WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 6, "One World, One People," now streaming on Disney+.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier took a complex approach to its antagonists in its first season, playing a constant shell game that left the audience wondering who, if anyone, was the real villain. Throughout that game, Karli Morgenthau took the central focus as the primary antagonist, and in closing out the series, she seemed almost predestined to die a martyr's death. Yet in the aftermath of the finale, it is worth looking back and evaluating the character, what she brought to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and why her death may actually have been the wrong move.
As a leader of the anarchist group of terrorists known as the Flag Smashers, there did not seem to be much excusable about Karli's actions at first glance. Upon her debut, she proved to be clever and deceptive, tricking Bucky into thinking she was a hostage before outfighting him and discarding of Falcon's Redwing more handily than any villain had before. But the more the series wore on, the more Karli's human side began to come through, showing the reasons for her actions and her sense of responsibility that made her such an inspired and charismatic leader.
Pushed toward violent extremism, the title characters tried their best to reason with her, and while her convictions proved steadfast, there was an approachability in her willingness to dialogue, something many other MCU villains lack. Rather than giving boastful monologues or guttural roars in flailing attempts at attack, it always felt like there was a real person behind the Flag Smasher mask. But perhaps most notable of all is not just that Karli felt more real as a character than most MCU villains, but that she was a woman.
The cast of villains across the MCU have not been entirely male, and indeed fans are still fresh off Agatha Harkness' delightful turn in WandaVision. But be they the Scarlet Witch, Hela, Nebula, Proxima Midnight, or Ghost, in almost all cases, the villainesses of the MCU either die or switch to the side of the heroes. There remain so few surviving female villains to plague the MCU that the franchise needs to play catch up, and Karli could have been an amazing addition to the overarching mythology as a character who is appealing not because she tics a box, but because she's compelling in her own right.
For what it is worth, Karli's death did come at the hands of the next villainess the series sets up. Sharon Carter's reveal as the Power Broker pulling many of the strings behind the series establishes her as a major force to be reckoned with. Since Karli did not fit into her designs and outright threatened them, it only makes since that Sharon shot her in the end. But as Sharon gives the audience a sinister smile at the episode's end, and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine operates in different shadows toward her own machinations, viewers are still left wanting for a physical force who can compete against the male heroes in the arena that draws in the fans: the action.
Karli's Super Soldier abilities allowed her to be an engaging part of the action center pieces throughout the series, and that will be a difficult thing to recreate. Sharon can still kick butt, and it will be refreshing to see her and de Fontaine as the MCU's capable masterminds going forward, but it is all too rare for characters like Karli Morgenthau to survive. She will be sorely missed.
Directed by Kari Skogland, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier stars Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Emily VanCamp, Wyatt Russell, Noah Mills, Carl Lumbly and Daniel Brühl. New episodes debut on Fridays on Disney+.
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