Hawkeye episode 1 introduced Lucky the Pizza Dog to Marvel Cinematic Universe viewers at the same time as Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), who was the second Hawkeye in Marvel Comics. Hawkeye episode 2 of the Disney Plus miniseries wisely kept him away from trouble as the plot escalated.
Lucky was a stray dog who had fallen upon hard times, at one point losing his left eye, and so Kate unofficially adopted the Golden Retriever after saving him from certain death or further dismemberment caused by taxi.
For more on what happened in Clint Barton’s (Jeremy Renner) return, see our first episode review.
Kate Bishop stole Clint’s Ronin suit after a black market auction she’d snuck into was hijacked by a bunch of Russian dudes, and was accidentally implicated in the murder of a shady old rich guy named Armand Duquesne III.
Clint is trying to cope with the reality of post-Blip living and accumulated Avengers-related trauma, which the new Avengers musical Rogers (a Hamilton spoof) isn’t helping with at all.
Hawkeye episode 2 kept Lucky safe at home.
Storyline
After Clint rescues Kate from the Russian guys (who he calls the Tracksuit Mafia), they grab some basic first aid supplies and camp out in her aunt’s apartment.
Meanwhile, Kate’s mom Eleanor (Vera Famiga) and her fiancee Jack Duquesne aren’t making any headway in getting Kate to like the new family arrangement, and then she’s implicated in the murder of Jack’s uncle Armand.
And for good measure the Tracksuit Mafia guys burn down Kate’s apartment, and a firefighter innocently swipes the Ronin suit to use for cosplaying.
While all this is going on, Lucky is kept safe at the apartment, being a very good boy offering comfort and love whenever needed, much like Zingo did on The Gifted.
Clint also gives Kate pointers on how to escape a tail, then goes off in search of his missing costume, eventually finding it at a gathering of a New York City LARPers group in Central Park.
This leads to an amusing sequence where he then has to pretend to hack opponents while dressed like he should be at Loki’s Renaissance Fair in order to get his costume back. (His wife Laura is very understanding of all this, though like the kids, she hopes he’ll get back home in time for Christmas.)
The Tracksuit Mafia guys kidnap Clint, and after some appropriately witty banter at their warehouse hideout, Kate’s rescue attempt goes terribly wrong.
What we thought
While the scenes with Jack were a little rushed development-wise, overall Hawkeye episode 2 was a very satisfactory chapter, avoiding the trap of merely shifting the characters into their opening moves of the season, since there are only six episodes in total.
Lucky’s presence wasn’t felt much, but what there was added greatly to the groundedness of the episode, as he bonded with both Kate and Clint, just like the Fraction/Aja comics run.
Loose arrowheads
- According to the show’s Wikipedia page, the chronological setting of this show is two years after Avengers: Endgame, so we’re at Christmas 2025.
- LARPing either looks really fun or incredibly stupid, not sure which. But now I kind of want to try it?
- Man, if Clint hates the musical, he must LOATHE Instagram.
- One of the highlights throughout Agents of SHIELD, especially in its early seasons, were the reminders of how everyday people functioned in a world with superbeings and aliens, which made the firefighter’s reaction to meeting Clint a nice callback.
Hawkeye episode 3 will drop on Disney Plus on Wednesday, December 1. See our FanSided Network sister sites Bam Smack Pow, Culturess and Hidden Remote for more super coverage.