Yelena comes for Kate and Clint embraces his past…

Hawkeye suffers from being a comic books series. Well d’uh you might say but I have a very specific idea in mind. Marvel (and DC for that matter) have often gone for the cross-over story where you have to read multiple different comics series in order to follow a single narrative. Indeed as my son found out when reading Thor recently, individual issues in a single series can become incomprehensible if you don’t also splash out and buy the other series in which the story is being told. It is the worst impulses of capitalism ruining the contract between creator and audience – that we can follow their creation on its own terms.

Hawkeye doesn’t quite veer into that territory, but it is the first show where I’ve felt we’re seeing characters from other series arrive, do their little thing and then disappear again simply because they have their own shows that we are then expected to go and watch.

My grumbles aside about being told by a story that I need to watch/read other stories in order for everything to make sense aside this is a very good episode.

We finally get to see Clint unravel a little as he faces what he’s done and admits how it trails behind him like a gore covered ball and chain. It is really satisfying to see the characters discuss the evil he’s done and how doing good things does not undo the wrong he’s done. There is a persistent idea in fiction that one good act can undo many wrong acts and I am of the school which sees the ledger as resting at zero if we do all the things we should have done anyway which means that one bad act will always tip us negative. It’s the point of redemption and forgiveness – only by seeking forgiveness can we restore that ledger and those who come for Clint see it the same way. (There’s a long discussion here about the hero’s journey and why some world views see forgiveness as irrelevant because the hero can essentially absolve themselves by doing a ‘good act’ at the right time. Opposed to this is the idea that it is the community which needs to eject or welcome us back in and we have to lay ourselves vulnerable before them if we want to get absolution. There are problems with both ideas, obviously, but on the whole I think the agency of the protagonist should be in making themselves vulnerable, not in having the power of self-absolution, if only because one acknowledges the communal nature of right relationships.)

It means that when Clint’s accusers refuse to extend that forgiveness (partly because he hasn’t asked for it but mainly because they don’t want to) Clint is faced with a situation in which he can do what’s right but with the full knowledge that he’s doing so because it’s right and not because it will gain him, personally, anything. In simpler terms he’s being asked to put the trolley back at the supermarket when no one’s looking.

What I love about the writing here is that he knows and he agrees with those who see him as anything except a hero. He once again tries to tell people that he isn’t a hero but a weapon and that weapons are, inherently, made for one thing – to harm. As he said earlier, he has been pointed often at ‘the right targets’ but when he’s not? He’s simply continued to be that weapon. It’s a subtle anti-violence message (and particular anti-gun) which, given he’s one of the ‘human’ avengers without super powers makes his awareness of this all the more poignant – you don’t see this kind of reflection from Thor for instance (at least not yet).

Kate’s own journey is in parallel to this – it’s clear she’s idolised Clint since she was a child but learning who he is and what he’s done and the cost to being the person he’s been is laid out clearly in front of her. Clashing with her idealism and, without wanting to sound like an old git, her youthful naivety, she is forced to contend with the consequences of what it means to be a ‘hero’. The transformation of this ideal from some starry eyed dream into something much meatier is really interesting to watch and Hailee Stanfield nails it.

It’s a quieter episode than what’s come before and, in some ways, it feels melancholy in a way they didn’t. Not because it’s mawkish or focused on the negative but because in these quiet moments we some of the unexplored truths about what happens between adventures – the loneliness, the quiet despair at never being able to leave the past in the past and the grinding cost of being known as ‘that person’.

How do you cope with people’s unending positive reactions to you when you do not share those assessments?

The ending gives us a sense of who the big bad is but there are many questions which remain unanswered and I’m not sure they’re going to get those answers in this show.

Verdict: A strong penultimate episode – unexpectedly quiet and thoughtful with strong performances from all concerned.

Rating? 8 good acts out of 10.

Stewart Hotston