31 Times Captain America Was The Best Avenger

Photo credit Marvel Studios

His Visit with Peggy Carter in The Winter Soldier

It’s a heartbreaking scene that comes towards the beginning of The Winter Soldier. We see that Steve has been going to visit Peggy in her old age. It’s nice that he still has this link to his past, even if she is in her upper 80s. Someone who can tell him what’s happened in the last seventy years, how much she’s done in his name, to protect everything he fought for.

Until the twist comes. In her old age, Peggy Carter has fallen victim to Alzheimer’s. One moment, she’s completely lucid and talking about their past, the next moment, she’s back to thinking Steve just arrived, never knowing he’s been around so many times before this visit.

It’s an easy emotional plot device to use for sympathy, but it’s also a painful one to watch, especially if you have had to deal with a loved one with Alzheimer’s. You know the pain Steve feels in that moment. You know what goes through his mind when he forces that pained smile.

It has to be so hard to see Peggy in that state, especially just being thrown into it and not having it slowly develop. He remembers her as the vibrant soldier. Not like this.