In the “Hawkeye” recap for episode 3, Clint and Kate face off against a new enemy who is seeking vengeance on Ronin…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
For a slew of complaints about the first two episodes of “Hawkeye” moving too slowly, the third episode certainly amped up the action meter quite a bit.
While the story in the latest Marvel Studios series didn’t progress all that much, there was plenty of jaw-dropping fight scenes as well as a pretty epic car chase through the middle of New York City as Clint Barton and his new sidekick Kate Bishop attempted to escape the Tracksuit Mafia as well as the woman orchestrating their abduction.
As previously revealed in last week’s recap, the new boss revealed at the end of the second episode is a woman named Maya Lopez aka Echo — thus the title of the latest episode — and she was originally introduced in the pages of “Daredevil” as an assassin hired by Wilson Fisk aka The Kingpin to go after the Man Without Fear under the guise that he was responsible for her father’s death.
In the comics, Maya is a deaf Native American while also serving as one of the deadliest assassins in the entire Marvel Universe and it appears all of that stays true for the series.
The biggest difference as we’ll explain shortly is that Maya isn’t blaming Daredevil for the death of her father … this time she’s taking aim at Ronin.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of “Hawkeye” titled “Echoes”….
A Failure of Communication
The episode begins with a flashback to officially introduce Maya Lopez, who is a young deaf girl attending a school where all of her classmates as well as the teacher can hear without any option to actually communicate with her through sign language.
While Maya is incredibly smart — reading lips and offering up answers before the teacher can even attempt to give her students all the questions — she still doesn’t understand why she’s not attending a special school for children like herself.
After returning home, Maya’s father (played by the amazing Zahn McClarnon) explains that they couldn’t afford the deaf school but that will just make her that much stronger in the end as she adapts to the world around her, which is exactly what she will face again one day. It’s clear Maya has a very close bond with her father, especially after he enrolls her in martial arts classes where she becomes a top student.
Years later, Maya — who also sports a prosthetic leg — but she’s still a complete ass kicker even against bigger and stronger competition in the gym. Sadly, Maya’s entire world is shattered after she goes to visit her father at work and she looks inside to find Ronin wiping out everybody in the building without so much as pausing while stabbing his way through all of the henchman.
Obviously, Maya’s father was part of some kind of criminal organization, which landed them on Ronin’s hit list when Clint Barton was acting as judge, jury and executioner in the wake of Thanos wiping out half of life across the universe. Still, Maya had to watch her father die in her arms, which explains why she was so triggered when Ronin suddenly reappeared in New York after being gone for so long.
Fast forward to present day with Clint and Kate tied up to mechanical horses with the Tracksuit Mafia getting a big laugh out of watching them both rock back and forth while feeding quarters to the machines.
Finally, Maya emerges to confront Clint and Kate over their involvement with Ronin.
Clint tries to explain that Kate found the Ronin costume by accident and wore it to conceal her identity but she’s not the person responsible for wiping out criminals by the dozen with relentless brutality. Instead, Clint suggests that the real Ronin is actually dead and he was killed by Black Widow aka his old best friend Natasha Romanoff.
Of course, Maya can’t quite buy that excuse considering that means the person she wants dead in Ronin has already been killed by another person in Black Widow, who also happens to be dead.
Maya then turns her attention to Kate with the intention of asking her about putting on the suit after the underground auction. Maya’s anger eventually boils over while dealing with Kate, which forces her No. 2 man and interpreter Kazi to intervene.
While Maya and Kazi argue, Clint tells Kate that he’s about to cause a distraction so they can finally get away.
A moment later, Clint escapes his restraints and rushes off into the toy factory with Maya and the Tracksuit Mafia giving chase after him. While Clint doesn’t have too much of a problem taking out the Russian bros, he finds out that Maya is a formidable opponent after she knocks him down several times and also smashes his hearing aid, which makes his ability to communicate with Kate that much harder.
Clint eventually makes his way into an office where he’s reunited with his bow and quiver full of arrows, which allows him to pin Maya against a wall, take out several of her men and then free Kate from her restraints as well.
After beating up the Tracksuit Mafia enough to get out the front door, Clint and Kate are forced to steal a car with Maya and her Russian thugs hot on their tails.
As Clint drives through the city, Kate arms herself with his bow and arrows as she attempts to take out the Tracksuit Mafia pursuing them through the streets. Kate is overjoyed after learning that Clint actually does have trick arrows but sadly because he can’t hear a word she’s saying, he’s unable to tell her which of his arrows do what exactly and that leads to some rather interesting attempts to slow down the Russians chasing them.
Cornered on a bridge, Clint pulls off one last plan to escape as he orders Kate to shoot an arrow directly up into the sky while he fires another one marked Pym directly at it.
Yep, you guessed it — Clint had a trick arrow that makes whatever it hits expand into giant size just like Ant-Man transforming into Giant Man.
The enormous arrow crashing into the Tracksuit Mafia vehicle stops them from going after Clint and Kate as they get off the bridge and back into the city.
They return to Kate’s aunt’s apartment after traveling by subway where Clint compliments his new sidekick for staying cool under pressure and proving she might actually be one of the world’s greatest archers. Needless to say, Kate is thrilled by that compliment.
Back at the apartment, Clint receives a heartbreaking call from his son Nathaniel, who he can’t actually communicate with because his hearing aid is still smashed into pieces. Thankfully, Kate writes out what Nathaniel is saying including the end of the call when he tells his father that it will be OK if he can’t make it home in time for Christmas.
Nearly in tears, Clint promises that he’s doing to do everything in his power to get home by Christmas morning to be with his family.
The next day, Kate takes Clint to Chinatown where he gets his hearing aid repaired and while sharing a meal, she tells him that it’s always been her dream to become a hero just like him. While Clint isn’t sure she knows exactly the kind of life she’s choosing by proclaiming her intention to become another Hawkeye, Kate is adamant that she’s finally found her true calling.
Interesting to note that Kate still hasn’t told Clint about the day he saved her family from the Chitauri invaders during the Battle of New York when her father lost his life.
Kate also continues to tell Clint that the reason why Hawkeye isn’t a more popular Avenger comes down to branding and she draws him an idea for a costume that looks like the comics accurate version that the character actually wears. Needless to say, Clint isn’t impressed and he’s not going to be ordering that outfit off eBay any time soon.
Clint downplays his own heroism as well but then Kate reminds him how far he’s been going just to save her despite no actual connection to each other.
After leaving the restaurant, Clint tells Kate about Ronin’s past interaction with the Tracksuit Mafia after hitting their main supplier as well as their headquarters in New York. He also informs Kate that Maya might be in charge of some of these Tracksuit bros but there’s a bigger boss above her and that person is always looking to expand his empire.
Earlier in the episode, Maya’s father mentions her uncle and it would seem that he’s the big boss over the Tracksuit Mafia but obviously we haven’t met him yet.
Maya is obviously hunting down Ronin for what he did to her father and she won’t be talked down after Kazi tries to explain that perhaps she’s already going too far with this vendetta. He mentions how this continued activity will undoubtedly alert her uncle to what she’s doing but Maya is undeterred.
She’s going to hunt down Ronin and the next step is looking up more information on Clint Barton.
That said, who is Maya’s uncle exactly? Could it be The Kingpin himself? Vincent D’Onofrio, who portrayed Wilson Fisk through three seasons of “Daredevil” on Netflix has said he would gladly return to the role again one day but has that day already arrived?
As for Kate, she mentions her mother’s fiancé Jack Duquesne and his interest in purchasing the Ronin sword while attending the black market auction. She’s convinced Jack killed his uncle Armand and he might even be tied up with the Tracksuit Mafia after they actually attacked the auction looking for a watch that was found at the Avenger compound.
Kate suggests returning to her mother’s penthouse where she can access files from Bishop Security, which might give them additional information on the Tracksuit Mafia as well as any potential relation to Jack Duquesne.
At the penthouse, Kate hacks into her mother’s account and finds a record for Kazi — the right hand man to Maya Lopez — and discovers that he works at a company called Sloane Limited. That name sounds familiar to Clint but he’s not sure what just yet.
Just when Kate tries to look up Jack on her mother’s computer, she gets locked out while Clint hears a noise and decides to investigate it. After walking into the living room, Clint finds Ronin’s sword at his throat and Jack Duquesne is the man holding onto the blade warning him not to move.
Why was Jack skulking around the darkness and now he’s just revealed that he stole the sword that was purchased by his uncle, who is now dead after he was stabbed by a sword. Coincidence?
We know Kate has plenty of suspicions about her would-be stepfather but now Clint will have his own interaction with Jack to see just how much this mystery man actually knows.
“Hawkeye” will return for a brand new episode next Wednesday on Disney+
