Why Bucky Still Has The Winter Soldier Inside Him

Though Bucky Barnes spent two years being deprogrammed in Wakanda, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 3 made it clear that the lethal assassin created by HYDRA is still inside him. “Power Broker” reunited Bucky with Baron Zemo, the Sokovian villain who plotted to break up the Avengers in Captain America: Civil War, and used the Winter Soldier to do it. Though the string of keywords that were once used to control Bucky no longer work, it’s impossible for him to completely separate the skills HYDRA gave him from the atrocities he committed with those skills. And as Bucky is called upon to commit violence for the sake of the mission, he risks bringing the Winter Soldier back to the surface.

In the third episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sam and Bucky reluctantly ally themselves with Zemo to pursue a common goal: tracking down a new source of super soldier serum in order to prevent more super soldiers from being made. This mission takes them to Madripoor, a former pirate haven that’s now the home of various criminal enterprises. To blend in, Sam disguises himself as “sophisticated, charming African rake” Smiling Tiger, while Bucky must pretend that he is still the Winter Soldier and fully under Zemo’s control. This is very much in conflict with his government-mandated therapy, which requires him to tell people “I am no longer the Winter Soldier” when apprehending criminals.

Bucky’s appearances in Black Panther‘s mid-credits scene and the events of Avengers: Infinity War may have given the impression that the “White Wolf” was completely cured of his brainwashing, thanks to Wakanda’s advanced technology. But while HYDRA did use scientific experimentation and physical torture to turn Bucky into the Winter Soldier, their control of him wasn’t quite as simple as saying his trigger words and giving him instructions. Bucky may no longer respond to “Longing, rusted, seventeen…” – but, as Zemo observes, “Something is still in there.” And when Bucky play-acts the role of the Winter Soldier in Madripoor by beating up some goons, Sam grows concerned that he may be losing control.

In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Alexander Pierce brought Bucky back in line using far more low-tech psychological manipulation tactics – telling Bucky that the work he was doing for HYDRA had improved the world and would continue to do so. In order to create the Winter Soldier, HYDRA appealed to Bucky’s instincts as a soldier and a hero. He can never be fully rid of the Winter Soldier because the cold-blooded assassin was not a completely separate persona inside him, but the result of twisting Bucky’s own personality and values into something that HYDRA could use.

Similarly, Bucky cannot disentangle the abilities he gained as the Winter Soldier from the person he was when he originally used them. Before being captured by HYDRA in 1945 Bucky was a competent fighter, but not a super soldier. While he may have been able to distance himself from the Winter Soldier when he was living a peaceful life in Wakanda as “The White Wolf,” getting back into the fight and using his superhuman fighting skills risks putting Bucky back into the mindset of a killer. This is especially dangerous since Steve Rogers, the only person remaining who knew Bucky before he became the Winter Soldier, is not longer around to act as an emotional anchor.

Bucky has spent far more of his life as the Winter Soldier than as Bucky Barnes, so it will take more than some off-screen therapy in Wakanda to make him shed a lifetime of guilt and trauma. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has so far shown that even though Bucky is no longer brainwashed, he can’t escape the knowledge of what he did for HYDRA. In order to truly make amends, he cannot avoid confronting the person he used to be.