A new episode of Hawkeye dropped on Disney Plus this week, so we’re back with another recap. Check out our recap of last week’s episode if you want to get up to speed. Let’s jump right in - spoilers ahead!
That Cliffhanger
Last week’s episode faded to black with Kate’s stepfather-to-be holding the Ronin sword in front of Clint’s face. But, honestly, this tense moment is quickly resolved once Kate’s mom walks in wondering why an Avenger is in her house? Jack seems a bit star-struck (a little like Kate herself), but calls Clint Archer instead of Hawkeye. Maybe Kate’s on to something with that branding issue.
This leads to a little family sit-down where Clint grudgingly confirms to Jack and Kate’s mom that she is, in fact, helping him in an investigation. Kate is very keen to call it a ‘partnership’ but Clint’s really not having it. But, it’s a funny scene that ends with Clint surreptitiously snatching the Ronin sword on his way out the door, promising to keep Kate out of harm’s way.
Christmas Interlude
We get a cute scene where Kate seems to actually be warming up to Jack, just a bit. Yes, we have now learned that he is the CEO of the company that seems to run the Tracksuit Mafia and thereby also working in the unnamed Kingpin’s criminal organization. But, he’s also a bit goofy, regularly getting standard sayings wrong (Absence makes the heart grow older, etc.), and he seems to make Kae’ts mom happy.
But, as they are about to have a family game night, Kate decides to spend the evening with Clint who is nursing his bruises with bags of frozen daiquiris. Kate shows up at her aunt’s apartment, where Clint is holed up, with an impromptu Christmas movie night, like his family was planning. It is complete with ugly Christmas sweaters and pizza. We get some funny scenes of Clint teaching Kate to flick a quarter with enough precision to turn on the TV as they kick around ideas for solving the Ronin problem and getting Kate free of the entire mess.
Oh Yeah, the Watch
Remember way back in episode 1, where the Tracksuit Mafia broke up the secret auction to steal a Rolex that was found at the Avengers compound? It’s OK if you forgot because the show really moved on from it enough that we might wonder if it mattered at all. But, indeed it does. It appears that the watch somehow contains information about the identity of a former undercover operative. Information that might be very valuable to someone like the head of all the organized crime in NY (aka Kingpin).
We learn about the watch from Clint’s wife, who we have always thought was not involved in the superhero or spy world that Clint inhabits. But, we get hints that she may have once been part of the intelligence community and in fact, it might be her identity that would be exposed by the watch. The watch also has a tracking device on it, which allows Clint to track it to an apartment in NY. He and Kate head over there to surveil the apartment in hopes of breaking in to get the watch back.
Hello Yelena
We then get a scene very reminiscent of the first Jason Bourne movie where Client lays out an elaborate plan to get into the apartment, while Kate slips away and takes a more frontal approach, getting a resident to let her into the building and then simply walking up to the apartment. She breaks into the apartment, setting off a silent alarm with strobe lights. That’s a real clue as to who lives in the apartment - Echo. Kate finds the watch but is then quickly confronted by Echo. As good a fighter as Kate is compared to normal folks, she isn’t quite a match for Echo.
Meanwhile, Clint is attacked by a masked person on the rooftop next door. He is able to shoot a zipline over to Kate to help her escape Echo, but he has his hands full with a well-trained fighter. Echo follows Kate across to the other roof on the zipline and now we have a complicated fight because Echo and the masked assailant do not seem to be together at all.
Kate is knocked off the roof during the fight but is attached to a cable so she only falls a short distance. It’s still a momentary flashback for Clint to when Natasha went over the ledge in Avengers: Endgame. He cuts Kate loose to fall the short rest of the way to the ground, telling her to leave. She’s not having it and trudges back up the stairs to rejoin the fight. Eventually, the masked assailant takes out Echo briefly and Clint pulls off the mask revealing - Yelena.
You may remember Yelena as Natasha’s sister who we met in the film, Black Widow. In the post-credit scene for that film, we saw Yelena seemingly accept a mission to take down Clint, who she believes may have killed Natasha. So, her entry into the Hawkeye series isn’t a big surprise. At one point, Kate gets the drop on Yelena, holding her at arrow-point, but she lets her go rather than shooting her. Since Clint revealed that he made a similar choice not to kill Natasha when they first met, maybe this is some foreshadowing of a similar future friendship between the new Hawkeye (Kate) and the new Black Widow (Yelena).
The episode ends with Clint telling Kate that she needs to walk away, now that it appears he is on the list of a Black Widow assassin. We’re pretty sure we know how that will fly with Kate, but we have two more episodes to find out!
