that heart-breaking moment in Winter Soldier

I’m seeing a lot of mention going around about that heartbreaking moment in Winter Soldier, and everybody I’ve seen commenting on it says they thought they were the only one who was crushed when it turned out to be what it was instead of what it looked like.

I want everybody to know that it wasn’t just you. It was all of us. It was certainly all of us women, anyway; I’m not sure I’ve seen any guys commenting on it. But every single woman I know seems to have been seized with an inutterable and terrible joy in that moment, a full-spirited OH MY GOD *YES*! that turned into “…oh. Oh. Oh. Well, that’s okay too, but…”

So, yeah. It wasn’t just you. It was all of us. And boy, does that say a lot about our culture, our expectations, and our hopes.

(The actual scene is named/described/whatever behind the cut, but I’d kind of like to see how many people know what I’m talking about just from what I’ve said before the cut. :))

I’m talking, of course, about the utterly fucking glorious moment when the middle-aged British Council member played by Jenny Agutter appears to have suddenly unleashed unholy ass-kicking *hell* on Pierce. It is a moment better than Helen Mirren in the RED movies, which is pretty freaking stupendous.

And every single person who has mentioned it has just died a little inside when it turns out to be Black Widow in disguise rather than *really* being Jenny Agutter kicking ass. I mean, it’s *fine*, it’s good, it’s great, we get the Widow doing what she does best…

…but oh, God, we wanted it to really be Jenny. We all wanted it *so badly*.

(Really, the moment before that, there’s like a 2 second cut frame where you see Jenny–who has been standing a little away from the whole group the WHOLE TIME they’re in Pierce’s office, I noticed this the first time, I noticed both these things–there’s a 2 second frame just before the fightwhere Jenny’s standing wide-legged in this total prepatory action stance and I was like “what the ever-loving hell is she standing like that for?” and then OHMYGOD LOOK AT HER GO SHE’S KICKING ASS SHE’S FO AWESOME SHE’S–oh. Oh. Oh well….)

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8 thoughts on “that heart-breaking moment in Winter Soldier

  1. YES!!!!!!! I totally was all ASS KICKING NUN (I am a call the midwife fan) and then, oh yeah. black widow. cool.

    Glad it wasn’t just me.

  2. Oh my god, holy crap, yes! There were only a couple of other people in the theater when we saw it the other night, and I started whooping and clapping the minute she started that beatdown, only to be slightly abashed after it was revealed to be Natasha. Which made sense, I’m glad she wasn’t cut out of the end of the film (though man, she and Fury sure recovered from gunshot wounds awfully fast), but I SO HOPED that the random security council lady was a secret badass. I spent a second or two wondering “holy shit, who could she be,” thinking more that she was an unexpected hero, not, well, just Widow.

    So I’m glad it wasn’t just me, because both my husband and the (female) friend I talked to afterwards just looked puzzled at the disappointment.

    1. Yes, exactly! I dind’t know WHO she was except SHE’S A HERO oh it’s nat well okay.

      Your husband and female friends, especially the latter, are straight-up weird in this regard :)

  3. I didn’t grok what you meant before the cut, but that’s because I don’t always pick up on clues. When you explained, I totally grokked it. I sighed a bit, too. It was definitely “AWESOME… oh, well, damn. That’s cool, too, but damn.”

  4. Actually, I had the same reaction: Cool! It’s the woman on the council who fight backs. Wait a minute… Oh, so that’s where Black Widow disappeared to.

    On the other hand, the council woman is now the only survivor, it appears. Wonder where they stashed her, and did she agree to it?

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