Main cast: Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton/Hawkeye), Hailee Steinfeld (Kate Bishop), Alaqua Cox (Maya Lopez), Vera Farmiga (Eleanor Bishop), Tony Dalton (Jack Duquesne), Fra Fee (Kazi), Aleks Paunovic (Ivan), Piotr Adamczyk (Tomas), and Linda Cardellini (Laura Barton)
Director: Rhys Thomas
Poor Clint Barton. Hawkeye is supposed to be his show, if one believes the trailer, but no, it turns out that the whole thing is about how Kate Bishop gets to be the new Hawkeye. In Hide and Seek, it turns out that his show is also a platform for another character to get her own show.
That’s right, Maya Lopez is introduced at the end of this episode like some ooh, scary villain-type that Kate and Clint should be wary of, but even before this episode aired, already these folks and all the Disney shills are dutifully chirping everywhere that Maya is getting her own show soon, so watch that too. So… that means she’s not the villain? Sure, she could be—heaven knows Wanda enslaved an entire town to be her own toys, but the MCU hand waves that aside as something okay because writing complicated characters is hard—but now everyone knows Maria is going to survive the whole thing and… sigh.
Why do these people do this? Do they pay so little care to their own shows, and just want people to keep watching the shows out of brand loyalty?
Maybe it’s a good thing that this show is getting underwhelming numbers in the ratings. I’d like to be optimistic and hope that this will give them a kick in the rear end and make them up their game. Yes, I know, I’m likely to be disappointed, but when it comes to Disney, I’m used to that feeling.
In this episode, Clint tries to get himself captured by the mysterious enemy’s people in order to get to the bottom of things, but naturally, Kate perkily and strong-female-lead-ly shoves herself into the plan, without really telling him or getting his consent, and oh look, here’s Maria Lopez and people, set your calendars because consoom, consoom, don’t ask how good that show will be, because you have only one job and that is to consoom.
This is a much better episode than the last one, though, because Clint and Kate have more interactions with one another, and they actually have a pretty decent mentor-sidekick chemistry that works for me. On her own, Kate is an eye roll of a sassy, strong female with daddy issues cliché, but she’s a far more bearable character when Clint’s more cynical, serious demeanor is around to balance her personality.
Yes, this is a Captain Marvel situation, where that wretch is obnoxious and smug when she’s not around Nick Fury, but then again, that’s not surprising. Sour Brie Danvers, Suri, Mini-Black Widow, Gender-bent Loki, Sif, and Kate are all the same female character, and I have a sinking feeling that the MCU have a few more of the same archetype coming up soon.
At any rate, Hide and Seek is one of those episodes that exist solely to bridge the previous episode to the next one. It has its moments thanks to the chemistry between the two leads, but the whole formula feels so stale by now that I find it hard to muster much enthusiasm for this thing.
