This Wednesday we are back with the review/recap of the penultimate episode of the first season of Hawkeye, titled “Ronin“. If haven’t been keeping up, there will be spoilers from here on out! Beware!

What was it about?

Kate and Clint each make their own discoveries about just how interconnected their fates are.

My thoughts?

Well, this episode involved a lot of telling rather than showing, but that’s okay. I feel like they often cram a lot of info into those penultimate stories, which Hawkeye was no exception from. Even at the danger of repeating myself, but the formula is so blatant here, I can’t help but point it out each week. Even though we might not have learned a lot of new information, I feel like this episode confirmed a lot of suspicions. Let’s break it down:

• The episode starts with a cold open of Yelena and her mission of saving her fellow widows from a brainwashed existence. She comes across Ana, who made a fortune as an assassin for hire, but while in her bathroom, the blip happens. This is the first time that confirms Yelena was dusted during the blip and returned visibly confused. One of the first things she asks for, once she grasps the situation, is Nat. Her sister truly is always on her mind.
• Back in the present, Eleanor is visibly happy that Kate and Clint have parted ways (even if she’s not happy about the wounds), once more bringing home the point that Kate is the most important person in her life. When Kate tells her about the shell company and Jack, she even promises to look into it. All she wants is Kate home.
• Clint, not really willing to run into Kate, I suppose, crashes with Grills for the time being. I like that he keeps coming back.
• While Kate gets her stuff from her apartment (the one I thought was completely burned down?), she encounters Yelena, who was already waiting for her and had even made some mac’n’cheese. This is the Yelena we know and love. Kind of quirky, but funny. Serious when she has to be. The two have a talk about Clint, both questioning the others motives and point of views. Whereas Kate is still as devoted as ever, defending him, Yelena can’t let go of the past. A lot of her remarks are clearly hinting at the fact that she knows that Clint was Ronin and that she maybe thought Kate didn’t know.

• Back at Eleanor’s place, Jack gets arrested or at least taken in for questioning by the police. He claims he was set up and honestly, I believe him. I can very much see Eleanor be the one to pull the strings here.
• There was a lovely moment where Clint went to the memorial of where the Avengers first assembled, took out his hearing aids and talked to Natasha. It must have been so weird for any of the passersby, if they had actually paid attention, but it was a nice heartfelt moment, as he told her he missed her and was sorry for what he was about to do.

• Instigating a meet-up with Maya, you might think he would go back to his Ronin ways, but this is the new Clint. He would never! Instead, he spares Maya and tells her that he was tipped off by an informant of Maya’s boss, who wanted Maya’s dad gone. She doesn’t initially believe him, but when Kazi later checks on her, you can see she thinks he was the informant.

Kazimierz Kazimierczak aka Kazi: I haven’t talked about or even mentioned him much in the past recaps, but he got his own character poster, so we all knew he wasn’t just going to appear once. I like his dynamic with Maya and that he made the effort to learn ASL to be able to communicate with her. I don’t know if I’m reading too much into it, but I think he’s in love with her, at least I truly believe he cares about her well-being.
From a comics POV, his alias is usually Clown. He had several run ins with Hawkeye on the pages and was even responsible for the murder of Grills. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that on the show.

• After Kate helps Clint, by once again tracking his phone, escape from Maya, she tells him about the visit from Yelena and Clint recognizes her as Natasha’s sister, which is so confusing to me. A lot of Nat’s arc in Endgame hinged on her not having any family and the Avengers believing that they were the only ones she considered family. The Black Widow obviously proved that to be some bullshit, but Natasha had her secrets. You could have still argued that she just never talked about her family in an attempt to not reveal any important information on them, but Clint knowing about Yelena – that changes things in my eyes.

• Eventually, Kate and Clint wind down at Grills’ place, when Kate receives a message from Yelena, who looked into who hired her. I don’t know about you, but it came as little a surprise to see Eleanor’s name pop up (we can talk about why Valentina met up with Yelena another time) and even less surprising was her meeting with Kingpin. I’m just glad it’s finally confirmed. The picture was very grainy, so please don’t hold me to that, but it looked like Vincent D’Onofrio to me!

Laura Barton: I didn’t really go into it much last week, other than voicing some suspicions that Laura had some serious skills in the spy department, but I wanted to share a theory that I saw pop up on the internet quite a bit. Considering the clues the show had dropped so far, a lot of people started to assume she might be a retired Mockingbird. I can obviously neither confirm nor deny this, but it would be another blow to Agents of SHIELD fans, because it would prove once more that their show isn’t canon. I’d say we should still wait and see about her.

As I’ve mentioned above, the way this episode was handled felt very much on brand with what we’ve seen in Marvel shows thus far. Even if they tried to incorporate an action sequence, I’d say this episode was mostly just various parties talking to each other and confirming information or putting puzzle pieces together from what we’ve learned throughout the season. I still have my suspicion that the finale will feel quite rushed or not entirely done. We will find out next week!

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PREVIOUS HAWKEYE REVIEWS

• Episode 1 & 2
• Episode 3 “Echoes”
• Episode 4 “Partners, Am I Right?”

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As a side note: my country is just transitioning out of a hard lockdown and movie theaters are not open yet. I’m honestly not sure when I’ll be able to watch the movie, but I fully intend to go in with as little information as possible when it comes to the new Spider-Man movie. So, if any of you spoil Spider-Man: No Way Home for me – I WILL find you and I WILL ruin something you enjoy in return!

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What did you think of the episode? What did you think of my recap? Were you surprised? Let’s talk!