'Hawkeye' Episode 4: "Partners, Am I Right?" Recap and Review
Harsh truths come to light and unexpected guests crash the festivities in an emotional start to the second half of the series.
WARNING: Contains Spoilers
The Hawkeye series has been anchored by heart and an overwhelming sense of humility. But that heart grew three sizes over the course of the latest episode, allowing for the most depth the character of Clint Barton has had in the decade since his debut. Jeremy Renner is able to throw himself off the curmudgeon cliff but is saved with a well-placed grapple arrow to the side of a heart of gold. He and Hailee Steinfeld have built a rapport that has grown naturally and together they have earned the emotional turning point in Clint and Kate’s partnership. As much as the latest episode builds upon this mentorship, a familiar face arrives and re-opens old wounds that might be too much for the blue-collar archer and his plucky protégé.
We last left Clint with the blade of Ronin being held to his throat by the shady Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton). The situation is tense but Kate and Elanor (Vera Farmiga) barge in and de-escalate the situation before anyone loses their heads. The Four have a brief sit down as Kate tries her best to explain without raising suspicions and Clint tries his best to not help Kate whatsoever. As Clint takes his leave, Elanor has a subtly threatening conversation with him about how much her daughter means to her, to which Clint understands completely. As Clint leaves, he asks his wife Laura (Linda Cardellini) to gather information on his new lead, Sloan LTD and manages to sneak the Ronin sword out with him., Laura finds out that not only is Sloan LTD a front for the Tracksuit Mafia, but it’s CEO is Jack Duquesne. Laura also reminds Clint of another object of interest, the watch from the auction. Kate takes to the couch to decompress while at her mom’s and enjoys an uncharacteristically wholesome moment with Elanor and Jack. The undoubtedly sweet moment reminds her of Clint’s family, and it occurs to Kate that Clint may be very lonely at the moment. Back at the safehouse, Clint ices down his joints by covering himself in frozen strawberry daiquiri. Kate forcibly brings over some holiday to cheer Clint up. The two wear ugly sweaters, decorate a tree together, and learn about potential lethality of pocket change. Against his will Clint is able to relax enough to let down his guard and open up a little bit to Kate. The talk about Natasha, losing his family in the Blip, and Clint confesses to Kate that he was in fact Ronin. After their talk, the two get some much-needed rest, In the morning, Clint lays out the plan for the day, he will be having a chat with Kaze (Fra Free) of the Tracksuits while Kate enlists the aid of the LARPers to retrieve the rest of Hawkeye’s trick arrows. Kate finds the LARPers (Clayton English, Adetinpo Thomas, Adelle Drahos, and Robert Walker Branchaud) training in Central Park. After name dropping Hawkeye, they quickly agree to help. Meanwhile, Clint and Kaze have a heart to heart and Clint gives him one more chance to convince Echo (Alaqua Cox) to stop looking for them. Clint returns to the safehouse to find Kate and the LARPers hanging out while they wait for the other member of the group to return with the trick arrows. Just as the Arrows arrive, Clint gets a text from Laura saying she tracked the watch to an apartment nearby, so Clint and Kate take off to go retrieve it. The two set up on the roof of a building across the street, and as Clint strategizes about how to break in, Kate uses a bit of social engineering to simply ride the elevator up. After some searching Kate not only finds the watch, but a notebook with Clint’s family listed. Panic descends as they realize that Kate was in Echo’s apartment. Suddenly Clint is attacked on the roof, and before she can react, Kate is attacked by Echo. As they both fight off their respective attackers, Clint fires off a Zipline and Kate zips over to the roof. As soon as she makes it to the other side, she is met by a new mysterious assassin who pulls a gun on her. Clint steps in between them but it is Echo who swoops in and stops the assassin from firing. All four now tussle on the roof. The assassin gets the upper hand on Kate and tosses her over the ledge. Clint panics and runs to the ledge to find Kate dangling from a cable that the assassin attached to her but is otherwise okay. Realizing that he almost failed her, he cuts her loose and tells her to go home. Not to be deterred, Kate marches right back up to the roof and shoots a concussion arrow that separates the three and puts a pause in the fighting. Echo gets up first and continues to attack but after Kate puts an arrow in her shoulder, Echo escapes down the stairs. Clint and the assassin duke it out and Clint manage to remove the assassin’s mask just before he is stunned by some very familiar weaponry. Kate takes aim at the assassin who turns around, revealing herself to be Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), a Black Widow and Natasha Romanov’s sister. The two heroes square off and Kate takes aim, but Yelena shakes her head ‘no’ and Kate relaxes her bow. Yelena takes the opportunity to escape over the ledge just before Clint can recover. The reality of now having a Black Widow after them too, hits Clint hard and he sends Kate back home, this time for good.
After the events of Black Widow, it was only a matter of time before Florence Pugh’s deadly arachnid-based assassin would show up in Clint’s life but having her and Kate meet eye to eye was unexpectedly electric. Knowing that the two characters could have a long future of adventures ahead of them is only one cause for excitement. The other cause is the fact that these two are being portrayed by two of the best young actors in Hollywood. Both Steinfeld and Pugh have proven themselves early in their respective careers and are more than capable of becoming pillars of next phase of the MCU. Yes, they are adversaries at the moment, but it is easy to doubt that it would last very long. Once again, Elenore Bishop is radiating sinister vibes. She privately threatens Clint and asks him to drop the case, then when he refuses, she calls someone unknown to warn them. It was confirmed that Jack is CEO of Sloan LTD but again it seems like a detail that can be explained away as happenstance. Jack could have been assigned CEO after he father’s murder, unaware of the company’s true purpose. Couple that with the fact that it was Armand and Elenore arguing at the party in Episode One and it all points to her being a part of Sloan LTD in some way and possibly responsible for Armand’s murder. This is a real testament to how good Vera Farmiga is in this role, it is hard to shake the belief that she will do anything to protect her family, including becoming part of the problem. Then there is MacGuffin number two, the watch. All the clues point to Kingpin being after the watch for a purpose relating to the ownership of the former Avengers Tower. With only two episodes left, Kingpin will have to make his presence known sooner rather than later to avoid Marvel’s late season villain problems. Even if his role is just to stop Echo’s revenge quest against Clint, if he only shows up in the final episode to fulfill that role it runs the risk of become a Deus Ex Machina.
This Episode had a standout balance of emotion to it that mimicked the relationship between Clint and Kate. Echo’s deep seeded and deserved anger towards Ronin and the deep emotional moments between Kate and Clint was balanced out by the wholesomeness of the LARPers and the innocence of the love between Jack and Elenore. All the emotion seems to meet in the middle at a very John Hughes level. No one has died, the world is not at stake, and the situation just became serious in Clint’s eyes because of the arrival of a third-party assassin. Up until now, the Tracksuit mafia have been a bumbling nuisance and Kate has been practically Home Alone-ing her way through the story. Yes, the comparison to John Hughes films has become tired at this point but it is important to heap praise onto this series because it.