Recap and Review of Hawkeye, Episode 4: “Partners, Am I Right?”

As Clint and Kate moved towards a more real partnership in episode 3, we see what could be a full comic book duo, like Cap and Bucky or Batman and Robin. Only with the twists of the modern world that we have all around it.

As the duo tries to convince others of the original Ronin’s death, they also need to deal with the sneaky fiancee of Kate’s mom, the Track Suit Mafia and the seemingly formidable new foe Maya. What is the plan and the next stages, especially as we ended with Ronin’s stolen old sword being held up to his neck by the sneaky fiancee?

Recap of Hawkeye, Episode 4: “Partners, Am I Right?”

Thankfully, Jack recognizes Clint as the Avenger “Archer” and the sword gets put away. And then we have a meeting of the minds, as Kate’s mom and Jack get to know Clint in an interview that feels a little like a college kid bringing home her first real boyfriend. But, of course, it is nothing like that. In the end, Clint expresses how she is really helping and is quite good at it for someone her age, but he gets a pretty stern warning from Kate’s mom as they exit. She doesn’t want her daughter hurt in whatever scheme this is.

Kate sticks around and sees how much Jack means to her mother, which will only serve to make it even more awkward later.

Clint is able to enlist his wife’s help with data mining and through a sometimes coded, sometimes in a different language conversation, that Jack is the front man for a company called Sloan, LTD, which is a front for the Track Suit Mafia. And she wonders if an important watch may have gotten stolen at the same time the Ronin costume was. But his kids are pretty smart themselves and you see the disappointment when they realize Dad likely isn’t going to be home for Christmas.

But Kate busts out of her house and heads to her aunt’s, where Hawkeye is recovering. She comes bearing Christmas cheer, via a tree, movies, sweaters. And they debrief, as Clint explains that her instincts were right about Jack, and his role with the Track Suit Mafia. She also manages to get some more explanations out of him, as he explains the trick arrows are mainly the tips but they need the arrows they shot back to use them. Clint also shares with her about the shot that meant the most was the one he didn’t take when he was sent to kill Natasha aka the Black Widow, because he could sense that she wanted out. Clint teaches Kate how to use a quarter to hit a small target by flicking it, powerful enough to knock someone out.

And as the night winds down, Kate realizes that Clint lost his family in the Thanos blip and slowly she seems to realize the darkness that Clint really wants to hide…that he was Ronin and the dark acts he did, Clint is scared will come back to hurt and haunt his family. And it is why he is here. And that he cannot go home until he fixes it.

The next morning, the duo divides and conquers. Clint lets Kate into the world of his new LARPing friends, because he is hopeful that a police officer that LARPs will be able to retrieve the trick arrow shafts that they need to use the few remaining trick arrow heads he has. The LARPers cut a deal with Kate, as we see Clint talk to Kazi, Maya’s right hand man in the Track Suit Mafia. Clint tries very hard to get Kazi to believe Ronin is dead and that not much else good will come from Maya’s revenge desires, even if they are rooted in wanting justice for those Ronin killed.

And it turns out the LARPers want even more deep into Clint’s world, as he visits their apartment to see them dressing Kate up (and baking snickerdoodles), as she negotiates with them to help create new costumes for her and Clint. The officer returns with the arrowheads and, after some negotiation over her handbag (and a promise to return it), Clint and Kate set out because, much to his concern, the Rolex is live and was stolen. But Clint’s wife was able to find an address.

When they arrive to the address, Clint and Kate case the apartment and after substantial lack of activity in it, Kate sneaks off on her way to the apartment, helping a man carry his groceries but she cannot play it cool about Hawkeye and her being in a partnership. She does make it into the apartment but triggers off lights that flash, that she quickly covers with goo arrows. They aren’t sure what they are but Kate discovers the Rolex, alongside a notebook with information about Clint and his family, like their names and ages. Hawkeye then realizes the flashing lights are for warnings for deaf people and that this is Maya’s house!

And the fighting breaks out, with both Clint, across the street on the roof, and Kate, inside Maya’s apartment, thinking they are fighting Maya! Only it turns out Clint is fighting someone else! Clint is able to get a zipline arrow off to give Kate an escape but her momentum falters halfway across before the cable is banged and it jolts her across the Clint’s perch.

Maya soon follows and you have a four-way, free for all fight. At one point, Clint’s foe hooks Kate to a line and throws her over the edge. And when Clint can see that she can safely land on the ground, he cuts her loose. Of course, she takes the stairs back upstairs to rejoin the fight. In the end, Maya is wounded in the shoulder by Kate and leaves, while the other opponent is revealed to be a Black Widow, Yelena Belova, the Black Widow’s sister.

And we end with Clint realizing just how dangerous the situation has gotten as he send Kate away, having taken her bow.

Thoughts on Hawkeye, Episode 4: “Partners, Am I Right?”

Excellent episode all the way around. Some fun with the LARPers, some real character connection and depth and a great fight scene at the end.

As always, 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!

I cannot wait for that quarter trick to get the payoff moment later in the series.

So now that Yelena is here, will we learn why? She twice seems to go out of her way to keep Kate free of the fight. Sure, the cut scene from the Black Widow movie’s ending seems to set this up but is it just that simple?

Clint talking about himself and how he saw himself after losing his family in the Thanos blip has great impact. You can see Kate listening and working her way through all the emotions that he must have had. It was interesting to hear Clint say that he was just a weapon people pointed during that time; that seems to run contrary to some of what Avengers’ clips showed, which was just him killing and terrorizing organized crime. If someone was pointing him to those jobs, who was it? Are we learning that Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is cleaning up her dirty messes?

The parallels drawn as well between when Black Widow sacrifices herself and when Clint cuts free Kate when she is hanging are worth paying attention to. It passed right by me on my first viewing but stood out even more on my second viewing.

Hawkeye season 2 is just Kate and the LARPers fighting low level street crime. Eventually Kingpin gets involved!