Ready for some trick arrows? This week’s episode of Hawkeye gives us an extensive fight and car chase scene featuring some pretty fascinating arrow types. And don’t worry, there are plenty of quieter moments that give a little more insight into the minds of our main archers. Needless to say, this Hawkeye Season 1 Episode 3 recap includes spoilers for both the show and related films.
Recap time! Outside revisiting the growing tension between the skilled archers Kate Bishop and Hawkeye in the second episode, random clips like Clint Barton using sign language with his youngest kid are sliced in among many important plot points. I wonder if that’ll be important! We’re also reminded of the ongoing mystery surrounding the murder of Armond and the increasing suspicion of Jack, the fiance of Kate’s mother. Oh, and the archer duo is now being held captive by the hands of the Tracksuit Mafia. Time to meet their leader!
Flashback Time
Kicking things off with a flashback. It’s 2007, four years before the Avengers fight in the Battle of New York. It’s not Kate sitting in an elementary school classroom but someone new. She can’t hear but she is certainly gifted, enough to impress the teacher who meant to reprimand her. Later we get a heartwarming scene with mystery girl and her father. A bit later we see her training to fight where we get the reveal that she also has a prosthetic foot. Cut to the future and it’s mystery girl as an adult, boxing with ease.
Mystery girl, or Maya, arrives at her pop’s auto shop only to find the ending moments of a massacre led by what we presume is the Ronin, the alter ego of Clint Barton during his time in between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. She busts in just as the culprit leaves only to find her father critically wounded. A tearful goodbye before a cut to the title screen.
Arrows Galore
Back to the present, Clint Barton and Kate Bishop are strapped to separate rocking horses as the Tracksuit Mafia goofs around in the background. Remember, Clint is there because he wants to meet their leader and Kate is there because she failed to rescue Hawkeye when he didn’t need any saving. Kate chats it up with one of the thugs and even offers some solid advice about trust, much to the chagrin of Clint.
Maya appears. She immediately notices Clint’s hearing aid and has him untied from the rocking horse. The two start using sign language to communicate. She asks what his deal is with the hearing aid and she says he might be better off without it. Foreshadowing? Clint quickly moves the conversation to the topic he came to discuss. He explains Kate using the suit was a mistake and that she is not the Ronin. Looks like the tape is going back on.
Clint claims the Ronin is dead and that Black Widow, also deceased, was responsible for his death. Which hey, in a sense, that’s true! Black Widow was the one to pluck Clint out of Japan while he was on his murder spree. Maya doesn’t buy it and in a moment of rage, she grabs hold of Kate before getting held back by her interpreter, Kazi.
Clint busts out of the tape bounding him to the rocking chair and takes off leaving Kate waiting for a signal. After sneaking around the abandoned store for a bit, Clint runs into Maya and the big fight begins. Maya knocks out his hearing aid and is quick to smash it to pieces. As the fight continues, Clint finds his old gear and pins Maya to the wall while sending a separate arrow across the room to split Kate’s tape in two. Kate fights Kazi and she escapes with Clint.
Well, only for a moment. The archer duo hotwires a car and gets moving as the Tracksuit Mafia pursue them in the streets. Kate gets to take some of Clint’s trick arrows for a spin! The first is a putty arrow that completely covers the windshield of the enemy’s car. The next is an explosive arrow that engulfs the truck in flames and sends it rolling down the road. Pretty sure Kate just murdered one or two of the thugs. The third is a plunger arrow that does… nothing. A fourth arrow latches onto nearby objects and pulls them in towards the arrow. The fifth is an acid arrow that Kate uses to take down a pair of traffic lights and the sixth is a purple smoke arrow that fills Maya’s car.
With their car stuck on the bridge, Kate and Clint jump out and watch as the Kazi speeds toward their direction. In a bizarre act of perfection, Kate shoots an arrow into the air and as it comes falling down, Clint shoots a PYM branded arrow into the falling arrow to transform it into a massive arrow that slices the incoming car in half. Unreal. The two jump off the bridge and swing onto the top of a moving subway.
A Moment of Rest
Maya and her Kazi sit down and chat. Kazi thinks things got a bit out of hand and mentions her father would put her crew first before diving headfirst into this Ronin business. Maya is less than pleased and reminds him who is in charge before storming off. He also mentions an Uncle figure.
After riding the subway and back at Kate’s pseudo apartment, Clint continues to struggle to hear without the use of his hearing aid. A call from his wife, which turns out to be his youngest son, brings forth the reality to Clint that it’s becoming less likely for him to return home in time for Christmas. Sad, but at least a nice moment where Kate transcribes the phone call for Clint.
The two eat at a restaurant where Kate draws up a potential costume for Hawkeye. Not a lot of fanfare from Clint’s side. This quickly turns into a discussion on the price of being a hero. Clint claims he is not a role model and Kate quickly refutes this by using their current situation as a solid example. Clint stayed around and will likely miss Christmas with his family to help a total stranger. Kate also speculates that the Ronin is someone who was close to Clint.
Pizza Dog gets some of the spotlight in the diner. First off, thank you for letting the dog into the restaurant, the boy deserves it! And second, do we need to name the dog like Clint suggests? We’re quite satisfied with Pizza Dog.
Kate, Clint, and Pizza Dog walk through a park as they discuss the origins of the Tracksuit Mafia. As we suspected, Maya is not the top boss and there is someone else calling the shots. We also touch on Jack and his ambiguous connections with the Ronin. The two arrive at Eleanor’s penthouse to do some digging to get more info on Kazi and Jack. Not long after looking into a few details on the laptop, the account is locked out and Jack appears pointing a sword at Clint’s throat.
We’re at the halfway point in Hawkeye and the Disney+ exclusive show will keep releasing each of its six episodes on a weekly basis. Catch each episode of Hawkeye, along with our detailed recap, every Wednesday.
