SPOILERS FOR HAWKEYE EP. 6

“So This is Christmas?”

The Hawkeye finale had a lot of actions and the wrap of storylines (maybe too many), but it left me with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach because of one major moment… after a confrontation with Kate Bishop and being hit with a car driven by Eleanor, Kingpin ran into someone with a grudge.

Maya.

The show made it appear as though Maya, aka Echo, killed Kingpin by shooting him in the head. We did not see the actual shot, but we heard it off screen. Still, it made me unhappy that after so long waiting to see Vincent D’Onofrio reprise his role only to kill him off after the first episode.

The I saw this on Twitter. It was from the comic books.

This made me feel a lot better. I expect that Kingpin survived the attack and will be the main antagonist in the upcoming Echo series on Disney +.

So with that out of the way, I can look back over the rest of Hawkeye episode 6 with more open heart and less bitterness over the possible death of Kingpin.

There were a lot of great scenes in this episode, many of which included Florence Pugh as Yelena. Her initial reactions with Hailee Steinfeld’s Kate Bishop in the elevator and through the Christmas Eve party was great. Honestly, I would go for a whole series of Kate and Yelena together. The dialogue is crisp and the action is well designed.

But even more emotional was Yelena’s showdown with Clint on the ice outside 30 Rock. Yelena had every intention of killing him, but she wanted to know about her sister Natasha more. This was a powerful scene and fit beautifully with these two tremendous actors. Clint doing the whistle brought Yelena back to reality, finally accepting that what Clint was telling her about Natasha’s final moments was true.

We got a chance to see the new costumes and to see our LARPers in action as Clint and Kate’s “army.” This was a little iffy for me, but it worked in the long run. Gotta love Grills.

One of the issues I believe is the difference in directors. Episode six was directed by Rhys Thomas, who also directed episodes 1 & 2. Episodes 3-5, which are considered the best of the series by most critics and commenters, were directed by Bert and Bertie. I wonder how the series would have felt had Bert and Bertie directed episode 6 as well?

Then, thankfully, Clint was able to get back to his family for Christmas as he promised, with Kate and Lucky the Pizza Dog in tow. I could not have handled a tragic end for Clint Barton after these six episodes so I am thrilled that he made it home. Plus, he had a certain gold watch with him that he gave to his wife Laura. On the back of the gold watch, we see a symbol of SHIELD, confirming that Laura was, at one time, an agent of SHIELD. Was she Mockingbird? Maybe.

This episode ended with a post credit scene, the only episode of the series to do so. After wishing everyone a Happy Holidays from Marvel Studios …

The show gave us a full Broadway number from Rogers: The Musical. We got the full song of “I Can Do This All Day”!

This was a ton of fun and really put a nice button on the series.

Some other plot points wrapped up:

• Eleanor killed Armond.
• Jack was innocent and had been framed by Eleanor. Jack had a chance to show his sword skills helping Kate at the party.
• Maya killed Kazi in an emotional struggle.
• Eleanor was arrested for the murder of Armond but she did show that she loved Kate more than her partnership with Wilson Fisk.
• More trick arrows including another Pym tech one that led to a problem for the Track Suit Mafia.

• Eleanor using information to try and blackmail Kingpin shows that she has some balls.
• Clint called Kate his partner.
• Kingpin wore his Family Business outfit from the Marvel Comics.

Hawkeye has been a great season. My current Marvel Studios’ Disney + series ranking are as follows:

1. WandaVision
2. (very close) Loki
3. Hawkeye
4. What If…?
5. Falcon & Winter Soldier

They’ve all be excellent though. Not sure what is next…maybe Moon Knight? She-Hulk? Ms. Marvel. I’m sure it will continue the excellence the 2021 shows have begun.