There Was A Huge Cameo In Episode 5 Of "The Falcon And The Winter Solder," And Here's What It Could Mean

Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, morally gray style icon.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier just aired its best episode yet, and it featured the mother of all introductions.

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🚨🚨SPOILER WARNING🚨🚨 This post is gonna discuss plot details about episode 5 of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, so if you haven't seen the episode yet, stop reading right now!

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Julia Louis-Dreyfus, 11-time Emmy winner and indisputable queen of television, made her MCU debut as Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.

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Here's how it went: After losing his shield to Sam and Bucky and being stripped of his Captain America title, John Walker was feeling pretty sorry for himself, when an intriguing stranger approached him and gave him some advice.

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The woman in this still is John's wife Olivia, just so we're clear.

That stranger was none other than Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, aka Val.

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She made her entrance with blue hair, matching shades, high heels, and giant hoops. Please, I already love her.

She had lots of interesting things to say to John, and the implications are HUGE.

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She starts off by supporting his decision to kill Nico the Flag Smasher in the previous episode and says she would have done the same thing. She also lets him know she's aware he took the Super Soldier serum and lost the shield (she has eyes everywhere, apparently). After that eerie pep talk, she struts away and tells John she'll be in touch.

Fun fact: Vanity Fair reported that JLD's character was supposed to be introduced in Black Widow, which was originally meant to premiere before FATWS.

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The plot! It thickens!

Contessa Val is a character straight from the comics, a S.H.I.E.L.D agent turned villain who occasionally uses the alias Madame Hydra.

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You remember HYDRA, right? The nice folks who brainwashed Bucky for 70 years and made him murder people.

In the comics, she also has a connection to Sharon Carter and, most importantly, Nick Fury.

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In the comics, Val and Sharon are part of something called Femme Force, an all-women assault team within S.H.I.E.L.D. that was introduced in Captain America #144.

Her connection to Nick could be especially important moving forward, since they were lovers in the comics until she was revealed to be a Russian double agent the whole time.

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What I would give to see JLD and Samuel L. Jackson play a love/hate dynamic on screen. He's going to be the main character in the upcoming Disney+ series Secret Invasion, and Val is part of that arc in the comics, so maybe we'll get to see that happen.

But what does that mean for the season finale of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier? Well, potentially lots of things!

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– She could be working with Sharon, who is the Power Broker.

– She could be the Power Broker herself.

– She could be trying to build an evil version of the Femme Force or trying to restart HYDRA.

– There's been speculation that the MCU is planning on introducing the Thunderbolts, which is basically Marvel's Suicide Squad — a superhero team made up of mostly reformed villains. In the comics, members of the Thunderbolts include Helmut Zemo, Georges Batroc, and The Winter Soldier — and look at that, they've all appeared on this show.

– Or, sadly, she might not appear anymore on the show and we'll have to wait until her next appearance.

Whatever happens, I could not be more excited about this casting, and I hope Julia/Val are around for a looong time.

Between this and Kathryn Hahn as Agatha, Marvel fans are truly blessed and winning in 2021.