Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Hawkeye’s fifth episode.
Every week since Hawkeye first debuted on Disney Plus with a bumper two-episode premiere, Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin have been two of Twitter’s hottest topics even though neither character had actually appeared on screen.
If you have yet to catch up on episodes four and five of Hawkeye, this is the time to close out of the article and return after watching, as spoilers lie directly ahead.
Of course, you’ll be more than aware by now that both of the beloved fan favorites showed face in today’s installment, even if Wilson Fisk was only seen via a grainy cellphone image that sets things up nicely for a grandstanding finale that’s got plenty of moving parts when you consider that Kate Bishop, Clint Barton, Maya Lopez, Kazi, Yelena, the mystery watch, and now Kingpin are all dangling, unresolved threads that need to be tied up.
There was a lot to take in this week, but for many fans, the highlight of Hawkeye was something as simple as two people sitting at a table and having a conversation. As you can see from the reactions below, Yelena and Kate are the Marvel Cinematic Universe double act we never knew we needed.
Pugh was an absolute delight as Yelena, perfectly outlining why she’s one of the MCU’s hottest new stars. Steinfeld was reliably excellent, too, and we had the pleasure of witnessing a tense, dramatic, and often hilarious exchange between two Hawkeye alumni who both have massive futures as part of the sprawling superhero franchise.