Hawkeye – Echoes Review

As Hawkeye races towards its climax (strange to say three episodes into a series, but with only three episodes remaining in the show – or in the season, depending on how things ultimately shake out – we’re rapidly approaching the endgame mere moments after we started the journey), the battle lines have been drawn, the show’s key new villain (or is she a villain – more on that later) has been formally introduced in the form of Echo (aka Maya Lopez, played by the excellent Alaqua Cox, in her first on screen role), and a link to the rest of the Marvel universe has officially been teased in the form of Maya’s “uncle.” But, most importantly, Clint is continuing to struggle with a host of things – chief of which is his time as Ronin and how the choices he made under that mantle have impacted his life in far deeper ways than he could have imagined at the time – and we know what happens with a hero who is going through an emotional crisis of faith: they end up getting sloppy. Hopefully Clint can wrap his head around his situation before it costs him more than he’s willing to pay. But I’m getting ahead of myself here.

The greatest strength of Hawkeye continues to be, unsurprisingly, the relationship between Kate and Clint. The foundation of all classic buddy comedy duos is chemistry, and Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld have it in spades. It’s impressive that only three episodes into her MCU run, Steinfeld has created a three-dimensional hero in the form of Kate Bishop and has allowed Renner the chance to flesh out Clint to levels never allowed throughout his entire MCU run thanks almost solely to his interactions with her. I’m absolutely amazed that this relationship feels so lived in and balanced this quickly – that’s not easy to do in a typical television series, but one that relies on a known character and the baggage the MCU carries with it? That’s plain impressive and some great work from showrunner Jonathan Igla and his writing staff. Kudos to them.

But “Echoes,” the third episode of the series, was less about Kate and Clint and more about the introduction of Echo, who we see as a small girl who is constantly underestimated as the only deaf person in a hearing classroom or as the only physically impaired girl in a martial arts class. Each time, Maya rises to the occasion, dismantling the expectations placed on her and proving herself to be better – smarter, faster, more poised – than those around her. She gets pulled into the New York City underworld and joins up with the Tracksuit Mafia (where her father, played by the always great Zahn McClarnon, is the lead enforcer), and much like Kate, must deal with the trauma of her father’s death. Although, unlike Kate, Echo’s dad dies in her arms after an encounter with the Ronin. So, she’s got a vendetta against the masked vigilante and his recent emergence in the city means she can extract the payment she feels she is owed.

Echo also has something in common with Clint – something that I suspect will lead her ultimately seeking to better understand him rather than continue to try and kill him – hearing loss. While Echo is deaf, she’s managed to maneuver her way throughout the world without seeing her deafness as a weakness – in fact, she’s proven herself far more capable than the hearing individuals around her time and again as we saw. But Clint, as Echo notes, sees his hearing loss as a weakness to be corrected. When he loses his hearing aid, he’s unable to effectively communicate (his perfunctory ASL doesn’t get him very far). For Echo, her deafness has become a facet of her strength. While there’s still a chasm between the two – I doubt Echo will be gung-ho about teaming up with the man who killed her father right out of the gate – there’s certainly a path to better understanding between them. And Echo can certainly teach Clint a thing or two about the man he can become by embracing all facets of himself – including his vigilante past and the loss of Nat, the two things that continue to eat away at him – which is a powerful lesson Clint still needs to learn.

But I’m getting ahead of the show! “Echoes” continues the strong narrative structure of the story while pushing forward another strong performance (that being Cox’s measured take on a character with unassuaged rage simmering under a calm surface). While Hawkeye is a very different series than the MCU shows that have come before it, the show knows the story it wants to tell and is getting down to it – something I certainly can appreciate, especially in the MCU where things often take far too long to develop. Let’s see what episode four brings us next week.

Hawkeye Theories/Easter Eggs

— Well, let’s just jump right into the biggest Easter Egg of the episode: Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin, is Echo’s “uncle.” And while we didn’t get to see his face this week, Kazi’s threat of his pending intervention all but confirmed we’ll hear from him in some capacity before this series is through. Think of it as Chekhov’s Kingpin on the Wall or something. Now, do I necessarily think he’ll have a major impact on the series? Nope. But I suspect, like with Yelena’s future appearance, we’ll get a good look at the Daredevil villain (likely played once again by Vincent D’Onofrio and formally linking the Netflix MCU series to the current MCU) at the close of the season, likely as a set-up for Echo’s announced spin-off series. There’s also been rumors and conjecture that Kingpin will make an appearance in the upcoming Spiderman: No Way Home film, but seeing as that would come out prior to any Kingpin appearance on Hawkeye (assuming Kingpin won’t pop up in episode four), I’m just not seeing that making sense. So, my money is on Kingpin showing up, maybe in the finale’s post-credit scene, to launch the Echo spin-off.

— While she didn’t make an appearance this week, the absence of Eleanor loomed large to me. I think we can all agree that there’s more to her than meets the eye – after all, the series has been so clear that Jack is the villain that he almost can’t be. Or, if he is proven to be a bad guy (which, sure, he definitely isn’t on the up and up), someone else is pulling those strings. And that someone else is likely Eleanor. As for her potential comic book identity, there are plenty of folks out there with ideas, so do some digging on your own. Personally, I’m going to wait and see on this one.

— A nice comic-based Easter Egg: When Echo’s father died, he left a bloody hand print on her face, a call out to how she appears within the comics.