December has been a weird month. Despite the days just flying by in a haze, the short daytime and the long nighttime have seemed to drain the energy from my soul. I’m tired all the time, mostly cranky, and just want to crawl into bed to sleep until January. But luckily, there is a bright side to my holiday doldrums, and that’s been Hawkeye on Disney+. The fifth episode of the series dropped earlier today, and it was the few happy moments I got. Let’s break down the episode, and why I’m super excited for next week’s finale.
Bear in mind the following is full of spoilers for Hawkeye as well as Black Widow. You’ve been warned.
The latest episode, titled “Ronin,” opens with a flashback to 2018. (Fans of the MCU will recognize the significance of this year.) Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh reprising her role from Black Widow) and another black widow are sneaking into a mansion. Guns drawn, they take down the resident, an upscale woman who puts up a fight. Yelena doses her with the antidote last seen in Black Widow that frees the widows from their mental programming. After the three women catch up, Yelena excuses herself to the restroom, where she turns to dust.
Almost immediately, Yelena returns, but the rooms around her change. She’s confused and stumbles out of the bathroom to find the woman she rescued in the previous scene. The woman explains that Yelena has been gone for five years, disappeared in the Snap. Yelena’s first response to this is that she needs to find her sister, Natasha.
Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), after her rooftop brawl beside Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), returns to her midtown penthouse, bloodied and bruised. Her mother, Eleanor (Vera Farmiga), is frightened by the sight of her but consoles her as Kate breaks down into tears at being rejected by Clint. The women share a moment as Eleanor bandages Kate’s wounds, with Kate feeling foolish for thinking she could ever be a hero.
When Kate goes back to her apartment, she finds Yelena waiting for her. Yelena tries to comfort Kate with a plate of macaroni (which she seems weirdly proud of) and ensures the girl that she’s not going to kill her. Kate is hesitant but willing to hear Yelena out.
As Yelena reveals to Kate how much she knows about her, she also tells Kate that she’s in New York to kill Clint. She blames him for Natasha’s death. Kate tries to convince Yelena that Clint is a hero, but Yelena doesn’t feel that Clint should get a pass for the bloodshed he’s committed.
Clint, on the other hand, wanders the streets aimlessly. Without Kate, he has no hideout, nowhere to store his bow and arrows. He finds himself at the apartment of Grills (Clayton English), the LARPer who took the Ronin suit in the second episode. Grills give Clint a meal and offers him a place to stay when Clint tells him he got a hotel room. Clint accepts, but when Grills asks him if he wants to see the new uniforms for him and Kate, he falls asleep, meaning that we have to wait yet another week to see the redesigned character looks.
The next morning, Kate goes back home to her mother’s, where she finds Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton) in handcuffs. It seems Eleanor believed her daughter when she told her that Jack was in with the Tracksuit mafia and did a little digging herself. Jack insists on his innocence, but he’s led away by the cops.
Clint, meanwhile, comes up with a plan to end things with Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox). He finds himself outside of Grand Central Terminal under a plaque that marks it as the place where the Avengers first assembled. He takes a moment to speak with Natasha, like a person speaking to the headstone of a loved one at a cemetery. He opens up about missing her, wishing that he could have saved her, and asking for her forgiveness for what he’s about to do.
He retrieves the Ronin suit and sends a message to Maya to meet him where she first encountered Ronin. Though he tells her to come alone, she doesn’t, but Clint takes out all the Tracksuit goons she brought with her. The pair then face off hand to hand, and when Clint gets the upper hand, he explains that Ronin was tipped off by someone who worked for her father’s boss, meaning that “the big guy” wanted Maya’s father dead. Maya lashes out, knocking away Clint’s sword. She grabs it and is about to kill Clint when an arrow knocks it out of her hand. In the confusion, Clint gets away, and Kate catches up with him on the street.
Back at Grills’ place, Clint and Kate unwind when Kate gets a text from Yelena. She tells Kate that she discovered that it was Kate’s mother who hired her to kill Clint. On top of that, she sends Kate a photo of Eleanor with “the big guy,” giving us our first glimpse of the Kingpin in the MCU. (It’s just a shame that the photo is too blurry to get a good look at the man’s face. But if you ask me, it does bear a close resemblance to Vincent D’Onofrio.
What’s interesting about “Ronin” is how light on action it is, which is probably for the best considering all of the action in the few previous episodes. Finally, the audience has a chance to slow down and breathe. The episode also provided some insight into a few of the characterizations. Kate got to learn a little about Yelena, which in turn, filled in the audience to her backstory. Kate was able to reconnect with and share a moment of honesty with her mother, leading to the arrest of Jack Duquesne.
And let me just say that Florence Pugh is a joy to watch on screen. Just like Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld, Pugh seems to have melted into the role of Yelena Belova and really encapsulates the spirit of the character despite this only being her second go-around as Yelena. She manages to exude the fierceness of a Russian-trained assassin but also maintains a fun and playful side. Granted, she uses this side as an intimidation tactic, but that makes it even better. Pugh can flip between the two personalities on a whim, and it’s almost magical to watch.
Pugh’s performance shines in each of her scenes. Her confusion when Yelena returns during the Blip. The pain on her face when she talks to Kate about Natasha’s death. There’s such subtlety to every emotion, but it permeates the scene.
These past few weeks of Hawkeye have been some of the most enjoyable television I have watched in a while. It’s really embraced the characters and delved deeply into one of the main Avengers who’s never had a chance to shine. Though Jeremy Renner is the star of the show, Hailee Steinfeld has been a bright point. Her realness is a breath of fresh air, and she brings a levity to the MCU that’s long been missed. While I’ve loved past Disney+ stories like WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Hawkeye is standing above the rest. Unlike Loki, whose purpose was to set the stage for the multiverse in the MCU, Hawkeye has focused on the characters, and I’ve liked that for a change.
