Hawkeye season finale gives us a Marvel villain return, subtle future possibilities (SPOILERS)

Last Updated on December 23, 2021

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON FINALE OF HAWKEYE AND OTHER MARVEL PROJECTS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

The season finale of Hawkeye has already hit Disney+ and many people, including myself, stayed up until it dropped on the streamer to see how this all ends. There was a lot of internet speculation out there that began to run rampant (some even thought that Tom Holland’s Spider-Man would make an appearance) but the finale played to more subtle cliffhangers.

Vincent D’Onofrio’s return as Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin was already previously teased but that hasn’t made seeing the bad guy from the Netflix Daredevil series any less exciting. The fact that the MCU is using fan favorites from the Netflix universe and making them truly a part of things moving forward is a true delight for the fans. If you’ve seen Spider-Man: No Way Home, you already know that Charlie Cox’s Daredevil is now a part of the MCU family and it’s great to have D’Onofrio’s Kingpin on board as well. That being said, Echo (Alaqua Cox) comes face to face with him and fires a gun in his direction, seemingly killing him, because he killed her father. His death does happen off-screen and I highly doubt they would bring him back just to off him so quickly. He’s also known to be pretty invincible as he survived being hit by a car by Kate’s mom Eleanor (Vera Farmiga) and he seems to be pretty ok following Kate firing arrows into him and detonating a huge blast from her trick arrows that would kill anyone else. I have a strong feeling he will be back and may even play a role on Alaqua Cox’s upcoming Echo Disney+ series.

There was plenty of action in the finale, including Yelena (Florence Pugh) getting to have it out with Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) since she was told he was Natasha’s (Scarlett Johansson) murderer. Florence Pugh has also been a welcomed addition to the MCU so it has been great to see her here and I honestly can’t wait to see what the future holds for her.

The biggest Hawkeye season finale surprise was much more subtle but it hints at some interesting future possibilities and it all comes down to a Rolex watch. The episode ended with Clint coming home for Christmas with Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) by his side. While sitting with his wife Laura Barton (Linda Cardellini), he tells her “You’re never going to guess what was found in a black market auction in New York City” as he hands her a Rolex that had the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. logo and the number 19 on it. The watch was one of the items found in the ruins of the Avengers compound and was auctioned off along with Ronin’s costume and sword. As Laura looks at the watch she breathes and gives a slight shake of the head before saying “Thank You” and taking the watch. Clint tells her “I want you to take better care of your stuff” to which Laura says, “You’re hardly one to talk.”

So what’s the big deal about the watch and what does it mean to Laura? There has been a lot of internet speculation out there that Laura used to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent known as Mockingbird. In the comics, the character is romantically linked to Hawkeye so it would make complete sense for this speculation to be true. The watch seems to indicate that she worked closely with Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) but we still don’t know what secrets, if any, the watch contains and why it belonged to Laura. The Rolex does have a transmitter which Laura makes use of to locate the device in Maya’s, aka Echo’s (Alaqua Cox), apartment in episode four. I suppose we will learn more about this in the future.

Hawkeye has always seemed to be a vehicle to pass on the bow and arrow to Kate Bishop while Clint gets to seemingly retire. He does burn his outfit at the end of the episode but the creative minds behind the series have said there are plenty of Clint Barton stories to tell in the MCU so I don’t think this will be the last of him either. Kate’s complicated relationship with her corrupt mother should make her an interesting heroine moving forward and we’ve already seen that she and Yelena definitely need to meet up again in a future MCU project because their banter hints at a fun friendship moving forward.

It’s interesting that the cast has been promoting this as the season finale and not the series finale as they did with WandaVision. That hints that we could get more Hawkeye in the future even though it was promoted as a six-episode miniseries. I’d be down for some more adventures from this universe because like the character has been across all of his MCU appearances, his series proved to be the underdog to route for.

What are YOUR thoughts on the Hawkeye season finale?