This week's 'Hawkeye' features a (very brief) crossover from 'Daredevil'

The end of last week's two-part episode introduced Maya 'Echo' Lopez, a criminal fixer attached to the Tracksuit Mafia.

Already, a Disney+ series is in the works about this character and going by this week's episode, we're getting to learn a little bit more about her.

Evidently, her beef with Ronin / Clint Barton goes back to when he killed her father while trying to get to her uncle, who's described by Barton as someone they "don't want to mess with." There's a brief moment where we just about see her uncle, in which he gives a slight chuckle and is a pretty big guy in a suit. When's the last time we saw a pretty big guy in a suit, you ask?

Well, in 'Daredevil' when you had Vincent D'Onofrio playing none other than Wilson Fisk, AKA Kingpin. In the comics, Wilson Fisk regularly crossed paths with Ronin / Clint Barton and seeing how Ronin's whole thing was wiping out organised crime, Wilson Fisk is the most obvious character. As we know, Netflix gave up its rights to 'Daredevil', 'The Punisher', and 'Jessica Jones' a couple of years ago and now have control over those characters. There's been a number of poorly edited "on-set" photos showing Matt Murdock / Daredevil in 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' while Wilson Fisk / Kingpin has had the same treatment for 'Hawkeye'. This week's episode, however, seemed to pretty much confirm that he's going to be a part of this series.

To be clear, you never see Vincent D'Onofrio in the episode but there's no denying that it's him or his voice. To his credit, Vincent D'Onofrio hasn't said a word on his own Twitter and Disney haven't yet confirmed he's in the show either so it's entirely possible (but highly unlikely) that what you see / hear on this week's episode wasn't him.

Aside from that 'Daredevil' crossover, this week's episode also featured a nifty little chase sequence that appeared to be copped straight from Gareth Evans' excellent Indonesian action epic, 'The Raid 2: Berendal'. The sequence also displays Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld's continuing chemistry together, with the two of them bouncing off each other like it's a lighthearted version of 'The Last Of Us', except there are no zombies and it's Christmas. What's been so enjoyable about 'Hawkeye' so far is that it's maintained that easygoing tone and kept the humour grounded and the action fun and frothy.

In both 'Loki', 'WandaVision', and 'Falcon and Winter Soldier', there felt like there was a real sense of those shows trying to compete toe to toe with the movies and that by scaling them to match, it was the right thing to do. 'Hawkeye', however, is much like its titular character - understated, knows its strengths, and isn't afraid to aim right for the biggest, obvious stuff to make an impact.

Final Thoughts

• Pizza Dog continues to be the absolute greatest little chap on our screens, and he's just a joy and deserves all the pizza there is
• Zahn McClarnon! Always a pleasure to see him act! If you haven't yet watched the second season of 'Fargo', get on it because you're missing out what is easily one of the best seasons of TV in the past ten years
• Very much! Looking forward! To... the way! Vincent! D'Onofrio! Shouts all his lines! As WILSON FISK!
• After last week's end credits song choice of Depeche Mode, this week's end credit song goes to Sammy Davis Jr.