Recap and Review of Hawkeye, Episode 3: “Echoes”

In the first two episodes of the Hawkeye series, we see Avengers Clint Barton as he tries to regain the lost years taken from him and his family by Thanos. But in the midst of that, he discovers someone using the Ronin suit, a costume and memory that Clint is not too fond of.

It turns out the suit was taken in a moment of desperation by Kate Bishop, a young woman who may be Hawkeye’s greatest fan, who has also made herself into a formidable archer and combatant. But the Ronin suit also has awaken the attention of the Track Suit Mafia, a criminal gang organization that both attacks Kate’s apartment and ultimately manage to get Clint and Kate captive

So how are our heroes going to get out of this?

Recap of Hawkeye, Episode 3: “Echoes”

We start on Maya, an elementary school aged girl with major hearing loss and we watch as she tries and makes her way through a hearing world. Guided by her dad, she learns that she will need to exist in two worlds. So we see her at work in academics but also on the karate mat, where we discover that she is also missing part of her lower leg, as she uses her speed (and prosthetic leg) to defeat a much larger foe.

We jump ahead as she uses the same studious nature on watching her foe in a boxing ring before easily defeating him as well. But after that match, she rides to the garage run by her dad’s crew, the Track Suit Mafia, only to see Ronin and his sword decimate everyone inside, including her father.

She clearly has aim to want to get revenge on Ronin, which is how she winds up in front of the captive Clint and Kate.

Kate proves to be a part time therapist, advising one of the Track Suit Mafia around a complicated love and trust issue involving Imagine Dragon tickets, even as she is captive. The advisee seems amenable and grateful for the advice but then Maya arrives.

Maya sees Clint’s hearing aid and tries to sign with him, only to be disappointed that he doesn’t know much American Sign Language, as he is hard of hearing, not fully deaf. She turns to her interpreter, who helps translate between them. In that conversation, Clint tries to convince her that Kate had no idea what she was doing when she put on the Ronin suit and that the rumor of Ronin’s return is just a rumor…because Ronin is dead, killed by the Black Widow.

Maya then turns to Kate and eventually just attacks her. But in the discussion that occurs in the mean time, Clint is able to cut the tape and get free. So, across their warehouse base with random old objects, Clint makes his way, taking down many of them before ultimately ending up in the office, with his bow and arrows, but not before Maya smashes his hearing aid when it falls out.

Using an arrow to shoot Kate free, the fight gets more even, as the two of them manage to fight their way out of the warehouse. But communicating is going to prove hard when Clint can’t hear and Kate wants to yabber. Clint refuses to take the nicely maintained ’72 Challenger, opting for a run down Cadillac. They argue over who will drive but ultimately you get an excellent chase scene as Clint drives, and coaches Kate on what arrows to use and when.

The putty arrow dirties up a truck’s windshield. The second arrow is an explosive one, which Kate worries about because Clint took away 4 that were more dangerous. The plunger arrow seems useless. The next one snags the goo’d truck as well as a bunch of Christmas trees in the lot they are escaping through. A couple acid arrows drop the traffic lights.

With the bridge looming ahead, the Challenger and the Cadillac are side by side. Even as the Track Suit Mafia goon attempts to shoot them, Kate grabs her bow and manages to fire a gas arrow into the car. The Challenger crashes but as they go further down the bridge, they discover traffic.

But Clint has an idea, as they get out of the car. He coaches Kate on how to fire one arrow, while he fires another…of Pym Particles!

When the two arrows meet, the ginormous arrow pins down the truck, making it a clear way for the duo to escape using a grappling hook arrow plus the recovered plunger arrow, after an epic dive off the bridge, swinging on to the moving train. And while Kate is worried about the dog they recovered last time, Clint, who cannot hear her, says that she is not wrong: she really is one of the world’s greatest archers.

While they are resting, Clint gets an early morning call. Unable to hear the call due to his busted hearing aid, Kate translates using a pad of paper, as Clint talks to his youngest son, Daniel, the early riser. It is a moment where we get to see the heartache of being a parent and not being able to really promise that you will make it home in time for the holiday traditions.

They do manage to find a place to repair his hearing aid, which he scooped up on the way out of the warehouse. In the breakfast afterwards, we get to see and hear Clint as he wants Kate to understand the costs of doing what he does. Kate also tries to help with his “branding” issue, as she hilariously describes his real comic book costume.

But Kate and the Track Suit Mafia want to know the same thing: who is/was Ronin? When they go to Kate’s mother’s penthouse, Clint meets her soon-to-be stepdad…at the end of the Ronin sword.

Thoughts on Hawkeye, Episode 3: “Echoes”

The start of this series has just been so fantastic and there are some very cool things about it that I love.

First, this show is going to have a quality Christmas playlist of not your usual favorites. Kudos for the showrunners and team working hard on the back catalog to find some unique holiday jams!

Second, this is the Hawkeye where Jeremy Renner’s gifts can shine. He is able to do both comedy and drama well. The hilarious nature of him coaching Kate on arrows in the road chase is paralleled with the acting he does with just his face in the call with his son when he cannot hear him.

Third, there was never a better candidate for Kate Bishop than Haile Steinfeld. She is a perfect foil to Renner and shows equal parts of heroic fearlessness when needed but also the giddy school girl admiration of Hawkeye.

But it is interesting to see how they are setting up some other characters from the Marvel Universe. Maya is easy to figure out but this is a much different origin story for her. Jack, the soon to be stepdad is also being set up as a character that was very important in the backstory of the comic book Hawkeye. It will be interesting to see how they tweak that for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The fights in this show are excellent. Go back and watch a season 1 of Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D. fight. I will wait. Can you believe how much better Marvel and its teams have gotten in planning, choreographing and filming fights. It is unbelievable. The Hall Fights of the Netflix shows were good but this was next level.

I fanboy’d very hard when I saw that Pym name on that arrow. Such utterly ridiculous fun.

It is going to be great to see where we go from here. Anyone else think that Black Widow’s little sister may be coming around soon to defend her name and honor from Clint Barton’s mouth?