Hawkeye Episode 4 Recap: Clint and Kate Meet a Marvel Movie Killer
Hawkeye Episode 4 Recap: Clint and Kate Meet a Marvel Movie Killer
After last week’s beautiful car chase, episode 4 from hawkeye hit Disney Plus Wednesday. Clint Barton teams up with newcomer Kate Bishop for this Marvel Cinematic Universe adventure, while as a vigilante he must face the consequences of his rampage through the criminal underworld Ronin in Avengers: Endgame, before reverting to his Hawkeye identity.
It appears that one of his victims was the father of Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox), a deaf woman whose incredible powers of observation make her a formidable adversary. She is in charge of the The foolish idiots of the tracksuit mafia and determined to get revenge on Ronin, but we’re getting hints that she has a shadowy boss.
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The fourth episode also introduced a threat that viewers knew was coming. Let’s aim for something SPOILERS for an episode titled “Partners, Am I Right?”
The Black Widow Killer
Clint and Kate go to Maya’s apartment to pick up a mysterious Rolex, but are attacked by two women. One is Maya and the other is dressed chic Splinter Cellstyle stealth suit. She is eventually unmasked and revealed as Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), the last time she appears in the Black Widow post credit scene.
Yelena was a member of the same Black Widow assassination program as the late Natasha Romanoff, who sacrificed herself to retrieve the Soul Stone and undo Thanos’ genocide. Avengers: Endgame. Natasha’s solo movie revealed how they spent their childhood undercover as siblings and formed a family bond that they rekindled as adult deadly killers.
Because of the lies of her employer Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine (aka Val, who apparently a deadly crew for nefarious purposes), Yelena blames Clint for Natasha’s death and is out for blood.
It initially appears that she is working with Maya, suggesting that Maya’s invisible boss (Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin, maybe?) teams up with Val. It’s possible they’re trying to undermine the Avengers, starting with Clint, so they can replace the heroes with their own people. However, Yelena shocks Maya with her electroshock gauntlet during the fight – she’s a little too good to have been an accident, so it’s possible they’re operating independently.
Unfortunately in this episode we get no idea of Yelena’s plan because she doesn’t say a word. When Kate aims an arrow at her, she shakes her head menacingly (as if to say, “Try it and you’ll die”) before jumping off the roof in an awesome super spy breakout.
A strong entry and an epic exit Yelena, 10/10.
Florence Pugh also took to social media to post a video comment to Yelena’s entrance, and it’s quite delightful. The actor was blocked from posting about the show on Instagram after someone complained that she ruined her own character’s appearance, as previously reported by ET Canada.
CEO of tracksuit mafia
The previous episode ended with Kate’s future stepfather, Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton), playing the ill-gotten Ronin sword on Clint’s neck, but that situation drains immediately after Jack recognizes him as an Avenger. Clint secretly swipes the sword before leaving. That’s right, Jack.
Clint’s wife, Laura (Linda Cardellini), manages to combine family Christmas time with helping her absent husband, only to discover that Jack is the CEO of the Tracksuit Mafia front company.
“He whitens money for the big man?” Clint wonders aloud, in a likely reference to Kingpin.
Eleanor Bishop (Vera Farmiga) also makes an urgent phone call after Clint leaves, presumably to tip Yelena about snooping around Clint and Kate.
The Rolex
We still don’t know what the vintage watch is about or why the Tracksuit Mafia was so determined to get it, but the fact that Laura brings it up and has access to the transmitter suggests it’s connected to her. The watch belongs to someone Clint worked with and could ruin their cover.
“They’ve been out of the game for a long time,” he tells Kate. “But their identity is still tied to that watch.”
We don’t know how Laura and Clint met — it was implied in Avengers: Age of Ultron that they were an item before he joined SHIELD, but it’s possible that she or someone close to her has a past in espionage (especially since she suddenly speaks German in this episode). Maybe it has a big “LAURA BARTON” engraving somewhere?
Unfortunately, by the time Kate finds it in Maya’s apartment, Laura and the kids are already targeted — she has notes about Clint’s family.
Hawkeye’s trauma
Natasha drops by several times in this episode. Eleanor mentions the late Avenger when she urged Clint not to work with Kate – presumably to get her daughter away before Yelena struck. Clint later reminisces about being sent to kill her, but his instincts told him she wanted to defect (Natasha mentions this to Loki in the first avengers movie).
This leads him to dream about the moment she fell, which is repeated when Kate hangs from the roof during the fight with Yelena and Maya. An exhausted Clint tells Kate to go home afterward, but she’s way too deep into it right now — her mother’s fiancé works with criminals.
Maya’s goon
Clint tracks down Maya’s subordinate Kazi (From Fee), who apparently knows all about the big boss’s goals and can deter Maya from her revenge mission.
In the comics, Kazimierz Kazimierczak is a significantly more intense character. After losing his family and friends to armed conflict as a child, he realizes he has a knack for killing. With scary makeup, he becomes the killer known as Clown. This may sound like the infamous DC villain joker, but Clown is considerably more frosty than Batman’s theatrical nemesis.
He was introduced in Matt Fraction and David Aja’s iconic 2012 Hawkeye Comics Walk, killing one of Clint’s buddies in one of that series’ big belly punches. We see its origins in the 10th issue, and it’s some pretty chilling stuff.
Observations and Easter eggs
- Where’s Yelena’s great, practical green coat? She gave it to Natasha in Black Widow, and it was part of Natasha’s outfit in Avengers: Infinity War. Hopefully it will find its way back to Yelena.
- “You are Sagittarius.” The fact that Jack doesn’t quite remember Clint’s name is almost certainly part of his stupid act.
- “If I ever met Huey Lewis, I’d be a wreck.” This is clearly part of Jack’s attempt to deliver Hip to be square feeling.
- Unlike in the comics, Jack and Clint don’t seem to know each other. Jack is the supervillain Swordsman in comics and has trained a young Hawkeye to wield a knife.
- Kate’s Christmas movie marathon includes the 1994 Tim Allen comedy The Santa Clause and the 1946 Jimmy Stewart classic It’s a Wonderful Life. Only the former is on Disney Plus.
- Clint drinks coffee from a “Thanos Was Right” mug.
- The poster for the fictional movie A Chance of Love starring Moira Brandon, which Kate writes all over, is a deep Marvel cut. In the comics, Hawkeye’s West Coast Avengers team bought Moira’s mansion and turned it into the Avengers Compound in LA.
- Hawkeye makes fun of the idea of boomerang arrows in this episode, but uses them in the Fraction comic series.
- Wendy Conrad, the cop who picks up Clint’s (and Kate’s) trick darts, has embroidered “Bombshell” on her pretty bag. In the comics, Conrad was the mercenary codenamed Bombshell and fought Clint in the Hawkeye 1983 Miniseries.
- I was worried that the nice guy who helps Kate (and does weird things) would take a silenced pistol out of one of his shopping bags.
Join us for more Easter eggs and observations next Wednesday December 15th, when episode 5 of Hawkeye reaches Disney Plus.
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