Recap / Hawkeye (2021) Episode 6 "So This Is Christmas?"

Clint and Kate prepare for their final battle with the Tracksuit Mafia, while the gang's ringleader, the Kingpin, emerges from the shadows to deal with Eleanor. With Yelena still bent on eliminating Clint, our heroes face what may be their most chaotic Christmas yet.

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Tropes:

• Action Dress Rip: Variant, in that Yelena accidentally rips Kate's dress off during their elevator scuffle. As it's ripped off, it's revealed that Kate is wearing her Hawkeye suit underneath her dress. Yelena then discards her formal coat and has her Black Widow suit underneath, of course.
  Yelena: Did you plan this?
  Kate: Yeah, I did. [Beat] No, no I didn't.
• Annoying Arrows:
  • Kate hits Kingpin in the chest with one of her (seemingly regular-tip) arrows. He barely reacts, and a moment later snaps the shaft off so it isn't in his way.
  • Entirely averted otherwise, as one arrow is enough to take down anyone who gets hit by it, and the Way Too Dangerous arrows are designed to take down large groups of people all at once.
• Apologetic Attacker: Tracksuit goon Tomas towards Kate. He's genuinely grateful for Kate's advice a few episodes ago about patching things up with his girlfriend, and vocally regrets having to try to kill her.
• Arrow Catch: Clint splits an arrow into three while shooting at three Tracksuits, among them Kazi. Two connect, while Kazi catches the middle one and sarcastically compliments Clint on his shooting.
  Kazi: Nice shot!
  Clint: No shit!
• Artificial Limbs Are Stronger: Maya sends Kazi flying at least a dozen feet with a kick from her artificial leg. Fisk must've given her a special one.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: As Kate is going down (actually, falling down) the side of the building by sliding down on Yelena's line, Clint calls out, "What are you doing?!"
• Atrocious Alias: Kate comes up with a slew of these for her superhero identity (Lady Hawk, Hawk Eve, Hawk Shot, and Lady Arrow), all of which Clint thinks are terrible. The series closes right as he is about to suggest something, presumably "Hawkeye".
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Clint and Kate do this while on the ice rink fighting the Tracksuit Mafia.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Clint wears a tux to infiltrate the Christmas party, looking every bit as suave as James Bond. It helps that Jeremy Renner bears a striking resemblance to Daniel Craig.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: While sitting in an ambulance, Clint pays Kate a heartfelt compliment, before quickly turning it into praise for the LARPer who made their costumes.
  Clint: You know, I gotta be really honest with you, Kate. It doesn't happen too often, but every once in a while, you come across somebody that just makes you better, in every way. And that Missy, boy, she just... outdid herself with the suit, right? And the elasticity in this fabric...
  Kate: [laughing] Okay, you can stop.
• Behind the Black: Eleanor manages to get the drop on Kingpin by ramming him with her car. Somehow, neither Kate nor Kingpin hear or see it coming.
• Being Good Sucks: Kate is clearly heartbroken about having Eleanor arrested for her crimes, but she knows that her mother must face justice for what she did.
• Big Entrance: Plus some Offscreen Teleportation, how Kate shows up on the Rockefeller Center ice rink to help Clint. She shows up firing half a dozen arrows while sliding across the ice on her knees.
• Bittersweet Ending: Eleanor is arrested for her crimes, leaving her relationship with Kate strained, but Clint is able to keep his promise to his family to be home for Christmas, inviting Kate (and her dog, Lucky the Pizza Dog) to join them, and burns the Ronin suit to ensure that its mantle is finally over. Yelena finally learns (and accepts) what really happened to Natasha and makes peace with Clint, and Maya is finally able to start a fresh life away from Fisk, albeit at the cost of killing Kazi (her Only Friend) due to his involvement with her father's death and attempting to kill her.
• Black Comedy Burst: When the Trust a Bro truck gets shrunk with a Pym Particle arrow, Kate asks what to do with it, to which Clint states he'll have to ask Scott. Then the owl that was in the tree Kate shot down swoops down and grabs the truck, to which Clint and Kate just look on and go about fighting the other members of the Tracksuit mafia.
• Bleed 'Em and Weep: Maya is forced to fatally stab Kazi after he refuses to run away with her and tries to kill her. She holds him and cries as he dies in her arms.
• Bookends: Avengers: Endgame starts with a shot of a target on a tree, where Clint is teaching his daughter to use a bow and arrow. When his family is dusted, Clint takes on the Ronin identity and murders numerous criminals during the Blip. The Ronin arc ends with Clint and Kate setting the Ronin suit alight and walking away, with the same target on the tree in the foreground.
• Brick Joke:
  • Tomas, the Tracksuit Mafia goon that Kate gave relationship advice to, returns, stating that he and his girlfriend patched things up by going to see a Maroon 5 concert.
  • Kate complained in "Echoes" that Clint should label his trick arrows, and now Kate does exactly that when they both prepare a new set.
  • In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Tony half-joked that Laura had to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent of some kind. Here, it's revealed that he was right; Laura was in fact Agent 19, who in the comics was Barbara "Bobbi" Morse, a.k.a. Mockingbird.
  • "You know what? We really gotta walk that dog."
• Burn Baby Burn: Clint disposes of the Ronin suit by setting it on fire.
• Call-Back:
  • The first scene of the show has Eleanor and Derek Bishop arguing over financial issues. This episode reveals that she started working with the Kingpin due to her husband owing him money.
  • Fisk once again demonstrates that he is fluent in multiple languages, this time speaking ASL with Maya.
  • Kate recognizes Gary from the first episode, saying that he "fired me from one of the only jobs I ever had".
  • Clint uses Natasha and Yelena's "secret whistle" from Black Widow to get Yelena to stop attacking him long enough to listen to him about how Natasha died. He also mentions the flight from Ohio in the opening scene of the movie, revealing that Natasha told him about it, and saying how Natasha always loved Yelena and wanted her safe.
  • Clint and Kate argued about Splitting the Arrow. Clint does this with the second arrow splitting the first in mid-air to try and take down three tracksuits.
  Kazi: Nice shot!
  Clint: Yeah, no shit!
• Calling the Old Woman Out: Kate pulls her mother aside, lets her know that she knows Eleanor's working for Fisk, and when Eleanor tries to justify it, Kate gives her an angry tirade.
  Eleanor: Kate, do not go out there, it's too dangerous.
  Kate: You're the reason it's dangerous out there, Mom.
• Car Fu: Eleanor rams Wilson Fisk with a car in an attempt to get him to stop attacking Kate.
• Cassandra Truth: Subverted. Yelena initially refuses to believe that Natasha's death was a Heroic Sacrifice, angrily insisting that Clint must be lying and that he's at fault somehow. She's eventually forced to believe him and, after a little more convincing, accepts that Clint did care about Natasha and her death was a choice she must make peace with.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Kate has a friendly chat with both Yelena and Tomas while fighting them.
• The Cavalry: The LARPers essentially become this, helping to evacuate guests and bystanders out of the building and helping to take out other Tracksuit Mafia, all while undercover.
• Chekhov's Skill: Kate defeats Kingpin using the coin-tossing trick that Clint taught her in episode four, this time using one of Fisk's cufflinks instead of a coin.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Armand VII has to be physically carried from the party during the evacuation, all the while throwing a temper tantrum and yelling at Grills "Do you know who I am?!"
• Condescending Compassion: Eleanor's attempt at justifying her criminal actions to Kate includes a lot of this. She talks down to her daughter and claims that Kate couldn't handle living without wealth and luxuries, as well as insisting that what she's done (which includes conspiring with criminals, murder, hiring an assassin to kill an Avenger, and framing her own fiancé for the aforementioned murder) is simply "how the world works" and is unapologetic. As a stunned Kate asks if she actually believes that, Eleanor acts as though Kate is simply too immature to "understand".
• Continuity Nod:
  • Tomas thanks Kate for her relationship advice in the third episode.
  • During Kate and Yelena's scuffling, the "107.6 Lite FM" Station Ident is heard again.
  • After a Tracksuit van and its occupants get shrunk, Clint remarks about discussing it with Scott (Ant-Man).
  • Clint takes out some Tracksuits with a casual Offhand Backhand shot, in an identical move to a shot that he made in The Avengers.
  • During their fight, Kate steals one of Wilson Fisk's cufflinks and uses it to activate the trick arrows. The cufflink in question matches the design of the ones that Fisk took from his abusive father and wore throughout Daredevil.
  • Kate once again fights the Tracksuits while they're on the ground and she's high up firing through a window.
• Cradling Your Kill: Maya fatally stabs Kazi when he forces her to fight him, and she tearfully holds him as he dies.
• Creator Cameo: Marc Shaiman, who wrote "Save the City", can be seen conducting the full performance during The Stinger.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Kate's fight with Kingpin is ridiculously one-sided as she's more than clearly outmatched and out of her depth. Fisk shrugs off every move that Kate hits him with and manhandles her like a ragdoll. The only way that Kate manages to survive is by using the coin trick to activate the most dangerous of the trick arrowheads to knock him out (briefly at that, as Kate seizes the chance to escape).
  • Clint's fight with Yelena is less a fight, and more Clint trying to talk Yelena down as she takes out her grief over Natasha's death on the man she believes killed her sister.
• Curb Stomp Cushion:
  • Kazi gets a few good licks in while fighting Clint, but he's still no match for the Avenger and the fight ends quickly.
  • Kate has absolutely no chance against Yelena. It's only due to the fact that Yelena doesn't want to hurt her that Kate doesn't get completely, like, deaded.
• Cuteness Proximity: Clint stops to admire a little owl nesting in the giant Christmas tree.
• Cute Owl: The owl that Clint comes upon is rather adorable and Clint looks delighted upon seeing it. The same owl later carries away a shrunken Tracksuit van, its occupants screaming in terror all the while.
• David vs. Goliath: Kate vs. Kingpin; one is a small, albeit athletic young woman, while the other is a mountainous mass of muscle. Kingpin spends most of the fight throwing Kate around like a ragdoll, but like the Biblical David, Kate manages to win using tools and ingenuity.
• Dead Man's Switch: Eleanor tells the Kingpin that she has an "insurance policy", consisting of various incriminating documents that will be released unless he lets her walk away unharmed. Kingpin reacts by first sending Kazi, and then the entirety of the Tracksuit Mafia, to try to kill her, and when all that doesn't work, he goes after her himself.
• Dented Iron: Kate finally manages to take Fisk down using pretty much all of her way too dangerous arrows all at once. It briefly knocks him unconscious and later he's limping down the street and clutching a broken rib when Maya confronts him.
• Did Not Think This Through: After Kate uses a Pym arrow to shrink a pair of Tracksuits in their truck and asks Clint what they do about them, Clint admits that he never asked Scott about how to reverse the effects.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu:
  • Kazi, a vicious and experienced gangster, forces Clint into a one-on-one fight. He gets in a few good hits, but Clint is a fully trained assassin with years of experience, and the encounter doesn't last long. In the end, Clint comments that the fight was "fun" for him.
  • Eleanor's threat to the Kingpin falls here, too. She seems to think that she has the upper hand, but in reality, has little idea of the lengths that he'll go to when push comes to shove.
• Dramatic Irony: Yelena initially refuses to believe Clint's testimony about what happened on Vormir. She feels that if Clint truly loved and cared about Natasha, then he would have fought harder to save her and not let her go. The audience, of course, knows Clint did exactly that; he fought tooth and nail to stop Nat from going over the cliff in his place or from letting go of the grappling line.
• The Dreaded:
  • Hawkeye, an Avenger who fought the forces of Thanos, is afraid of the Kingpin.
  • Kingpin himself isn't pleased that an Avenger has gotten involved in his business, indicating that he feels the same way about Clint and, by extension, the Avengers. He's also not happy with the Ronin running around in New York, though it's unknown if he knows who Ronin really is.
  • Yelena also lives up to her reputation, being able to beat Hawkeye in a fight after ambushing him and knocking the wind out of him. (However, it can be argued that he's holding back as he doesn't want to hurt her and instead wants her to listen to him about how Natasha actually died.)
• Dressed in Layers: Clint, Kate and Yelena are all wearing their combat suits underneath their formal wear for the Christmas party.
• Dropping the Bombshell: Just before Yelena can shoot him, Clint finally gets through to her by using the call and response whistle she and Natasha secretly used as kids. Given that no-one else knew about it, Yelena stops dead in her tracks to ask how Clint knows their whistle. He reveals how Natasha constantly talked about Yelena to him.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Kingpin, already an incredibly dangerous physical threat, has gotten some upgrades since Daredevil. He rips a door off a car, shrugs off an arrow to the chest, and is only momentarily stunned when hit by a speeding car and thrown through a plate glass window.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Kingpin has some genuine affection for Maya and is furious to learn that she's turned on him (albeit because he gave her a very good reason to). He even seems to have some affection for Eleanor, trying to convince her not to do "anything stupid".
  • Eleanor, for all her other failings, truly loves Kate, tries to sever her ties to Kingpin when it looks like their relationship will threaten Kate, and even mows the mob boss down with a car to save her daughter.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Discussed; Eleanor considers Kate becoming involved in the conspiracy to be crossing a line. Kingpin insists that in their line of business, there are no lines.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Maya wears her long hair down for the first time in the series when she attacks Kazi, symbolizing that she's no longer holding back.
• Eye Twitch: After Eleanor reveals her Dead Man's Switch and walks out on Kingpin, and later when Maya confronts and turns on him, his left eye twitches from restrained anger.
• Failed a Spot Check: Keep in mind that this exchange takes place in Rockefeller Center.
  Kate: Where are you?
  Clint: I'm stuck in the tree!
  Kate: What tree?
  Clint: THE tree!
• Fake Shemp: Jeremy Renner and Linda Cardellini weren't on set together, so Clint and Laura's reunion was accomplished through the use of body doubles and digital compositing.^note The most-obvious tell is when Clint hands Laura the Rolex. When Laura accepts it, it's from a hand that lacks the nail clubbing that Renner has on his hands.
• Fatal Family Photo: Maya stops while packing to look at a photo of herself, her father, and Kazi. She later reluctantly kills Kazi in self-defense.
• Foreign Cuss Word: After Kate presses all the buttons in the elevator to delay her, Yelena leaves the elevator, muttering "Bitch" in Russian.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When Kate shows Clint the video of Eleanor blackmailing Fisk, Clint warns her Fisk won't let that slide. Sure enough, he doesn't.
  • Just before Maya shoots him, Fisk pleads, "We're family. Family doesn't always see eye to eye.", which could either be a Mythology Gag or foreshadowing to Fisk showing up later, blind, like in the comic that gag refers to.
• Frame-Up: Eleanor reveals in her conversation with Fisk that she made sure that Jacques would be associated with the front company of the Tracksuit Mafia.
• Friendly Enemy: Kate and Yelena are forced to fight each other, but with plenty of compliments and making it clear that they have every chance to become best friends.
  Kate: Stop making me like you!
  Yelena: I'm sorry, I can't help it.
• Fun with Subtitles: During the scene where a Trust a Bro van is shrunk, as Kate and Clint wonder what happens next, the owl in the Christmas tree solves the problem by snatching the van away. The subtitle on the screen as the Tracksuits scream in terror is "CHILDREN SHOUTING".
• Funny Background Event: In the "Save the City" musical sequence in The Stinger, when Steve first sings, "I can do this all day!" he spreads his arms and his shield blocks Hawkeye, who leans out from behind the shield with a look that just screams, "Upstaging dick".
• Grand Finale: The final episode of the show.
• Hitler Cam: Vincent d'Onofrio is already a very tall man, but the show uses this to make him absolutely tower over Eleanor Bishop (d'Onofrio is 6'4", while Vera Farmiga is 5'7").
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Mildly fallen, as having the Tracksuit Mafia as his capos and soldiers seems quite a step down for the Kingpin and his organization, presumably due to the combined events in Daredevil (2015) along with the Snap and then the Blip having forced him to rebuild his empire from the ground up, and it is still a work in progress.
• Hypocrite: During Eleanor's justification of her actions to Kate, she once again lectures her daughter over being reckless and not understanding her actions have consequences; when the police show up to arrest her for Armand III's murder, Eleanor is stunned that Kate would have her face the consequences of her actions.
• Hypocritical Humor: After returning the Rolex to her, Clint teases Laura about needing to take better care of her things; she responds by similarly teasing him about losing the Ronin suit.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Eleanor's justification for all of her actions, claiming that she's lived "with nothing" in the past and refuses to go back to it or allow the same to happen to Kate. Kate, understandably, doesn't see this as real justification for Eleanor's criminal deeds (especially murder) and is even more stunned with her mother's Condescending Compassion towards her during her explanation.
• Incredible Shrinking Man: Several Tracksuits get miniaturized when Kate uses a Pym Arrow to stop a Trust a Bro moving van from ramming her and Clint.
• Internal Reveal: Kate explains to Clint why she's a Hero-Worshipper.
• Ironic Echo:
  • Back in the episode "Echoes", appropriately, Kate joked that one should never get involved with the Mob. Now to her shock, she learns that her mother Eleanor is with the Kingpin's Mob.
  • Faced with Clint, Kazi says that fighting him will be "fun". He puts up a decent fight for a few minutes, but Clint wins handily, and walks away saying that fighting Kazi was fun.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Eleanor has no right to guilt-trip Kate or justify her amoral actions that drove her own agenda. But she is correct that Kate has overly relied on her family's money all her life, is quite sheltered because of it, and will have to learn to drastically adjust her lifestyle without it.
• The Juggernaut: Kingpin not only shrugs off an arrow straight to the chest, but he's almost immediately back up and fighting after Eleanor hits him with a car and sends him flying through a store window. Nothing that Kate throws at him does more than annoy him, and even when he's finally brought down, he's still in good enough shape to get up and leave under his own power.
• Karmic Death: Or Laser-Guided Karma. Kazi was complicit in the death of Maya's father and deliberately didn't go to the meeting that lead to Ronin murdering William to save himself. Kazi tries to kill Maya after she finds out with Clint's, the true identity of Ronin's, arrow and gets run through with the arrow.
• Laser Sight: Clint notices the laser of Kazi's rifle and is able to react just in time to deflect the bullet with a tray.
• Letting Her Hair Down: This is the first time that we see Maya with her hair down, symbolizing how she's getting more angry and emotional after she realizes that she and her father were betrayed by people they loved.
• Made of Iron: Fisk shrugs off getting shot by multiple arrows, getting hit by a car and rammed through a glass window, and then gets blown back by explosive trick arrows. It's likely that he wore body armor given that's what he wore on Daredevil, but it's still impressive.
• Mama Bear: Eleanor quits working for Wilson Fisk once she believes Kate is in danger due to her involvement, and she later rams Fisk with a car in an attempt to get him to stop attacking Kate.
• Manchild: During the party, Jacques gets into an argument with his cousin Armand VII (the little kid) where it is clear that they're both at the same level of maturity.
• Monumental Damage: During the climax, Clint winds up in the Rockefeller Center Tree. Kate tells him to hold on and then shoots out the suspension wires, bringing the tree down onto the ice rink.^note Don't worry, they used a soundstage for this scene.
• Musical Nod:
  • John Paesano's "Trading Judgement" makes a reappearance, once again serving as the Kingpin's theme.
  • Lorne Balfe's theme for Natasha crops up when Clint begins talking about Nat's love for Yelena and determination to keep her safe. When Yelena forgives Clint for her death, a variation on Yelena's theme plays.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Rolex watch is revealed to be Laura's, and on its back is the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo with the number 19 engraved. In the comics, Agent 19 is Barbara "Bobbi" Morse a.k.a. Mockingbird, an ally (and ex-wife) of Hawkeye.
  • Kingpin is now with his distinctive cane from the comics. And his red-and-white Hawaiian shirt is an outfit taken straight from the comic Spider-Man: Family Business.
  • During their battle, Kate blocks Kingpin's path with an arrow that creates an electrical "spider web"; likely a small nod to Spider-Man, in whose comic the Kingpin debuted, and in whose cartoon Kingpin also had his first media appearance.
  • When Maya confronts Kingpin, he tells her how sometimes family doesn't see "eye to eye" before she shoots him offscreen. In the comics, the same thing happens and it's revealed that Maya shot Fisk in both eyes, blinding him temporarily.
  • When Kazi catches the third arrow fired at him and two other TSM members, many were waiting for the arrowhead to explode in his face.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Averted. Jacques does quite well with his sword against gun-wielding Russians.
• Never My Fault: Eleanor is stunned that Kate is having her arrested and tries to lay a guilt-trip on her for it:
  Eleanor: Is this what heroes do? Arrest their mothers on Christmas?
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: During the fight, Kingpin grabs Kate's quiver and breaks her remaining arrows in half so she can no longer fire them, but the tips are still intact. When Kingpin is about to kill Kate, she uses the coin trick with his cufflink to activate one of the trick arrows, which detonates the arrow that's labeled "TOO DANGEROUS" and instantly blows up all the other arrows, knocking Kingpin out.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Yelena delivers one to Clint with a baton, declaring he "should have tried harder" to beat Natasha in their duel to sacrifice themselves on Vormir.
• No-Sell: Kate shoots Kingpin in the chest with an arrow, but it doesn't faze him in the slightest beyond making him even angrier.
• Offering a Hand: Yelena offers Clint her hand and helps him stand up, showing that she has finally made peace with him (and how Natasha's death wasn't his fault).
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Eleanor is shocked to realize Kate has found out she's working with Fisk, and tries to claim she has everything under control.
  • After slapping Yelena and seeing her stunned reaction, Kate has a horrified look on her face as she realizes that she just bitch slapped a Black Widow.
  • Once Kate says that she's getting Clint out of the Christmas tree, he soon starts panicking.
    Clint: Kate, no! Repeat after me, "I'm not doing anything stupid!"
  • Kate is shocked when the direct hit with her first arrow doesn't faze Fisk whatsoever.
• Papa Wolf: Jacques steps in with a saber to help Kate fight off the Tracksuit Mafia.
• Passing the Torch: Implied in the final scene, where after Kate rattles off a few superhero codenames that Clint thinks are terrible, he says he has a suggestion for her. Cue "hawkeye" title card.
• Platonic Declaration of Love: Fisk tells Maya that he loves her, which she unconvincingly says back to him.
• Punched Across the Room: During their fight in a toy store, Kingpin is strong enough to send Kate flying into shelves and displays with just a punch or shove.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Clint and Kate recruit the LARPers to work the party and be their backup. Since they're mostly cops and firefighters, this works quite well. Also, now they're LARPing for real.
• Red Herring: It's revealed that Jacques had nothing to do with Armand's death or any of the Kingpin's activities.
• Resignations Not Accepted: Kingpin does not take kindly to Eleanor attempting to leave his organization. He also does not react well to Maya turning on him (though he manages to hide it while she's still present).
• Resized Vocals: The Tracksuits who get shrunk by the Pym Arrow end up shrieking in high-pitch squeaks. While this technically contradicts the Ant-Man films (which do not use this Trope with Scott or Hope), hearing mafia goons squeaking like the Chipmunks is played for black comedy.
• Retired Badass: The watch that Clint was after is revealed to belong to Laura, who was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent before retiring.
• The Reveal:
  • Kate's father Derek owed "a fortune" to Kingpin before he died, which is why Eleanor began working for him.
  • Eleanor was the one who killed Armand III.
  • The Rolex watch belonged to Laura Barton, who was a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Specifically, she's Agent 19, who in the comics was also known as Mockingbird.
• Ripped from the Headlines: When Clint lands in the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, he comes face-to-face with a tiny owl perched on the branch. A year before this episode aired, an owl really was found in the Rockefeller Christmas tree.
• Series Continuity Error: Just like the MCU Netflix series, the MetLife building is shown in New York's skyline as opposed to the building that used to be Stark Tower. (Though in Hawkeye it's justified, as years prior, Tony sold back the building to relocate the Avengers upstate.)
• Smug Snake: Kazi puts up a fairly decent fight. But, despite confidently saying he'll enjoy the fight, he's way out of his league against Clint.
• Sniper Duel: Clint vs Kazi. It looks like Clint tries to get in a Scope Snipe but instead fires an arrow into the ceiling of the floor Kazi is on to release gas into Kazi's floor to force Kazi to flee the floor.
• So Proud of You: Clint tells Kate in a roundabout way that she's made him a better person. He then says that taking on Kingpin by herself and walking away alive is a huge accomplishment, and he's very proud of her.
• Splitting the Arrow: Faced with three Tracksuits, Clint splits an arrow mid-flight to try to take them down in one go. He hits two, but Kazi manages to pull off an Arrow Catch.
• The Stinger: A non-Sequel Hook example. After the Creative Closing Credits, the full stage production of "Save the City" from Rogers: The Musical plays. This is preceded by the message "happy holidays from marvel studios".
• Stout Strength: One of the LARPers knocks out a Bro by chest-bumping him to the ground.
• Stylistic Suck: "Save the City" returns in all its glory in The Stinger.
• Sudden Name Change: Or expansion. Though named simply Pizza Dog two episodes earlier, he's now named Lucky.
• This Is Gonna Suck:
  • Clint's reaction when the LARPers join the fight in their costumes:
    Clint: [chuckles] We're all gonna die.
  • When Kate declares that she's going to get Clint out of the Christmas tree, he unsuccessfully pleads with her not to do anything stupid like he knows she's about to.
• Three-Point Landing: Kate makes an awkward superhero landing off the side of 30 Rock to show that she's finally coming into her own. Yelena, on the other hand, avoids such posing and lands softly on her feet.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: After being framed for murder by his own fiancée, Jacques gets to show off his sword skills and even gets invited to go LARPing.
• Timber!: Said by Kate as she knocks down the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
• Titled After the Song: The title is the opening line of John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)".
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • Whereas she had trouble with multiple Tracksuits in the first episode, Kate can now take a group of them down with ease using random found objects.
  • Kingpin here actually possesses Super-Strength as opposed to just the Stout Strength that he exhibited in the Daredevil Netflix series, being able to effortlessly rip a car door off of its hinges and send Kate flying with just a shove. He is also able to tank three arrows to the chest and survive two sonic booms and an explosion at point-blank. Whether this is due to willpower or if he had undergone "enhancements" between the events of Daredevil and present day is still unknown.
• Trick Arrow: Clint and Kate assemble trick arrows and use many of them in their fight against the Tracksuit Mafia, including acid arrows, explosive arrows, flechette storm arrows, Pym Particle arrows, gas arrows, and much more.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Armand VII was hoping that Jacques would remain in jail so he could get his wine collection.
• True Companions: Clint states, with total conviction, that Kate is his partner; her problems are his problems. Later, after Kate has been forced to send her mother to prison, Clint takes her and Lucky home to spend Christmas with his family.
• Uncertain Doom:
  • Maya points a gun at Kingpin, and we hear a gunshot as the camera pans away. Given the position that Maya was holding her gun, he was very likely shot in the chest if she did shoot him. But since we didn't see anything, we don't know if she actually shot him, or if the shot was fatal. It's also noteworthy that the scene in question was taken straight from the comics, and while she did shoot him there, he survived, albeit blinded. And then he was later confirmed to be returning for Daredevil: Born Again, confirming his survival.
  • We never see Kazi directly die, with the last time we see him being wounded on the ground after being stabbed with Clint's arrow by Maya and warning her about Fisk. We never see a body either, making it possible for him to come back in the future.
  • We don't know the final fate of the Bros inside the van that was shrunk and taken away by the owl. Maybe they were eaten, maybe not.
• Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: Between Kate and Yelena, before leaning more and more into an Elevator Action Sequence — complete with a Bitch Slap.
• Ungrateful Bastard: After Grills carries Armand VII out of the evacuating building, rather than thank him, the little brat complains and orders the guy to put him down.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: A hotel employee doesn't bat an eye as Kate and Yelena brawl their way through the room.
• Villainous Friendship: Maya and Fisk have this; he's even learned some sign language to better communicate with her.
• Villain Respect: Fisk doesn't care in the slightest that Clint doesn't have superpowers. He's still an Avenger and a considerable threat in his eyes.
• Waif-Fu: Subverted. Kate may hold her own against the Tracksuits, but she is completely outmatched by the Kingpin, who is quite literally three times her size and knocks her around like a ragdoll. She only wins the fight by outwitting him with her (broken) trick arrows.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • And is even nearly literally mouse-sized. A TrustABro van with (at the very least) a pair of Tracksuit guys in it gets shrunk down with a Pym Particle arrow to the size of a toy, which then gets snatched up by the owl from the Christmas tree. Nothing else is revealed about any of it afterward. According to Previs artist Elaine Scott, their final fate was meant to be a Brick Joke for the inevitable post-credit scene. But the sequence was ultimately cut from the final episode.
  • Yelena disappears after making peace with Clint, with no word on her whereabouts after all is said and done.
  • It's unknown whether or not Kingpin survived getting shot. Echo would confirm he survived.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Clint admits that fighting Kazi was fun.
  • Considering he's not amused that an Avenger get involved in his business, Kingpin sees both Clint in particular and the Avengers in general as this.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Clint performs a German Suplex to knock Kazi out during their fight.
• You Have Failed Me: Kingpin attempts to kill Eleanor because she wants to stop working for him without his permission.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: When Kate is trying to stop Yelena from killing Clint, Kate — in the heat of the moment — slaps Yelena across the face. Yelena is more offended by the slap than anything else.
  Yelena: [stunned silence] ... What was that?
  Kate: [oh crap face] I don't know.
• You're Not My Father: Maya confronts the Kingpin in the end and he just says that they're family and sometimes, families don't see eye to eye. Maya's response is to whip out a gun and as the camera pans away, a gunshot is heard.

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