The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is exploring Bucky's PTSD, giving it the same depth as WandaVision did Scarlet Witch's grief and trauma.
Warning! Major SPOILERS for Falcon and the Winter Soldier below.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier gives the MCU the opportunity to fully explore PTSD in a way that it has never been done before, similar to what WandaVision did for grief. The Marvel TV show sees Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) struggle with more than just the loss of his oldest friend Steve Rogers. Bucky is finally given the space to come to terms with the terrible things he did while he was brainwashed into being the Winter Soldier.
Falcon and Winter Soldier picks up six months after Thanos' snap was reversed in Avengers: Endgame and Bucky and Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) were brought back into existence. The first episode of the show, "New World Order," saw the duo separately try to figure out how to move onto to a world without Steve. Sam donates Steve's shield to the Smithsonian Museum and desperately tries to keep his family business afloat. Bucky, on the other hand, is shown in therapy trying to work through his own problems.
Bucky's issues go deeper than just navigating a post-Endgame world. Falcon and Winter Soldier episode 1 sees him working with a therapist to work past the previous trauma of being brainwashed and trying to live a full life. With that, Falcon and Winter Soldier can do for PTSD what WandaVision did for grief. As Bucky went through terrible things in battle, he understandably experiences the tell-tale symptoms of PTSD. He suffers frequent nightmares about the things he's done. Bucky has also become incredibly withdrawn, evidenced by his therapist reminding him that he only has a handful of numbers in his phone and keeps ignoring Sam's texts. He's constantly looking over his shoulder and clocking his surroundings. This isn't the first time the MCU has explored the trauma associated with PTSD, but Falcon and the Winter Soldier is the first opportunity it has had to do so with such emotional fragility.
Iron Man 3 chronicled Tony Stark's PTSD after the events of The Avengers. It was the first time in the MCU that audiences got to see a superhero deal with the negative side of the job. Endgame took a slightly ill-advised comedic swing at PTSD with "Fat Thor." WandaVision dealt with the PTSD that Wanda had acquired throughout her whole life. But as it was the first MCU property to really tackle life after the Blip, WandaVision had an edge over its predecessors. WandaVision takes place a mere matter of weeks after the vanished half of the world's population was snapped back into existence. It chronicles a world that had just dealt with massive and traumatic shared grief. With its six-hour run time, WandaVision was given ample time to explore the culmination of one woman's tremendous grief.
The show was a huge success, in large part because of that exploration, and Falcon and Winter Soldier can do something similar as it shows the emotional side of two characters that were previously sidelined for the majority of their MCU appearances. WandaVision worked to normalize grief in a universe that had only previously scratched the surface in exploring that emotion. Falcon and the Winter Soldier is Marvel's chance to get their exploration of PTSD right without mocking how the characters handle trauma. If WandaVision proves anything, it's that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has the opportunity to show its audience that PTSD is a normal thing, and healing from it is a process. It opens the door Marvel to continue exploring additional emotional components of the human experience.
