Kate and Clint have found themselves in a bind with the Tracksuit Mafia, quite literally, and Maya Lopez aka Echo was finally introduced in the final moments of episode 2. How will Kate and Clint get out of their current predicament? Well, if Clint is involved, we can assume with a lot of style.
Hello Echo
While we’re set to learn more about Maya Lopez in her debut series coming to Disney+, we got a taste of her background and how she came to be a prominent member of the Tracksuit Mafia here in the opening scenes.
Born deaf, Maya grew up attending a normal school, putting her at a disadvantage, but she never let that stop her. She excelled in school and martial arts throughout her childhood. Her father, however, while appearing to be doting and good, is a member of organized crime. In fact, one very familiar voice is heard when “Uncle” is referenced during these flashback scenes, with a laugh that sounds very much like Wilson Fisk a.k.a. Kingpin … And of course, Maya’s father is employed by Wilson Fisk in the comics.
In the end, Maya’s father is killed by Ronin (with the added comic detail of him leaving the bloody handprint on her face). This sets Maya off on a revenge mission to find the person responsible for killing her father.
Actress Alaqua Cox is also an amputee that uses a prosthetic right leg, a detail that the MCU has made canon for Echo as well.
Ronin Is Dead, Promise
Despite their current predicament (being duct-taped to children’s quarter rides by the Tracksuit Mafia) Kate and Clint still find time to fit in some of their usual bickerings. While Kate is sure Clint needed her help, Clint tells her he was actually about to get her name cleared from the Ronin suit before she came crashing through the ceiling. Oops.
After Kate helps one of the Tracksuit Bros through his relationship issues, Echo comes down to interrogate the pair, spotting Clint’s hearing aid. She assumes he signs, so she cuts his hands free, but Clint is hard of hearing, not deaf, and he’s still not proficient in ASL. Kazi, Echo’s interpreter, reties Clint’s hands behind his back. Echo encourages Clint to leave the hearing aid behind, that it’s only a disadvantage for him.
Clint begins to detail that Kate is not Ronin, she just put on a suit she found, but Echo is a hard sell. Clint assures them all that Ronin is dead, he was killed by Black Widow (I mean … in a way he was and this hurts). They turn to Kate, who tells them she put the suit on to escape from the auction unseen. Simple as that.
Clint’s Still Got It
Clint frees himself, leaving Kate still taped to her spaceship, and leads the Tracksuit Mafia on a merry chase through their toy-filled hideaway. He finds a worthy hand-to-hand opponent in Maya, who promptly kicks his hearing aid right out of his head and crushes it. This puts Clint at a severe disadvantage until he locates his bow and quiver. With two arrows he pins Maya to the wall by her jacket, leaving her unharmed, and then shoots Kate’s hands free as he soars down into the ball pit below.
The two fight their way outside with an array of impressive shots and moves — just what we’d expect from the pair — and Kate ogles at a ’72 Challenger (an ode to the Fraction/Aja comics) before Clint lands on a much less flashy ride. He can’t wreck that car …
Merry Tricksmas
Despite his wishes, Clint ends up driving the getaway car while Kate shoots at their pursuers. Unfortunately, there are only trick arrows left. Clint can’t hear Kate as she browses through the assortment of putty arrows, explosive arrows (how are there four arrows more dangerous than that one?), a plunger arrow (that will prove to not be so useless), and acid arrows, among others. Soon, they shake everyone except Maya in the precious ’72 Challenger (that gets totaled anyway!).
They get away, only to hit a traffic jam on the bridge where the Mafia catches up with them. Then, Clint brings out his coolest arrow yet, a PYM arrow. Kate shoots a regular arrow up high and Clint hits it, creating an arrow the size of a skyscraper. Clint needs that damn plunger arrow, and as Kate distracts the Mafia with a “deadly” USB arrow, Clint retrieves it and gets himself and Kate to safety with one arrow we’ve seen many times before, his grappling hook arrow. Kate learns the benefit of the plunger arrow as he sticks them to the side of the passing subway train.
Back at the apartment, Nate calls Clint in the early hours of the morning. Clint’s hearing aid is still smashed from his run-in with Echo, so Kate helps him through the conversation by writing Nate’s responses down for him so he could respond. Clint assures his youngest that he’ll be home for Christmas, even though he’ll be missing their Christmas movie marathon that night.
Trouble With Uncle
Kazi and Echo chat about what happened earlier with Kate and Clint, and he tells her that Uncle won’t be pleased. We also get a taste of the ruthlessness of Maya’s rule, as Kazi reminds her that her father always put the crew first, and he’s not sure she is right now. Maybe we’ll definitively find out who Uncle is here next week (money on Vincent D’Onofrio being the first to be introduced into the MCU from the Netflix Marvel series).
No Role Model
Kate and Clint sit down for breakfast after they get his hearing aid repaired and we get another little dive into Clint’s psyche. He’s clearly torn about his decision to be a hero, despite having been Hawkeye now for 20 years. He reminds Kate that while she may be helping people this life comes with a lot of sacrifices, no doubt referencing the friends he’s lost and the time missed with his family.
After Kate draws him a new costume that looks exactly like his classic comic getup, with the winged mask complete with the H for Hawkeye, she tells him she knows that he knows who Ronin is. Clint avoids answering that, instead, detailing why he would never wear a flashy costume including Laura probably divorcing him for putting that on. However, it’s his third reason that really sticks. Clint doesn’t see himself as a role model. Not for anyone, likely not even his own kids. The series thus far has really nailed home a self-deprecating side of Clint we’d never gotten to see, a side that sees himself as not enough. In fact, him comparing a flashy costume to being a role model proves that he doesn’t see himself within the same ranks as the star-spangled Captain America, the flashy Iron Man, or the Asgardian-armored Thor.
Kate tells him he’s wrong, he stayed in the city to help a random person he thought was going to get hurt, and that’s pretty admirable.
Back to Jack
As they head back to Kate’s mother’s penthouse with the newly named Pizza Dog, Clint explains to Kate a little more about the Tracksuit Mafia and how Ronin is linked to them, and that there’s one guy above Maya in terms of who’s in charge (we mentioned it’s Fisk, right?).
Later in the taxi, Clint asks Kate about the items at the auction, extremely concerned that things from the Avengers compound might be floating around out there (an issue we may see in later projects here in the MCU, particularly the series). Kate thinks Jack is linked to Armand’s death by sword and she has a lot of evidence, too — the sword obsession, the butterscotch he offered her that she’d seen in Armand’s house the night she found him murdered, and his fencing skills.
Kate tries to break into the Bishop Security database to find any dirt on Jack and the Tracksuit Mafia, and she finds Kazi’s name. He’s an employee of a company named Sloan Limited, and Clint recognizes the name. She gets locked out, and as Clint explores the home he’s greeted by a familiar weapon — Ronin’s sword, being wielded by Jack.
Will the MCU link Jack and Clint in the same manner they are in the comics? And is that Fisk? The fourth episode of Hawkeye will release Wednesday, December 8 exclusively on Disney+.
Stay tuned for our weekly episodic recaps, theories, reviews, and more!
