Hawkeye Season 1 Episode 5 Recap & Analysis: ‘Ronin’

This week’s episode is not only a big moment for the entirety of the Hawkeye show but an important update for much of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Like all the good episodes, this week we see a decent blend of action, much-needed conversations, and revelations that leave us excited for next week’s finale. Needless to say, this Hawkeye Season 1 Episode 5 recap includes spoilers for both the show and related films.

The recap comes in after the flashback and primarily goes over where we left off with our main characters. After coming face to face with Yelena and Maya in the rooftop fight, Clint breaks off his partnership with Kate. Eleanor is suspicious, Jack is suspicious, and Maya is still out for revenge against the Ronin. Feel free to browse through our previous episode recaps where we discuss Kate Bishop’s introduction in Episode 1, her one-sided partnership with Clint Barton in Episode 2, the big fight and car chase featuring Maya and the Tracksuit Mafia in Episode 3, and the deeper dive into Hawkeye’s traumas in Episode 4.

A Blip of a Flashback

It’s 2018. Yelena and another former Black Widow operative are breaking into a lavish mansion in a remote snowy landscape. Inside they find their target Ana and a fight breaks out. Having pinned down Ana, Yelena sprays her with an antidote to dispel the mind control used on all current Black Widow agents scattered across the world. After the events of the Black Widow film, Yelena’s mission is to free each girl still trapped within their own mind.

Turns out Ana isn’t brainwashed and the house is actually hers. The three former murder machines sit down for some tea and catch up. Yelena heads to the bathroom when the unthinkable happens. As we see from her perspective, Yelena is snapped out of existence and immediately brought back. Shaking and moving through a house that suddenly changed appearance, Yelena sees Ana but with a family. Five years have passed since Thanos used the Infinity Gauntlet to wipe out half of all living life in the world in Avengers: Infinity War. Only a short bit of time has passed since Natasha Romanov, her sister, died while bringing everyone back in Avengers: Endgame.

Patching Up Fresh Wounds

Kate returns home beaten and bruised. Her mom, Eleanor, is quick to console her and help patch up her wounds. The two talk earnestly with each other as Kate’s fears and disappointments are sincerely laid out. Although supportive, Eleanor reassures her that a future outside her superhero vision is still a worthwhile path. Before wrapping up the convo, Kate confesses she has been looking into Jack and has her mom promise to use her security system company to look into it herself.

A similar scene plays out with Maya and Kazi. As Kazi cleans and bandages Maya’s fresh cuts, he once again explains the necessity of letting go of her obsession of finding Clint. She reluctantly agrees to find a way to kill Clint and move on as soon as that’s done.

Don’t forget about Clint. Still reeling from running into a Black Widow agent, Clint heads to the home of Grills, the Larper who had the Ronin suit back in Episode 2. He crashes on his couch and slumps into a tired state while getting cozy with pizza dog.

Tension over Macaroni

After her heart-to-heart with her mom, Kate returns to her now burned and crisp apartment from the first episode. Little does she know, Yelena is there waiting for her. She waited long enough to cook up a bowl of boxed macaroni! No fight ensues. Instead, a rather humorous Yelena jokes around with the clearly distraught Kate before slowly getting into the real reason she’s there.

She’s obviously not there to kill her. That would have happened the moment she walked through the door, something Yelena is very adamant to point out. No, Yelena is here to discuss Clint, specifically his current whereabouts. She’s in town to kill him to avenge her sister’s death.

Yelena doesn’t understand what Kate sees in him and reminds her of Clint’s past. Kate explains he is not perfect but that he is a good person. Yelena remains unphased. Kate also learns Yelena is doing this on assignment and questions what kind of person would make a call like this. Before Yelena leaves, she gives Kate a light threat not to get in her way again.

The next day, Kate arrives at her mom’s place to see Jack getting arrested. He seems quite fearless and pronounces his innocence as Eleanor looks on. With Kate still discouraged by all the recent events, she recommits herself to helping Clint and starts calling him on his cell. Nobody answers but that doesn’t stop her from leaving dozens of messages!

Hawkeye and the Ronin

After a touching speech to a memorial plaque honoring Natasha and the rest of the Avengers for their part in the Battle of New York, Clint calls Laura and lets her know he is ending things that night. With her approval, he gets the Ronin suit he hid in the gym locker room.

He sets up a meeting with Maya but asks her to come alone. Of course, she comes with her Tracksuit Mafia backup with goons hiding behind cars and Kazi up on a billboard as a sniper. Doesn’t quite work as Clint shows up as the Ronin and easily takes out Kazi and the rest of the squad. With only Maya left, the two fight until Maya is thrown to the ground. Clint makes it abundantly clear he can destroy them all and that he will if she tries to come after his family. He also mentions that his killing of her father was an order from her current boss. 

Maya gets the upper hand and throws Clint to the ground. With the Ronin sword in hand, Maya goes for the strike but is stopped when Kate shoots the sword out of her hand. Clint and Kate escape. Maya is reunited with Kazi and she quickly questions his whereabouts on the night of her father’s murder. Kazi doesn’t have much of a response and the two end their conversation abruptly. 

Before the episode wraps up, we see Yelena tracking and following Eleanor. During breakfast with Clint, Grills, and pizza dog, Kate gets two back-to-back revelations from Yelena through text. First, Eleanor is the one who hired Yelena to go after Clint. Now we know who that phone call from the previous episode was to!

The second revelation is that the person Eleanor is working with, and the person Clint was saying Maya reports to, is none other than Kingpin. And played by Vincent D’Onofrio, the same actor that played Kingpin in the Daredevil series on Netflix. Lots of possibilities stem from this character’s inclusion and you’ll likely see other characters from the Netflix run of Marvel shows start popping up across current Marvel shows and movies. Exciting times!

Just one more episode left to wrap up the season! The Disney+ exclusive show will keep releasing each of its six episodes on a weekly basis. Catch each episode of Hawkeye, along with our detailed recap, every Wednesday.

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