WARNING: Spoilers for Hawkeye Episode 5 (and previous episodes)
Hawkeye continues to be a great chapter of the MCU and this latest episode has a lot to talk about.
First up, the pre-titles sequence. We see how Yelena was travelling the world tracking down black widows and removing their brain-washing after the events of Black Widow but then the snap happens and she is dusted and then reappears in the same spot five years later. The scene is reminiscent of a similar one in WandaVision when the same thing happened to Monica Rambeau, with both characters losing someone close to them during the blip.
Yelena very quickly became a favourtie character of mine in Black Widow and I was a little nervous that Marvel would struggle to keep up the quality of the dialogue given to the character. Here though we have a brilliant scene when Yelena cooks Mac and Cheese and shares it with Kate Bishop. It's hilarious but then develops into something more serious as the pair discuss whether Clint should be punished for being Ronin and Kate tries to explain that it was not Clint's fault that Natasha died.
I love the way that Yelena is so brilliant at reading people. When Kate tells her that she doesn't know where Clint is Yelena happily accepts that because she knows it's the truth. It's also interesting to see that she follows-up on Kate's assertation that the person who hired her to kill Clint is far more of a concern than he is. It's unclear if Yelena intends to complete her mission and it seems unlikely she has forgiven Clint for Natasha's death on the word of Kate. I can't wait to see Clint and Yelena meet and I suspect in the end they will actually quite like each other.
Clint decides to finally sort out the Maya problem and confronts her in his Ronin guise. I am really intrigued by Clint dealing with the terrible things he did as Ronin during the blip and it's interesting to see him attempt to put them right. He shows Maya his face, perhaps partly to show he is really a good guy, but also to tell her that it could have been anyone in his place- the real person behind her father's death was the 'big guy' who tipped Ronin off. This is surely the turning point for Maya turning from villain to hero (or at least vigilante) as she will no doubt be keen to get revenge.
The plot thickens in regards to Kate's Mum and her fiancée too. When Kate tells Eleanor about Jack's dodgy dealing she calls the police and it seems that Eleanor Bishop might be a good person after all. But then it turns out that she was the one who hired Yelena to kill Clint and she is working with the 'big guy'- Kingpin! It's still unclear whether Eleanor and Jack are in it together or if they met in the criminal underworld and she is happy to throw him under the bus for her daughter. Quite why she is close to Kingpin is still unclear.
So, Kingpin! After many rumours Vincent D'Onofrio has reprised his role as Wilson Fisk from Daredevil. He's only appeared in a still photo so far but will no dobut have a major role to play in the next episode and future instalments of the MCU (including Echo you would think). We don't yet know if this is the same incarnation of the character as the Daredevil show- if he is then that surely confirms that the Netflix Defenders show are canon to the MCU. I suspect they are going down the soft reboot route where they will neither confirm nor deny that he is the same character from the same universe as Daredevil.
After all the cosmic drama of phase four of the MCU it's great to see that the street-level stuff is going really strong. Hawkeye manages to introduce new characters, both setting things up for the future and reflecting on Clint's adventures so far. I can't wait for the epic finale!
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