How Sam & Bucky Broke John Walker’s Arm | Screen Rant
Sam and Bucky used teamwork to stop John Walker in Falcon & Winter Soldier episode 5, but there's symbolism to how they broke Captain America's arm.
Warning: SPOILERS for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 5 - "Truth".
Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) fought John Walker (Wyatt Russell) in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier episode 5, and how the superheroes broke Captain America's arm carries some extra symbolism. Walker went rogue after he publicly murdered Nico (Noah Mills) of the Flag-Smashers so Barnes and Wilson had to bring the new Cap in, which led to a brutal battle where it took everything the Falcon and the Winter Soldier had to stop him.
John Walker took the last vial of Super Soldier Serum that was stolen by the Flag-Smashers' leader, Karli Morgenthau (Erin Kellyman). The burden of trying to live up to Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) as Captain America was visibly affecting Walker, and he had suffered repeated humiliations. Because Walker wasn't enhanced, he came up short fighting super soldiers like the Flag-Smashers, but John was also defeated by Wakanda's elite Dora Milaje, who trounced him when they fought, even though they also had no superpowers. Walker succumbed to his desire to be "special", which proved Baron Helmut Zemo's (Daniel Bruhl) belief that someone who seeks out powers is embracing supremacist ideals. The already unbalanced Walker was driven over the edge when Karli killed his best friend Lemar Hoskins AKA Battlestar (Cle Bennett), who also had no powers. By killing Nico, a European national, in front of witnesses on foreign soil, Captain America instantly caused an international incident and became an enemy of the people.
When Sam and Bucky caught up with John Walker in a deserted warehouse on the outskirts of Riga, Latvia, their ultraviolent brawl ended with Falcon and the Winter Soldier breaking Captain America's left arm. Walker still wasn't done, however, and it took more teamwork and all three of them colliding before John finally had the fight knocked out of him. But how did Sam and Bucky manage to snap Walker's arm in the first place? After all, Walker is a super soldier, and fans will never forget how Steve Rogers had the strength to hold onto a helicopter that was trying to lift off in Captain America: Civil War.
Walker may have become much more powerful and durable than an average human, but the Super Soldier Serum doesn't make him invulnerable. John himself had just proved that sufficient blunt force can kill Nico, another super soldier. Further, the serum Walker took was a variant of the one created by Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) and given to Steve Rogers in Captain America: The First Avenger. Since no one has ever successfully duplicated Erskine's original formula, every super soldier that followed Rogers has some kind of flaw, becomes unbalanced, or seems to be a little less than the first Captain America.
Sam and Bucky also pinned Walker against a metal block and used their combined powers to snap John's arm. Between the Winter Soldier's own super strength, which is equal to Walker's, and Falcon using the thrust of his jetpack to press added leverage against how John's arm naturally bends, they managed to break Walker's arm. In a way, this echoes what happened to Bucky in Captain America: The First Avenger since his left arm was severed when he fell from a train before Hydra captured him and turned him into the Winter Soldier.
Before Wilson and Barnes beat Walker, John destroyed one of Falcon's wings, and it was his left wing that Captain America smashed, so Sam also lost an appendage on his left side. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier's brawl in the warehouse also harkened back to how Sam and Steve brought Bucky to a garage in Captain America: Civil War and trapped his cybernetic left arm under a press until his brainwashing wore off. Bucky, Sam, and John Walker all suffered injuries to their left arm/wing - the Wakandans used a failsafe to literally disarm Bucky in episode 4 - which visually bonds all three of them in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.