What I’m Watching: Hawkeye

Hawkeye: Season 1, Episode 5 “Ronin” (B+)

I can imagine the anticipation that built for people who saw “Black Widow” months ago and were waiting for this moment after they saw the post-credits scene that showed that Yelena would be coming after Clint, and I had to wait less than twenty-four hours between the two. Florence Pugh certainly is fantastic, and it was fun to see her completely own those scenes with Hailee Steinfeld where she was offering her mac and cheese and laughing when Kate said that she was glad she didn’t kill her. The unfortunate part is that there’s just one episode left, and it’s hard to know if the show is going to continue for a second season or not given the tendency of these Disney+ MCU shows to be just one-shot efforts feeding into the overall universe. The biggest news on that front is indeed monumental, since the introduction of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin means that the Netflix Marvel shows are now officially tied in to these, following his role on “Daredevil.” The more crucial element of that for this show is that Eleanor is the one who hired Yelena, something that was previewed when she made a suspicious phone call in the last episode and now indicates that maybe Jack was set up, but not by the person Kate thought. I’m sure the last episode of this season will be action-packed, and I hope that things will continue past this since it’s been a lot of fun and featured some great characters, particularly Kate.