'Hawkeye' Episode 6: "So This Is Christmas?" Recap and Review
Snowflakes and Arrows, and Tracksuits with Zippers, Echo and Widow, and a new pair knickers, A Fat man in White with some Lethal cufflinks, these are a few of my favorite things.
WARNING: Contains Spoilers
Without a doubt, this was the most satisfying ending to a Disney+ thus far. Not because of some grand fulfilled expectations or a rousing speech on social commentary or even the reveal of a major villain. Hawkeye is satisfying because in the end, Clint made it home for Christmas. Those were the stakes, simple and low. The problem with the Disney+ series that have come before has been that the stakes were so high that expectations of their resolution ballooned to an uncontrollable and unsatisfiable degree. For example, when the stability of time itself is on the line, it can be a tad underwhelming when it is solved with a forty-five-minute conversation. The stakes and resolutions are not weighted equally; as the stakes grow, the importance of their resolution grows exponentially faster. We are long past the times of saving the world with just a round of fisticuffs, but Hawkeye is not saving the world and a round of fisticuffs is perfectly fine. But it was more than that, every story arc was tied up nicely, the major villain reveal was meaningful, and every tease and Easter egg was like icing on the already spectacular cake. Just in time for Christmas, Disney and Marvel gifted us with a humble, heartwarming, simple and satisfying series that has redeemed one of their most misused characters.
The finale begins in the offices of Fat Man Automotive where we see the conversation that Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) was recording from the previous episode. Wilson Fisk a.k.a. Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) rumbles into the room where Elenore Bishop (Vera Farmiga) is waiting. Elenore informs Wilson that she is done with their “business” relationship, much to his displeasure. Kate (Hailee Steinfeld) is distressed and confused while watching this. While the wave of revelation crashes over Kate, Clint (Jeremy Renner) calms her down and tells her that they are partners and thus in it together. Meanwhile, Kingpin and Kaze (Fra Free) meet with Echo (Alaqua Cox) for an explanation to her actions over the last few days. Echo apologizes to Kingpin and explains that she is done with Ronin, but he does not believe her. Kingpin tells Echo he loves her, to which she reciprocates, waits for her to leave, then pressures Kaze to act against Hawkeye, Elenore, and Echo. As Kate and Clint take the subway to the safehouse, Clint reiterates the focus is the plan, and that they will need more trick arrows. Together they make an assortment of arrows of varying levels of dangerousness and Clint takes the moment to give Kate an out, to which she declines and explains how he inspired her. It’s party time, and the Tracksuits are on their way to crash Elenore’s office Christmas party with Kaze setting up across the street with a sniper rifle. Already at the party, Kate and Clint assess the situation, noting that the LARPers are disguised as waiters and that Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton) was already out of prison, in attendance and wearing a sword un-ironically.
What hardly anyone noticed was the arrival of Yelena Belova, who is still out for Clint’s blood. As soon as Elenore arrives, Kate whisks her away to the back room and confronts her about her relationship with the Kingpin. As Clint surveys the view of New York, Kaze takes the shot. Clint runs for his life as Kaze takes shots at the party. Kate goes to join the fight leaving Elenore and Jack to their own devices. Kate spots Yelena and follows her to the elevator. At first Kate tries to talk Yelena out of it, then resorts to trying other, more Elf-like things to stall her. After they wrestle around in the elevator, Kate and Yelena race to the window. In the meantime, Clint manages to flush Kaze out of his perch with a smoke arrow. Yelena manages to reach the window, after she and Kate accidentally becomes friends during their fight, and leaps out of it. She runs down to Clint’s window and fires a few shots that narrowly miss Clint. Using Yelena’s rope, Kate gracefully repels after her and lands in the Rockefeller Plaza just as the Tracksuits arrive. Kate fights off all but one who aims his gun at her, but Jack saves her using his exceptional fencing skills. Back in the building, Clint and Kaze have a brief but explosive showdown that ends with Clint leaping out the window and into the massive Christmas tree in Rockefeller Plaza. During the chaos, the LARPers (Clayton English, Adetinpo Thomas, Robert Walker Branchaud, and Adelle Drahos) take control and guide the civilians to safety. To get Clint out of the tree, she uses an acid arrow to cut the tree in half and send it plummeting onto the Ice rink.
Now surrounded by Tracksuits, Clint disarms them with a well-placed magnetic arrow as Kate joins him and the two fend them off with their arsenal of trick arrows. Like a well oiled machine, the two disable the Tracksuit army, even shrinking a few of them and leaving them to the devices of an adorable baby Owl. The pair then split up, Kate goes to find Elenore, and Clint turns his attention to Kaze. But Kaze and Clint are both ambushed by Echo and Yelena respectively. Elenore escapes to her vehicle but Kingpin is waiting, he rips off the door with ease and goes to attack her, but Kate is there to save her. Kate attacks Kingpin but it is quick to realize that not only are her arrows ineffective, but she is also severely physically outmatched. This time, Elenore saves Kate by ramming Kingpin with her car, sending him flying into a toy store. Echo pleads with Kaze to leave the mob with her, but he is in too deep. She has to put him down and just like that, Echo gets revenge on one of the men responsible for her father’s death. Kingpin shakes off the car crash and goes after Elenore, but Kate ensures he would have to go through her first. Yelena continues to attack Clint, who does nothing but defend himself and try to convey to her how much Natasha meant to him. The fight between Kate and Kingpin escalates to the point of Kingpin beginning to take Kate seriously, which is a death sentence for her, but Kate manages to end the fight with a perfectly flicked cufflink into a pile of volatile trick arrows. The explosion of arrows is just enough to knock out the Kingpin and Kate is able to reunite with her mother. But the reunion is brief, Kate lets the Cops take Elenore away in handcuffs for the murder of Armand Duquesne. Yelena has Clint beat and is ready to put the final bullet in him, but Clint stops her with a whistle. He uses Yelena and Natasha’s secret whistle and is able to convince her that they both loved Natasha very much and he was hurting just as much as she was. In the end, the two shake hands and shed a tear together for Nat. Kingpin manages to sneak away but Echo is waiting, with a gun. As the police take control of the scene, Clint and Kate share a moment as partners. Cut to Christmas Day on the Barton family farm. Clint is finally home, with presents in hand. He’s greeted at the door by his family and he has brought some friends, Kate and her one-eyed dog Lucky. Laura (Linda Cardellini) and the kids welcomes Kate with open arms. As Kate and the kids open gifts, Clint returns to Linda the watch that started it all. Linda flips it over and reveals a Shield logo and the number nineteen. As a punctuation mark to their adventure together, Kate and Clint go outside and together they burn the Ronin suit as they both out the past behind them.
He’s big, he’s bad, and he’s back better than ever. Vincent D’Onofrio has slipped back into the Wilson Fisk role as easily as he would into a pair of comfortable slippers, couple that with a more comic-accurate take on his abilities and you now have a perfect interpretation of the character. He rips off a car door as if it were made of aluminum and shrugs off an arrow to the chest like a mosquito bite. This version of the character is as tough as he is ruthless which is why there is no doubt that Echo putting a bullet in him will end up being a minor inconvenience. What the bullet does do is help set up Kingpin as Echo’s primary antagonist for her solo series that has already been announced. His use in this series was perfect as a “Final Boss” for Kate. She is forced to take on the Kingpin solo and although he might not have been taking her as serious as he would Daredevil or The Punisher, he dominates her until the end when some quick thinking ends the fight in explosive fashion. Yes, Kingpin probably could have killed her, but Kate has proven herself to be at least somewhat effective as a hero and watching the police lead her mother Elenore away in handcuffs proved she can do what is right. What could help her would be partnering up with Yelena in the future. The two have quickly become a fan favorite pairing in the MCU and every minute they are on screen together is magical. Hailee Steinfeld and Florence Pugh have an unmistakable chemistry between them that ,if treated right, could carry a movie franchise, Young Avengers maybe? Pugh puts in a particularly marvelous performance in this episode, sharing a very emotional moment with Clint at the end of their fight. The Barton family has gotten more interesting after this episode too. Laura Barton is the MCU’s Mockingbird, or a version of her at least. Hawkeye and Mockingbird have a history together in the comics, but Marvel’s inclusion of Agent 19 Bobbi Morse in the ABC show Agents of Shield threw everyone off. Lastly, Jack Duquesne turned out to not be a sinister villain but was in fact just an idiot. The reveal that he was always innocent makes him not only hilariously clueless in retrospect but also it shows that he genuinely loved Elenore and actually cares for Kate. Elenore, his fiancé, betrayed the man and Kate has shown him nothing but disrespect and hostility yet he reciprocates with understanding and love, it’s hard to not like the guy. Hopefully Jack makes a return in the future but not as the Swordsman, ‘Clueless Errol Flynn’ Jack is way more enjoyable.
Jeremy Renner has endured mountains of criticism on his characters use as well as being last on most people’s favorite Avengers list, but Disney and Marvel put their faith in the character that seems to have paid off given the almost universal appeal of the series. Renner grounds the series in both heart and humility that has transformed Clint Barton as the most relatable Avenger. Yes, there were a handful of plot holes in the series, like why were the tracksuits after the watch in the first place or how was Kaze able to catch an arrow with his bare hands or even what is that owl going to do with a truck full of tiny bros, but the series was never intended to be scrutinized so deeply. The silliness of the series made sure that it was never to be taken that seriously and even the grittier moments were used sparingly to emphasize key moments. No doubt that die-hard fans of the Netflix version of Kingpin could potentially be angry at his use in the end but Kingpin is a very versatile villain who has a history of fighting silly and often quippy heroes, thinking that this one appearance could strip away his villainous mystique does Vincent D’Onofrio a disservice. Overall, Hawkeye has been the most satisfying and enjoyable of all the Disney+ series. It should comfortably fit on the shelf of Holiday classics, right between Home Alone and the Christmas Party episode of The Office.