Hawkeye Spoiler Recap: So This Is Christmas?
On the heels of last week’s Kingpin reveal, Hawkeye’s season finale kept the ball rolling in “So This Is Christmas?”, in an action-and-plot heavy episode that might have benefitted from being broken down into two parts due to the sheer volume of what was going on.
After alerting Kate to her mother’s involvement with Kingpin, Yelena does more than provide photographic evidence, she provides video footage. Fairly incriminating footage, as Eleanor confesses both to the killing of Armand and for setting Jack up to take the fall for shell corporation Sloan. She also tips her hand to Kingpin, telling him that she wasnt out now that Kate is getting involved, and that she has an insurance policy in place - likely records of all their shady dealings.
Clint promises to help Kate figure out what’s going on with her mom, kicking things off at the annual Bishop Christmas party. Together, the two of them construct quivers of trick arrows and head to the fesitivties decked out in their new outfits courtesy of the LARPers - concealed under stylish eveningwear, naturally.
As it tends to do, everything comes to a head at the Christmas party, held on an upper floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The Tracksuits, led by Kazi, arrive to take Clint out. Yelena arrives to do the same. What ensues is an all out brawl through all the highlights of Rockefeller Centre - the skating rink, the tree, FAO Schwartz - culminating in an impressive display of Kate and Clint’s trick arrow arsenal.
While the series did end in usual Marvel finale fashion, with a fight against the big bad, Hawkeye also wrapped up certain character beats while setting up others for future seasons of the show, because it’s hard to believe they’d just leave it at the one.
Maya goes to see Kingpin, or “Uncle” as she calls him, and initially tells him she wants to step back and clear her head for a few days. The news that he was the one to order her father’s death has left her reeling. Though she ostensibly wants to take a step back, she returns to the scene of the fight to try and convince Kazi to run away with her. Distressed, Kazi tells her there was never any other life for him other than this, and after a scuffle, he dies from a stab wound to the gut. Devastated, Maya goes to face Kingpin next, and winds up shooting him at point-blank range. It’s hard to imagine they would hype his character up this much and get rid of him after only one episode, which leads me to believe he’ll be back in the future. In Echo perhaps?
Yelena’s vendetta against Clint also comes to an emotional close. After finally meeting face to face, she is determined to finish the job and kill him for his part in Natasha’s death. Clint, who has been carrying the guilt of it around with him finally unburdens himself to Yelena, and shares that Natasha talked about her sister all the time. The two tearfully reminisce about the woman she was, the kind to sacrifice herself for the good of everyone else, and Yelena leaves. Hopefully this isn’t the last we’ll see of Florence Pugh’s Yelena in the MCU. I suspect it won’t be.
Finally, armed with half the truth and a young persons sense of righteousness, Kate has her mother arrested for Armand’s death. While there’s never a full justification for murder, the audience knows Eleanor was acting in what she thought was Kate’s best interests. Especially since she points out yet again that Kate is far too comfortable in her wealthy lifestyle to ever go without. Kate believes she’ll be just fine, but it would be interesting if this assertion was challenged in future seasons. As delightful as Kate is, she is an extraordinarily privileged young woman, and I would be interested in seeing her face the loss of it.
She winds up spending Christmas with the Barton family on their farm, where she and Clint burn the Ronin outfit once and for all, ending with the two of them trying to decide on a nickname for her.
Because this is a Christmas show, they couldn’t leave it on such a bittersweet note. The episode ends with a post-credit scene that doesn’t set up any future stories or anything like that, but which is instead just a full length version of “I Can Do This All Day”, from Rogers: The Musical, an unexpected delight after the episode-long action scene.
I was happy to see certain season-long plot points pay off, like including the LARPers in the final battle, but I do wish that certain other things had been paced differently. Take the Christmas party for instance. After being mentioned fairly consistently all season, I feel as though we barely spent any time there at all. It would have been a lot more fun if the whole fight had taken place inside the party, though I do understand the constraints of filming during a pandemic probably made shooting the action scene out of doors much more appealing.
What did you think of the Hawkeye finale? Where does the show fall on your overall ranking of MCU shows? Let us know in the comments!
Hawkeye is streaming now on Disney+
