Hawkeye episode 3, we all watched it, right? Well, what an episode. That ending left us room to ask questions and everything else gave me all the feels. There may not have been an actual roller coaster, but what the team managed to fit into 43 minutes was pretty impressive.

So it's time to break down the latest adventure of Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), who continue to thrill us with their Disney Plus series.

The story of Hawkeye episode 3 is simple. First, Maya Lopez, aka Echo, is officially introduced in a flashback. Deaf as a child, Lopez attended school with other children without disabilities, despite her father's promise that she could go to school for the deaf. However, there was no money for it.

Her handicap combined with her father's mentoring seems to have given Echo a hardened edge that drove her to excel in martial arts (just as Kate's father's death drove her to archery). There is also a bit about her uncle in my Hawkeye fan theory article. She also has a prosthetic right leg. Her father's death seems to have occurred during a fight between the tracksuit mafia and Ronin, and we see Echo grieving and growing resentment.

Then the race begins back in the present day. Chaos boils over as Echo identifies Clint's hearing aid and Kate is praised for being too good at fighting goons and clearly not involved in the Ronin case. Clint emerges from his taped-up state (during which Kate struggles to get free) and acts in normal Hawkeye fashion. The episode gets more complicated, however, as Echo does not go so far as to stomp on Barton's hearing aid. The episode develops into a chase sequence, and communication problems arise as Clint is unable to hear Kate's voice. And while Bishop is impressed with the first trick arrow she fires, it was Pim's arrow that almost made me jump out of my seat.

Kate and Clint bond over their bickering, but the most interesting scene is when the youngest, Barton, calls his dad and asks when he'll be home. Eventually, the Hawkeyes return to Bishop's mother's house, where someone is waiting for them. As you may recall from the black market auction, Jack Duquesne stole the Ronin Blade. He is also an excellent swordsman. And both plots coincide with the scene when the program cuts to black and Jack is holding Burton's sword inches from his face.

To illustrate this, let's go back to 1965's Avengers, Vol. 1, No. 19. The character, whose secret identity is Jack Duquesne, appears to be quite different from the character played by Tony Dalton. Jack actually mentored the young Clint Barton. However, as Swordsman, he was rejected from joining the Avengers and would later assist them in their fight against Kang the Conqueror.

It will be very interesting to see what elements of this character make it into the show.

I never thought I would be crying today watching a TV show before 9 am, but such is my life. I was struck by the emotion of the moment when Kate acts as a mediator between Barton, who is hard of hearing, and her own son. Steinfeld did a great job of conveying the mood of grief that Barton sacrificed his holiday for her, and given the circumstances of Kate Bishop's father's death, it makes a lot of sense that she would be emotional. Their diner scene was also a triumph of burgeoning mentorship.

As noted above, action was the other star of the episode. The fight scene at the tracksuit mafia hideout and the chase sequence with the trick arrow were very entertaining. It was truly impressive. I'm curious to see if and how the Hawkeye show can top this one. By my calculations, there should be one more super dangerous arrow that we haven't seen yet.

The scenes between Alacqua Cox (as Echo/Maya Lopez) and Zahn McClarnon (as William Lopez) really hit the right beat. It established why Echo is the way she is and made her a character worthy of future Marvel series. While we had yet to see Kazi evolve into a clown, Fra Free did a good job of negotiating the scene with Cox on screen.

My only complaint about this episode. Elena Belova is missing. Not only in my opinion, but IMDb had her in four episodes, and this was the third of six episodes. Her appearance in the Black Widow post-credits scene made her appearance fairly obvious.

As with Hawkeye episodes 1 and 2, we have a winner here. I'm looking forward to seeing what will happen with Jack Duquesne and what will happen with Eleanor Bishop (Vera Farmiga). How much does she know about his underworld work?

In addition, this episode, especially Steinfeld's scene in the diner with Renner, continued to cement her as a major player going forward. What if she doesn't become the new Hawkeye on the next Avengers team and wears some version of the costume she sketched on a napkin? Someone screwed up.