The Power Broker has been a mysterious figure on The Falcon & The Winter Soldier since the show’s early episodes. The elusive character rules over Madripoor and went after the Flag Smashers. The Power Broker has bankrolled the initial reproduction of the super soldier serum, but then the Flag Smashers stole it and took it for themselves.
The Power Broker has been hiding in plain sight all along. The identity of the Power Broker was revealed during the FAWS finale. From details on the major reveal (one of many this season) to the mid-credits scene to the second Power Broker, here’s what you need to know:
1. The Power Broker is Sharon Carter.
The big reveal was made in The Falcon & Winter Soldier finale. Sharon and Karli came face-to-face during the Flag Smashers’ raid. “When you came to Madripoor, you reminded me of a young me, I took you in, gave you an opportunity and you betrayed me,” Sharon says to Karli. Karli replies, “Because you wanted to control the world that hurt you, but I wanted to change it. I’m not interested in power or an empire. I have a bigger dream.”
Sharon tells Karli to come back and work for her. “You just want me, because you want your muscle back. Without us super soldiers, how much power does the Power Broker really have?” Karli says. Sharon quips, “More than you.” Later, Karli shoots Sharon. As Karli aims her gun at Sam, Sharon shoots Karli. Bucky and Sam are completely unaware that Sharon is the Power Broker.
2. Sharon is now a double agent.
The mid-credits scene features Sharon getting pardoned from the U.S. Intelligence Committee. She’s given a full pardon and a job in her old division. When asked if that’s something she’d be interested in, Sharon says, “It would be my honor.” After she’s out of the building, Sharon hops on the phone with someone she doesn’t name. “Start lining up our buyers. Super soldiers might be off the menu, but we’re about to have full access to government secrets, prototypes, weapons, you name it, it should be something for everyone,” Sharon says. Sharon’s back to working for the U.S. and for herself (or someone else even more powerful).
3. The Power Broker could just be Sharon undercover.
In the Marvel comics, Sharon was sent on a top-secret mission by S.H.I.E.L.D, and she even had to fake her death. She was eventually “abandoned in enemy territory” and “spent months imprisoned in the dictatorship of Tap-Kwai,” according to her Marvel profile. After she escaped, she spent years as a mercenary and became much more “hard and bitter” than she was before. Sounds a little similar to the Sharon we see in Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
4. There is another Power Broker.
The Power Broker in the comics is Curtiss Jackson. Curtiss was a professional criminal and worked for the criminal organization known as the Corporation. He eventually founded the Power Broker Corporation, a company that recruits and sells the services of Super Villains.
5. There is a ‘future’ for the Power Broker & other ‘FAWS’ characters.
It hasn’t been confirmed where we’ll see Bucky, Sam, Sharon, and the other characters from The Falcon & The Winter Soldier next, but Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige told EW that “we have a future charted for characters post-Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but I don’t want to say much more than that.” The show’s head writer, Malcolm Spellman, teased that there are “three” Marvel projects that tie directly into the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.