Hawkeye Episode 4 slows down for some holiday cheer.
And the ghosts of MCU past pay Clint Barton a visit.
The Short Take:
Hawkeye Episode 4 focuses on quieter character moments, but finishes big with another thrilling action scene. It would have been hard to top last week’s episode, but I think this one held its own despite the slowdown.
The Long Take:
[We’re far enough along in the show now that I want to SPOILER IT UP from start to finish. If you haven’t watched Hawkeye yet, what are you doing? It’s been great! Also, spoilers for Avengers: Endgame (2019).]
I know this probably isn’t an appropriate place to begin, but Hawkeye’s hair looks really silly in Avengers: Endgame (2019). It’s way too fluffy on top, and he looks like a punk rock woodpecker going through a mid-life crisis. I had forgotten about my visceral reaction to this style choice until this week’s Hawkeye episode prompted me to go back and rewatch the scene where Natasha Romanoff sacrifices herself for the Soul Stone on Vormir.
Hawkeye Episode 4 brings us back to the events of Endgame through Clint’s “flashbacks,” broadly speaking. They’re primarily conveyed through Clint’s dialogue with Kate during their apartment Christmas party, and when Clint tries to get some shuteye afterwards, we see a few clips of Ronin’s vigilante killing spree and Nat’s death on Vormir, intercut in a way that implies these are haunting memories.
Meanwhile, I’m still haunted by that Endgame hair cut. These flashbacks were a helpful reminder that this show has given us a much more like-able and much less laughable version of Clint Barton. And only a small portion of that is due to a toned-down and way more flattering hair style for Jeremy Renner. As I suspected, this show allows Clint to play a more sensible role, as a smaller scale, street level, espionage-oriented crime fighter. He’s not melodramatically tragic or one-dimensionally stoic Avenger; he’s a grumpy dad who wants to get back to his family but also won’t leave before he cleans up his/Ronin’s residual mess and ensures Kate’s safety. And like his less flashy Disney+ haircut, this context suits him better. I suspected this in my very first review of Hawkeye, and every subsequent episode has confirmed my suspicions.
Top: ridiculous Endgame hair (Image Credit CNET)
Bottom: more reasonable Hawkeye hair (Image Credit Polygon)
More importantly, the trip down memory lane allows Clint Barton to confront his past in a way that deepens his character. From Clint telling Kate that the best shot he ever took was the one he didn’t take (to then befriend Natasha), to his restless sleep, to Clint telling Kate to go home and forget about him — the whole sequence rang true for me in a way I wasn’t expecting.
At no point did this resurgence of the past feel like a cheap, exploitative play because the show applies Hawkeye’s pain from these past events to his currently budding partnership with Kate Bishop. The composition of the episode’s pivotal moment — when Clint realizes he doesn’t want to lose another friend — exemplifies efficient yet emotionally impactful storytelling because it visually and aurally signals that Clint’s trauma precipitates his over-protectiveness with Kate. The framing of the shot on Kate’s face as she hangs off the building, paired with the Endgame music cue completely gutted me. My dear friend @eyeoncannon wondered why more folks weren’t talking about the musical callback to Vormir, and I agree. If you missed this, it’s worth going back to listen more carefully. (@eyeoncanon is also a great follow on Twitter and IG, especially if you’re a movie nerd like me.) At any rate, the episode’s references to Endgame are not just the MCU machine self-advertising, nor are they a way to say “oh look at Hawkeye he is so sad and therefore interesting”; they have a larger purpose for this story, here and now. I’m not sure I could have said the same thing of Bucky in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, who also spends a lot of time — in an out of therapy — dealing with the past events we have seen in previous films.
The occasion for Clint’s confrontation with Nat’s death arises because the show made the smart choice to slow down. The Ringerverse’s instant reaction episode kicked off by saying that while they still loved the episode, this was more “filler” compared to the previous ones. While I agree with their concerns over how much story we still need to resolve with only two episodes remaining (and we’ve been here many times before with other Marvel Disney+ shows), I have to say the down time at this specific stage in the series really worked for me. I’m sure I’ve said before, but I love it when heroes — especially those on an epic quest or in an epic battle — have a quiet moment to just talk or do something mundane. In fact, I think this is often a necessary ingredient for the proper pacing of an action adventure film or show. Without these moments, stories on screen can seem rushed, busy, or over-stimulating. And after the high octane, dare I say perfect episode last week, more of the same would have had diminishing returns by comparison.
Plus, Kate and Clint’s impromptu Christmas party was hilarious! The grumpy cat and puppy dog ugly sweaters (a spot-on reflection of their personalities). The endless swirling of frozen drinks. The debate over whether a boomerang arrow would be helpful or dangerous (still sounds like a bad idea to me). The excessive amount of holiday-themed DVDs. Kate not realizing her marker was permanent. Clint teaching Kate his coin flicking trick. It was all just pure joy.
Less joyous was Kate’s mother, Eleanor, who continues to trend towards shady villain. She also brings up Nat’s death, but in a callous and accusatory way in the hopes that Clint will drop “the case.” It’s much more likely that she wants this not for Kate’s safety, but to keep Sloan Ltd’s illegal activities under the radar. This is not to say she doesn’t love Kate, but our girl can take care of herself, so this conversation almost has to have an ulterior purpose.
Who does Eleanor call after Clint leaves? My money is on Wilson Fisk/Kingpin. In Episode 3, Clint says someone is above Maya, and the show seems to want us to think that’s Fisk because of the Fisky-looking hand in the Maya Lopez flashback, but wouldn’t it be a fun twist (not entirely shocking, but fun nonetheless) if Eleanor were actually the one above Maya, with Kingpin above Eleanor? My guess is we’ll see Kingpin at the very end of the season, either in the final minutes or in an end credits stinger. Which means what’s going on with Eleanor and Jack should come out in the next episode. But I’ve been wrong (many a time) before.
What Eleanor may be hiding is not the only mystery stoked by this episode. Whose watch is that?! A high-tech Rolex seems like an accessory the late Tony Stark would own, but Clint says that he needs to retrieve the watch to protect the identity of the owner. That eliminates a lot of Avengers, who are either no longer with us or or known to the general public. The prevailing theory on the Internet is that it’s actually Laura Barton’s watch. In past comics, Hawkeye has been married to Mockingbird, and in this episode Laura seems even more like a super spy who’s in the know, speaking German and checking on a transmitter for the watch. Would she really have owned a men’s Rolex, though? Maybe she didn’t wear it but it as a piece of evidence can tie her to her past life as Mockingbird. I love that Hawkeye has given Laura a more active role. Emmy-nominee Linda Cardellini has been vastly underutilized in the MCU up until now, so the prospect that this may change going forward is exciting. I won’t be mad if the big reveal is her former superhero identity, but I also like the idea that she can be a “civilian” who has all this knowledge and talent and has been assisting The Avengers since the beginning.
Part of me hopes that it’s Steve Rogers’ watch. After going back in time at the end of Endgame to live a quiet life with Peggy Carter, an elderly Steve Rogers wouldn’t want anyone to know he used to be Captain America, right? Laura also mentions a friend of Clint’s who’s learning Russian and jogging a lot. Could this be Sam formerly known as Falcon and now known as the new Captain America? When I hear about jogging I immediately think of the scene where Sam meets Steve for the first time in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). Could the watch be his? It would make sense that at some point all these shows would try to cross-reference or even create crossovers. Then again, it would make a lot more sense to keep as much as possible contained in the context of the show, drawing from characters we’ve met already. With so few episodes and already so many balls in the air, we can’t expect the show to reach farther and become even more complicated if we want everything to resolve over a mug of eggnog at the end.
The fact that I have made it to the end of this episode’s review and haven’t even mentioned that Natasha Romanoff’s sister, Yelena — the new Black Widow played by megawatt star Florence Pugh, who stole the show in Black Widow last summer — shows up at the end of the episode speaks to this very issue. Oh, and Echo. How can we forget Maya Lopez after last week’s incredible introduction to her character. They were BOTH fighting Kate and Clint at the same time and the whole thing was propulsive and fun. I was a little disappointed that Yelena didn’t actually say anything (and what was up with the head shake at Kate?), but I’m sure I’ll be more than happy with whatever she has to say in the next episode. If you haven’t seen Black Widow yet, you should for Florence Pugh’s performance alone. The stinger in that film probably will also serve as helpful context prior to next week’s episode.
So…that’s how many powerful, resourceful women all in one show? Kate, Eleanor, Laura, Maya, and Yelena. Count ‘em FIVE. Fans should be making more noise about this.