemo would have learnt of the Power Broker name during his mission to end the Winter Soldier program.

Zemo learning of the Power Broker in prison doesn’t seem feasible at all. After all his family were killed in Sokovia the only person left close to Zemo was his butler and quite frankly how the hell would he have learnt of the Power Broker. Furthermore by the reunion in episode 3 it doesn’t look like he had contact with Zemo within prison. Therefore, I find it hard to believe that Zemo learnt of the Power Broker in prison due to having no contact to the outside world which means he learnt of the name before Civil War.

If the Power Broker existed before Civil War this would mean that Sharon Carter has always been a double agent as she had been working for the CIA. While this could be possible it then creates problems as why she would steal Cap’s (Chris Evans) shield and Sam’s (Anthony Mackie) wings as this made her an enemy of the state. She will have therefore sacrificed intel on weapons and secrets all to save her ‘friends’ which if she was a double agent makes them more of her pawns. So the chances of Sharon always been a double agent are not justified unless we assume Sharon is stupid which isn’t a character trait of a powerful criminal overlord from Madripoor.

With the two possibilities laid out I find it hard to justify either and quite frankly it creates problems with any scene Sharon has been in because we have no answer to the plot hole. We are now left with a frustrating cloud other Sharon which is not the same like we have over White Vision (Paul Bettany) after WandaVision. Moreover, the reveal of Sharon also lacks consistency with the character which is a problem in both the series and her past appearances in the MCU.

Across the MCU before Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Sharon had always been a strong willed agent willing to do the right thing. Well this trait has just been dropped! Also, in Civil War we get to see what Peggy (Hayley Atwell) meant to Sharon which is a relationship which empowered Sharon. Again this has just been dropped which is quite annoying as it downplays the impact Peggy had on Sharon. There isn’t even the justification that Sharon can be angry at the state for making her an enemy because she chooses to break the law like Team Cap. What we see in Falcon and The Winter Soldier from Sharon is a complete U-turn on what we had been presented with in the past and it’s a turn which doesn’t work.

As well as Sharon in past MCU titles, there are errors with her character in Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Now we know she is the Power Broker we have to ask ourselves as why she would lead Zemo straight to Nagel. She cannot have been that stupid to think Zemo wouldn’t have killed Nagel. Then there are the issues of why she took out the bounty hunters alone risking her life. Pretty much everything Sharon had done were actions not fitting the Power Broker. As far as I’m concerned everything Sharon has done makes her seem like a terrible criminal overlord. Putting her own life at risk as well as giving up one of her most important assets is a stupid idea for someone as powerful as the Power Broker.

My thoughts on the reveal are quite clear and I doubt they can be changed. Despite this I can cling to one theory which I have seen since the finale. This theory doesn’t answer the complete turn in character but instead resolves the plot hole. The theory suggests that the Power Broker rather than being one person is a mantle which can be passed down or taken, hence Zemo would have learnt of the name before Civil War. Then instead of Sharon being a double agent she would have acquired the title by killing the previous Power Broker and thus inherited the empire which had already been built.

Again, this theory has many holes but right now it is what I am clinging to as it solves the plot hole issue. After the post credit scene I am expecting Sharon’s next appearance to be in Armour Wars which I will be hoping gives us a better explanation as to why Sharon is the Power Broker and why she felt it was the right thing to do after being such an honourable agent in the past.

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