The following contains spoilers for episode 4 of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier has given fans the chance to better get to know some of the characters who have been players in the MCU for a while, mainly Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes. The show has also given Marvel the opportunity to introduce and explore new characters, who all have their own problems and roles to play in the story and the wider universe. One of these new characters that has captured the attention of fans is Sam's sister Sarah.

Sarah was introduced in the first episode, and with her came one of the conflicts for Sam's character, involving their family's business and the boat that Sarah feels needs to be sold in order to cover costs. This was a really compelling introduction and seemed to be setting up an interesting and grounded conflict for both Sam and Sarah as a way to examine what happened to the world in the wake of the Blip, and what implications the Blip had for a lot of communities, specifically communities of color. Unfortunately, over the course of the other three currently released episodes of the series, Sarah has barely made an appearance, and it's beginning to seem like the show is losing sight of her story entirely.

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One of the main criticisms of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier so far has been that the show likes to set up plot lines and not delve into them deeply enough. In the case of Sarah, it's almost like they've forgotten about her entirely. There are still two more episodes that are set to be released, so perhaps there will be a return to the story of Sam's family in those episodes, but it really doesn't seem like enough time to wrap up this arc in any kind of satisfying way. It's also a strange writing choice to set up this plot thread in the first episode and barely reference it again until near the end of the series. Obviously, Sam's adventures in this show take him far away from Louisiana, which is perhaps why this story got put to the side, but it leaves the viewer wondering about that part of his arc after every episode.

Again, the plotline they were setting up is really compelling. It deals with the struggles of this post-Blip world, and it provides better insight into Sam as a character (which is what this show is supposed to be about) as viewers would get to see his family life and what motivates him. That first episode also set Sarah up as an interesting character in her own right, but hasn't really followed through on any development for her, other than her being used as a tool for Karli Morgenthau to get to Sam. If the entire point of her arc is to show how certain people - or groups of people - were overlooked in the wake of the Blip or after people came back from the Blip, then it seems really ironic that the show has chosen to overlook her story that they set up in the first episode.

In general, it seems like the things the show set up in that initial episode have yet to be followed through on, other than John Walker. Sam's story with his family hasn't been touched since Episode 1, and Bucky's storyline about feeling guilt from his Winter Soldier days and trying to make amends has been only briefly touched on throughout, and never as explicitly as it was in that first episode. Again, the show still theoretically has time to tie up these loose threads, but with only two episodes left, they're really going to have to cram in a lot in order to pay off all of the things they've set up.

This show has had some compelling and important things to say about race, especially in regards to Isaiah Bradley, which is yet another character who was introduced and then put to the side to make room for other plot points. It seemed like Sarah's story was also going to do this, because of the way they introduced her and the family's problems in the first episode, but it never got further than the surface level. Were people or communities of color more negatively affected by the Blip? Why was the story with Sam and Sarah so integral to that first episode when it hasn't been made to be important for the rest of the show? Why should the audience care about Sarah past her just being Sam's sister?

Hopefully, the show will get into these issues in the final two episodes, but it's starting to feel like too little too late. If a plot thread is set up in the first episode, it needs to be explored throughout the show, not just dropped for the sake of other storylines. If a show does that, it takes away the impact and significance of that original storyline.

It's clear that fans want character-driven stories, and while The Falcon and The Winter Soldier has certainly given more of an insight into a lot of characters, it keeps sacrificing interesting story beats for the sake of action set pieces. Why even bring up these plotlines if they're not going to thoroughly follow through on them and explore them in a satisfying way? Sarah especially has been really shafted by the writing, which is disappointing when the first episode seemed to be setting her up as a major player in Sam's story. Hopefully, the show can pull it together in the final two episodes and give her the screen time and story arc that she deserves.

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