Hawkeye continues to shine in its third episode, which serves up both excellent character work and some terrific action scenes.
Hawkeye and Kate have been captured by the Tracksuit Mafia and meet with the leader of this crew, Echo. But there’s more than meets the eye to Echo and her relationship with the tracksuits.
Meet Echo
After getting the first glimpse of her at the end of the second episode, we get to see Echo in her full glory here in Episode 3. We already know she’s getting her own Disney+ spinoff series, but it was unclear how she was going to fit into this one.
Well, now the answer is pretty clear: she’s one of the antagonists, which is actually a really interesting use of the character. She wants revenge on Ronin, which puts her at odds with Clint and Kate both.
This episode does a great job of introducing us to Echo, real name Maya, in the first few minutes. We’re shown how intelligent she is and how she becomes a top-tier fighter. A deaf woman, she focuses on her opponents’ body language in battle, similar to the comics version of Cassandra Cain. And most importantly, we see how she got involved with the Tracksuit Mafia. Her dad, a member, was killed by Ronin.
This is all established in the excellent prologue. We understand how Maya views the world around her and why her motivation for revenge is so deep. Yes, her father was a member of the Tracksuit Mafia, but it was clear that he loved his daughter and she him, so we can at least empathize with Maya a bit.
'Tis the day for the third episode of Marvel Studios' #Hawkeye, now streaming on @DisneyPlus! pic.twitter.com/e5MpgY2C4J
— Hawkeye (@hawkeyeofficial) December 1, 2021
Captured, bro
Once again, Kate is the absolute highlight of the episode. Hailee Steinfeld is too perfect for the role. That’s not to say that Jeremy Renner isn’t great here — he is, and he has great chemistry with Steinfeld — but she shines so bright in all the best ways. Their scenes together after they’re captured by the Tracksuit Mafia, and the one in the diner later, are just so fun. It’s hard not to latch onto these two.
The highlight of the episode is when Kate helps Clint talk on the phone with his youngest child Nathaniel, since Clint’s hearing aid was busted during his fight with Echo. It’s a brutal scene that will break your heart, and Steinfeld and Renner play it beautifully. And the way that the scene is done, with us being in Clint’s shoes and unable to hear what Nathaniel is saying…the pain hits very close as we learn what he’s saying when Clint does. And his little broken, “Thank you,” to Kate afterward…it’s the perfect end to that scene.
Arrows flying
On top of all of the great character work in this episode, we also finally get a terrific, bow & arrow-centric action scene as Kate and Clint are escaping from the Tracksuit Mafia’s warehouse. First up is Clint as he gets to fight Echo while taking out as many Tracksuit goons as possible, while also freeing Kate. It’s a thrilling scene with some awesome arrow-shooting moments mixed in with some really fun hand-to-hand combat.
The action picks up when its Kate’s turn to use the bow after she and Clint jack a car and go on the run. I don’t know what it is, but seeing her hanging out of a car window, shooting trick arrows at a bunch of goons in tracksuits, everything about it just feels right. There’s really no other way of putting it. It’s so much fun, with a lot of callbacks to the Fraction/Aja Hawkeye run, while still doing it’s own thing. It just works so well.
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