Tear Jerker / Hawkeye (2021)

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Episodes:

Episode 1: Never Meet Your Heroes

• As well off as the Bishop family may be, they still manage to be caught in the crossfire of a full-scale alien invasion. What's worse, is that minutes before the attack, Kate's father lovingly promises his 10-year-old daughter that he'll always protect her before leaving to work in his office. Minutes later, their home is damaged by the battle. Kate is barely saved by Hawkeye from an alien ship that charges at her and her mother flees from the collapsing home with a terrified Kate in her arms, who begs to know where her father is. He was one of the many casualties of the Chitauri's attack on New York, dying when their home was partially blown up. Hearing Kate's voice call out to her father as she and her mother run to safety can be hard to listen to, as she's just a scared little girl who wants her dad, who's now dead.
  • The funeral for Derek is also quite heartbreaking, especially since Eleanor is doing her best to cope with the loss of her husband while now contending with raising Kate as a single mom (who's also grieving the loss of her dad). This also likely helps explain her subsequent relationship with Jack Duquesne, as women eventually trying to find love in the midst of single-parenting (with the child clearly not on board with their choice) is an all-too-real concern.
  • As inspired as Kate was by Clint's heroics in the battle, it's clear that the experience was still traumatizing for her. She's now paranoid about the Chitauri coming back to attack Earth and even makes the declaration to her mother that she needs to protect them. (Keep in mind, she's only 10-years-old and feels the need to make a Declaration of Protection towards her mother out of fear of losing her.) Despite her mother reassuring her that isn't her job, Kate still asks for archery lessons so she no longer feels defenseless and will be capable of protecting them both.
• Clint is obviously uncomfortable seeing the fictional version of Black Widow in Rogers: The Musical and has to excuse himself from watching the rest of the show. It gets worse when he sees a little girl with her red hair in a braid.
  • When Clint goes to the restroom for some air, he sees some graffiti with the phrase "Thanos was right." While he brushes it off, this is a bit of a Gut Punch for Clint on multiple levels; he lost his wife and children for five years to Thanos' actions, descending into a ruthless, murdering vigilante to deal with his grief and rage over said loss, and lost several close teammates - including his best friend - in order to bring everyone back. Just seeing Clint's reaction puts a highlight onto how callous such a sentiment actually is as are those who somehow agree with Thanos.
• For animal lovers, it's sad to see poor Lucky being abused by the Tracksuit Mafiya and the poor dog is blind in one eye. (Thankfully, Kate comes to rescue him and she and Clint absolutely love and spoil him.)
• Clint's clearly put off anytime someone thanks him for his Avenging.
  • The way he is treated, even if benevolently, may come off to him as Condescending Compassion at times (especially as with his hearing loss he is now also a disabled Shell-Shocked Veteran). The resentful feelings that breed (as Daniel Sousa talked about in Agent Carter decades ago) still ring true.
  • Alternatively—or additionally—his guilt about what he did as Ronin makes him feel as though he doesn't deserve praise for his earlier or post-Ronin heroics.

Episode 2: Hide and Seek

• Throughout the episode, Kate is clearly an Ascended Fangirl being able to hang out with her favorite Avenger Hawkeye... who spends the entire episode treating her as Just a Kid who's way over her head. Which she somewhat is compared to him, but still; Clint being dismissive of her is a little depressing. Imagine spending over half your life hero-worshipping someone, modeling yourself on them... and when you finally meet them, they want nothing to do with you.
  • It’s sad to see Kate realize this too and become snippy with him in turn, even sending him some mean-spirited texts. One hopes she didn't mean what she wrote (when she thinks Clint is calling her, she backtracks and seems to hope so, too) because Clint's best friend has died not long ago and two of his other friends are dead too.
  • Becomes more apparent at the end of the episode where Kate botches her Big Damn Heroes attempt and ruins Clint's obvious reverse interrogation of the Tracksuits. It's the first time she recognizes that she's humiliated herself in front of her hero.
    Kate: I was only trying to help, okay?
    Clint: ...Don't talk.

Episode 3: Echoes

• Maya's father was killed by Ronin in front of her, which caused her Start of Darkness.
  "I'm already gone. Fly away from here... little dragon."
  • The fact that we're given enough time to learn about Maya and her family, sympathizing with the situation they were in. (Like how her father can't afford to send Maya to an all-deaf/special needs school despite having promised her he would.) It gives us the impression that he was forced by poverty to work with the Tracksuit Mafia to provide for his daughter (and her needs as a deaf child). Hence, his falling across Ronin's blade was a tragic case of Punch-Clock Villain Gone Horribly Wrong.
  • This also sells, with very few words, how cold Clint-as-Ronin's Knight Templar attitude was during the post-Snap five years. (Not to mention why he's rightfully very ashamed of it.) We can remember that even at his worst, Frank Castle in The Punisher (2017) at least tried to go out of his way to give criminals he knew to be fathers a way out. As Ronin, Clint did not make that distinction.
  • The scene becomes even more heartbreaking with the death of Alaqua Cox's father in real-life around the time the episode premiered.
• The fact that Maya is so dead set on revenge that she's willing to dismiss the reasonable explanation that someone may have already killed Ronin before she could and that someone was Natasha Romanoff, who has since died as well. Furthermore, she also dismisses the idea that Kate had found and worn the Ronin suit by accident and doesn't even know the significance of it. Even though the idea of Kate being Ronin is rather ridiculous given how inexperienced she clearly is compared to the deadly Ronin, (which Clint points out). While she is right that there's more going on, it's sad to see that her desire for revenge is so strong that she's willing to dismiss rational facts and kill a random and young woman on a mere assumption and attempt to avenge her father's death.
• Clint's son Nate calls to ask if he's going to be home in time for the movie marathon that night. Clint has to tell his son that he probably won't make it, which he's clearly not happy about but promises to be back for ugly sweater night in a few days. Nate then tells him it's okay if he doesn't make it back for Christmas at all and they understand. This just makes Clint feel even worse about not being able to be with his family.
  • Since Clint can't actually hear Nate due to Maya smashing his hearing aid, Kate has to listen to the call and transcribe what Nate is saying to Clint so he can respond. Kate is completely heartbroken hearing all of this, especially since he's only in this situation because of her.
  • Clint also has a moment of fear when he realises it's Nate, his youngest, calling and has to confirm where Laura and the other kids are. (Thankfully, they are only in bed asleep and Nate was calling because he woke up early and was bored.)

Episode 4: Partners, Am I Right?

• When Clint is trying to reassure Eleanor that Kate is good, she immediately says, "Natasha Romanoff was pretty damn good, wasn't she?" The look Clint gives is one barely containing rage.
• Kate learns that Clint's entire family was amongst the victims of the Snap while he was the sole survivor, which is how she realizes that Hawkeye and Ronin are the same person. Clint gives Kate some Brutal Honesty about the fact that he wasn't trained to be a hero, but as a cold assassin; he's hurt many people, especially after losing his family. It dawns on Kate what Clint meant earlier in the previous episode: becoming a vigilante means you could lose something (or someone) important to you and, despite all the training in the world, it's a dangerous life to live without experience. People will almost always get hurt or even killed (unintentionally or not).
  • It's implied that Kate and her family survived the Snap, so she understands how much grief Thanos has caused to most of the survivors, especially to her idol.
  • It was clearly, and understandably, hard enough for Kate to deal with her hero treating her like a stupid kid. But when he tells her that he continued doing what he was trained to do, her voice very clearly breaks when she says, "protecting people" and he corrects her that no, he was trained to be a murderer.
  • After this conversation, Clint sends Kate off to bed and sits in a chair wide awake, flashing back to his family before the Snap, his days as the Ronin and then finally, Natasha's death on Vormir.
• The sudden appearance of Yelena Belova (a Black Widow) leads to Clint cutting off his partnership with Kate and coldly telling her their brief partnership is done and over with, in utter fear of what the appearance of Yelena means for Kate's safety. Kate is absolutely devastated by this.
  Kate: Who the hell was that!?
  Clint: You don't want to know, Kate.
  Kate: I cannot be your partner if you don't tell me what's going on.
  Clint: You're not my partner. Do you understand that? You never were.
  [Kate stares at Clint with a pained expression on her face.]
  Clint: Someone has hired... a Black Widow assassin. This has gotten very real, very quickly. So I'm doing this alone.
  Kate: [shaking her head] No, you're not. Look, I know that tonight didn't go as planned, but I chose to be here. I understand the risk, I understand all of that.
  Clint I'm not going to do it. Do you hear me? You hear me?
  [Kate sniffles as Clint walks by her and snatches the bow from her.]
  Clint: Go home, Kate. It's over.
  • And one can tell by the fear and anguish in Clint's voice that he now has to deal with something he never thought he would have to deal with again: a Black Widow.
  • The worst part is the moment where Yelena throws Kate off the rooftop, unintentionally creating a parallel to Natasha's death in Endgame and sending Clint into a brutal Call-Back for a good minute.
  • It also hurts that Clint thinks someone hired Yelena to go after him in connection to his time as Ronin and she's simply a random assassin doing a job. He has no idea that she was lied to that he caused Natasha's death. For Yelena, this isn't just an impersonal assassin job, she's trying to avenge her late sister and what she believes was her murder. Also adding in the fact that we see Clint still grieving Natasha's loss and how much he misses her, it makes the whole thing even more painful.
  • Clint refers to Yelena as 'a Black Widow assassin', strongly implying that it's not just Yelena who has gone into the mercenary business, using their training for anyone simply willing to pay them nicely. One can't imagine it's what Natasha wanted when she destroyed the Red Room and set those girls free into the world.
  • In a Freeze-Frame Bonus, it's revealed that Yelena's hair is in a braid similar to Natasha's, presumably in tribute to her fallen sister.
• Before Kate shows up, there's a series of cuts between her with Eleanor and Jack and Clint, who's duct taping frozen margarita mix bags to his bruises in a borrowed apartment and sitting on a chair. It's remarkably sad and lonely before Kate thankfully shows up to help out.

Episode 5: Ronin

• The episode opens with confirmation that Yelena was a victim of the Snap. She's horrified to learn she just lost another five years of her life on top of the time taken from her as a Black Widow. The scene ends with her telling Ana she needs to find Natasha, unaware that by now Natasha has sacrificed herself.
  Yelena: I go in there for five seconds, I come out and I've lost five years of my life.
  • Earlier when Yelena, Sonya and Ana have a conversation, Ana mentions having to use her Black Widow skillset in contract work (aka assassination) to make a living. This is, sadly, an obvious logical conclusion to what many Widows will do after they are free of the chemical programming as being kidnapped from a young age and trained to become assassins leave them with no idea what to do to integrate to normal life again except doing what they are trained to do to whoever pays them the most. While Ana is lucky enough to have a mansion (as of 2023), a husband and a child, what about others like Helen from Shang-Chi? Goes to show how much damage Dreykov and the Red Room have done to the girls they abducted.
  • What makes this even sadder is that Natasha may have learned that her sister was amongst the victims, as was Clint's family. Natasha also gave her life to bring Yelena, her younger sister, back.
  • Yelena being snapped also makes Natasha's depression in Endgame Harsher in Hindsight. It also explain why Nat was the first one to agree with Scott's plan: she was so desperate to bring back Yelena, that she didn't even care if the chances of success were near nonexistent.
  • Kate explains that the Black Widow who attacked them was Natasha's sister... and Clint automatically replies with Yelena's name with a look of shock. It's clear Clint has heard of her before and it dawns on him that Yelena is not trying to kill him for profit, but to avenge her sister since she mistakenly believes he killed her.
• Kate's and Yelena's talk in the former's apartment starts out with a mix of both awesome, a few heartwarming moments, and funny, but then it gets quite sad once they start talking about Clint, especially with this exchange:
  Kate: He's still an Avenger.
  Yelena: What does that word even mean? Huh? That it holds so much power? You call him a hero no matter what he does?
  Kate: It means that when you choose to spend your life trying to help people, there are going to be things that you lose. When you face the kinds of threats that he has, there's going to be collateral damage.
  Yelena: My sister is gone because of him!
  Kate: What? No. No, that is… No.
  Yelena: She's gone. …Is she collateral damage?
  • The sad thing about Kate's response to Yelena about being an Avenger is that she is absolutely right. As not only can Natasha attest, but so can Tony, who gave his life to stop Thanos once and for all.
  • The painful look on Yelena's face when she asks Kate that Armor-Piercing Question clearly indicates that Kate touched a nerve, whether she meant to or not.
  • What's also sad is that, like Maya with her grief over losing her father, Yelena is also consumed by grief-fueled rage over Natasha's death that she's also refusing to listen to Kate's logical reasoning. Kate points out that, given the simple fact that Clint and Natasha were good friends, it doesn't make sense that he killed her. When answering Yelena's Armor-Piercing Question, Kate gives the Armor-Piercing Response that perhaps the person telling her that Clint killed Natasha is lying to her. Despite this, Yelena is so determined to avenge Natasha's death, she dismisses the rational idea, chooses to focus on Clint's past as Ronin and that he's killed people (which is hypocritical given her and Natasha's pasts as Red Room assassins and the fact Yelena herself is working as a contract assassin), and views him as a cold-blooded killer whose death will allow her to avenge her late sister.
• Clint's monologue to the Battle of New York memorial plaque to Natasha is a minute's worth condensation of his Survivor Guilt:
  Clint: Natasha... I really need to talk to you right now. You were the bravest of us all, weren't you? Loyal, stubborn. You always had to win, didn’t you? And for a stupid orange rock. I replayed that a million times in my head hoping for a different outcome. But I do my best every day to earn what you gave me. Just wanna say... Just wanna say I miss you. And I'm so sorry for what I'm about to do.
  • What Clint says at the last part hits even harder when it's revealed later that Clint takes up the Ronin moniker again during his confrontation with Maya. It's as if Clint is preemptively apologising to Natasha at the memorial plaque for breaking his promise to never don the Ronin suit ever again.
  • The music that plays during this scene uses the same motif from when Natasha sacrifices herself.
• Clint's confrontation with Maya (in full Ronin garb, admitting that it was him after all) gets pretty harsh when Clint admits that he only targeted the Tracksuit Mafia's operation (killing William, Maya's father in the process) because he was hired to do it by a lead—which, based on later scenes, may have been a) Kazi, who Maya is shown to be close to and deeply trusts; b) the Kingpin himself, her so-called "Uncle", who is finally revealed to be working behind the scenes the whole time, or c) both of them in concert. While none of this excuses Clint-as-Ronin's rampage (as he himself sadly admits), this also serves as an additional gut punch to Maya, who discovers she's also living a lie and that while Ronin physically killed her father, the actual person who arranged for his death is likely someone she's trusted.
• The Reveal of Kingpin's existence also serves as the episode's Wham Shot and a gut punch to Kate that's as bad as Maya's. The Kingpin's reveal also shows Eleanor, Kate's loving mom, has been in business with him, set up Jack Duquesne to take the fall for her, and hired Yelena to take out Clint.
  • What's worse is that, at that point, Kate was having a happy time with Clint and Grills when she suddenly gets a text message from Yelena - and the two men see Kate's face drop after reading it, and she slowly looks up while on the verge of tears. Seeing her horrifically discover her own mother was in on hiring Yelena to eliminate Clint (the Avenger who's been her inspiration for 12 years and has now become her personal friend) is hard to watch. Especially considering how cheerful Kate normally is, seeing her heart break in seconds at this betrayal by her own mother tugs at your heartstrings. And despite the betrayal, she still shows sheer existential horror when seeing just who her mother is doing business with.
  • What also totally gut punches Kate is the cold reveal that she's conspiring against her own mother – the very person she vowed to protect as a child (which we saw in the pilot) after her dad died and has been training to do so for years.

Episode 6: So This Is Christmas?

• Kate feels nothing but betrayal towards her mom after learning the truth. All this time, Kate thought she began the entire conflict when she accidentally put on the Ronin suit... but it was actually Eleanor who started the whole mess and has been lying to her for years. This is a bit of a wake-up call for Kate and a taste of the bitter reality the life of a hero can bring a person – specifically the pain of the betrayal.
  • Although she still loves her mother, Kate is completely demoralized by all of Eleanor's actions. She willingly killed Armand, framed her own fiancé to take the fall, hired an assassin to kill Hawkeye (her daughter's idol and savior), and even went into cahoots with the Kingpin behind Kate's back and has been dirty/corrupt for years. Eleanor tries to insist that everything she did was for Kate (as she "knows" her daughter couldn't handle a life without wealth), says her actions were "an unfortunate arrangement" and it's simply "how the world works". She even goes so far as to say that Kate is too "immature" to understand that Eleanor had a responsibility to handle it so they wouldn't "have nothing". A stunned Kate has none of it: she has her mother arrested for her crimes... on Christmas. Worst, her mother still tries to guilt-trip her.
    Eleanor: Is this what heroes do? Arrest their mothers on Christmas?
    Kate: [On the brink of tears] I'm sorry. I love you, Mom.
  • Adding to this, she learns that the reason her mother began working for the Kingpin was because her father owed him a debt. Technically, her father was the one who started the whole mess; the man whose death played a part in Kate's journey to heroism.
• A vengeful Yelena finally has her showdown with Clint, who tries telling her the truth about how Natasha died: she sacrificed herself to save him despite his best efforts to have stopped her. Yelena refuses to believe him, outright saying that he's lying and even claims if he cared about Natasha, then he would have fought harder to have saved her instead of "letting her die". Again and again, he tries to get through to her that Natasha dying was her choice, but she repeatedly refuses to listen while giving him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown. It becomes clear, especially with the increasingly distraught look on her face, that she's so consumed with grief she doesn't want to believe it was Natasha's choice to have died. Instead, she needs to believe Clint killed her or that her death was somehow his fault.
  • When Yelena hits him with an Armor-Piercing Question.
    Yelena: Why would she sacrifice herself for you? Why do you deserve it?
    Clint: I don't.
  • Just when Yelena is about to shoot him, Clint finally manages to get through to Yelena, using Natasha's secret whistle to stun her into listening. He reveals to Yelena everything Natasha told him about her, such as their separation as children, and how much she loved her. Hearing Clint affirm that Natasha loved her makes Yelena break down in tears in her held-back grief. She actually blames herself, is jealous that Clint had more time with Natasha than she did, and believes that if she was there then she could have stopped her from sacrificing herself. Clint replies that nobody could have stopped Natasha once she set her mind to do something. Yelena cries that she loved Natasha so much, to which Clint agrees he did as well. He tells her Natasha made her choice in order to save them; they have to find a way to live with it. This moment forces Yelena to make peace with losing her sister and that she must move on with her life. She quietly leaves in sorrow after letting go of her misguided hatred and helping Clint to his feet.
  • Even more tearjerking is the fact that he didn't do the whistle earlier, which could imply that he genuinely believed he deserved the beatdown.
• Maya confronts Kazi and begs him to run away with her so they can leave their life of crime behind to start anew. Keep in mind that despite knowing Kazi knew about her father's assassination at Ronin's hands, Maya still cares enough about him to offer him one last chance and is willing to forgive him. Unfortunately, he says it's too late for him now and chooses to fight her, forcing Maya to kill her Only Friend, and tearfully holds him as he dies. Maya is devastated, but finally gets her closure by confronting her "uncle".
  • What's worse is that the entire scene parallels that of her father's death. Her loved one dying in her arms and holding her face as they beg her to leave for her own safety... except this time, she's directly responsible for their death.

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