Viewer Log: Hawkeye ep 6

 Hawkeye goes in for the final shot. 

Last time on Hawkeye, Clint and Kate went their separate ways for a bit. On her own, Kate is confronted by Yelena Belova in her apartment. They have a semi-awkward dinner of Mac and Cheese where Yelena shows off how much she’s learned about Kate as a “stay out of this,” intimidation move. She also witnesses Jack Duquesne being arrested, which doesn’t put her as at ease as she clearly hoped. After moping just a bit, she grabs her gear and heads out. Clint, after talking to Nat’s spirit at the Avenger’s Plaque on the old Avenger’s Tower, decides he’s going to end this with Maya. He tells her via an arrow at her goons, to meet him at the used car lot where they first met. He systematically destroys the Tracksuit Mafia before fighting Maya. He beats her to a standstill, tries to convince her that, while he did murder her dad, that her boss set her dad up to die. She tries to kill him, but Clint is saved at the last moment by an arrow from Kate. She tracked his phone again. They split off, Maya confronting her number 2 Kazi about why he wasn’t at the meeting where her father died and obviously not buying his answer, and Kate and Clint returning to Grills apartment to regroup. The next day, Yelena, wanting to be a good sport, texts Kate a picture of who hired her and who that person works for. The hirer, Eleanor Bishop. The person she’s working for… Wilson Grant Fisk, aka the Kingpin. And he’s played by Vincent D’Onofrio. Hell yes. Teehee. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Oh, and this is my first time watching the finale for real. This’ll be fun!

 

Episode 6: So This Is Christmas?

He's back and he's glorious!

We open on Kingpin meeting with Eleanor. Turns out, Derek owed Fisk a small fortune and Eleanor had paid off by a large margin before now. Eleanor is the one that killed Armand and set up Jack as the Sloan Limited CEO. She’s been a good minion but wants out now that Kate is getting close. Eleanor tries to break things off with Fisk, telling the Kingpin of Crime that she has an insurance policy, evidence of everything she’s done for him, in a safe place. As she leaves, Fisk has a very noticeable twitch in his face which has me terrified.

 

We cut to Kate and Clint watching the video of this exchange that I guess Yelena forwarded them. Kate doesn’t take finding out her mom is an accessory to crimes at the very least well. She tries to call Eleanor but can’t reach her. Clint promises that this isn’t good, and that Fisk is going to retaliate in a big way. Kate tries to tell him to leave, but he calls Kate his partner and promises he’s not going to leave until it’s done.

 

I guess Wilson hasn't been doing super hot since
prison.

Maya meets with Fisk, Kazi serving as interpreter. He asks his “niece” what’s been going on. He notes she’s been acting strangely. Maya explains that she got carried away hunting her father’s killer and promise to ‘let it go’ and stop chasing ghosts. Maya asks for a few days off to clear her head, which Fisk agrees to. He tells her he loves her as she leaves. When she’s gone, Fisk has an anger eruption listing off the problems he’s dealing with. 1. The Ronin in town. 2. An Avenger looking into his business, 3. Bishop “quitting” her job like she works for Goldman Sachs, and 4. Realizing that Maya is turning on him. He asks Kazi what they’re going to do about this. He wants to remind everyone that this City belongs to him.

 

Kate and Clint are on a subway car to the apartment to prepare for tonight. Clint says he’s sorry how all this turned out, and that they need to prepare for tonight. Prepare what, you might ask? Trick arrows, of course. Clint and Kate make several trick arrows, Kate labeling them since she doesn’t yet have Clint’s arrow eidetic memory. He tries to tell her that he can do this alone, keep her from doing the hard thing if she doesn’t feel that she’s ready for it yet. She gives him a speech about what it meant to her, being attacked by aliens, and saved by just a man with a few pieces of wood and a string. That he taught her being a hero isn’t just for people who can fly or can shoot lasers from their hands, that its for anyone who is brave enough to do what’s right no matter the cost. She’s ready.

 

Good but not great costumes.

That night, Kazi is in position to take out Eleanor and the Tracksuits are on their way to give him backup. Kate and Clint arrive at the event. Clint asks Kate to assess the situation, she notes that the guy in charge of Catering is Gary from the first episode, and notes that their assets are pretty much all the LARPers in attendance pretending to be waitstaff. Jack arrives at the party, much to Kate’s surprise. He brought a sword to the party… just after getting out of jail for allegedly killing a man with one. Clint says it best “Weird flex, but okay.” Armand VII has a weird rich person argument with Jack about what Armand will inherit when Jack dies. Rich folks are weird. Clint and Kate separate to do recon just as Yelena arrives. She doesn’t check her coat, which tells me she’s in full battle gear under it. Damn.

 

Eleanor arrives and Kate immediately pulls her to the side to confront her/bring her up to speed about the murder plot. Eleanor rationalizes it by she was just cleaning up Derek’s mess but she’s interrupted by Jack wanting a word. Outside, Kazi spots Clint at one of the windows and takes a shot, but Clint saw the sniper dot at the last moment and dodges. He tells Wendy, whom he’d been speaking with, to get everyone out of her and then tries to draw Kazi’s fire. Kate goes to help Clint and Eleanor runs off to do… something, leaving a befuddled Jack alone. Sad Jack. He draws his sword, saying that it is his time.

 

The LARPers kill the lights to help give Clint cover. Kate chase after Yelena. They both get on the elevator to follow after Clin. Kate tries to hit the emergency stop but Yelena slaps her hand away. She keeps going for it, leading to more elaborate take downs. Yelena rips Kate’s jacket off in the struggle, revealing her new Hawkeye duds. Distracted by Kate’s new look, which I totally get, Kate’s able to hit a bunch of floor buttons, rending the elevator pretty much useless as a quick mode off transport. Yelena says that’s really annoying and starts hoofing it, with Kate in pursuit.

 

Yelena, Black Widows don't run down buildings
that's a Spider-Family thing!

Kazi radios the Tracksuits, letting them know Clint is on his way down. Clint loses his suit jacket and tie, pulling out his bow. Yelena and Kate have a very tame fight as Kate just tries to slow her down and Yelena tries to do just the bare minimum to incapacitate her. Clint fires an arrow in the direction of Kazi, hitting the ceiling and activating a gas trick arrowhead. Kazi’s temporarily disabled at least. Kate and Yelena keep fighting down the halls, Yelena quickly drops a grappling hook down and runs down the side of the building to try to get a shot at Clint. Sidenote, Peter Parker, you need to run down more buildings like this. Just saying. She takes a shot at Clint but misses. She hit the ground and looks pissed. Kate ties offer her own bungee cord and drops much less gracefully to the ground. She does land though and starts fighting the Tracksuits. There’s a funny bit where the one that asked her for relationship advice thanks her for said advice but still tries to shoot her. She gets back up from Jack, the Swordsman proving his name by taking out several Tracksuits in quick succession. Clint draws his own group of Tracksuits and sets up some small explosives to deal with them. He gets attacked by Kazi. They wrestle a bit, but Clint can set off his little bombs to draw his Tracksuits before knocking Kazi out again. He runs from his group, jumping out of a window. His line is unfortunately cut, and he drops into the big Christmas tree. Kate goes to help Clint, telling the LARPers to get everyone out of the area.

 

Meanwhile, Maya is packing her stuff.

 

Great costumes

More Tracksuits arrive, but Kate takes a good chunk off them out with arrow shots. The LARPers also suited up, using the added intimidation of being in armor to get people moving where they want them too. Kate shoots the wires holding up the big tree and then hits it with an acid arrow to knock it over and get Clint out of it. Damn. Clint lands in the ice rink and is immediately surrounded by Tracksuits. Kate slides in to help, creating cover with smoke. Clint rips off the last tatters of his suit, revealing his version of the modern Hawkeye gear. And he looks real good in it. Clint hits a metal pole with an electromagnet arrow to disable guns for a bit. Clint gives her a dozen more Trick arrows and tells her to help him give the Tracksuits hell. The Hawkeyes start taking out Tracksuits left and right, swapping between firing arrows and brawling when necessary. Impressive Kyūdō… maybe. They cap it off by hitting a speeding truck with a shrinking Pym arrow. Nice. Clint is unsure of what happens to them after, he’ll need to ask Scott about what happens. The truck is then picked up by an owl… so that’ll probably work itself out. They get out of the Ice rink. Kate goes off to get to her mom, and Clint stays back to handle Kazi. He takes out Kazi’s two henchmen with one arrow, but Kazi somehow catches his. Kazi (mockingly) “Nice shot” Clint “No shit.” Their fight is irrupted by Yelena tackling Clint back into the ice rink and Maya arriving to attack Kazi.

 

Yelena asks Clint one question; she wants to know what happened to Natasha. Clint gives her the short version that Natasha sacrificed herself to save the world, but Yelena refuses to believe. Maya offers to get Kazi out, to get them both out, but Kazi refuses. Eleanor tries to escape and find Kate, but her driver is already dead, and Fisk then rips the door off her car and pulls her out, wanting to “talk.” Kate stops him, firing an arrow at Fisk, who just takes it to the gut, snapping the shaft off. He pulls her in to try to grapple, but Eleanor hits him with a car. Maya tries to get Kazi to stop, but he claims he can’t live in two worlds like she can and attacks. She stabs him through the gut, killing him. He tells her to leave with the last of his strength, as kingpin is coming for her. Kate and Kingpin fight, Kate doing her best to keep Fisk from her mother but being knocked around a lot. Because ya know, she’s a normal sized woman going up against a sumo wrestler. Clint keeps trying to convince Yelena that Natasha sacrificed herself, but she won’t listen. Kate tries to fight Fisk, but gets thrown again, her arrows taken and snapped in half. She keeps trying to tackle him, but he throws her off.

 

Clint reveals that he fought to be the one to sacrifice himself instead of Natasha, but she was better than him. Yelena pulls out a staff and starts beating him. Kate gets thrown by Kingpin again, who tells her she’s really starting to annoy me. Kate gets a bit of metal and flicks it at an arrowhead. It sets off an electromagnetic field that hits several arrows, ultimately setting off an explosive arrowhead. Fisk is thrown aside and knocked unconscious. Kate goes to her mom, Eleanor promising that things will go back to normal, but Kate isn’t believing it. Eleanor claims that everything that happened was an unfortunate arraignment. She claims that she’s always been the responsible on, the one that picks up the mess as it were. The police arrive, arresting Eleanor.

 

Yelena pulls a gun to kill Clint but stops when he whistles Natasha’s whistle. He tells her that she talked about Yelena all the time. He tells her that Natasha loved her and always wanted to keep her safe. Yelena starts breaking down, saying that had she been there she could have stopped Natasha. Clint says that she couldn’t have, that she made her choice, and they must learn to go on. They both agree they loved her, and Yelena helps him to his feet. He apologizes and she walks off. The cops find Fisk has escaped. He runs into a Tracksuit truck, but it’s Maya driving it. Maya pulls a gun, he tries to talk his way out of it, but gets shot.

 

After, the LARPers are interviewed by the cops, and Wendy tries to convince Jack to take up LARPing. Clint tells Kate that it’s rare, but every now and then they run into someone who makes them better and turns it into a joke about Missy making the suits better. He brings it back though, by complimenting Kate taking on Kingpin and the burden of seeing her mom arrested. They agree they need to walk the Pizza Dog.

 

Alls well that ends well.

Christmas Day, Clint, Kate, and Lucky the Pizza Dog pull up to the Barton Ranch. Clint’s family enthusiastically greet them. Clint gives Laura the Rolex, revealing the SHIELD logo on the back and Clint jokingly telling Laura to take better care of her stuff. Clint and Kate head out back really quick, throwing the Ronin suit on his grill and burning it. The episode ends with Kate pitching a bunch of names riffing off Hawkeye for her hero-name, the final moment suggesting he’s going to tell her to take up the Hawkeye name officially. Neat.

 

The post-credit scene is just an extended cut of the “I Can Do This All Day” song from the Rogers Musical.

 

I liked this finale. The near episode long brawl was great, showing off why Hawkeye is one of the best non-empowered humans of the MCU, Kate’s growth over the last six episodes, and why Yelena is an incredibly worthy successor to Natasha. The shooting gallery in the ice rink was particularly well done, even if they had to kind of go to an absurd level to remove guns from the equation. My handful of complaints are just nitpicking. I thought that they kind of underutilized Kingpin, as he has just three scenes. Sure, one of them is a kickass final brawl with Kate where he’s literally throwing her around like a ragdoll, but it still just left me wanting. Also, the stuff between Maya and Kazi made me feel like I missed an episode. Like, their final moments together made it seem like they were best friends placed on different sides of a war but their every interaction before was between boss and subordinate. I’m sure this and her relationship with Kingpin will get flushed out in Echo, but it leaves this finale feeling just a tad off. Also, was not a fan of Maya shooting him at the end. Sure, dramatic, but there’s not a chance in hell that’s the end of Kingpin, and how they’ve got to work overtime in the next project he’ll appear in, be it Echo or a Daredevil project, as to why he’s not dead. Which is going to be harder than explaining why he has superstrength now. Before you say anything, everyone has said that this is the same Kingpin from Daredevil, so it’s not same actor different character thing. I really liked the final moments with the Bartons and Kate and Hawkeye burning the Ronin suit. Felt very full circle. But also, Disney, in case you are wondering, yes, damn it, we want an origin story of when Clint met Laura. I don’t care if it’s a movie, series, animated or live action, I want to see these SHIELD agents meet. Damn it. So yeah, I liked this series a lot. I’m looking forward to more of Kate Bishop in the future. I don’t know if Jeremy Renner’s Clint is done after this, but if this was his finale, it was a fitting one. Have a good night. 

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