The following article contains spoilers for Hawkeye.
Hawkeye had a difficult mission on Disney Plus, solving Clint Barton’s years-long branding problem and introducing Marvel audiences to his new successor Kate Bishop, and although the series may have completed both objectives, in the end, it manages to do so without the perfect marksmanship of its two protagonists.
That is not to say Hawkeye’s finale is in any way, shape, or form disappointing, yet somehow Barton’s final shot is a one-hour episode that still feels like it could benefit greatly from a few extra minutes to fully play out the final moments of show’s many ongoing plots. Thus, despite providing closure for each and every one of its characters' arcs and staying consistently entertaining throughout the way, it will leave many wanting for more, though maybe that’s exactly what it aims to do.
The opening scene is what everyone’s been waiting for since before Hawkeye premiered: Vincent D’Onofrio’s grand return to his Kingpin glory, and the man clearly has not lost one step from his Daredevil days. D’Onofrio is every bit of that powerful presence he was on Netflix from his very first scene and the show does a great job at having him slot in right at home as Eleanor Bishop’s business partner.
All that comes with one small caveat, in spite of being the big boss pulling the strings, Wilson Fisk now has to share precious screen time with the show’s real stars, all while also setting up the upcoming spinoff Echo, starring his niece Maya Lopez. Even then, his impending threat does pave the way for Clint to officially embrace Kate as his mission partner and watching the two prepare a fresh batch of Hawkeye trick arrows is perfect to cement them as such.
The real life of the party in the “So This Is Christmas?” finale happens to be at Eleanor’s fancy Christmas event with both Clint and Kate looking great in black, as well as the Larpers getting their due with supporting roles in the mission. Once the action gets going it’s pretty much nonstop until the very end, and suffice to say most of the sequences are very well put together with some noticeable standouts.
Florence Pugh continues to be brilliant as Yelena Belova so, naturally, once she crashes the fun gets cranked up thanks to viewers are treated to yet another sequence of exquisitely funny dialogue between her and Hailee Steinfeld. It’s been rare for Kate to shake off her youthful and playful vibes, and Yelena only boosts that as the two go chasing after Clint while leaving behind an awesome corridor chase/fight scene regardless of them not actually wanting to kill each other.
Action is so widespread in this episode, that even Kazi gets his hands dirty once for all as he and the tracksuits try to hunt down Clint to no avail. In doing so, Hawkeye sticks to the blueprint laid out by previous Disney Plus shows (with the exception of Loki) of having their last episode be a massive blowout for its heroes, nonetheless, it’s the number of parties involved that give this one its unique personality.
Once Kate manages to get Clint out of his comical Christmas tree situation, the two finally enter the Rockefeller Center battlefield as a duo to take out as many Tracksuits as they can with their vast array of arrows again giving the series’ battles some their own defining character. Even the Larpers and Jack Duquesne get to join the fun, helping get rid of some Russian mobsters with the latter again showing all of his sword prowess, even if the MCU doesn’t have room for a Swordsman character at the moment.
Nevertheless, everyone has their own matters to attend to, for Kate it’s saving her mother from the Kingpin and for Clint it’s simply trying not to get killed by Yelena. The latter encounter features some pretty brutal fighting from a vindictive Yelena, though in the end, the pair make amends thanks to Clint’s whistling some Black Widow easter eggs to her to reason.
Over on Kate’s end, her Kingpin fight will remind many of the raw and bloody encounters Charlie Cox and D’Onofrio had in Daredevil, though dialed back a fair amount to fit the MCU’s family-friendly rating. Though it’s spectacular to see D’Onofrio back brawling, it’s also rather strange for Kate to defeat him on her first try, but never as shocking as what Maya Lopez does to her uncle.
Because yes, Maya is out there with the same thirst for vengeance, all of which lead to her killing Kazi and -presumably- Kingpin too, but it's here where Hawkeye perhaps falls short of its purpose. In the light of D’Onofrio’s reveal, it makes little sense for him to get killed off instantly and, while that most definitely may not be the case, this particular scene will strike many as meaningless as it could have very well been Echo’s trailer or maybe Hawkeye's post-credits scene.
It’s this same thing that makes so many other moments feel rushed, such as Clint finally getting home to his family for Christmas Day, Laura Barton getting her Rolex back, Kate now being detached from her mother as an almost Young Avenger, or Yelena's swift way of leaving the scene. Many will be relieved that Hawkeye is getting his happy ending, but there's very little time to savor it.
Since the episode was dubbed a season finale rather than a series one, it’s all but confirmed Hawkeye will come back for a second season that, hopefully, will be just as entertaining as this one. Overall, Clint, Kate, and Maya wave off answering most questions but even then, it’s quite hard to think they all couldn’t have benefitted from 10-20 more minutes to do more in this episode. And about that post-credits scenes, well it's no Daredevil, but enjoy the show.