Warning! Spoilers ahead for the Disney+ series

In the ending of The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, Karli Morgenthau, the leader of the Flag-Smashers portrayed by Erin Kellyman, joins an ever-increasing list of antagonists killed in the MCU. But the most special thing about her case is that Karli isn’t someone the audience wants to see die, and the hero present when it happens tries to stop her death. It makes for a complicated ending to the series-long arc, and although the head writer Malcolm Spellman has said that the circumstances weren’t always the same, the aim was always to have Karli’s exit be “heartbreaking.”

According to him, "It's funny; some of the signature moments was there from the beginning: Sam having a speech that showed why he is unique as Cap – that was from the beginning. Our goal was always to write a heartbreaking end for Karli. We did not want people to cheer for her to die. Do you know what I'm saying? So how specifically the details might've changed, that was always the end goal, was to make this an emotional ending that would challenge Sam. We didn't want to make this... at no point is Sam's job as Cap easy. Even at the end, when he saying, 'I know people hate me right now.' That's what being Cap is going to mean to him."