Hawkeye, Season 1, Episode 5: Ronin
Spoilers for the final shot of the episode, although considering I'm around a month late to this show (I binged the show around the time this episode dropped), I don't think I am the one who needs to be spoiled. But... Kingpin baby! It doesn't just really mean the fact that one of my favourite supervillains is back, but it's the specific incarnation with the history so lovingly explored in Daredevil, which also meant that the character's history and portrayal by Vincent D'Onofrio -- and the canonicity of the MCU's unfavourite child in the Netflix Defenders shows -- are open. And that alone is the biggest Christmas present that Hawkeye can really give me. The actual buildup to the Kingpin isn't too much of a surprise, considering we've been hinting at Maya's mysterious 'boss' or 'uncle' that even Clint Barton fears for the past couple of episodes, but there was a huge, huge chance going in that Kingpin was just going to be a wink-wink-nod cameo while Echo, Yelena and Swordsman are going to be the co-antagonists of the show.
Well, scratch one Swordsman off the list, with Jack Duquesne just kind of shipped off to prison after Eleanor goes off to investigate and finds out that the Hawkeyes' little clues actually do sync up... except, of course, turns out that Eleanor herself turns out to be pretty dang shady herself. But let's put her aside for a while... we did spend a fair bit of time with Jack, but it seems like we're either saving him for a second season of the show, or he's a genuine red herring just to set up Eleanor. I'm not really sure how the Swordsman fans out there will take it, but I for one am glad from a story-writing perspective that we're starting to clear the board.
A good chunk of the episode splits up Clint and Kate after the huge cliffhanger of the previous episode, and while the jury is out on whether that cliffhange is warranted or necessary, it does lead to Kate meeting up with Black Widow II, Yelena Belova. While we didn't get a recap of the post-credits scene of Black Widow, we did get a showcase of what she's up to immediately prior to -- and immediately after -- she was snapped. Which, of course, makes Yelena's hurt and confusion about Natasha all feel so much more raw to her.
(I've always headcanon'd Black Widow's extremely work-focused mentality in Endgame and how she's devoting 100% of her life to being an Avenger to be partially because her family from Black Widow all got snapped)
Of course, Yelena doesn't quite go full Ronin the way Clint did in Endgame, which I am grateful for. The showmakers clearly know just why Yelena ended up being so popular in Black Widow, being a snarky young-but-competent little Black Widow, alternating between delivering some genuine pain whenever Natasha is brought up, effortlessly handwaving how easily she could've murdered Kate Bishop... and then delivering the most adorable "HIIII!" and making box mac-and-cheeses and making jokes about being a tourist in New York. It really does speak to the strength of acting for both superheroes that a good chunk of the episode is just Kate and Yelena sitting eating macaroni and bonding, and the episode doesn't really ever get quite boring.
A really great part is that this episode does start to pad some of the problems that I did have with how they handled Black Widow as a character. What a confused way to tell her story, releasing her solo movie as an interquel after her death -- and neither Endagme nor Black Widow really acknowledged Natasha's death in the same way that Tony Stark's was throughout Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home or Steve Rogers was in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It's not much, and it feels like it's mostly Clint and Yelena, but the way that Natasha's easily the most imporant person in the world for the two of them, we really feel the impact of the Black Widow's death here.
The argument does end up causing Kate to defend Clint to Yelena, and basically get Kate to -- after a breakdown in front of her mother before the meeting -- question why she trusts Clint so much. Slightly off-screen, Kate also unintentionally causes Yelena to question why she's hunting Clint and who would put the crosshairs on good ol' Hawkeye.
Clint does end up having his own sub-plot, of course, although it's pretty simple. Not that it's bad, though -- Jeremy Renner really does sell the 'tired older superhero that needs to do this shit'. There's none of the roiling, barely-restrained Punisher anger or desire for vengeance. Between his call to his wife (Laura Barton doesn't really get to develop a personality, but what a champ of a wife) and the tired way that he dons the Ronin suit, Clint Barton is intense and takes everything he's doing seriously, and it's clear that he's carrying a lot of pain, but there's never any malice behind the beatdown of Echo's gang.
Now I'm not spoiled about what happens in the final episode at the time of writing this, so I did find the events of the Ronin-vs-Tracksuit-Mafia sequence cool but somewhat puzzling. Clint as Ronin dismantles Kazi, all the background Tracksuits, before going one-on-one against Maya in a very well-choreographed sequence. He also reveals his identity, confirming that Clint Barton is Ronin... delivers the warning to stay away from his family, but... but then just drops the bombshell that Maya was betrayed by someone inside, heavily implied to be Kazi and Kingpin?
The action sequences are so cool that it did take me away from thinking too much about it at the time, but while Maya does have her own spinoff show coming in the future -- and it would be a decent enough exit after Clint 'takes down' her -- it does raise some questions since we barely even skirt over the whole 'pay up for the killings you've done' thing. It's a bit odd that we get the Ronin/Echo confrontation without actually getting a proper resolution to Clint's guilt?
Kate does show up to bail Clint out, and while Maya seems to go exit-stage-left, Yelena has been doing some personal detective work on the person who hired her. Turns out that it's not (just) Contessa Valentina that's behind Yelena, but she went to track down who the real one who put the hit out on Clint... and it's Eleanor Bishop. Who's also hanging out with the Kingpin, who the show has been alluding to throughout its season.
Don't get me wrong, the Eleanor twist and the Kingpin reveal is pretty great. And it's painfully obvious that Yelena was going to be an ally sooner or later. But I do wonder that with so many plot threads dangling (what about the watch?), which one the final episode would focus on? How many of the plot threads will be picked up in spinoffs, which are getting increasingly harder to track if you don't open a Wikipedia page? Will this episode be able to handle all the plot threads it has set up satisfactorily? Still, the show has been so enjoyable throughout its run, and I'm willing to give the writers the benefit of the doubt for suer.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- The cold open/flashback for this scene shows Yelena being snapped, which obviously takes place concurrent to Avengers: Infinity War. The sequence is framed similarly to Monica Rambeau in WandaVision, where we get to see a supporting character previously introduced in the movies get snapped and return.
- We last saw Kingpin in the Netflix Defenders TV series-es, namely in the events of Daredevil's final season.
- Yelena makes several references to Black Widow, namely a nod to a 'daddy' (Red Guardian), giving Kate points for saving a dog (Yelena likes dogs in that movie) and liking macaroni and cheese (which a young Yelena wanted in the opening scenes of the movie).
- The ex-Black-Widow that adopted a child is another rebuttal against the much-maligned scene of Natasha declaring herself a monster for being sterile in Age of Ultron.
- The Statue of Liberty is being mentioned as being improved, which will be relevant in the concurrently-released but chronologically-later Spider-Man: No Way Home.
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