It's flashback time ! The fifth episode of Hawkeye which dropped on Disney Plus (Hotstar in India) in the week before Christmas , opens in 2018 , after the Black Widow movie , with a couple of lines about the gas.

But this is also before the Blip slash Thanos Snap - and we see Yelena blip out and snap back after the Hulk brings everyone back. Yelena's surroundings have completely (well, almost) changed in the intervening five years. It is now 2023 , and the Black Widow she was breaking out of mind control is now well-settled with a husband and a cute black child.

Immediately , she wants to find Natasha Romanoff , but she has no way of knowing that the Scarlett - played character sacrificed herself for the Soul Stone , and that Cliff Barton AKA Hawkeye AKA Ronin was with her.

Cut to Cliff talking to Eleanor Bishop , the mommy of Kate Bishop , and it's time for previously on , which is quite brief : Clint and Kate separate.

Kate is back home where she belongs , with her mamma , mamma mamma - and Maya AKA Echo is also back with her beat boy Kazi.

Kate goes to her former home that was fire-bombed by the Tracksuits to get her stuff and guess who's there waiting for her? It's femina Yelena !

They have a long talk about Clint in specific and Avengers in general - build-up drama to justify their characters' actions in the MCTVU.

Next morning - another day closer to Christmas - Clint visits the Battle of New York Memorial , and does a Surrogate Soliloquy (wiki walker warning if you click that TV Tropes link) with Natasha AKA Black Widow.

A fight in the Fat Man parking lot ensues , where Ronin had killed Maya's father in the years of the Blip. Clint clarifies that Maya's boss wanted her father , played by the awesomax Zahn McClarnon , dead.

Kate arrives just in time to rescue Clint from Maya and they Uber away.

Yelena , meanwhile , finds out who hired her to kill Clint Barton , and the inevitable reveal of the Kingpin comes with a surprise - it was Kate's mamma mia Eleanor who was the one working with Kingpin all along!

With that Agatha all along WandaVision callback , adieu till next week!