Hawkeye Season 1 Finale Episode 6 fails to deliver for a series that promised a great climax. Nothing is left to expect except what we already know. Episode 6 is just a regular mix of the last 5 episodes. There is nothing new in it, and both Clint and Kate are unable to uplift their partnership. It was a saddening close to what could have been an effective one.
There are not many points of discussion about the 6th episode of Hawkeye Season 1. It’s really weird that the final episode of an MCU show can be this much dull. Despite having so much to go for on its plate, the episode only shows what we already expected. Moreover, had it been able to portray it better, it would have been nice. But that too, it didn’t. There was nothing to look forward to, and there still isn’t.
Kate Finds Out
Yelena Belova provides a phone video to Kate Bishop in Hawkeye Episode 5. This video shows the Kingpin talking to Kate’s mom Eleanor. And the words exchanged prove that she was responsible for Armand Duquesne. But when Kate confronts her mom about this, she doesn’t really reveal anything as much. All that she tells Kate is that she did everything for her. This was a huge miss. Some history should have been shown between Kingpin and Bishop Security just to establish a connection. In the MCU, where there is a connection between almost every other thing, Hawkeye doesn’t do the requisite justice.
The Superhero Moment for Hawkeye
The syncing moment comes during the “good talk” between Kate and Clint. After watching what all Kate went through, Clint tells her that she doesn’t need to do it. At this point, she reminds Clint of the very reason why she decided to be this way. For her, Clint was proof that being a hero is not about flying or shooting lasers but being brave enough to do what is right no matter the cost. These words seem to echo those of Captain Steve Rogers from The Avengers (2012). When he asks Tony what he thinks he is without the suit, Tony replies, “Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.” To this, Rogers counters, “I know guys with none of that worth ten of you.” Indeed, the bravery to do what is right no matter the cost is the superpower that the world truly needs.
A Not So Merry Christmas
What follows is the much-awaited Christmas party. A lot of ruckus takes place here. Kate shows Eleanor the video of her with Kingpin and holds her responsible for Armand’s death. Kazi tries to kill Clint Barton. Kate meets Yelena, who is there to kill Clint too. Clint and Kate show off their partnership skills for the first time at the ice-skating rink, a homage to the original duo and their costumes from the comics. There’s a lot of running and fighting that occurs, but it’s what follows that is important.
The Revelation
Yelena finally catches up with Clint and brings down all the rage upon him. Despite Clint telling her many times that her sister Natasha sacrificed herself, she cannot believe it. But at the end, all it takes is the familiar whistle (we heard it in Black Widow) from Clint for Yelena to pause. Clint takes multiple hits but doesn’t hit back. He knows how mistaken and grieved she is. And when Yelena hears the tune, she realizes that Clint was really close to Natasha.
The Hero and the Villain
All that remained after the Christmas ruckus was a confrontation between the protagonist and the antagonist. Naturally, what followed would be a face-off between Kate, and not Clint, and Kingpin. Kingpin has the upper hand. And at the end of the fight, he escapes. There should have been more to the confrontation than just a fight. Words exchanged between them about their past would have been more effective. This would have made sense provided that Kingpin was perhaps the one missing link that would take forward the series, if at all.
On the other hand, Maya confronts Kazi. She possibly has realized that Kazi was in part responsible for her father’s death but wanted to face him and find out why he did what he did. The confrontation ends with Maya killing Kazi. What happens to her after this, we don’t know.
The Confront Quotient
There are two here. One is when Kate hands over her mother Eleanor to the police. The other is when Clint tells Yelena about Natasha. Significantly, both Clint and Kate accept their realities and thus, in doing so, become more than they are. All this while, Clint had put a lid on pain of losing Nat. Nobody would have understood what he lost except Yelena. Now that he told her about Nat, the weight his heart was carrying is less, although the pain remains the same.
And then there is Kate. The fact that her mother was responsible for Armand’s death is surely a lot painful for her. But confronting her mother with that and doing what’s right no matter the cost, i.e., arresting her mother on Christmas Eve, takes equal courage and pain.
So in a way, both Clint and Kate share this confront quotient with the truth.
‘Hawkeye’ Season 1 Ending, Explained – Is End The Beginning?
We have already known that Hawkeye Season 1 is the juncture where Clint passes on the baton to Kate Bishop. We did not see it, though. Not one bit. And that is where the question lies. Is this the ending? If yes, then how? If not, then what’s next?
This is thus the ultimate flaw of Hawkeye Season 1. As an audience, we always expect something whenever an MCU movie or series comes to an end. All we got here was a musical. And even the director doubts himself upon it. Be that as it may, we will have to wait to see Kate return in the hopefully not too distant future. As for Hawkeye, he returns to where he should be…home.
Hawkeye is a 2021 Action Drama series based on the Marvel Comic Books Characters. It is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
