We've known since Black Widow's post-credits scene that Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova would be part of the Hawkeye cast, and she returned last week for an epic rooftop showdown with Clint Barton, Kate Bishop, and Maya Lopez. Today's episode - "Ronin" - kicks off by picking up with Natasha Romanoff's sister shortly after the events of that character's solo movie.
It's 2018, and Yelena has been freeing Black Widows from the Red Room's control, but one of her fellow operatives reveals that she's been free of Dreykov for a while, making money as a hired assassin. Clearly thrown off by the whole situation, Yelena heads to the bathroom to wash her face...only to turn to dust and return in the exact same spot five years later.
Yes, Yelena was blipped along with half of the universe when Thanos snapped his fingers, and it appears she too started working for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in the months that followed.
During a confrontation with Kate in the present day, Yelena reveals that while she seemingly wants revenge for Natasha's death, someone has hired her to kill Clint (making "Val" a middle (wo)man, of sorts). We do learn who it is later in the episode - more on that soon - and it appears Yelena may be having her doubts given who is behind that. It's also worth noting that Hawkeye is set before the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home as those changes to the Statue of Liberty are mentioned!
It definitely feels like the stage is being set for Yelena to have a key role in the MCU, and we're betting on her actually teaming up with Clint and Kate next week. We'll see what happens, though...
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