Hawkeye’s Ending Saved Endgame’s Black Widow Death

Warning: the following contains SPOILERS for Hawkeye.

The emotional Hawkeye finale was not only good for Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), but it also tied up the loose ends left in the wake of Black Widow’s (Scarlett Johansson) death in Avengers: Endgame. The MCU series Hawkeye follows Clint Barton and Hawkeye super-fan Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) as the two work together to solve the many problems caused by Clint’s vigilante alter-ego Ronin. In the end, Hawkeye does justice to Black Widow’s sacrifice to get the Soul Stone back in Vormir.

As both Thanos (Josh Brolin) and Clint learned the hard way, the only way to get the Soul Stone in Vormir is to sacrifice a loved one. While the Mad Titan didn’t hesitate to kill his own daughter, Gamora (Zoe Saldana), for the Soul Stone, Clint and Natasha actually fought each other to prevent the other from sacrificing themselves. Being the better fighter, Black Widow won the scuffle, allowing a broken and grieving Clint Barton to return to the Avengers with the Soul Stone. However, as Natasha’s sister Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) knows about Clint’s murderous actions as Ronin after The Snap, she never bought Clint’s story. Instead, she believed that Clint murdered Natasha and then used the Soul Stone story to cover up the truth. This was why it was easy for her to take on the assignment to kill Hawkeye for Eleanor Bishop (Vera Farmiga).

Hawekeye’s final episode sees the inevitable confrontation between Clint and Yelena. Clint stops Yelena from killing him by using Natasha’s secret whistle – only known to those whom Natasha trusted – leading Yelena to be convinced that Clint is actually telling the truth. By Clint not dying at Yelena’s hands, Hawkeye pays tribute to Black Widow’s sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame, which was met with disdain from many MCU fans. Before Hawkeye‘s finale, a number of viewers had speculated that Clint Barton would die, whether at the hands of Yelena Belova, Maya Lopez/Echo (Alaqua Cox) or Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin. Yet, that theory did more to undermine Black Widow than her sacrifice itself. She chose to give her life so that Clint could have a second chance. By him not being killed but getting a happy ending, Hawkeye‘s finale does just that, ensuring that Black Widow’s choice to embrace her death wasn’t in vain.

Moreover, as Yelena finally confirmed that Hawkeye didn’t kill her sister, she can give up her quest for revenge on the Avengers. And because Yelena now knows that Natasha wasn’t murdered, but instead made the ultimate sacrifice in order to save the world, she might just be inspired to take the same heroic path that her sister took. Notably, when Yelena first spoke with Kate, Yelena saw the Avengers as glorified villains who could get away with murder and deceit. But now that Yelena knows the truth about what went down in Vormir during Avengers: Endgame, she could be convinced to put her own Black Widow assassin skills to good use.

Hawkeye’s tense and action-packed story ended with a surprisingly happy ending for Clint and Yelena. Considering how Black Widow gave up her life so that these characters could live, it was the right thing for Marvel to do. That being said, as the MCU just gave audiences a much-needed happy ending in Hawkeye, it’s possible that the next MCU series or movie won’t be ending on such a warm and fuzzy note.

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