Hawkeye Episode 5, “Ronin,” shows you the blip from the point of view of the person getting blipped, and I think it’s one of the first times I’ve ever seen the MCU do that.

Quick bit of business first. We were supposed to talk about this show last week. The last review I did was for Episode 3, and I wasn’t able to get to Episode 4 because I had a couple of things I had to take care of. I’m doing my absolute best to get on a somewhat regular schedule, because I really want to grow this thing with you guys, and the Know-It-All Nation deserves my utmost attention and definitely my respect.

So, Season 1, Episode 5.

Five Years in a Bathroom

The episode doesn’t open on the recap. That comes afterwards. It opens on a flashback to 2018, right after the events of Black Widow the movie. Yelena is helping find the other Black Widows. They’ve all been brainwashed, and she’s got the little spray now. Spoilers, though I hope you weren’t really expecting not to find out about that.

The particular Widow they’ve gone after is named Ana, and lo and behold, Ana isn’t brainwashed in any way, shape or form. So I guess there’s still a couple out there who got loose, whether they were hit in the head or whatever it was. Yelena and her accomplice end up fighting her anyway, and after a little bit they spray her in the face, only to find out she really wasn’t brainwashed. So they sit down, and Yelena’s like, look, I’ve gotta go to the bathroom, I’m sorry.

She gets up, goes to the bathroom, goes to wash her face, and the water starts to look like dust to her. The blip, the snap, the dusting, whatever you want to call it. WandaVision gave us a brief look at what it was like coming back, not through the character’s eyes exactly, but through someone looking at the spot where they disappeared. This showed us the other side. To Yelena, the rest of the world evaporated and dusted, and you get to see the room do this cool little whirlwind thing. I was blown away by it. I thought it was a very, very neat way to do this particular effect.

She comes out of the bathroom and it’s five years later. Ana has a family. She’s married, she adopted a daughter, and she basically has to tell her, hey, listen, you’ve been gone for five years. Boom, cut, opening titles.

Girls’ Night With a Black Widow

After the recap, Kate Bishop comes home to her mom with some bruises on her. Eleanor comes around the corner, sees her, and she’s like, oh my God, this is Clint Barton. Kate tells her no, listen, he had nothing to do with this, he actually saved me and demanded that I leave. Then Kate tells her about Jack, and the hope is that Eleanor will go look up and research Jack and this whole Sloan Limited thing.

Next scene is Echo. In the last episode there was a major fight on the roof. It was Maya, it was Kate, it was Clint, and it ended up being Yelena too, and that’s when Clint kicked Kate out. So Maya’s getting sewn up, and her boyfriend’s like, hey, this thing’s gotta stop, we’ve gotta learn to make it through this, otherwise we’re just not gonna survive.

Eleanor sends Kate to her old place to pick up some stuff so she can come back and stay with her mom for a little while, and while she’s there she runs into Yelena. Full-on Yelena. She’s great. She’s very funny. I actually love her accent, I’m sorry, her accent’s amazing. Yelena is one of those characters where I’m like, I want more of her all day long. Florence Pugh plays her, and she basically comes over to hang out for a minute. She cooks some macaroni and cheese. Totally disarming.

It’s funny, I’m watching this scene and I’m filtering it through what we know of Natasha Romanoff. Natasha wasn’t just a killer, she was also a spy, and I guess all the Black Widows are more or less taught that skill set. So you’re watching Yelena do her thing. She’s got the little bangs down, she has her outfit, she actually looks like a normal person. She doesn’t look like she could kill anybody. She’s super jokey, and the whole time she’s talking with Kate she’s essentially getting information out of her.

At some point she says to her, listen, you don’t know this guy, and you need to understand he’s not a hero. Kate tries to defend Clint Barton’s honor, I guess, and at the impasse they come to, Yelena’s like, hey, thanks, sincerely, for the girls’ night. And then she leaves. Kate is stuck wondering what just happened.

Go Handle It

Kate goes home, she’s thinking through some things, and she comes to the decision that she needs to call Clint. He’s not answering his phone.

We do finally get Clint’s perspective. He ends up going to Grills. Grills is the fireman, the guy from the LARP who had the Ronin outfit, and Clint basically asks to stay just for a little bit. We get a hint that the costumes Kate asked for in the last episode have been done and delivered, but we don’t get to see them yet. So they’re sitting there with Pizza Dog, having some pizza, and Clint’s coming to some very hard decisions. He’s going to have to make some phone calls.

Kate finally comes home, and Jack is being arrested by the FBI. It turns out her mom took her seriously and looked him up. I have a theory. My theory is that Eleanor is dirty still, and I think we’re going to find out that Eleanor set up Sloan Limited and is keeping dude as a scapegoat. Even though he’s supposed to be the Swordsman. I don’t know. Whatever. The whole time they’re walking him out he’s carrying on about how it’s all going to be fine. Super pretentious guy.

Then the Tracksuit Mafia. The guys are driving around, they get to one place, and an arrow gets shot at the one dude who’s a little scared. I told my wife this was hilarious. The arrow goes right through the windshield, and it’s an arrow with a little bulby part, and the bulby part has a little door on it with a message inside. And when the little door flaps open, it squeaks. You’re trying to tell me Clint Barton has trick arrows and the door squeaks? Bro, WD-40 that nonsense.

The note says this is for Maya, and to meet him at the place where she first met Ronin.

Before that, he makes a phone call. He calls home. When I tell you that I love this relationship between him and his wife, I love this relationship between him and his wife. Every time I see it I look at my wife and I’m like, you see? He’s telling her, man, it’s getting worse, I don’t know what we’re gonna do. And she’s like, well then go handle it. He goes all quiet, and she’s like, oh, is that not the answer you thought it was gonna be? Well, I trust you.

I am convinced, by the way, that his wife is a former agent. Somebody on the internet might have said that somewhere, I don’t know. All I know is I’m convinced, because she’s way too understanding. Legitimately understanding about his life and all the craziness. And she tells him to go put an end to this.

Then we jump to Clint in front of the Avengers memorial for the Battle of New York, and he’s talking to Natasha. I miss you, I’m so sorry, I’m trying to do the thing I know I’ve got to do. It’s a really heartfelt moment and he’s deep into it.

Your Boss Wanted Your Father Dead

Maya meets him there. She’s got dude up on the roof, and the other Tracksuit Mafia jerks are in the parking lot, and I’m like, he said come alone, and you think he’s not going to be able to handle that? He disarms everybody.

And when they meet, he’s in the Ronin outfit. It’s dope. I’m sitting there like, hold on a second, does the outfit make the man? Because legitimately, they start fighting and he’s a whole different guy. He’s the guy we saw in Avengers: Endgame. He’s whipping the sword around, they’re going hand to hand, and I’m loving everything about it.

Finally he’s got her. He flips her, does this really cool move, boom, she’s on the ground in front of a car. He takes off his hood, takes off the mask, and he wants her to see his face. They’re silent. They’re signing at this point, and the show does these really cool tight close-ups on her eyes while she’s reading him and assessing things. He’s telling her, you come after my family, I’m going to make you regret it. Essentially this whole thing was to let her know: you are outclassed, all day.

She tells him he’s a monster. He tells her they’re alike. She says they’re nothing alike. And he says, we are weapons. Period.

Then he goes a step further, and this is for all you fanboys out there who were giving the show a hard time because you thought they weren’t going to do the thing. Everyone was like, oh, but that doesn’t make sense, Clint didn’t kill her father, blah blah blah, Kingpin, Kingpin, Kingpin. Hey. He looks at her and says, “I was following an informant’s tip. Your boss wanted your father dead.”

Bro, the minute that happened, my head canon was totally satisfied. I was like, oh my gosh, I cannot believe it. All right, cool. Kingpin. I get it. He’s going to end up being the guy. And I have a feeling that’s exactly where her show is going to end up going.

She trips him, gets his sword, and right before she’s about to kill him an arrow knocks the sword out of her hand. It’s Kate on the roof, coming in to the rescue. They go to leave and Clint’s like, so does this rescue have an escape plan? And there’s an Uber she’s got waiting. He’s like, yo, you named Tabitha? And dude’s like, I can’t believe this is happening.

Who Hired Yelena

They go back to Grills’ place, and while they’re talking Kate receives a message. It’s from Yelena.

Yelena took her up on her advice. Kate had said to her, if you think he’s a bad guy, you need to really look into who hired you. And Yelena’s not stupid. She’s got a mind of her own. She’s ultimately not a bad person, she was just trained to do bad things. So she’s like, hey, I looked up who hired me, and she sends a picture.

It’s her mom. Eleanor Bishop, with somebody else. That’s right, it’s the Kingpin. I was like, oh, there it is. There it is. So we officially have Vincent D’Onofrio, or at least a very, very rough-looking shady picture, but it’s him all day.

The Verdict

Hawkeye Episode 5 is an 8 out of 10. I’ve started giving these a rating, so yeah, I think it’s an 8 out of 10. It was firing on all cylinders. I like every character in it and I like what they’re doing. I also like the close connection we got to the MCU, seeing Yelena and the whole thing.

I’ve heard a lot of reviewers, a lot of them people I respect a bunch, who don’t like the show. I think you just don’t like the flavor of storytelling compared to other storytelling you see in the MCU. This show has a lot of variety and a lot of things to offer. I love it. I know two other people who aren’t fans of comic book movies or comic book stuff, who I made watch it because I wanted their opinion, and they like it.

I’m excited to see what happens in the final episode. Next week is Episode 6, the last one for this season. Fingers crossed they come up with a Season 2 or something. I don’t know. I like it. Then again, I don’t mind the Marvel shows being limited series.

So now you know, and if knowing’s half the battle, well then you’re halfway to becoming the know-it-all that I know you can be.

Tell me what you thought of the episode, and if you think I’m wrong, tell me I’m wrong. I’m down. That’s what this is all about: us having a conversation, and me ultimately helping you learn a little something. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.