Don't knock the suction cup arrow.
Last time on Hawkeye, Clint and
Kate ended up playing hot potato with the Ronin costume. Almost literally, as the
gangsters chasing Kate, the Tracksuit Mafia, followed them to her apartment and
set it on fire. They escape but lose the suit in the confusion. Thankfully,
Clint was able to find it again, as a FDNY LARPer posted a TicTok of him in the
suit. Clint must send his kids home ahead of him to handle this suit situation.
While Clint is forced to LARP, Kate is suspicious of her mom’s boyfriend jack
and tries to prove he’s hiding something. All she really proves after dinner
with the guy is that he is a better fencer than she thought. Clint
intentionally gets himself captured by the Tracksuits to try to convince them
to leave Kate alone. His plan to keep Kate out of it fails miserably as she
tracks his phone and tries to save him, and she ends up captured too. The final
shot was of a scary looking woman whom I preemptively revealed to be known as
Echo. That’s not her name yet but give it time Enough recap; let’s get to it.
 |
| Hmm.. whoever could this uncle be? |
We open with a brief history of
Echo, aka Maya Lopez. As a child she’s to be a gifted student but is slightly
hampered by her deafness. Her first scene is from Maya’s perspective, and I
must say, it is odd being in a room with a bunch of rambunctious students and
not hearing a sound. We see that she obviously has difficulty following the
lesson as she only can understand the teacher when she is facing Maya and she
can read her lips, but she zooms through the works book, showing that Maya is a
verry smart kid. Later, she has a conversation with her father, he had promised
to get her into a school for the deaf but was unable to. He thinks it’ll
ultimately be better for her, but he’s clearly putting on a brave face. We’re
then shown Maya taking a marital arts lesson. Her father reminds her that speed
is more important than size in her match, and that her Uncle will take her home
after. We don’t see her uncle’s face, but an implied to be large man pinches Maya’s
cheek. She starts her match, where it’s reveals that Maya also has a prosthetic
right leg. She faces off with and easily beats her opponent. Jump forward to just
a few years ago and a 20 something Maya is practicing MMA in a ring. She again
easily defeats her opponent and then leaves. She rides her motorcycle to a
garage, but notices something is up. She sneaks around and sees Ronin massacring
her gang and running her father through. He tells her to fly way little dragon
via signing before dying, leaving a bloody handprint ono her cheek.
 |
| I'm sure Clint has been in more humilitating situations But I doubt he could name one off the top of his head. |
In the present, the Tracksuits are
mocking Kate and Clint who are stuck to the rocking rides. Clint is pissed at Kate
ruining his attempt at clearing her name and going home. There’s a funny bit where
Kate gives a random Tracksuit some relationship advice, and she tries to get
Clint to talk to her. One of the Tracksuits threatens to rip out her throat,
but then Maya and her lieutenant Kazi come in to interrogate them. Maya
initially cuts Clints hands free, having seen his hearing aid and assumed he’d need
to sign to speak, but he reveals he’s just hard of hearing so he’s re-cuffed.
Kazi serves as interpreter for Maya, who tells Clint that he relies too much on
technology and that he might be better off without the hearing aid. Clint tries
to explain that Kate isn’t the Ronin, but Maya is not convinced. I mean, she
gets that Kate isn’t the Ronin, but that it doesn’t mean the Ronin isn’t back. He
tells her that the Ronin is dead, killed by the Black Widow. She doesn’t
believe him. Maya gets angry while Kate tries to explain and starts choking her
out, but Kazi pulls her off after Kate explains that she just wore the suit to
hide the fact she was at the auction. The Tracksuits start arguing, and Clint
tells her to work on her overconfidence and wait for his signal. Clint frees
himself, having cut through his tape on the damaged ride seat and runs off. The
Tracksuits follow him. Clint, being much smarter than these guys, outsmarts the
grunts but then is forced to fight Maya. She gets in a few good hits, ultimately
knocking Clint’s hearing aid out and then crushing it. He gets to his equipment
and fights Maya with bow and arrows. He pins her to a wall with two shots,
before jumping into a ball pit and simultaneously distracting Kazi and freeing
Kate with one shot. Clint and Kate take out the Tracksuits and Kazi. They run
off, Clint grabbing the wreckage of his hearing aid.
Outside, Kate wants to steal a 72
challenger, but Clint instead grabs a Cadillac. Clint hotwires the car and then
escape as the Tracksuits chase after them. They’re being chased by a truck, van
and two cars driven by the Tracksuits. Clint circles around the goons, but they’re
still in pursuit. He lets Kate shoot, but because they’re out of regular arrows,
takes a moment to pull out the four most dangerous arrows in his quiver. She
grabs and arrow and fires. This trick arrow was a Playdough, which covers their
windshield, effectively disabling one car. Clint tries to give advice, which is
made somewhat difficult by his lack of hearing. Clint flips the car around and
drives backwards to give Kate a better vantage. She fires an arrow and explodes
the van. Damn, bomb arrow. Kate shoots at Maya in her 72 challenger, but this one
was plunger arrow, so it doesn’t really help. Maya rams her car into the Cadillac,
and they’re forced off the road through a tree lot. Kate hits the now puddy
free truck with an arrow that grapples and pulls trees to it, once again disabling
Kazi and the truck. Kate hits some stoplights with acid arrows on Clints advice
to screw with traffic, but Maya is hot on their tails. They end up on a bridge
as Maya tries to ram them. Kate grabs her bow from the back of challenger when
they drive up to the side of the Cadillac and try to shoot them. She then hits them
with a gas arrow, causing the car to crash, much to Clint’s disappointment. They
almost hit traffic, literally, but Clint swerves to a stop. The rest of the Tracksuits
are catching up, so Clint devises a plan. He gives Kate a normal arrow and
tells her to aim high. She fires, and then he fires. His arrow hits hers as it
begins to drop. His arrowhead was a Pym arrow, making the normal arrow grow to
the size of a bus and crush the truck. Don’t worry they missed the cab. Clint
has Kate cover him long enough to get his suction cup arrow back. They then
leap off the side of the bridge, using a rope arrow to swing them over onto a
subway car and then the suction cup arrow to stick them to it. Not a useless
arrow at all.
Who brings a gun to an arrow fight?
They eventually get into the subway
car and relax for a minute. As they ride, Clint complements her and says she
really is one of the greatest archers. They head back to Kate’s aunt’s apartment.
Clint ices his wounds with peas as his phone is going off. He answers, but can’t
hear that it’s his son Nate, not Laura calling him. Kate came back in from
walking the dog as he answered, so she can give him the gist of what Nate says.
Everyone else is still asleep, he’s bored, so he called dad to ask him when he’s
going to be back. Clint is disappointed to tell him that he won’t be able to
make it to the movie night, but he’ll be able to make it back for the sweater
party. Nate tells him it’s okay if he can’t make it for Christmas, which clearly
breaks Clint’s heart… hear by proxy. He promises to make it back for Christmas and
says goodbye.
Back with the Tracksuits, Maya and her
crew are leaving the abandoned office building for a new location. Kazi warns
her how dangerous it’ll be if they keep going after the Ronin and that they’ll
be in trouble with her Uncle if they keep going. They have a pretty box
standard “Am I in charge or not?” conversation before she orders them to find Barton.
Clint: Oh, yeah, Stark can make a robotic suit out
of nanomachines, but couldn't make a self repairing
hearing aid for me.
Clint and Kate visit a local doctor
who can fix Clint’s hearing aid. After they have breakfast. Clint turns off his
hearing aid for most of it so he can eat in silence, which is super weird for
me as that was 100% something my late Grandpa Don did all the time. When he
turns it on again, Kate explains about how she’s dedicated her life to being an
archery hero like Clint and that she felt right putting on the suit and doing
that. Clint does warn her that the life comes with a price, that it comes with
sacrifices. She takes it in stride, claiming that they gain some things too.
She tries to convince him to fix his branding issue by showing him a mockup of
his comic classic costume, but Clint is unimpressed. Kate somehow deduces that Clint
knows who the Ronin and that he won’t say because he’s close to them. That felt
like a weird cut but what are ya going to do. He distracts her by explaining
why he doesn’t wear a flashy costume. 1. His job was to be a ghost, 2. Laura
would divorce him if he put something like this on, and 3. He's not a role
model. Kate insists that he is, as he’s sacrificing his time with his family to
help a stranger. Ohm and it looks like the name of Pizza Dog has stuck for
their furry friend.
Kate notes that she sensed tension
between Maya and Kazi, which Clint agrees. He explains that there’s a bigger boss
above Maya, who is scarier and one that they don’t want to mess with. Ronin hit
their suppliers and took out a bunch of the higher ups. Clint wonders if they’re
after something specific from the auction, but she doesn’t know. Kate insists that
Jack is involved somehow, so they’re sneaking into the Bishop penthouse to hack
her mom’s private servers and see if there’s a file on him.
Clint I think is getting real sick of being threated
by his own weapons.
Kate starts hacking the computer
while Clint looks around a bit. He tells her to look up Kazi and sees that he’s
an employee of a company called Sloan unlimited. Clint hears a creak and goes
to investigate. While he walks off, Kate loses access to the network, just as
Jack holds Ronin’s sword to Clint’s throat and tells him not to move. Damn,
hell of an ending.
First and foremost, I have to give
props to Alaqua Cox who played Maya aka Echo. She is a phenomenal actor, physically
intimidating, and able to do a lot of heavy lifting acting wise with just her
expressions. She is an amazing casting choice, as she is a deaf Native American
like Echo is in the comics. The biggest difference she has from the comic
character is the fact that Cox is an amputee and Echo hasn’t been depicted as
such. I wouldn’t be shocked if they added that detail after her performance, but
we’ll wait and see. They did a few scenes that are from Maya’s perspective, and
I must say it’s decidedly weird to not be able to hear. I think I know why my
Grandpa was such a grump for the… 28 years I knew him. Ha, but seriously, super
weird but a super interesting way to show how losing that one sense can alter
how the world operates for you. Fra Fee is also a solid Kazi, even though he’s
a fairly box standard “number 2 who wants to be number 1.” He’s charismatic and
handsome enough for me to ignore some of the more cliché moments with him, like
telling Maya she’s not as good a leader as her dad. Which, by the way, low blow.
The chase with the trick arrows was a highlight of this episode and series for
me. The use of the arrow had great comedic timing, as did the joke of Clint trying
to be helpful but often being a beat or two off of giving Kate useful info when
she needed it. The central theme of this show, that Clint doesn’t see himself
as a hero while Kate all but worships him was highlighted with that dinner
scene where Kate breaks down why he is one. That point about him willingly, if
angrily, giving up his Christmas time with his family to help a stranger who he
thought might be in trouble is a ringing endorsement for Hawkeye being a hero.
Also, a joke I’ll never get tired of is modern MCU heroes cringing at seeing
their iconic costumes, Hawkeye, Luke Cage, and the rest, will never not be
funny to me. The ending with Clint being at his own sword point was a solid
choice. I’m looking forward to how the story continues. Have a goodnight, everyone.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/61751956
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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