Zemo's Prison Escape Continues The MCU's Best Villain Twist
The latest installment of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier marked the return of Baron Helmut Zemo — and even his escape from prison furthered the complexity of the villain. Played by Daniel Brühl, the character made his MCU debut in Captain America: Civil War. Having lost his family in the destruction of Sokovia, he dedicated his life to destroying the Avengers. Anticipating the futility of direct action, he instead relied on a complex plot that provoked the team to fight each other and unravel from within. Despite being imprisoned by the end of the film, he nonetheless felt that he'd been successful. As things stood, Baron Zemo seemed not only right in that assessment but almost justified.
As a result, Zemo marked an early example of the MCU offering relatable antagonists. Though his methods included murder, things never felt black and white. He was portrayed as a wronged man that pursued the only form of justice he could personally deliver — one he thought most fitting and that would simultaneously benefit the world. In Brühl's own words, Zemo was not so much a villain as the hero of his own story. Many anticipated that would continue in Phase 4, with the events of WandaVision possibly pushing Zemo into even more antihero territory. So far, it has remained to be seen if that will indeed be the case. Regardless, only one full episode into his return, Zemo has remained as nuanced and multilayered as ever.
The most telling sign of that fact, strangely, was not anything Zemo did but that which he actively didn't do. In The Falcon & The Winter Soldier episode 3, "Power Broker," Zemo was visited for information by Bucky. Deciding that Zemo could be of even further (and more direct) assistance, the potentially not entirely fixed Winter Soldier opted to break him out of prison. The task proved relatively simple, requiring only a few steps. After all, Zemo's confinement was hardly The Raft. As such, given the established complexity of his previous plots, and his considerable resources, it was a wonder that Zemo hadn't already thought of and executed it. Unless, in truth, he actually had done — but personally chose not to pursue it.
There would actually be a number of reasons for Zemo not to escape. Firstly, as stated, he believed his work to be successfully concluded. The Winter Soldier program was destroyed. And while The Avengers reunited to ultimately defeat Thanos, they had all since gone their separate ways again. Furthermore, the principal target of his ire - Steve Rogers' Captain America - had retired and disappeared. In his place was John Walker, who was neither superhuman (for the time being) or an official Avenger. As such, he would've avoided making it onto the now mask-wearing Baron Zemo's vendetta list. On a deeper level, however, Zemo likely chose to remain incarcerated because he knew he deserved it.
For all his certainty that he was on the right side of history, Zemo harbored no delusions regarding his methods. To borrow a phrase from Black Widow and Loki, he knew that his ledger was gushing red and he was content to pay for it with his life. That at first manifested in a suicide attempt after apologizing to Black Panther for killing his father. When that failed, he resigned himself to live out his days in prison. Only when he learned that there were new elements of his quest to complete did he go along with a prison break.
Even then, Zemo evidently remained committed to the belief that he should still one day pay for his crimes — both past and, likely, future. He demonstrated that when he chose not to dash for freedom, despite having ample opportunity to leave Sam and Bucky in his wake. Even though the road would lead back to prison, he remained. As such, while Baron Zemo's backstory caused MCU timeline problems, the character himself has, so far, remained entirely consistent (and thematically rich) throughout The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.