But the fact that this is taking place through the streets of New York City in the dead of winter calls to mind the similarly badass The French Connection.
Basically, this looks like it’s happening. We even briefly hear the mysterious man chuckle, and he sounds an awful lot like Vincent D’Onofrio.When Ronin kills Echo’s father, the Tracksuit Mafia is shown to run a business called “Fat Man Auto Repair,” which sounds as much like a front for a Wilson Fisk business as we’re ever likely to hear.The discussion about dragons being stronger if they exist in “our world” could also tie into how the Kingpin is canonically more dangerous if he can hold power in a world where even the Avengers are aware he exists (as we see from Clint’s conversation with Kate in Washington Square Park). How does that work? You’ll just have to watch and go with it. In fact, the conversation between Echo and her father about being deaf in a regular school and the existence of dragons seems to have a double meaning about how Netflix Marvel fits in.Especially with the introduction of the Disney+ Marvel shows, the events on the Netflix shows have been mostly swept under the rug and have been more or less considered non-canon to the core MCU, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. This is an interesting inclusion, as he has only been used for the Netflix Marvel shows, namely Daredevil. Every arrow (heh) points to this being Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. Several times in the episode, Echo’s “uncle” is brought up and we very briefly see a big man in a suit touching her face when she’s a child.Now, let’s talk about Maya’s “Uncle” for a minute…
Willie refers to Maya as his “little dragon,” which not only speaks to his talk with her earlier in the episode, but also to her fighting prowess: “the little dragon” was one of Bruce Lee’s nicknames.The blue “hand turkey” we spot in Maya’s childhood bedroom when she talks to her father kind of foreshadows that bloody handprint, doesn’t it? That part about him leaving a bloody handprint on her face as he died was loyal to the source material, albeit in a different spot. In the comics, Echo’s father Willie “Crazy Horse” Lincoln, was killed by Wilson Fisk and not Ronin.The same scene happens in her first comic book appearance in Daredevil #9, albeit in a more public spectacle. In the montage of Echo’s life, we see her easily defeat a male boxer.And while it’s a lot more low key with it’s Marvel Comics references and MCU Easter eggs, there’s lots of holiday gifts, big and small, peppered throughout.
Hell, it’s one of the best episodes of Marvel TV we’ve seen all year.
Hawkeye episode 3, “Echoes” is an action-packed romp, and handily the best episode of the series so far. This article contains spoilers for Marvel’s HAWKEYE episode 3, as well as potential spoilers for future episodes and the wider MCU.