“Hawkeye” Episode 3 review
This episode deals with the Hawk’s ears rather than his eyes.
With the heart, action, and cliffhangers this episode produces it seems “Hawkeye” gets better with each episode.
To start the episode off, “Hawkeye” introduces the backstory of the episode’s villain, Echo.
It starts with Echo being a deaf child with a close bond to her father. Her father teaches her that she’ll be stronger than everyone and that without her hearing she’ll be able to become stronger because she won’t have noise distracting her. She does exactly as her dad says and becomes one of the best fighters there is.
But two major things happen in this backstory besides showing off her becoming a fighting machine.
First, the backstory shows reference to a man that is theorized to be Kingpin, which would be an insane revelation, but this man is also referenced throughout the episode as the boss of all the crime syndicates and not to be messed with, because it could be leading to a major villain coming in Marvel
Second, Echo’s dad dies at the end at the hands of Ronin, Hawkeye’s darker alias, leading to her wanting revenge for her beloved father and leading to her inheriting the tracksuit mafia that Hawkeye and Kate Bishop are fighting.
Once the flashback ends, the episode picks up with Hawkeye and Kate Bishop still kidnapped. Hawkeye and Kate once again start arguing about branding and Hawkeye claims that he’s no role model.
Echo and her head henchman interrupt the two and start interrogating Hawkeye and Kate. She is trying to find out the secret identity of Ronin since no one knows besides Hawkeye. Hawkeye claims that Ronin is dead, which shows that Hawkeye truly moved on from his Ronin days.
Echo also claims that Hawkeye would be stronger without his hearing aids and they’re just holding him back.
When there is a break in the interrogation, Hawkeye notices Kate panicking. He calms her down and tells her to follow his lead. He then breaks away from his hostage area, drawing all the guards and Echo to him.
This starts the epic episode-long fight sequence. Hawkeye, using crafty tactics, manages to fend off the guards and Echo long enough to free Kate, but he also loses his hearing aid which renders him deaf for the remainder of the fight.
During the fight, Kate managed to show off some of her fighting styles proving that she’s a true fighter. But what was fun was when the duo tried to escape.
They hotwired a car which led to a high-speed car chase.
This car chase was very exciting because Kate got to show off her archery skills and all the arrows that are in Hawkeye’s quiver.
The audience got to see arrows like the puddy arrow, Pym arrow, explosive arrow and most importantly the plunger arrow to name a few.
Eventually, Hawkeye and Kate managed to escape Echo and the tracksuit mafia.
After failing to recapture the two, Echo and her head henchman get in a fight where the head henchman states that the boss won’t be happy. This shows that there is tension between Echo and her crew.
Back to Hawkeye and Kate, the two manage to make a subway train where Hawkeye finally acknowledges Kate as one of the world’s best archers and Kate smiles gleefully to get a compliment from her hero.
Later at Kate’s apartment, Hawkeye gets a phone call from his one son. Since he still can’t hear, Kate writes out what Hawkeye’s son says so he can respond. These scenes brought the waterworks by showing how much Hawkeye cares about his family and how desperately he wants to be home for Christmas. It also shows the strongest bonding moment between him and Kate.
Eventually, Kate and Hawkeye get his hearing aids fixed and need to find clues on where to go next. Kate says they should go to her house and look for her family’s security records to track down criminals with ties to the case.
The dynamic duo does just that. While Kate hacks into the security system, Hawkeye is confronted by Jack Duquesne. Then the episode cuts to credits.
Overall, this episode was a load of fun.
Finally, Marvel shows a wide array of Hawkeye’s arrows and the skill both he and Kate have with them and it was a fun time. The portrayal of deaf Hawkeye throughout the episode brought out a new side to him which was a unique sight to see. Also, the dialogue between motor-mouth Kate and him leads to many comedic moments.
The foreshadowing of the crime boss and Jack holding a sword up to Hawkeye’s neck when he confronts Hawkeye leads to an exciting cliffhanger that makes the audience want more.
The only real disappointment to the episode was that Echo wasn’t as threatening as she was hyped to be. She was easily duped out by Hawkeye and Kate throughout the episode so she wasn’t as threatening as she could be, but hopefully, throughout the rest of the series, she will get more development.
Overall, the action, heart and cliffhangers put any viewer on the edge of their seats waiting for the next episode to be released.
Ethan Hetrick is a first-year communications major. To contact him email eth5186@psu.edu
