Hawkeye: Episode 3

3. Echoes

2007. Growing up deaf and with a prosthetic leg, Maya relies heavily on her vision and develops a knack for mimicry in order to survive. When her beloved uncle perishes in one of Ronin’s killing sprees at the Tracksuit Mafia headquarters, she vows to hunt the guy down for revenge. Now that she is considered as the leader of the group, she brings Clint Barton and Kate Bishop in as hostages to interrogate them regarding their involvement in the retrieval of the Ronin suit. He informs her that Ronin already died in the hands of Black Widow, which she immediately dismisses as a lie. The two escape their assailants amidst an explosive car chase in the streets of New York. After repairing his hearing aid, Clint is taken by Kate back to her mother’s penthouse so they can sneak in and find some info regarding Jack and the Tracksuit Mafia through the classified files of her mom’s security company. As her access is eventually disabled, Barton sneaks around and is ambushed by Jack, held at knifepoint with his very own Ronin sword.

Say whatever you want about Disney being woke but we really can’t deny that they have been doing a lot of legwork lately in representing the deaf community. First, Makkari. Now, Echo. Even Hawkeye himself, to some extent. The episode serves as an extended introduction for Maya but the character comes across as a bit of a brat with something to prove, pretty much like Kate Bishop. Even their backstories of losing their father figure which serves as their motivation for doing what they do is just so parallel. Anyway, I am glad to see more bow and arrow action which has been quite lacking in the first two episodes. Lest we forget, this is still a show about two archers. That one long single take video clip involving a car chase released prior to the pilot is also seen in this episode and serves as the chapter’s highlight. That would have been hard to pull off, but they did! As for the plot, there is still some mystery left as their respective enemies seem to be pointing to a single big bad. Maybe they have the same nemesis after all. Like, Mephisto?

“Good thing they call you HawkEYE not HawkEAR.” –Kate Bishop

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