‘What If…?’ Season 2: Is Melina Really Black Widow’s Mother?

‘What If…?’ Season 2 Episode 5 presented us with the continuation of Captain Carter’s story. Believing that Steve Rogers was dead, she was shocked beyond belief to discover that Red Room had brainwashed him and utilized him as a perfect killing machine that was performing the world’s worst terrorist attacks on Earth throughout the years. But, the focus wasn’t only on Captain Carter and Steve Rogers, it was also on Black Widow who was forced to face her “family” in the most painful way possible. Black Widow at one moment called Melina her mother; we’re about to clear that up.

It’s common knowledge that Black Widow doesn’t really have a squeaky-clean history

Before Black Widow was a member of Avengers, she was an extremely dangerous Russian operative and assassin. This is common knowledge of the course and the thing that makes Natasha such an interesting character, and it looks like her alternative version followed quite the same path as Earth-616 Black Widow.

Black Widow got involved in the whole affair with Peggy Carter and Steve Rogers solely because she was friends with Peggy; otherwise, she would refuse to help her and just follow orders that Nick Fury specially gave her, and it led her into quite an interesting situation. Black Widow had no idea where Red Room actually was, despite spending the majority of her life there. She allegedly killed the head of Red Room but couldn’t completely root out the organization because nobody knew where Red Room was.

This changed when Steve offered to lead them to Red Room, and Natasha had no idea that she would face her family.

Melina is not Black Widow’s biological mother

As soon as it became obvious that Steve led them into a trap, Black Widow introduced Melina as her mother, and Peggy looked confused as well because, as far as we know, the identity of Black Widow’s parents isn’t exactly common knowledge. Black Widow promised to clear that up but she never did directly. So we’re here to fill in the blanks.

Melina is not Black Widow’s biological mother. She is her adoptive mother. Black Widow was handed over to Red Room training when she was a child, and Melina was in charge of the training; hence, she served as a mother figure to all the girls within the program. This is how Melina knew about Black Widow’s former injury and weakness, and this is how she seemingly knew everything about her skills and the skills of other Black Widows.

This wasn’t your typical family structure, but it was quite effective; Melina, in a motherly role, did wonders when it came to brainwashing girls and utilizing them as powerful killing machines. But that’s all there is to it. They are not biologically related only through their shared past.

What happened to Melina?

Despite being her “mother,” Melina had no qualms regarding killing Natasha and attempted to strangle her at one point. Black Widow so the opportunity to defeat her when Steve Rogers was flying into the Red Room base to destroy it. She tied Melina to Hydra Stomper, and he blew up the station along with Melina even though Rogers survived, at least Peggy claimed that he did; Melina died, and hopefully, this will be the end of her.

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