SPOILERS FOR HAWKEYE EPISODE 3

“Echoes“

Episode three of Hawkeye took a huge step forward, taking the fun energy from episodes 1 & 2, and tossing some action and feels into the show.

Plus a major Easter egg… who is Uncle?

Little Maya, who would grow up to be Echo, is shown in flashbacks at some martial arts training when her father told her that Uncle would take her home. And then we saw him. A large man in a black suit, carefully out of frame, came up to Maya and touched her face kindly. There was a small laugh from the man too. And the world all came to the same immediate conclusion… Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin.

Could this be Vincent D’Onofrio from the Netflix Daredevil series? It sure looked like him and the show hinted HEAVILY at that in several other moments, but it did not matter. KINGPIN CONFIRMED!!!!

It was obviously Kingpin in the scene. I won’t hear any other theories, dang it. It is not like Marvel has trolled us before (ahem… Ralph Boehner…. Mephisto…. a jet ski).

These flashbacks did an amazing job of connecting us to Echo in just a few minutes. We all could relate to her and felt for her. When her father died from the Ronin attack, the plot showed us the motive for what Echo is doing.

The action ramped up to eleven too. The car chase scene that they showed in a preview fell into this episode and it was tremendous. It was shot beautifully, with such an amount of creativity. The chase scene was right out of the Matt Fraction run on Hawkeye, with a few adjustments.

Near the end of the scene we get one of the most awesome use of arrows and technology. Clint Barton fired a Pym arrow at another arrows that Kate has shot and made it a gigantic arrow, which crushed the Tack Suit Mafia’s car. This rocked so hard.

By the way, I love the Track Suit Mafia. They are hilarious, Bro. Trust a Bro.

The episode ended way too early. It just flew by and ended with Ronin’s sword in Jack’s hand at Clint’s throat. It is a great cliffhanger and I can’t wait for next week.

The action was astounding, but the quiet moments were so full of emotion. When Clint received the phone call from his son Daniel during the time when his hearing aid was broken, and Kate had to write down what Daniel was saying was really powerful. Especially when Clint says to his son that he loved hearing his voice when that was the last thing he could do. That scene was so emotional and caring and you got to see daddy Clint and the pain of not being with his family was palatable. Then, the diner scene where Clint told Kate how the hero’s life required sacrifice and included pain and Kate just thought Clint needed a new costume.

Three more episodes to go. Hawkeye has been a wonderful series so far. And we have not had any sign of Yelena Belova yet. These performances are fantastic and impactful…even the little roles. There is nothing wasted.

And Bro… that was Kingpin!