Hawkeye - Season Finale - Review

The final episode of Hawkeye is here and it delivered on many fronts, as well as left enough lose ends to keep people guessing about what might be next. But be warned, we are going into spoiler territory below, so if you have yet to watch the finale, go ahead and watch it, else get ready to be spoiled.

Spoilers Below…

The big reveal that Kingpin was the man at the top, was a big shock and ended the fifth episode on a big cliff-hanger, that is not a size joke (cause Kingpin is big), but when you think about the threats that could have existed to make Hawkeye worry, given his years of international spying, that is a big one. Having Vincent D'Onofrio step back into the tailored shoes as Kingpin was also a great reveal, not only because it helps connect the Netflix shows back to the MCU, something they tried to do at the start, but it also set the character up as a real threat and threaten he did. Seeing Eleanor stand up to Kingpin, before walking away was a big moment for her character, purely because it highlighted that there was a limit to what she would do but given that we never really knew much about her involvement, it feel like a cheap moment in the long game, where it got interesting though is how Clint was able to put a few clues into context, before bringing Kate back to reality.

Seeing Kate’s world come crashing down, as she learnt that her mother is not the nice person she thought, could have derailed the episode, but as we have learnt by now, Kate is nothing if not rubber, bouncing back with child-like enthusiasm. Having Clint finally step up and acknowledge Kate as his new partner and explain that he can create more trick arrows, showing Kate some of the processes, we were also treated to a nice prep montage, which is always fun. While it took a bit to get the action going, all the key players were starting to come together at the holiday party, because let’s face it, its an American created show and everyone knows chaos happens at American Christmas parties. Having the action come to them, rather than the other way around, was also a nice little twist on the formula and having Yelena and Kate fight their way across the building, was also fun, though it was a little slow going.

Where the story fell through though was with both the fight between Maya and Kazi, then with Maya’s confrontation with Kingpin near the very end. Maya as a character has been all sorts of weird here, first she was portrayed as this hardcore gang leader, which was quickly undercut by the emotional flashback story at the start of episode 3. Then when we expect her to completely change her mind after a single direct fight against the man, she knew murdered her father, regardless of why he was there, or who set them up to fight, she knew he was responsible, but she dropped her reason for revenge like it no longer matter. Please don’t misunderstand, seeing her character accept that everyone was played, would be a strong motivator for changing course, but over the course of 12 hours, that I think not. The final shot of her holding Kingpin at gun point was also undercut by the fact that we never see the shot being fired, meaning they have no idea if they wanted to kill Kingpin or wound him and given, they already greenlit Maya’s own spin-off show, I would place money on the latter.

Clint’s story with Yelena did have a somewhat satisfying ending, though the entire bit about her not killing him, simply because he whistled was pathetic. If he refused to fight back and she started to demand a fight, in order to feel more justified in her actions, that would have worked and while he wasn’t actively fighting, she still had enough rage, at least in her mind, to continue the fight. Hawkeye is not the first show or movie to do this, and it is an issue with these mediums of entertainment, but I really wish they had of thought of something else, in order to allow the two a moment of bonding and closure.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Marvel show without some random things left unresolved, the first is of course the fact that we don’t know if Kingpin is alive or dead and while the man took an arrow to the chest and walked it off, being shot at point blank range and surviving would have fit his strength. Clint burning the Ronin outfit was also a nice and poignant moment, but the entire subplot with the watch, is just stupid, not that there was something special taken from the campus, but that it was apparently Laura Bartons, that was the stupid part. In the last episode, she spoke German, something new to the character and then we see she had a S.H.I.E.L.D. watch, with a number on it, it just felt like they are trying to setup another story, when that entire plot could have been a post credits scene, this time though there was no twist ending, or what is coming next, but instead we got a full performance of “I could do this all day”, which was nice, but nothing to special.

Marvel stuck the landing on Hawkeye, they suffered from slowdown in the middle of the season, like all their shows have done, but rather than end with a whimper, they had a kickass fight scene, across some great locations and then saw Clint finally achieve his original goal, get home to his family. While the show took liberty with some cheap cop-outs to keep some suspense alive, it finally made Hawkeye a character to be involved with, rather than just acknowledging his presence in the action, where the character of Hawkeye goes from here though, that we will have to wait and see.

The Score

8.5

The Pros

+A solid episode that delivered some actual conclusions to many of the plot points

+Some wonderful fight scenes brought the action home and gave the dual archers time in the spotlight

The Cons

-Maya’s about face was undercut by the lack of growth in her journey, right until the show needed to

-The camera panning away from Kingpin at the end and Laura Barton’s watch are just traditional and annoying, stay tuned tricks and felt out of place