HAWKEYE: Review, easter eggs and references in episode 4

episode 4 of Hawkeye, "Partners, Am I Right?” resumed the investigative story, as it took a backseat in last week's action-packed episode. Despite staying well paced, the show slowed down sharply, making its episodic nature more appealing; in doing so, it pinned us to a key plot element that had been almost entirely abandoned since the premiere, and it did essential work on both its central mysteries and Clint Barton's unresolved guilt.

unexpected appearance

Anyone hoping for a Wilson Fisk reveal in this episode was undoubtedly disappointed to find that the Kingpin didn't show up, but rather Yelena belova (the scream I gave at her appearance!), and the pile of people pissed off at Clint Barton keeps growing.

This episode of Hawkeye constituted the first time we see Yelena (Florence pugh) since Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) cunningly pointed out Natasha's death to Clint during the post-credits scene of Black Widow. It looks like this error hasn't been clarified enough yet and it probably won't help the fact that Clint se feel responsible for Natasha's death when the two presumably get the chance to have any sort of conversation about the incident with Vormir in the next two episodes.

Kate was unenthusiastic about Jack Duquesne in episode four, which was unfortunate because Jack and Eleanor's sweet romance was marred by her deep involvement with the Clothing Mafia (and let's assume that Fisk). Eleanor is definitely more suspicious than Jack, despite her ties to New York's criminal underworld. She knew exactly where to stick a needle into Clint's psyche in an effort to separate him and Kate.

Clint's ongoing struggle to push Kate away has swung back and forth like a pendulum in this episode of Hawkeye. The pair clearly get along well, both as friends and partners, but a heartbreaking moment that saw Kate dangling from a building and begging Clint to save her (the same version of Endgame) was too much for him to take, and, once again, he tried to sever their ties. It won't work, of course. Kate is attractive and stubborn and already cares about Clint far beyond his heroism — she even accepted his confession of being the Ronin during his short stories “my life as a weapon”.

Theories for the future of the MCU

The watch that Echo and the Outerwear Mafia were after at the auction appeared in this episode and will likely keep us thinking until next week at least. O Rolex vintage, recovered from wreckage at the Avengers Facility, is a mystery, but it has led to some confusing moments. 

Clint said the watch belonged to someone he'd worked with for a long time, but Laura effortlessly changed it to a new one. fluent german on the phone when asked about it. Her husband seemed to think the risk factor involved was minimal, but then told Kate that the watch was still linked to his former colleague's identity and that if the Outerwear Mafia found out her identity, her cover would be blown.

Clint's use of they/their pronouns when talking about his old friend from work has stymied efforts to deduce who it might be, but that hasn't stopped fans of the series from trying to solve the problem. my guess is Laura. We still know very little about Clint's ridiculously understanding wife, but she seems to have an emerging past that will be explored in Hawkeye. Honestly, if this thing ends up with Linda Cardellini kicking a bad guy during the family Christmas dinner, I would be happy.

Other suspects include Nick Fury and various agents SHIELD. Marvel Studios seems to be more eager than ever to bring back elements from other popular Marvel series to the core MCU. We can see coulson or same Harpy appear here? Hmm. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the location of Old Captain America linked to that watch.

As we head into the next week, it's worth bearing in mind that the 'episodes five' of the Marvel series tend to be wild, and I think it says something about how little we still know about post-season motivations.Endgame, histories and hierarchy of these characters old and new, that I have no idea what to expect from Hawkeye.

Easter Eggs

Of course, despite this episode having presented us with far fewer easter eggs than the first three, there is still one or another thing that we captured and of course we could not fail to comment here, so check out the ones below. easter eggs from Hawkeye episode 4.

Boomerang arrow reference

In an amusing scene between Clint and Kate, she proposes a boomerang arrow, to which Clint replies, "Why would I want to use a boomerang arrow?". That's funny because in Matt Fraction and David Aja's comics, that's exactly what he used and gave to Kate. Check out the pages of this comic book below:

Kate's NANKA T-shirt

Here's another direct reference to the comics: the shirt Kate wears in Hawkeye #22, during a truly important moment, by the way. And in case you haven't used Google Translate, "NANKA" means "something" In japanese. So this is a shirt that has something on it, literally.

“Bells, Bells, Bells”

Are you ready for a reference? crazy?! So: Hawkeye is full of Christmas songs, but there's one track in Episode 4 that's such an incredibly deep cut that I'm absolutely amazed they used it. When Kate is with the LARPers, there's a song playing that hardly anyone knows about. The music? "Bells, Bells, Bells" Interpreted by Anthony Daniels as C-3PO from the holiday album by Star Wars - Episode V of 1980 Christmas in the Stars.

Wendy Conrad

Continuing the tradition established in Episode 2, in which the LARPers guild members are named after supporting characters from various comic books. Hawkeye (remember Grills?), Episode 4 features two more: Bombshell and Oddball from the series Hawkeye 1983. The official Wendy Conrad (Adetinpo Thomas) and his friend Orville (Robert-Walker Branchaud) are both members of the guild, and these are the alter egos of these two rarely seen Hawkeye villains.

black widow killer glasses

Florence Pugh's Return to the MCU as Yelena belova brings the character one step closer to her comic book look. In the comics, Belova often wore goggles with a bunch of neon green lenses that mimicked the appearance of spider eyes. For comic book fans, those green glasses were what likely warned that Hawkeye's mystery attacker was Yelena right away. Let's hope it's as close as the MCU's Yelena gets to her comic book counterpart, because... uh... Yelena wasn't a hero in the comics.

Did we miss any other easter eggs? Comment here!

See also:

And also check out our reviews of previous Hawkeye episodes.