Viewer Log: Hawkeye ep 5

One is the loneliest number...

Last time on Hawkeye, Clint met Kate’s mom. After the awkward conversation one would expect to have with an Avenger, Clint slipped out for the night and had Laura look up Sloan Limited. Laura quickly discovered that it is a shell company for the Tracksuit Mafia and that it’s CEO is listed as Jack Duquesne, Kate’s mom’s Fiancé. Kate has an epiphany with her mom about how much it must suck for Clint to be alone during the holidays, so she slips out to the apartment and the two of them have a mini-Christmas party while planning how to handle the Tracksuits. Clint also teaches her a few trick shots with a coin… but Kate also deduces that Clint is the Ronin.  He claims that that part of his life has been haunting him and that he can’t return to his family until it is handled. The next day, Kate gets the LARPers together and retrieves Clint’s trick arrows from lockup while Clint tells Kazi, the Tracksuits #2, to back off or die. Clint gets a text from Laura that the Rolex, a watch from an ex-colleague, is active and gives him the coordinates. He and Kate go to retrieve it, only to find it’s in Maya’s apartment. The leader of the Tracksuits attacks them, but so does a mysterious woman in black. They scare both off, but not before it’s revealed that the woman in black is Yelena Belova, Natasha Romanoff’s younger sister. Realizing that things are too hot for Kate, “breaks off” their partnership with her. That’s enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Episode 5: Ronin

Start of a rough patch for Yelena and Nat.

We open on a flashback to the 2018, with a bit of narration about the events of Black Widow. The “Too long, didn’t watch” summary being that between the end and end-credit scenes of Captain America: Civil War, Natasha went on an adventure with her adopted sister, father, and mother to stop the Red Room once and for all. They developed a cure for a gas that was mind controlling the Black Widow assassins. After that, Yelena ran off with some of the other Widows to find and deactivate the other Widow agents. The episode begins with Yelena and a partner, Sonya, trying to deactivate a Widow, Ana, only to discover she wasn’t under mind control. Nope, she was just a regular assassin. Yelena and Sonya apologize for jumping to conclusions and wrecking Ana’s house. The line that got a good chuckle out of me. Ana “What, did you think I was some rich pervert’s prisoner?” Yelena “Yeah… kinda.” They have tea with Ana and have a nice chat about what they plan to do once they free the other Widows. Yelena goes to the bathroom and ends up getting duster. She reforms a moment later, to her, and the whole room changes. She goes out to find it’s five years later, Ana is married, and she and her husband adopted a child. Ana explains about the event later known as the Blip, and she offers her a job as an Assassin. Yelena, after calming a bit, goes to find Natasha. Obviously, this leads to the scene in the Falcon and Winter Soldier finale with her getting hired by Valentina at Natasha’s grave. Shoot.

 

Kate returns to the Bishop penthouse. She explains about her ‘break up,’ and Eleanor consoles her. After cleaning Kate up, Eleanor tells her that even if she’s not a superhero, she can still help people. Kate muses that she thought she could do anything, to be a hero like an Avenger. Eleanor tells her to keep moving forward. Kate tells her about Jack being connected to Sloan Limited and gets Eleanor to promise to investigate it.

 

Maya gets patched up by Kazi. She tells him about the Black Widow attack. Her number 2 tells her to stop going after Ronin, but it’s clear by her face that she isn’t going to.

 

Macaroni and hot sauce? You monster.

Kate returns home. She sees one of the windows is open just before Yelena reveals herself. Kate throws a bottle at her, which she catches, and then offers her macaroni. Oh god, I love Yelena. She is weirdly chill, as Yelena is, and tries to convince Kate just sit and have dinner with her. She finally does when Kate realizes she’d be dead already if Yelena wanted to kill her. Meanwhile, Clint goes to Grills apartment and asks to come in. Yelena and Kate have a kind of awkward mean, with Yelena acting like she’s a normal excited tourist, but Kate knowing she’s here to kill people. As they chat, Kate realizes that Yelena refers to her as Kate Bishop continually as a reminder that Yelena knows it and her. Yelena rattles off her info on Kate, to freak her out, and then reveals that she is in fact in New York to kill Clint. She asks why Kate is willing to help him. Kate says it’s because he saved the world, but Yelena refuses to accept that answer. In the same way that Kate won’t accept Clint is evil because he saved her, Yelena refuses to believe he is a hero because he couldn’t save Natasha. Yelena reveals that, while there is a vendetta here, she was hired to do the job. Yelena asks where Clit is, when Kate says she doesn’t know, Yelena believes her. She thanks her for the “girls’ night” and goes to leave. She tells Kate to not get in her way again.

 

Rough week for Clint, but actually a fairly good week
for Pizza Dog.

Clint and Grills have Pizza with the Pizza Dog. He asks Grills to look after the dog while he’s in a hotel, but Grills tells him to stay on his couch instead. He has their new costumes, but Clint doesn’t want to see it just yet.

 

The next day, Kate arrives at the Bishop penthouse just as Jack is being arrested to be brought in for questioning about Armand’s death. Jack is extremely chill about the whole thing, though, saying he’ll back in time for the Christmas party. Oh, Jack Duquesne, you weird man.

 

We cut over to the old Avengers Tower, and shown a plaque dedicated to the original Avengers: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Thor Odinson, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, and Clint Barton. Clint takes a deep breath looking at it. he takes out his hearing aid and starts talking to Natasha. He reiterates his belief that she was the best and bravest of them, and that she always had to win. Even for that stupid orange rock. He admits that he has played the final scene with her a million different times but can’t find a different solution. He wants to live up to the gift of life she gave him. He gets choked up as he says he misses her and apologizes for what he’s about to do.

 

Back at the penthouse, Kate gets up and looks at all her awards and gear. She calls Clint, gets his answering machine, and tells him to call her. She leaves him a bunch of voicemails about things that happened since they split. She fills the mailbox with her messages.

 

We’re shown a pair of the Tracksuits pull into their lot just before an arrow hits their windshield. It has a message in it, telling Maya to meet him at the spot where she first met the Ronin, alone. Clint calls up Laura and tells her that the problem just keeps getting bigger. He explains about Maya researching the family, the Rolex and a Black Widow was hired to kill him. He is sure if he doesn’t finish this tonight, the “Big Man” will be brought in. Laura tells him to follow his gut. Clint gets his gear from the locker he left it as he tells her he loves her.

 

Maya should probably sell this lot, it seems super
cursed.

At the used car lot that Maya met Ronin, Clint first takes out Kazi who is covering as a sniper, and then each of the Tracksuits one by one. Maya senses somethings up and starts shooting at any moment she sees. She runs out of shot as the Ronin walks up to her. They fight, which is extremely well choreographed. There’s a cool exchange where Maya uses her prosthetic leg to block a slash from Ronin’s sword and uses it to disarm him. Ronin gets her on the ground and then reveals he’s Clint. He tells her that he wanted her to see his face, to threaten her with death if anyone comes after his family again. Maya calls him a monster, but Clint claims they are weapons. He claims that a weapon when angry can be manipulated. He reveals an informant tipped him off about her father being at the lot that night, one that works for the Big Guy. He tells her that the Big Guy wanted her father dead and is using her. She disarms Clint with a good tug, but Clint is saved at the last second by Kate with an arrow shot. Kate tracked his phone again. Maya drives off and Kate and Clint meet her escape plan, an uber.

 

Maya meets with Kazi, who explains about being hit by Ronin. She says the Ronin got away. She asks Kazi why he wasn’t at the meeting when her father died. Kazi gives the obvious lie that he didn’t get the call, which Maya doesn’t buy but also doesn’t push. She drives off on her motorcycle again, and Kazi looks very worried.

 

Quick, call Nelson and Murdock, you'll need...
legal assistance. Yeah... legal.

As Clint and Kate are driven, he reveals that the woman who attacked them that wasn’t Maya is Yelena. They get dropped off and start walking. Meanwhile, Yelena in her tourist get up follows Eleanor somewhere. Clint and Kate have breakfast at Grills house when Kate gets a text from Yelena. She reveals that Eleanor was the one hired her, on behalf of someone. Kate shows Clint the photo of Eleanor and the man she’s working for. Clint reveals that the man is the guy he’s been worried about this whole time. … Kingpin. And yes, if you’ve been living under a rock and missed this reveal, it’s Vincent D’Onofrio. Damn, hell of a way to end the episode.

 

Again, I freaking love Florence Pugh as Yelena. She is a delightful mix of laid back and disturbingly intense depending on how she feels. It was incredibly strange to see how the Blip effected the people that disappeared. It was real heartbreaking to hear Yelena being excited to see Natasha again, only for us to know she’s about to find out she died. Very sad. Her dinner/threat with Kate was great. Florence Pugh has great chemistry with Hailee Steinfeld. The showdown with Maya and the Tracksuits vs. the Ronin was amazing. I love the horror movie vibe as Clint takes out each of the Tracksuits and then his final throwdown with Maya. It was also great to see Kate be the one to save Clint for once. Oh, and that Kingpin reveal. I loved the Kingpin reveal. I’d heard rumors about Vincent D’Onofrio being brought back as Kingpin, but I refused to believe it until I saw the proof. The thought that ALL of this is tied to the Kingpin building/rebuilding his empire is great. Although, it’s weird to think that now Kingpin is a Daredevil, Spider-Man and Hawkeye villain. So yeah, fun episode. Next time, the final episode. This’ll be fun. 

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