We last left our heroes in EPISODE 2 having been captured by the Tracksuit Mafia and having gotten the first look at Maya Lopez, she who shall be Echo. We pick up with a flashback to 2007 and get a feel for Maya and the challenges she overcame in her life. Her uncle is referenced in hushed tones and we get a glimpse of this imposing figure. Rumors are out there if you so choose and I’m excited!
We move further into the future and Maya is arriving at her father’s auto shop when she notices a commotion. Going in to look, we see Clint in Ronin mode, killing anyone in his way in the shop, Maya’s father included in that, giving us her motivation as to why she’s so interested in Ronan.
This leads us to Kate Bishop and Clint, taped to old school mechanical horses that are being fed a steady diet of quarters by the Russian bros. Kate keeps talking and talking, much to Clint’s frustration. She even tries giving relationship advice to one of the Tracksuit Mafia members. They all want to know about the Ronin connection. Maya comes out to further the interrogation. She notices Clint’s hearing aid and they have a comically awkward exchange where Clint shows the limits of his sign language knowledge.
During the exchange, Clint says Ronin was killed by Black Widow, a roundabout truth considering Widow’s ENDGAME sacrifice helped bring Clint’s family back and allow him to stop his path of destruction.
Echo, having enough of Kate and Clint’s nonsense, shows her anger by choking Kate, scaring her and making Echo’s second in command try to pull her back in. At this point, Clint’s able to free himself from the tape and a chase ensues. Leading to Clint getting his arrows back, freeing Kate, and getting them both out of the abandoned KB Toys store they were held in.
At this point, the chase is on. Clint is driving, now unable to hear because Echo damaged his hearing aid in their skirmish. Kate’s on arrow duty and gets to try out a variety of trick arrows, much to her amazement. After Clint uses a special Pym Tech arrow to cause a distraction, Clint and Kate escape with the fancy swinging harness arrow shot under the bridge shown in the trailer.
Clint’s now more impressed with Kate, no longer bemused by her young age but respectful of her archery ability. They go check on Lucky the Pizza Dog and Clint has a conversation with his youngest son. Since his hearing aid is still broken, Kate ends up playing translator, giving her insight into what Clint’s giving up, family time at Christmas, to help protect her.
This week ends with Clint and Kate going to Kate’s mother’s apartment to use Bishop Security’s systems to find out more about Echo and her second in command. As we fade to black, Clint is stopped by Jack, brandishing Ronin’s sword.
Score: 8/10
Likes: I was really underwhelmed with episodes 1 and 2. The character beats were there, but in a me problem, I just don’t have much patience for world building in these super short run shows. Thankfully, they really leveled up this week and everything was firing on all cylinders. No Jack or Eleanor Bishop, nearly the entire episode built around the Kate and Clint dynamic and I was all in. Throw in a tease of the big cameo to come and this was easily the best episode of the 3 shown so far. I don’t usually mention direction but the car chase was really well done with what I thought were some nice inventive shots and fun cinematography. Clint’s trick arrows were nice too! Favorite part of the episode was possibly Clint talking to his son on the phone with Kate playing translator. This did great hammering home how important Clint’s family is to him and helped open Kate’s eyes to what Clint may be giving up and her first look at the sacrifices heroes make.
Dislikes: None! Maybe the Christmas spirit has seeped into my soul but just a fun episode start to finish. Hopefully the final 3 can keep up!