Warning: This article contains spoilers for the final episode of Hawkeye.
There were a lot of unresolved plot strands at the end of Hawkeye‘s fifth episode. But now that the final episode – ‘So this is Christmas?’ – has just aired, I’m happy to report that most of them have been tied off with a neat little bow.
The final scene of last week’s episode saw Kate learn her mother Eleanor is working for Kingpin, and Wilson Fisk literally and metaphorically loomed over this entire episode. The opening showed that Eleanor had made the extremely poor decision to try and blackmail Fisk, resulting in him declaring all-out war on the Bishop Security Christmas party.
This brought all the major characters together for a kick-ass extended action sequence that brought havoc to the Rockefeller Plaza. We saw Clint fending off both Yelena and Kazi’s attempts to assassinate him, Kate coming into her own as she fights Yelena and truly embraces superheroism, Jack Duquesne finally getting to show off his sword-fighting skills, the LARPers showing off their skills, a bunch of trick arrows, and one adorable owl.
But the highlight has to be Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin, who was front and center throughout the episode, with a brutal fight against Kate in a toy store proving that the three years he’s spent away from screens haven’t slowed him down one bit. There was a truly awesome moment where Kate fired an arrow into his chest, only for him to completely no-sell it. Even being blown up couldn’t stop him, though a final encounter with Maya sounded fatal for him (he’ll obviously be back, probably in Echo).
Another striking scene was Yelena finally understanding Natasha’s sacrifice on Vormir and forgiving Clint. Her vendetta against him was a little half-baked, though the callback to the sisters’ secret whistle from Black Widow was an excellent way to link the two stories together.
The Bishop family drama ended up on a downbeat note as Kate had her mother arrested for murder. Eleanor bitterly asked her if this is how heroes treat family at Christmas – to which the obvious answer is “Yup.”
The show wrapped up as we always knew it would: with Clint making it back to the Barton farm just in time for Christmas Day. Kate and Lucky were along for the ride, with the show wrapping with a super-subtle confirmation that his wife Laura was indeed Mockingbird.
But Marvel Studios had one last Christmas surprise for us in the form of an unedited release of ‘Save the City’ from Rogers: The Musical – which was as toe-tappin’ as it was five weeks ago when the show began.
I’m glad Hawkeye stuck the landing. So, when are we getting a second season?