Hawkeye Spoiler Recap: Echoes

by Arezou

After making a valiant effort in the first two episodes to humanize and add dimension to the surly and unremarkable MCU Hawkeye, episode 3, “Echoes” reminds us fairly quickly why that was even necessary in the first place.

Last week saw the MCU debut of Maya Lopez, aka Echo (Alaqua Cox), and this week Hawkeye picks right back up with the Tracksuit Mafia leader, flashing back to her childhood. Growing up with only her father William (Zahn McClarnon), Maya quickly had to learn to live as a Deaf person growing up in an environment not suited to her. Or, as her father put it, she had to learn to move between worlds - the easy communication at home, and the necessary adaptations required at school and extra-curricular activities.

Sometime during the Blip, Maya returns home to the headquarters of the Tracksuit Mafia, of which her father is the leader, only to find chaos reigns inside. A masked assailant - the Ronin - is taking the men out one by one. Being an expert martial artist, she enters the fray, but it’s too late. The Ronin has already gotten to her father, who dies shortly after she gets to him.

Understandably Maya, now the leader of the Tracksuit Mafia, wants revenge, which is why she sent her men after Kate in the first place.

I wondered last week if Clint using ASL with his son would in any way factor into how he communicates with Maya, and we get the resolution to that fairly quickly. It turns out Clint only knows the basics, and cannot hold a conversation with her. Instead, she turns to her lip reading skills and asks Clint what happened to the Ronin. He tells her that he was killed by Black Widow, but with no one around to properly corroborate the story, she doesn’t believe him. 

While deciding next steps with her second in command Kazi (Fra Fee), Kate and Clint manage to free themselves from their restraints and fight their way out. 

Much of the episode is taken up then by action scenes, first with Kate and Clint trying to escape the Tracksuit Mafia’s headquarters, and then once they do, with a lengthy chase scene across New York that shows off Clint’s impressive range of arrows. Fortunately, 

Kate and Clint break into Kate’s mothers penthouse, trying to access her systems to look up Kazi and Jack Dusquene to see what they might be hiding, and how this is all connected. The episode ends when Clint rounds a corner in the penthouse and comes face-to-face with Jack. Or rather, comes neck-to-Ronin-blade with him.

The last we see of Echo and Kazi also poses an interesting question. It’s obvious that he doesn’t agree with all her decisions, but as she reminds him, she is the one in charge of the Tracksuit Mafia. Because they are looking to be the villains for this series, or one of them in any case, I wonder if there will be a power struggle with Kazi down the line. We already know Alaqua Cox is returning as Echo in her own series later, so she’s more than likely going to survive this series, which then places Kazi in the primary Tracksuit Mafia antagonist role. Given the interplay between Maya and Clint, where she tells him he relies too much on his hearing aid, I wonder if this is setting up some kind of team up down the line where he will be forced to communicate with her on her terms. 

That said, I’m not sure I want to see that. It’s nothing against Maya, but the start of the episode reminded me why I dislike MCU Clint so much. I can handle, and even forgive, a boring character. They can’t all be the flashy ones all the time. But it never sat well with me that Clint expressed grief for the loss of his family by killing a whole host of people of colour, both in the States and abroad. 

I hope that the show addresses this in some way, but if I had to guess, it’s likely going to focus on the general wrong of the Ronin’s actions, and less on the problematic subtext of exactly who Clint felt deserved to die. 

Hailee Steinfeld continues to be a highlight of this series. Though she didn’t feature as heavily in this episode, her energy as Kate Bishop is infectious and she is utterly charming in every scene she is in. I hope down the line, we get to see her interact more with Maya Lopez, as the two of them do have quite a bit in common, losing their fathers whom they were very close to under horrifying circumstances.

They also both have to put up with Clint, and if that doesn’t unite people I don’t know what will.

Hawkeye airs Wednesdays on Disney+. Check back here every week for our spoiler recap.