This episode which is titled "Echoes" introduces us to Echo. Echo is Maya Lopez who is played by Alaqua Cox, who is also deaf in real life. Plus, Alaqua Cox has lost her leg and she show decided to incorporate that into her character which is totally awesome. I am not sure that she is a formidable enemy, the character of Lopez is a fun and cool character for sure. Lopez and her crime organization take the front stage in this episode which brings a lot of fun action.
The episode opens with a young Lopez in school. She's in class and she is paying close attention to everyone as she can't hear anything. She has no hearing aid nor does she go to a special school. She does manage to follow the class even though it is very hard for her. For example, as soon as the teacher turns her back she can't read her lips. But by being especially observant she manages to keep up. The teacher wants her to pay closer attention, but then when she sees the work that Lopez is doing in class, she is impressed. But it seems like school life is very difficult for Lopez herself.
Her home life is not difficult. She is alone with her father and he speaks to her in sign language. They seem to have a wonderfully close relationship. Still, she wants to go to a deaf school, but we learn that her father can't afford such a school. In the meantime he tells her that this is better for her. She is going to have to adapt to living in the deaf world and the hearing world. In the meantime she goes to karate school for some extracurricular activity. Her father tells her that it is all about speed and not size, which is correct. He also tells her that her uncle will pick her up from class and he will see her later that night. I guess it is time to guess who Mr. Uncle is. We see a shadow of a giant man and a laughing sound that sounds awfully like Vincent D'Onofrio's voice, which makes us think that uncle is actually Wilson Fisk a.k.a. Kingpin. Lopez wins her match as a child by learning how her opponent moved when he was fighting someone else. She is extra observant and I guess that will help her in life.
Then we switch to an older version of Lopez which looks like herself in current times. Meaning, she is now played by Alaqua Cox. She has no problem taking out her opponent as a grown woman as well, again, by being observant and fast. When she heads to where her father is she sees suspicious movement inside. It is Ronin taking out everyone with his sword. If her uncle is Fisk than her dad is a criminal for sure. She enters the place and sees everyone dead. Unfortunately, she sees Ronin stabbing her father to death. He dies in her arms in a heartbreaking scene. No wonder she hates Ronin so bad. This is all the back story we need, especially the emotional side of it.
Now we are back in the present. Clint is held captive by the Tracksuit Mafia. He is tied to a pony machine, Kate Bishop alongside him is tired to a similar machine. But the little machine toys stop moving when the money runs out. Bishop didn't know that Barton was simply trying to clear her name and now she ruin that. Bishop notices that one of the dudes is having an argument on the phone and she asks him what is up with that. He ends up telling her his relationship problems and she actually gives him a solid advice. But then the fun times are over.
Lopez shows up. The first thing she notices is that Barton has a hearing aid. She unties him so they can use sign language. His sign language abilities are not as good as hers. He does let her know that he is not deaf, just has difficulty hearing. Lopez has someone to translate for her, so he is tied back again. Lopez thinks that he will do better off without the hearing aid and Barton says that sometimes he thinks the same thing. Bishop does not agree. Although calling a hearing aid a relaying on technology sounds strange to me. It is help. Barton is there to explain that Bishop is not Ronin and Lopez thinks that she has something to do with him. Here she is wrong. She thinks that Ronin is back and Barton says that Ronin is dead. He says that Black Widow killed him. Which is sort of true. Black Widow saved Barton from the terrible place that he was in emotionally, by doing so, she metaphorically killed Ronin. Lopez just thinks that it is convenient that the person who killed Ronin is also dead. He says that he witness that death of Ronin, which is sort of true. But Lopez and her translator think that he is lying. They are not wrong, but are not right either.
Lopez remembers the death of her father and chocks Bishop. Lopez's translator and second in command stops her. While they are arguing, Barton manages to rip the duct tape that is tying him. He gives Bishop a fast pep talk to get her to calm down before he makes his move. He runs away and everyone immediately forget about Bishop and run after him. The place that they are in is ridicules. It's like an abandoned gym/toy store/game store, but it makes for a really nice background. I mean Barton throws stuffed teddy bears at mobsters. It is hilarious and creative. He is pretty nimble for an older dude, he runs across shelves right as they fall which is pretty impressive. But then playtime is over.
Lopez shows up to fight with him. Her prosthetic leg is actually a pretty affective weapon. Whoever came up with that idea is brilliant. When she lands a kick on Barton's head he loses his hearing aid. Not good. Then she steps on it to break it. She does not like technological hearing aids. Still, he recovers and jumps into her office to retrieve his bow and arrows. Now it is really on. Kazi, the translator, stops Bishop from trying to untie herself. We see Lopez and Barton's silhouettes fighting through a not see-through window and it looks very creative. Until it becomes painful when Lopez lands another serious kick. But then Barton shoots two arrows at her that get her stuck onto a wall. Then with another arrow he hits Kazi's ear and frees Bishop. He is good. And doesn't kill anyone which is impressive.
Now it is both Bishop and Barton on the move. Bishop manages to take out Kazi and Barton hides inside a pool of small balls. That looks like a lot of fun. He then comes out with arrows flying and hitting all the right, not lethal, targets. It is a really funny and well-choreographed fight. They get away and steal a regular looking car. Bishop tries to explain to Barton that she doesn't know how to drive, but he can't hear her. They are like a personification of miscommunication.
Obviously getting away is not going to be as easy as stealing a car. The bros are after them with trucks. The music choice is super fun and funny for this chase scene. Bishop wants to shoot their pursuers, but Barton explains that they are all out of regular arrows. It is time to pull out some trick arrows. Not like he has a choice, but he ends up driving. Bishop shoots an arrow at a truck and purple bubble comes out. It covers the truck's windshield and that stuff is not coming off. Barton talks to Bishop, but he can't hear all of her snide comments and complaints. Yet somehow, they still manage to be a good team.
The fight is still not over. Bishop uses an explosive arrow on one truck. I'm pretty sure everyone inside of that one are dead. But there are four arrows more dangerous than that one, so let's see. Lopez is not happy about all of this and she is on the chase. It is a really funny scene when they drive through a lot which sells charismas trees. The holyday spirit. Bishop fires an arrow which pulls all of the tree on the windshield of a truck making everyone inside blind again. After they got rid of the purple stuff. Barton even runs over a Santa inflated balloon to and apologizes to it. That holiday spirit. But they are still being chased.
Lopez is pissed, but she has a really nice car. She manages to catch up to Barton. So, while Barton is driving, he wrestles with the man in the passenger seat of Lopez's car. Wrestles with his gun. Bishop sees her bow in the backseat of Lopez's car and takes it back. Why is it even there, I have no idea. She takes an arrow and fires it into the dashboard of Lopez's car which begins to fill with purple smoke. So much purple. The color branding. Lopez drives the car into the safety bumpers of the bridge and Barton feels bad for the car. Barton uses his car to block the bridge and steps out of the car. Barton gives Bishop an arrow with instructions and he can't hear her remarks back. He just assumes that she is down with the plan, but she has no idea what the plan is. Since the arrow that Barton has is glowing bright blue and has Pym written on it I assume something super cool is about to happen. Which it does. He fires his arrow on Bishop's arrow, which grows so big that it lands on the truck like a tree trunk, smashing it. But everyone inside of it survives. That was super cool, I love trick arrows.
But the fight isn't over. Barton hands Bishop a USB arrow and tells her to cover him, while he runs towards one of the destroyed trucks of the Tracksuit Mafia. He takes the useless arrow from Lopez's windshield which is just stuck there, while avoiding shoots fired at him. Bishop threatens everyone with her arrow. She fires at one person, hits him, and nothing happens other than a useless hit. He curses her in Russian, which isn't odd even though he speaks in Polish during the rest of the episode because a lot of people from east Europe actually use Russian curse words. Baron calls Bishop to run after him and they jump off the bridge. He uses the useless arrow, which is a plunger arrow, to get them not to fall off a driving subway train. Bishop keeps talking even though Barton can't hear her. Still, it was a good escape plan and they get away.
Somehow they manage to get inside the train. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Bishop remembers that she needs to take the dog out on a walk, nice timing. Barton can't hear her, so he just tells her out of nowhere that she was not wrong calling herself one of the world's greatest archers. He is speaking in an elevated voice because he doesn't have his hear aid on and people that can't hear usually talk louder. Bishop is super flattered as despite her confidence, she wasn't sure how she would actually do in action. Then he remembers that they should walk her dog. Great minds think alike. It was a really great, long and fun action sequence.
Then we are back at the apartment that they have been cooped up in. we suddenly hear everything from Barton's perspective, all of the voices around him are muffled. He doesn't even hear Bishop getting back into the apartment, but he feels his phone vibrating. His son is calling him, but from his wife's phone so he thinks he is talking to his wife. He tells the person on the phone to text him. Bishop tries to correct him, but he can't hear her. When she realizes that she writes down on paper that she hears the voice of a little boy. He can't hear his son's replay to what he says so Bishop writes down a short version of what his son is saying. It's a heartbreaking conversation and Bishop is right in the middle. Nathanial knows that his father in an Avengers and he is okay with him not being home for charismas. Still, Barton promises that he will be back for charismas, but we know he can't promise that. He says he is happy to hear his son's voice, but he can't actually hear it, so it is actually really sad. He thanks Bishop for helping him understand his son's phone call. It was actually a sad and touching moment. Life with hearing impairment isn't easy.
Then it's back to the action. We see the tracksuit Mafia putting things into trucks. They are clearing up the place now that Hawkeye knows where it is. Kazi want to talk to Lopez, since he is the only one that knows sign language, he is the only one that can talk to her. Plus, they can talk next to everyone and no one will understand them. He tells her that the uncle wants them to keep a low profile, not go after Ronin. He will not be happy about this. But she says that she is in charge so they will go after Ronin and she tells him to look into Barton. But maybe angering Kingpin is not a good idea.
Then we switch back to Bishop and Barton who are taking the dog for a walk. Since Barton can't hear her, Bishop decides to text him, which is a cool solution to their current problem. She finds him someone who can fix his hearing aid and then they go out to eat. Bishop talks so much that Barton actually turned off his hearing aid so he won't have to listen to her which is pretty funny. Bishop actually understands that in the end. She confesses that she dreamed of teaming up with him her entire life. She wants to be a superhero and help people. Barton tells her that he used to think the same thing that this is what he was meant to do with his life, helping people. He also tells her that this life comes with a price. He lost his hearing forever. She is so young that she thinks that cool costumes and trick arrows are worth it. She is young and clueless.
She moves on to the next subject matter, makeover. She wants to make him more recognizable, a branding. The show has done that and gave him the color purple. He tells her that his job was not be unrecognizable, but she tells him that he has failed at that and she is right. She draws a costume which looks a lot like the original Hawkeye costume from the comics with the ridicules eye cover and tells him that it should be purple. It has ridicules wings and an H on the forehead, so so bad. She does use this to lead the conversation to Ronin. She thinks that he is close to Ronin, not that he is Ronin. She is close to the mark, but not right on it.
Then we get a glimpse to what Hawkeye thinks about himself. He thinks that he is not a role model. Bishop says that he is. But doesn't give him the full explanation, just the explanation of their current situation. Barton has to pay their bill as Bishop is broke and Barton tells her that she needs to name the dog. He gets the name Pizza Dog. Barton then explains to Bishop that there is someone above Maya Lopez, someone big that no one messes with. Bishop wants to break into her mom's house to get more information about the tracksuit Mafia and about Armand and Jack. Barton tries to explain to her that her behavior in the past regarding Jack is illogical, but she doesn't listen. She can complain about Hawkeye not being a team player all she wants, but she is not a great listener either.
Barton and Bishop get into Bishop's mom penthouse. The holiday music is so heartwarming, the atmosphere of this show it just great. Barton is impressed by the wealth of Bishop's family. While Bishop is on the computer, Barton is walking around the house and looking at it suspiciously. Jack stops him, Jack with the Ronin sword. Not suspicious at all. And that's how the episode ends.
This was a great episode. First of all, it had lots of action which was great, fun and creative. Plus Bishop and Barton really connected and formed a sort of a bond. They feel more like a team by the end of this episode then they did before. Plus there are so many good mysteries that are brought up in this episode. Who is the uncle and the big boss? Is Jack really a villain? Will Barton get a new suit? And when will he be able to go back to his family? I loved this episode a lot.
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