Hawkeye: So This is Christmas? review S1 E6

Hawkeye’s season finale really didn’t need to do a ton after unleashing trick arrows. Yeah, explosive arrows are cool and all, but the fun in the comic book character is the walking arrowhead for any occasion Hawkeye has in his quiver.

Watching Clint and Kate unleash that in So This is Christmas? was a lot of fun.

For the most part, the season/series finale of Hawkeye hit the mark. All the subplots were paid off well although it did feel like some pacing problems hurt the flow and felt somewhat rushed. That could be handled just fine with a second season of course, but until an official announcement is made, we’re kind of in limbo.

Eleanor was totally in bed with Kingpin. Hmmn, that doesn’t sound right. Kate’s dad was another pawn in Kingpin’s empire and owed a lot of money to The Big Guy. This forced Eleanor to do a ton of shady stuff. Considering she had Armando killed, framed her fiancé for it and hired Yelena to kill Clint, it’s safe to assume her ledger is dripping red. But with Kate involved, Eleanor wants out and that’s a deal Wilson Fisk is not cool with making.

D’Onofrio’s Kingpin suit was padded up a bit more than his Daredevil appearances to make him look closer to his comic book counterpart. It was a nice visual change and helped sell his menace.

Good thing Eleanor has all kinds of evidence and recordings to force Kingpin’s cooperation. That doesn’t sound like a good idea. And it’s not as Fisk immediately has Kazi prep for a hit on Eleanor and Maya…who he’s sure has turned on them now. This was a solid way to convey that Kingpin is not an idiot and confirm that Maya has zero poker face.

Clint and Kate do their own prep work setting up dozens of trick arrows for their pending faceoff with the Tracksuit Mafia. But they can’t do it alone, so Grills and the rest of the LRPPs get called in to help out.

And just to make things more complicated (and more awesome), Yelena is crashing the big gala too so she can kill Clint Barton. Kate spots her.

As soon as the chaos starts, Yelena and Kate have a fun exchange in an elevator before getting into a one take chase fight. Between Kate and Yelena’s banter and the way the fight was shot, this was easily one of the highlights of the season.

Clint had to deal with Kazi before escaping an onslaught of Bros. The LARP crew dealt with them on the ground while Jack started showing off his fancy swordsmanship.

After getting stuck on a massive Christmas tree, Clint is ready for the final faceoff with the bros. Naturally, this is a wild fight with the highly undisciplined Tracksuit Mafia getting handled like goofs by Clint and Kate’s tricky arrow arsenal.

Magnet arrows, ice arrows, shrinking arrows, tranquilizer arrows, etc. were in play and it was glorious. Hawkeye has never been treated like a lame character in the MCU, but extensively using trick arrows here shows how much more formidable he could have been. Granted, some of those arrows came as a result of his time as an Avenger — the Stark tech arrowheads and Pym particles in particular — so it’s showing Hawkeye is evolving into a stronger threat.

And the no look shots remain as impressive as ever.

Kate goes after her mother while Maya faces off with Kazi. The Maya/Kazi fight was fine. It was a mix of Kazi trying to get Maya out of this life and Maya wanting him to come with her. Ultimately, Kazi died taking yet another person Maya loved away from her. This was solid although it felt like the kind of mid-season face-off that would have had way more impact in the Echo series.

Before she could have a real conversation with Eleanor, Kate had to deal with Kingpin. This felt like one of those tricky wrestling scenarios where the writers book themselves into a no-win situation and then have to make the most of it. Kingpin probably wouldn’t be on the frontlines trying to take out Eleanor, which would have negated the need to have Kate vs. Kingpin.

The fight plays out about as well as expected with Kingpin using his size to batter Kate. He breaks her arrows and keeps swatting her away. Kate uses the flick trick Clint taught her to trigger Clint’s most dangerous arrowhead unleashing an explosion that knocks Fisk out. Maybe it was a fluke and Kate shouldn’t beat The Big Guy on his first appearance, but the writers made the most of it.

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Hawkeye might be done with the TSM, but Yelena still wants a word. Clint doesn’t offer up much resistance and just lets Yelena pound away on him. It’s not until she’s about to shoot him that he pulls out his ace in the hole — the whistle Natasha had with Yelena that Nat taught him.

This was a sign that Natasha loved Clint like a brother and reinforced with Yelena already knew — Natasha would do anything, including sacrifice herself for the people she loved.

Yelena sees the tears in Clint’s eyes and realizes how much Natasha’s loss has affected him. He might not be getting a Christmas card from her next year, but Yelena won’t try to kill him again. That’s not the case for every player this episode.

Reeling from the explosion, Fisk is stumbling in an alley when help has arrived as a Trust a Bro van wheels in. Bad news? It’s Maya and she’s not happy to see him.

Maya pulls a gun out on Fisk and we hear two shots.

We don’t see his body drop, but it seems unlikely she could possibly miss at that range. Would Kevin Feige sign off on bringing the super popular D’Onifrio onto the MCU and then kill him in his second appearance? The more likely scenario is the Maya storyline is following one from the comics.

Angered at Kingpin’s betrayal, Maya does shoot Fisk twice in both eyes and blinding him.

Eventually, Fisk regains his sight and continues menacing Daredevil and all the other street level heroes, but a blind Fisk seeking revenge on Maya sounds like the solid basis for the Echo series.

With everything wrapped up, Clint takes Kate and Lucky to the farm to spend Christmas with the Bartons. In the comics, Kate treats Clint more like an uncle she occasionally has to listen to. This take, with Clint essentially making Kate his ward/sidekick a la Batman and Robin, is a welcome fresh hero dynamic in the MCU. And Steinfeld and Renner play off each other so well that this is easy.

The watch from Avengers Compound did belong to Clint’s close undercover ally — Laura, who we learn was Agent 19 for SHIELD. Inscribing Mockingbird on the back probably would have been too on the nose, but I would have been fine with that choice.

Clint gets Kate to help him burn the Ronin costume while she workshops a name. Maybe the MCU can come up with something beyond Hawkeye to avoid the confusion and force the comics division to make the change too?

My biggest gripe was definitely with the post-credit scene. Since 2008 those have been an avenue to further tell the story and get fans hyped for what’s coming next. An extended version of Rogers: The Musical felt super indulgent and took an amusing Hamilton-riff to obnoxious levels of annoyance. Maybe it was just the complete lack of a payoff?

The sequence would have been saved if say Sam and Bucky were in the crowd playing Statler and Waldorf. Or even just the police officers who listened to Cap’s orders to set up the blockade. Something, anything would have been better than that scene, which has to go down as the worst or bottom three post-credit scenes in any MCU project.

Hawkeye was a thrilling ride that showed how well the MCU format can adopt the hero/sidekick model. A fan favorite villain debuted in the MCU proper and the Echo series has a solid foundation for the new hero. Hopefully we’ll get news on Hawkeye Season 2 very soon.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Photo Credit: Disney

Check out Hawkeye: The Saga of Barton and Bishop by Fraction and Aja at Amazon. 

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