Did you really not see that ending coming? Me neither
One thing I’ve come to love about Marvel TV shows is the thought-out exposition they give to The Blip’s aftermath. We finally get to see how the people who disappeared cope with missing out on 5 years of their lives, and how the ones they left behind deal with their absence. And this is exactly what the first 5 minutes of Hawkeye’s 5th episode: Ronin, does flawlessly.
Let’s dive in.
(Spoilers ahead)
The episode opens up with two Black Widows, namely Yelena and Sonya, sneaking into a mansion. Both ambush another Widow (Anna), after which a brief battle ensues. Yelena, however, gets the upper hand and subdues Anna, letting her know she’s only there to help.
After releasing the Red Dust (the antidote retrieved in Black Widow that frees mind-controlled victims from subjugation), Anna fails to behave like previous victims who’ve been untethered from Taskmaster’s control and cares more about her $20,000 rug that has been ruined (I would too, honestly). Proving she was never mind-controlled in the first place and was living off her own volition.
The next scene shows a conversation between Anna and Sonya as they joke about Natasha and Yelena finally getting to live their ‘Sex and the City’ life in New York once all the Widows are freed. Unknowingly to them, this is a particularly sore topic for Yelena, because as seen in Black Widow, Natasha had been captured by S.H.I.E.L.D.
Excusing herself from the conversation, Yelena heads to the restroom and comes out 5 years later. By then, Anna’s family had grown to include a husband and baby girl, and Natasha had given her life to helping The Avengers retrieve the soul stone needed to stop Thanos.
This week, we find a dejected Kate arriving home, sore, and with several cuts across her face following the aftermath of her encounter with Echo and Yelena. When her mum starts to blame Clint for this, Kate steps in to let her know he protected her, told her to go home and to stay away from him.
Later, during a heart-to-heart with her mum, Kate reveals that she doesn’t feel like Avenger-material after all, and asks if her mum ever regretted buying her first bow. Eleanor says no. But, Kate simply stares gloomily at the tiny bow. In a last attempt to impart some wisdom on her daughter, Eleanor says:
“Sometimes the paths we’re on, they wind around in ways we never would’ve expected. All you can do is keep moving forward, even on days when honestly, it all just feels like shit.”
At that moment, Kate finally comes clean to her mum about her and Clint’s investigations into Arman’s murder, including Jack’s involvement with Sloan LTD (maybe it’s just me, but Eleanor seems slightly stoic about this big reveal). Eleanor promises to look into these findings.
While cleaning up Echo’s wounds, Kazi interrogates her about her encounter with the masked assailant (Yelena). They both eventually concluded that someone else was involved in the hunt for Ronin. Kazi tries to dissuade Echo from her hunt, emphasizing how dangerous it is, but she insists on pursuing it. He gives in to her demand (I’m sensing some emotional attachment on his end), but with a clause: as soon as he helps her capture and kill Ronin, they end there. She agrees.
When Kate returns to her partly-burnt and drenched apartment, she’s ambushed by Yelena who comes bearing macaroni and cheese for dinner (what an entrance). Kate, though dumbfounded, asks what Yelena wants, to which she says she only wants to talk. When Kate refuses to have dinner with her, because she had tried to kill her earlier, Yelena explains that she put her on the wire to remove her from her goal, and sassily remarks that she did not break into her house, because she’s way too talented for that.
The tension this unexpected meeting creates is countered almost entirely by Kate and Yelena’s comedic dialogue. Lines like:
“You’re probably thinking — What? This is crazy. I’m going to have dinner with the enemy? And she made some really good smelling macaroni,”
and,
“Well, it’s my first time in New York. But it’s a business trip so time is limited, but I do want to see some things,” cut through the tension like a butter knife.
Rather than bicker and turn the encounter into a full-blown fistfight, both banter back and forth like old friends. The similarities between both of them are equally reminiscent of Natasha and Clint’s interactions.
When Kate asks Yelena if she’s there to talk to Clint, Yelena admits that she’s there to kill him instead. This leads her to reveal that she’s Natasha’s sister, and is bitter about Clint being named a hero and taking the credit for her sister’s sacrifice. Kate defends Clint, stating that he stayed in New York to protect her. But, Yelena believes he stayed to protect his reputation. Kate tries to reason with her and says that when people face the kind of threats Clint has there is bound to be collateral damage.
Yelena outrightly blames Clint for Natasha’s death, asking if she was also collateral damage. Kate throws one last nugget of wisdom Yelena’s way, saying:
“All I’ll say is that if there is someone out there telling you that Clint is a bad guy, then maybe you should ask yourself what kind of person hired you.”
Kate arrives home just in time to see Jack handcuffed and whisked away by the police. Eleanor explains to her that she looked into her findings and realized she was right all along.
Clint sets up a meeting with Echo, asking her to come alone. But, she doesn’t, and Clint is forced to knock out Kazi and some other Tracksuit Mafia goons beforehand. He finally appears to Echo dressed as the Ronin and brandishing his infamous sword. They battle, and at the end, Clint takes off his hood to reveal that he is indeed the man she’s been hunting.
While threatening her to stay away from him and his family, and revealing to her that her boss wanted her father dead, she sees an opening to knock him down. Luckily, Kate arrives just in time to shoot the Ronin sword out of her hand, giving Clint a chance to escape.
When she wakes to consciousness, Echo confronts Kazi about his absence the night her father died. He insists he was out of town and didn’t get the call, even though he was her father’s right hand. Echo pretends to let it go (if I were him, I’d sleep with one eye open).
While regrouping at the house of one of the larpers of the previous episode, Kate receives a text from Yelena, stating that the person who hired her to kill Clint was Eleanor Bishop. Accompanying the text is an image of Kate’s mum and a large, bald man, revealed to be Daredevil’s Kingpin.
Vincent D’Onofrio’s kingpin is finally here! Are Kate and Yelena going to end up being besties too? Because that would be great. Also, I knew Eleanor was evil! Something about her always felt off.
