Like all of Disney+’s Marvel reveals, Hawkeye’s been dropping unsubtle hints in regards to the presence of a good greater, extra harmful villain lurking in everybody’s midst. Though many individuals have been gunning for Clint Barton all season, this week’s “Ronin” lastly revealed the adversary who’s been pulling the strings all alongside, and in doing so, elevated Hawkeye to new heights.

It’s moderately telling that probably the most compelling episode of Hawkeye but is definitely extra a personality examine targeted on Black Widow’s Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) moderately than on Clint Barton himself. But whereas Clint isn’t the “main” character of this chapter, the time “Ronin” places into the remainder of Hawkeye’s solid is well-spent, and by the episode’s finish, it managed to tie a number of threads collectively into an impeccable bow.

The first of the large MCU inflection factors in “Ronin” dovetails with the ultimate scenes of Black Widow, during which Yelena first met Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine after working alongside her sister Natasha to take down the still-operant Red Room. “Ronin” opens in 2018 with Yelena finishing up her promise to Natasha to free the remainder of the world’s Widows from the Red Room’s chemically-induced thoughts management. As Yelena and her fellow former Widow Sonya (Yssa Mei Panganiban) shut in on Ana (Annie Hamilton), one other Widow they imagine to be below the Red Room’s affect, they know that liberating her thoughts received’t come simply—till they be taught that Ana has truly already damaged free. There’s some aid to studying that, whereas Ana’s emancipation didn’t instantly come by Yelena and Sonya’s hand, the three of them are really free in a manner they by no means dreamt of being whereas working for the Red Room. However as small as this scene is, it does a superb job of placing you in Yelena’s headspace, and supplying you with an thought of what kind of presence on the earth she turned within the time between Black Widow and Hawkeye. But “Ronin” takes issues one step additional by chopping the freed Widows’ reunion brief with one of many extra vital occasions to influence the bigger MCU.

When Yelena leaves the room to go to the lavatory, she doesn’t perceive what’s occurring as her physique begins to dematerialize into particulate matter whereas wanting within the mirror. Hawkeye isn’t the primary present to dwelling in on the horror of experiencing Thanos’ snap, however it’s the first to put out how disorienting an expertise it was for many who truly died. For Yelena, the time between her dying and resurrection was solely mere minutes, however as she leaves the lavatory, and sees how completely different the room she was simply in is, she instantly begins to understand that one thing horrible has occurred.

Though “Ronin” spotlighting how Yelena handled the snap is an effective little bit of characterization for her individually, it additionally serves to strengthen the best way Hawkeye’s a number of plotlines are starting to return collectively. In the current day, “Ronin” follows as Yelena seeks out Kate Bishop looking for extra particulars about her relationship with Clint Barton. For all the knowledge that Yelena’s dug up on Kate, she will be able to’t for the lifetime of her perceive why anybody would threat their lives for Hawkeye of all individuals, which is truthful. Yelena can intuit that Kate genuinely believes in Clint as a hero, however “Ronin” emphasizes how, after every thing that Yelena’s been by within the context of Black Widow and the Endgame snap, it’s troublesome for her to see Clint, or any of the Avengers actually, as something however the group of people that acquired her sister killed.

Yelena’s future working below the Countess was one of many extra attention-grabbing issues that Black Widow launched, due to its implications of there maybe being a type of Dark Avengers within the making. With the world being in a state of disarray following Avengers: Endgame, it might make sense that the world’s dwelling villains may make a go at capitalizing on the ability vacuum created by the Avengers’ dissolution, but it surely hasn’t in any respect been clear which villains is perhaps interested by such an endeavor… till Hawkeye offers us a really intriguing trace in its climax.

Throughout Hawkeye, Clint himself has been fairly sure of there being somebody working in New York City who must be taken out Ronin-style, and this episode finds him realizing that his enemy has each intention of injuring his household instantly. Funny as it’s that a number of individuals nonetheless haven’t put two and two collectively and realized that Clint is Ronin, his resolution to disclose his identification to Maya is a major one due to what marks for each characters. But in contrast to Maya, who doesn’t get any strong solutions this episode, Yelena’s sleuthing into her personal scenario does flip up some attention-grabbing outcomes which can be more likely to have a major form on the MCU’s future.

Even if the Contessa had by no means confirmed up at Natasha’s grave, Yelena would have possible come after Clint in search of blood on her personal after experiencing the Snap herself. But “Ronin” reveals that Val additionally isn’t the true menace Hawkeye has been constructing to, with the stunning revelation Yelena texts Kate with: it’s her mom Eleanor who desires Hawkeye dead. It truly makes a lot of sense that Eleanor Bishop would rent an murderer to kill the superhero (with no powers) who’d lately let her daughter (who additionally has no powers) to get into a lifetime of harmful vigilantism. Kate is of course horrified—once more proving that she actually is new in any respect this, and a bit out of her depth—but additionally confused in regards to the man within the image despatched together with the textual content. But in revealing that picture to the viewers, we be taught that maybe Hawkeye’s most stunning little bit of worldbuiling truly goes for one thing smaller-scaled than simply Thanos’ snap, however infinitely extra attention-grabbing as to what it means for the way forward for the MCU’s tackle New York.

Kate is perhaps uncertain, however Clint, after all, is aware of precisely who that man is—and also you possible do as properly. After years of hypothesis as as to whether Netflix’s chunk of the MCU would ever be correctly integrated into the formerly-Sacred Timeline, Marvel’s lastly pulled the set off: Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk (aokaya Kingpin), the main antagonist of Netflix’s Daredevil sequence, is now a significant antagonist in Hawkeye. Much like Eleanor eager to kill Clint, the thought of two absurdly rich members of the NYC elite understanding each other makes a hell of quite a lot of sense. But the importance right here is clearly the implication that, in some type or one other, the Netflix Marvel reveals that had been beforehand misplaced to the ether when Marvel and the streamer parted methods at the moment are linked to this universe as soon as extra—and that Daredevil, Jessica, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Danny Rand are additionally working round within the metropolis simply able to get in on a few of this motion.

When Hawkeye was first introduced, the thought of a Christmas-themed present revolving round Clint Barton didn’t sound like probably the most… compelling prospect, particularly in what it might imply for the broader MCU past the introduction of Kate Bishop. But because the present’s gone on, it’s repeatedly confirmed its capacity to punch above its weight class and pull off some attention-grabbing methods. “Ronin” dropping the identical week that Spider-Man: No Way Home premieres is the type of company synergy between the TV reveals and flicks that Marvel hasn’t actually tried to do in years, and if hypothesis is to be believed, Hawkeye is barely a part of the Defenders’ large return to the MCU occurring this week. Much as “Ronin” portends large issues for the bigger MCU, it additionally units the stage for what’s hopefully going to be a strong finale, which, wild as it’s to say, would make Hawkeye one in all Disney+’s stronger choices.

Hawkeye is now streaming on Disney+.

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