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The latest episode of Hawkeye is called ‘Echoes’, in which we get the backstory for Maya Lopez, the mysterious boss of the Tracksuit Mafia. There’s a kind of tragic element to it, but it’s a bit on the ‘really?’ side. We see Maya as a young girl as someone hard of hearing and with an artificial leg, but very smart and capable — her father (Zahn McClarnon) is shown as a supportive and loving parent who gives the useful advice to always be carefully watching.
She’s also called his little ‘dragon’ which certainly feels like it can’t be meaningless. There’s even a shot of a mysterious uncle whose face we do not see, so I suppose it’s meant to be a surprise for later, especially given that Clint eventually talks about him without mentioning his name. Given her comic book backstory, I have a suspicion on who it is, but no need to spoil what may come just yet.
This is all well and good, but then we see Ronin killing a bunch of people and then fatally stabbing her father. Certainly we now understand the direct motivation for revenge against Ronin, but is she supposed to be sympathetic? The backstory certainly seemed to be driving toward that, but if she simply used her talents to just be a crime boss, how is that supposed to make us think she’s a decent person? My suspicion is that her uncle will be even worse and Maya will have to ‘redeem’ herself against him so that we root for her, but for now she’s simply a villain.
Also introduced legitimately this episode was Kazi, Maya’s interpreter and clearly close friend — and also someone who seems more level-headed, as he tried to calm her down several times. Clint tries to offer that Ronin was someone else that Natasha killed, a convenient excuse, and it’s unclear how much is really believed by anyone. After a fun action sequence where we see Clint’s hearing aid being smashed by Maya and Kate doing well, if not impeccably, we get the first of a bunch of bow and arrow fun stuff — here it starts with Clint perfectly freeing Kate from her duct tape binding.
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Then we get the first of our Nutcracker Suite drops this episode, the first the classic fast-paced ‘Russian Dance’ as the two archers head off on a speedy car chase to escape. What I liked about this was that they had to deal with Kate trying to use the various trick arrows while Clint struggled to understand. The escalating series of arrows lead to a prominently shown ‘Pym’ logo that clearly implies that the arrow is about to grow huge — which of course it does.
We then get more Kate and Clint bonding, including her amusingly drawing something close to the original Hawkeye costume which he mocks — but then gets more serious, saying he’s no role model. The discussion they have about being a hero is more interesting as regular humans, because of the acknowledgment that sacrifices are always a part of the gig, which is particularly resonant with the other scene where Kate transcribes the messages from Clint’s youngest, Nate, who heartbreakingly says it’s okay if he doesn’t make it home for Christmas.
The final scene has the other Nutcracker Suite drop, this time the ‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies’, while they sneak into Kate’s mother’s penthouse. The reference then of the company ‘Sloan Limited’ is also another clear allusion to a potential reveal of the ‘Uncle’, but I assume it’s meant to be more obvious to help the Internet sleuths figure things out. And of course our typical cliffhanger, this time with Jack holding a familiar sword to Clint’s neck.
Overall, it was quite a fun episode and although I am intrigued by the new Maya character, I am also not so clear on her role yet — although I’m willing to watch how the series pays that off. I assume her arc will be to let go of her need for vengeance to become a hero or something, but I suppose we’ll see how it goes.
New episodes of Hawkeye stream Wednesdays on Disney Plus.
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