Black Widow ending explained: How Natasha's origin story connected to the MCU

When we learned that there would be a Black Widow movie after Avengers: Endgame, there were questions about how it would be possible. After all, Natasha Romanoff sacrificed herself to help fix the timeline. Well, it didn’t take long to find out that this would be an origin story for the character.

While we knew how things would eventually go, we needed to learn just how Natasha Romanoff became the master agent that she was. She’d already shared some of the negatives of her life before the Avengers, and Black Widow went into it in more detail.

It also introduced us to Yelena Belova, Natasha’s “younger sister,” played by Florence Pugh, who we knew would become a bigger part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after this. Let’s take a look back at the movie to see how it ended and how it connected back into the present day world of the MCU.

Natasha frees the brainwashed Widows in Black Widow

Natasha was pulled into the world of spy and assassin work, but she knew that something wasn’t right with the organization. The biggest threat seemed to be Taskmaster, a skilled fighter who could mimic anyone’s style.

It turned out that Taskmaster was Antonia, who Natasha believed was killed years ago in Budapest. Natasha had attempted to kill Dreykov, but it led to the presumed death of his daughter Antonia. Well, that wasn’t the case. Dreykov used the chip to save Antonia’s life, while making her skilled in mimicking anyone’s fighting styles.

This chip was also a brainwashing chip, making Antonia do whatever Dreykov wanted. Natasha had seen this in Yelena and other Widows. They were all controlled to kill Natasha, meaning that she needed to find a way to save herself. There was an antidote to the chip, which Natasha was able to use on the other Widows, with the help of Yelena.

What about Antonia? She ended up trapped in a cell in the floating fortress that was crashing to the ground. The only way to save her was to allow Antonia to go free, which could potentially lead to trouble for Natasha. She had to do it, though. After living with the thought that she had already killed the girl once, she couldn’t let it happen again.

Yes, Antonia does pursue Natasha, but the Black Widow was able to dose her with the antidote.

As all that goes on, Yelena is going after Dreykov, and while she does manage to kill him, she ends up falling from the sky. Natasha saves the day again.

Connecting back to Captain America: Civil War

Did you wonder how Natasha was able to free the imprisoned soldiers at the end of Captain America: Civil War? Black Widow explains it.

After Natasha accepts her fate and is seemingly taken into custody for her role on Captain America’s side of the civil war, we find out that within a couple of weeks, she is walking free. She meets with Rick Mason to get the Quinjet that gets the imprisoned soldiers out of dodge. It was never confirmed that she did break them out, but I think we can fill in the gaps enough.

Of course, we know what this all leads to. It eventually leads up to Natasha’s ultimate sacrifice.

Yelena becomes part of the MCU in the post-credits scene

The end of Black Widow saw the freed Widows out around the world. Yelena and others were focused on freeing other Widows from Dreykov's brainwashing, but Yelena came back in the Black Widow post-credits scene to visit Natasha’s grave. It’s initially a touching moment that harkens back to when Natasha and Yelena were kids, but it’s rudely interrupted by someone blowing her nose.

Cue Julia Louis-Dreyfuss’ character, Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, who we’d initially met in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. We quickly get confirmation that the two know each other, and Valentina puts Yelena on the heels of “the man responsible for your sister’s death.”

The ending makes it clear that Yelena has a much bigger role to play in the MCU. She needs to go after Clint Barton, but it brings up a lot of questions when it comes to what we know about how things went down. Barton isn’t responsible for Natasha’s death, so why does Valentina want Yelena to believe that. It would all be revealed in Hawkeye.

Black Widow is available to stream on Disney+.