As the 5th episode of Hawkeye begins, we jump back to 2018 as Yelena (Florence Pugh) and Sonya (Yssa Mei Panganiban) sneak into a house and confront Ana (Annie Hamilton). When Ana finds herself cornered, she tries to fight the two women. Once Yelena takes her to the ground, she encourages her to stop because she is trying to help her. Sonya holds her hands while Yelena hits Ana with the antidote. They’re surprised when the antidote does nothing for Ana who complains they ruined her expensive rug. Ana wasn’t a rich pervert’s prisoner or brainwashed. They sit down while Ana explains she got rich by killing for money which is what they’re good at. Yelena tells Ana what she has been doing before saying her sister is doing okay.

Sonya jokes about Yelena being reunited with Natasha and living a Sex and the City fantasy in New York. Yelena doesn’t laugh and instead excuses herself. She goes into the bathroom and splashes water in her face. When she does, she watches herself turn into fragments in the mirror. Then, the walls and lights begin changing. She steps out of the bathroom to find Ana with her husband and adopted daughter. She soon learns five years have passed since she entered the bathroom. Ana tells her how Sonya left before saying she should start with contract work and stay here as long as she needs to. Yelena is more concerned about the five years she lost in a matter of seconds. She wants to find Natasha to tell her she is okay. After the intro, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) returns home as Eleanor (Vera Farmiga) finds that her daughter’s face is bloody.

Eleanor asks if this has anything to do with Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner). Kate nearly cries as she tells her mother that Clint protected her before telling her to go home and stay away from him. Eleanor says she is the only thing that matters to her. When they sit down in Kate’s room, Eleanor learns that neither Kate nor Clint think she is a superhero. As Eleanor works on Kate’s wounds, she says she knows it is scary, but it doesn’t need to change who she is. Kate insists she only wanted to help her mother and not be reckless. They discuss Kate’s first bow as she admits she thought she could do anything and even become one of them. Eleanor isn’t worried about her daughter not finding her path. She instructs her daughter to keep moving forward no matter how bad it feels. Then, Kate tells her mother about looking into Armand’s murder and the incriminating stuff they found on Jack (Tony Dalton).

Eleanor learns about Sloan Limited and promises her daughter she’ll look into it. Meanwhile, Kazi (Fra Fee) takes care of Maya (Alaqua Cox) and her wounds. He reminds her she doesn’t need to pretend it doesn’t hurt with him. She admits it hurts and jokes that she opened up with him. Maya tells him about the other woman who was there and that she doesn’t think they knew what was going on. Kazi argues her hunt must stop. He agrees to help her capture Ronin, but it has to end after they kill him. Next, Kate returns to her burned flat and runs into Yelena. She throws a hot sauce bottle at her and Yelena quickly grabs it. Yelena surprises Kate when she says she was starving so she made macaroni. Kate knows Yelena isn’t there to kill her because she would’ve already done it. Eventually, Yelena convinces Kate to sit down at the table and eat macaroni with her.

Clint had to find someone to watch Pizza Dog so he decided to visit Grills (Clayton English). Once Kate finishes eating the macaroni, Yelena takes the rest and covers it with hot sauce. When Kate asks what she wants, Yelena begins telling her about it being her first trip to New York and wanting to see a few things. She describes all the things she likes about American Christmas before changing the subject to eating reindeer meat. Kate calls her a blood-thirty vigilante before asking if she keeps saying her whole name to make it clear she knows it. Yelena admits it is true and tells her everything she knows about Kate. Once they get to the point, Yelena confesses she has come to New York to kill Clint Barton. She wants to know why Kate would risk her life to help Clint.

She can’t understand why everyone has forgiven Clint for the past. When Kate says he saved the world, Yelena quickly refutes that by saying her sister, Natasha Romanoff, saved the world. Kate is shocked to learn Yelena is her sister and thanks God that she didn’t kill her although Yelena doubts that will ever happen. Yelena doesn’t believe Kate really knows who Clint is and claims he only wanted to protect his reputation. They discuss Clint’s blood trail and the fact he is still an Avenger. Yelena blames Clint for her sister being gone and wonders if she was collateral damage. Kate doesn’t believe that but admits she has only known him for a week. She knows Clint isn’t perfect. Still, she doesn’t think he should be killed. Yelena is told to look at the person who is paying her to kill him. Yelena explains they’re defined by their actions and there is no escaping this.

When she asks where Clint is, Kate says she doesn’t know. Before Yelena leaves, she thanks Kate for the girls’ night and warns her not to get in her way again. Grills tells Clint he will happily watch the dog for a few more days. He doesn’t like that Hawkeye is spending Christmas in a hotel so he asks him to sleep on his couch or bed. Clint agrees to take the couch but doesn’t want to see the new costumes Missy dropped off for them earlier. When Kate returns to her mother’s place, she finds detectives there arresting Jack. Eleanor says she looked into it and Kate was right. Jack doesn’t blame her for calling the police because he would’ve done the same thing. Clint goes to a memorial for the Avengers and talks to Natasha who was the bravest. He reveals he replayed the end a thousand times in his head hoping for a different outcome. He misses her and is sorry for what he is about to do. Kate looks at the bows, arrows, and awards in her room before calling Clint several times.

As Ivan (Aleks Paunovic) and Tomas (Piotr Adamczyk) drive their van into the parking lot, an arrow hits their windshield and a message pops out. It tells Maya to come to the spot where she first met Ronin tonight. Later that evening, Clint calls Laura (Linda Cardellini) to tell her the problem just keeps bigger and bigger. Maya got the watch, researched their family, and someone hired a black widow to get Clint. He can’t imagine where this is going to go. While Laura believes they’re far enough away, Clint is worried and asks if she should take the kids even further away. He says it is only a matter of time before the big guy gets involved. Laura instructs him to follow his gut since she trusts his judgment. He goes to the locker to get his suit before heading to the car lot where Maya waits with her soldiers around her. Clint quickly knocks out Kazi who is hiding on the roof with a sniper rifle.

Then, he begins taking out the Tracksuit guys one by one. Once Maya unloads her gun, Clint approaches her with his sword. They fight for a bit until Clint corners Maya and points the sword at her. He removes his mask so she can see his face. He warns her not to come after him or his family. She calls him a monster although he says they’re the same because they were used as weapons. Clint tells her that he was there that night because he was tipped off by an informant. He says it was her boss who tipped him off, but she doesn’t want to believe it. When Clint says her boss wanted her father dead, she attacks him and the fight continues. Maya nearly stabs Clint with the sword, but Kate shoots an arrow and knocks it out of her hands. Clint uses the distraction to escape and leave with Kate who has an Uber or taxi waiting for them already. Kazi returns to Maya who learns that he was attacked too.

He learns that Ronin escaped. Then, she asks why he wasn’t at the meeting when her father died. He claims he just didn’t get the call. When he asks what this is about, she says it is nothing. She leaves on her motorcycle seconds later. Kate tells Clint there is one more thing they have to worry about and it is the girl with the mask from the night before. Clint learns that the girl is Natasha’s sister. Once they get out of the vehicle, Clint gives her the arrow back. Yelena follows Eleanor. Grills shows Clint and Kate the trick he taught Pizza Dog although it doesn’t work well for Kate. Seconds later, Kate gets a surprising text message from Yelena who confirms she found out who paid her to kill Clint. Yelena says it was Eleanor Bishop and she has a picture of her for Kate to see.

Clint looks at the picture and sees Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) with Eleanor. He admits it is the guy he was worried about all this time.

 

Hawkeye Review

The 5th episode of Hawkeye had some good moments, but some pretty annoying scenes as well. Clint tried to resolve his Maya problem so he could return home to his family before Christmas. During their showdown, Clint warned her that the boss wanted her father dead. She didn’t want to believe it although it seems she’ll find out the truth soon enough. As for Kate, she found out several things from Yelena during their macaroni dinner together.

Yelena was allegedly hired by Eleanor to kill Clint Barton and Eleanor has a relationship with Kingpin. The good news is that episode five pushed the story forward and did a great job of setting up the finale. On the downside, the macaroni scenes with Kate and Yelena were surprisingly bad. I could barely tolerate Florence Pugh’s cringey dialogue and attitude. It was a serious mistake to drag the conversation out for so long.

Picking a real Russian actress to take over the role likely could’ve made a big difference. Regardless, I couldn’t wait for that conversation to end. It will be interesting to see what happens in the finale and what doors they leave open for a possible second season of Hawkeye. Hawkeye’s 5th episode was good in some areas although I could see viewers complaining about Yelena’s obnoxious dialogue and cackle.

The episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. Hawkeye recaps are available on Reel Mockery here.