Picking up where Episode 2 left off, Episode 3 sees Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) captured by Maya Lopez/Echo (Alaqua Cox) and the Tracksuit Mafia over Bishop being seen with the costume of Ronin (Hawkeye’s secret alter ego he took up for the five years his family disappeared due to Thanos’ snap).
We get Lopez’s backstory, her father, William (Zahn McClarnon), was killed by Ronin. We also see a little bit of her “uncle”, who is the big boss of the Tracksuits — supposedly Kingpen, hopefully portrayed by Vincent D’Onofrio.
Unsurprisingly, Hawkeye and Bishop make a thrilling escape from Lopez and the gang, involving trick arrows that were teased earlier in the show. And it’s fun and mostly works, but I do have doubts that the show will develop Lopez into a memorable villain, especially given how brief this season of television is — in fact, it’s already half over.
Overall, I haven’t been a fan of these six-episode seasons on Disney Plus. Their live-action Phase 4 shows have all had some great stuff, they just feel like they weren’t given enough time to fully develop, outside of the likes of “WandaVision” and “Loki.”
I liked Episode 3 and its action, though I admit it is mostly filler. I do think it was way too late to introduce our main villain at this point, and I hope the show is able to let her shine and grow in episodes 4, 5 and 6 in ways the other Marvel Phase 4 shows haven’t been able to.
“Hawkeye” Season 1: Episode 3 “Echoes” gets a 7/10