Viewer Log: Hawkeye ep 4

 It's not a Christmas party without the Rosie O'Donnell Christmas album. Don't give me that look, my dad loves it. 

Last time on Hawkeye, Clint and Kate faced off against the boss of the Tracksuit mafia, Maya Lopez. The deaf martial artists very nearly kicked Clint’s ass, but he and Kate were able to escape to the cars outside. A chase occurred, but Kate used some of Clint’s trick arrows to slow them down for a while and ultimately, they escaped onto a subway car. They have breakfast together where Kate tries to impress on Clint that he is a hero to her, even if he doesn’t believe her. She convinces him to break into her mother’s apartment and hack her private Bishop Security server to prove that Jack, her mom’s fiancé, is working with the Tracksuits. They break in, and Kate hacks the server, but is locked out a minute into her search and Clint gets his own extendable sword put to his throat by Jack. Enough recap; let’s get to it.

 

Episode 4: Partners, Am I Right?

The sword on the table has to be a safety hazard.

Episode opens with Jack holding his sword to Clint’s throat, but the tension evaporates when Eleanor and Jack realize that it’s Kate and Clint. I sniggered at Jack calling him “Archer” instead of Hawkeye. There’s an awkward discussion on the situation, with Kate trying to tell her mom half-truths and Clint trying not to say anything beyond he and Kate are working together. Eleanor pulls Clint aside as they get ready to leave, telling him that she can’t lose Kate too and trying to convince him to drop the case. He obviously can’t but promises to look after Kate. In the elevator down, Clint text Laura and asks her to look up Sloan Unlimited. She calls him back a short time later, and through coded conversation so the kids don’t understand, Clint learns that SU is a front for the Tracksuit mafia, and that Jack is the CEO. He thinks that Jack is laundering money for the “Big Guy.” Laura asks in German, I think, if maybe something else from the compound is part of the reason that Clint is staying to help Kate. He doesn’t think that the “Rolex” is involved but isn’t confident.

 

Back at the Bishop Penthouse, Kate is waiting around for a call or something while Eleanor explains to Jack Kate’s fascination with Hawkeye. Jack goes to make tea and Kate wants to talk to her about Jack, but Eleanor refuses. They get diverted by talking about the Bishop Securities Christmas party and Jack and Eleanor do a little dance which makes Kate uncomfortable. The Bishops laugh at Jack when he says, “Life is short, you never know what you’re going to get” and the fact that Jack apparently often combines aphorisms. While they have a domestic moment, we’re shown Clint alone back at Kate’s Aunt’s apartment, strapping himself down with frozen food to reduce swelling. He gets one relaxed sigh before Kate stops by with pizza and movies to hopefully raise Clint’s spirits. Before they ‘celebrate’ Clint reveals what he learned about Jack, that he’s the CEO of the Tracksuit Mafia’s shell company.

 

It's not Christmas without Rosie O'Donell Christmas
playing at my house. Don't judge me, my dad loves it.

They throw on Christmas sweaters, make slushies and try to brainstorm their situation. Namely, that they need to get the cops and Tracksuits off Kate’s back and prove Jack is involved. In a montage, we learn that Clint is out of trick arrows, he’s got more trick arrow heads but needs the shafts of his spent trick arrows to make more, Kate suggesting make boomerang arrows that Clint laughs at, Clint shows he can knock someone out with a small heavy ornament and have more smoothies. Clint shows her how to do the flick trick. After, Kate asked what the best shot he ever took was. Clint starts, backs off, but then says it. The best shot he ever took was the one he didn’t take, namely, not killing Natasha when he was sent to assassinate her. He sensed that she wanted out, so he got her out and made a best friend. They watch the end of it’s a Wonderful Life, and Kate intuits that Clint’s family disappeared in the Blip… and then that he was in fact the Ronin. Clint explained that he was doing his job, being a weapon and hurting people. People who deserve it, true, but hurting people. Clint claims that the Ronin is tied to him, and that he can’t go back to his family until he fixes it. Clint thanks her for doing this and that she should probably go to bed. When alone, he takes out his hearing aid and remembers the day his family vanished, his kills as the Ronan and Natasha jumping to get them the Soul stone.

 

The next day, Clint has them divide and conquer. Kate is going to talk to the LARPers to hopefully convince them to get them the trick arrows back, while he goes to talk to Kazi. Kate goes to the LARPers, who are practicing their combat stances in the park, convincing Grills and the rest to help her out and get the trick arrows back.

 

Kazi is having a rough week.

Clint goes to Kazi, surprising him in his car. After revealing he stole Kazi’s gun already, he tells the Tracksuit VP to get Maya to back off. He tells Kazi that their boss doesn’t like attention and that Maya’s obsession with the Ronin will bring attention onto them. Kazi goes for a knife, which Clint also already has. He tells Kazi to convince Maya she’s chasing a ghost, and this is her last warning. He also take the gun and knife with him when he leaves. In the rear window we see him throw it into the distance.

 

Back at the apartment, the LARPers have set up shop in the apartment. Grills made snickerdoodles, and the security woman from the LARP, Wendy, is measuring Kate for some LARP gear. She reveals that Wendy, the cop LARPer, is on her way with the arrows. The LARPers are willing to help, in exchange for higher grade materials for their LARP costume, to which Kate agrees to if they also make two additional costumes for her and Clint. Clint is about to be angry about this, when he gets a text from Laura that the Rolex is still active and it’s transponder is signaling at 3715 Godfrey Road. He starts for the door when Wendy arrives with the arrows. Theirs a funny bit where Wendy isn’t initially willing to let her Bombshell bag, her wife embroidered it, go, but Clint is in a rush and Kate convinces her it’s okay.

 

Oh, hi Yelena.

Clint and Kate observe the building. Kate complains that they’d have an easier time getting in from a higher building, but Clint explains the importance of prioritizing a quick exit over a quick entrance. He plans to go in and be out in under four minutes, but while explaining this, Kate slips away and starts the infiltration. Kate uses the fact that she’s easily distracted to convince Clint he’s better at observing. He has a complicated for her to scale the building, but Kate just slips into the building by helping an old man with his groceries. On the walk up, Kate asks about how Clint deals with getting the giant bow places, to which he says his is collapsible. Kate enters the apartment, and strobe lights start going off. She covers them with sticky arrows and looks for the watch. Clint is tight lipped about the watch, despite Kate’s constant probing. Kate finds the watch, and a list about Clint and his family. It’s at this point that Clint realizes that the strobe lights are part of a silent alarm system for deaf people. … Yeah, it’s Maya’s apartment. Shoot a duck. He’s suddenly attacked by someone just as Maya attacks Kate. Shoot a pair off ducks.

 

I feel like this reveal was way more obvious than the
show people thought it was.

Clint brawls with a woman in black and night vision goggles while Kate battles Maya. He’s able to break away long enough to fire a zipline for Kate, but she gets stuck half ways for a second. She lands and distracts Clint’s assailant for a second before Maya joins them and the fight resumes. The masked woman uses some sort of red stunner device that looks a bit familiar to disable Maya and throws Kate off the roof. But she rigged up a harness on the fly so Kate is disabled, not street pizza. Clint cuts the line, telling Kate to get out of there. He keeps fighting both women as Kate runs back up to the roof. She uses a flashbang trick arrow. It disables all three, but Maya gets up first, she throws Kate but then runs. Clint gets the mask off the woman in black as she sticks a stunner on her, revealing her to be Yelena Belova aka Black Widow… 3.0 I guess, if her and Natasha’s “mom” Melina Vostokoff is 1.0. Yelena, realizing the odds aren’t great for her, bails. Clint and Kate fight, with Kate wanting to keep working with him, but Clint being seriously freaked out by a Black Widow being sent after him. He tells her to go home and takes her bow as the credit roll.

 

One thing I’ve enjoyed throughout this series is how in sync Clint and Laura are. There are no lies between them, she answers in code without a second thought, Clint trusts her to do research without a pause, and she gets his hang ups about both the Ronin stuff and for not abandoning Kate. It’s nice to see a functional relationship in the MCU. The Christmas party with Clint and Kate was sweet too. Clint has obviously been high strung since meeting Kate, for obvious reasons, so its nice seeing him relax for an evening. I liked hearing a bit more about his and Natasha’s relationship. Sure, it’s still incredibly vague, but to know that he considers her the “best shot” he never took was sweet. I liked seeing the LARPers again, they’re just a fun group. The final fight of this episode of Kate and Clint vs. Yelena vs. Maya was fun. It was neat seeing the Hawkeye’s archery and martial arts skills facing off against a Black Widow super spy and Maya’s… Maya-ness. The bit where Yelena dropped Kate made me gasp, even though I knew they weren’t killing Kate off with two episodes left.  I’m a little annoyed we got a second act “break up” but at least they set it up reasonably well. They set up Clint having mixed feelings of putting Kate in danger with that conversation with Eleanor, and of how dangerous he knows a Black Widow is and his obvious mixed feelings of battling someone like Natasha again. It was a fine episode overall. Have a good night, everyone. 

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