Hawkeye episode 5 recap: a killer reveal tops off the best episode so far
Massive Hawkeye episode 5 spoilers ahead
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- Episode 5 (of 6), ‘Ronin’- Written by Jenna Noel Frazier- Directed by Bert & Bertie★★★★★
Spoilers for the first five episodes ofHawkeyefollow. You’ve been warned.
In the midst of all the godlike beings, reality-hopping and universe-threatening finger snaps that have become the norm in theMCU, it can be easy to forget thatMarvel storieshaven’t always left the fate of the planet in the balance. Over the last decade, the scale of the franchise grown almost exponentially, to the point where even your friendly neighborhoodSpider-Mancan be found swinging across the multiverse.
It’s been a welcome change of pace, then, to see Hawkeye playing out as a highly stylized New York crime drama, its tighter focus and superpower-lite heroes a much-needed reminder that there’s more to comic-book stories than city-flattening carnage.
It’s proof that, sometimes, all you need to propel a drama is two people talking, whether it’s a mother/daughter reconciliation, or a pair of enemies punctuating a duel with a heart-to-heart. Hawkeye’s fifth episode, titled ’Ronin’, revels in removing emotional barriers across a succession of heartfelt two-handers and, despite the lack of blockbuster fireworks, it’s Hawkeye’s best episode yet.
The fact the show’s no longer reliant on the wonderful Clint Barton/Kate Bishop axis is an added bonus. The star of the show this time out is Florence Pugh’s instant fan-favorite Yelena Belova, and her prologue plays out as if it’sBlack Widow1.5.
Set in parallel with Avengers: Infinity War, the opening sequence shows Natasha Romanoff’s little sister continuing her mission to free other widows from Red Room mind control, but hitting a roadblock when rogue agent Ana reveals she’s gone into business for herself as a freelance assassin.
A sucker punch, however, in the form of the MCU’s cleverest, wooziest depiction of the Blip yet, shows what it was like for Yelena to suddenly find herself transported five years into the future. It soon turns out seeing Ana with an instant family is the least of her worries, and it’s utterly heartbreaking to hear Yelena say she needs to tell Natasha she’s okay. In a single moment, Black Widow’s actions in Avengers: Endgame are given a new level of depth.
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If the flashback is a rare chance to see Yelena out of her element, she’s very much the one in control when she shows up uninvited in Kate’s burned-out apartment. This may be only Pugh’s third MCU appearance, but she’s already earned a place among the most watchable stars in the franchise. Not only is she effortlessly, quotably funny, she also possesses the sort of dark edge you need when you’re a professional killer. In other words, if Kate isn’t worried about Yelena’s in-depth knowledge of her family history and grade-point average, she should be extremely concerned about her dinner guest’s target – her new BFF, Clint Barton.
That’s not Kate’s only heart-to-heart of the episode, though. While Eleanor has been somewhat cold and unknowable throughout the series – we’re assuming that’s an intentional storytelling choice – the scene they share in Kate’s bedroom brings out new, human sides in both characters. Shorn of her bravado after Hawkeye sent her home, Kate is transformed into a scared kid, while Eleanor activates the caring-mom part of her persona that we never knew she had.
She even acts on her daughter’s suspicions about Jack, although her decision to call the police raises more questions than answers. Why is Jack so jovial and calm about his arrest? Has he really “never worked a day in my life”? And does having the idiotic fiancé out of the way fit in with Eleanor’s bigger plans? Now that we know she’s got major ties with big names in organized crime (more on this in a bit), it seems likely she’ll have a major role to play in the season finale.
DidHawkeye episode 1,Hawkeye episode 2,Hawkeye episode 3andHawkeye episode 4hit the bullseye?
With Clint and Kate spending most of the episode apart, Barton’s own tender moment comes via a phone conversation with his wife. Laura’s evolution throughout Hawkeye’s run has been one of the most satisfying elements of the series, as someone who’d previously existed as a two-dimensional reminder that Clint has a home-life becomes a character in her own right.
The Bartons’ relationship is one of complete trust – the sort of romantic bond you rarely see in TV drama – and she’s the rock he needs to do the things he does, the one “who understands more than anyone else ever could”. Luckily for Clint, she even understands that daddy missing Christmas is going to be the least of the Bartons’ worries if the Maya problem isn’t sorted, and they end up on the run.
The episode’s biggest set-piece sees Clint putting on the eponymous Ronin outfit to have it out with Maya. It’s a brilliantly choreographed, self-contained parking lot scrap, where – for the most part – she’s every bit his equal. By revealing his face to her, Clint manages to get his opponent questioning what happened the night her father died, when Ronin got a tip-off from the Big Guy, and Kazi was – conveniently – nowhere to be seen.
But it’s the episode’s final scene that truly has the potential to break the internet, as it delivers one ofMarvel’s great reveals.
That Vincent D’Onofrio reprises his Daredevil role as the Kingpin/Wilson Fisk was one of the worst-kept secrets in TV, but the on-screen confirmation is a masterstroke. Because while cellphones are often the enemy of drama – most horror movies don’t work when you can call for help – a pivotal series of messages here reveals that Eleanor hired Yelena to kill Clint, and that she knows the infamous Kingpin.
It’s understated and brilliant – waiting a whole week to see how this all plays out is going to be torture.
Our verdict
While nobody’s really sure how Daredevil and the other Netflix Marvel TV shows fit within MCUcanon, their influence on ‘Ronin’ stretches well beyond that long-awaited Kingpin reveal. In fact, Hawkeye episode 5’s street-level storytelling wouldn’t feel out-of-place in any quality crime drama.
Marvel’s decision to focus on characters over blockbuster bombast continues to pay dividends, with Yelena and Eleanor starting to share the load with Clint and Kate. But the thing everyone will remember about this episode is the ‘arrival’ of Wilson Fisk. What will the infamous Kingpin have in store for us next week?
Marvel-ous facts
New episodes of Hawkeye stream on Disney Plus every Wednesday.
Richard is a freelance journalist specialising in movies and TV, primarily of the sci-fi and fantasy variety. An early encounter with a certain galaxy far, far away started a lifelong love affair with outer space, and these days Richard’s happiest geeking out about Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel and other long-running pop culture franchises. In a previous life he was editor of legendary sci-fi and fantasy magazine SFX, where he got to interview many of the biggest names in the business – though he’ll always have a soft spot for Jeff Goldblum who (somewhat bizarrely) thought Richard’s name was Winter.
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