This Small Moment With Eleanor On Hawkeye Could Be A Huge Clue

When Hawkeye premiered on Disney+, it introduced two bow and arrow-wielding superheroes and an entire phalanx of villains. From the Tracksuit Mafia to Kazi and Echo, it seems like Clint Barton and Kate Bishop can’t go anywhere without bad guys coming out of the woodwork. But the most dangerous may be closest to home, as Kate’s mother’s fiancé, Jack Duquesne, also seems to be an antagonist. But is Kate’s mother, Eleanor, involved as well? Episode 4 of Hawkeye saw Eleanor making a phone call, and whoever is on the other end of the line could reveal her true nature.

Warning: Spoilers for Hawkeye Episode 4 follow. Episode 4 of Hawkeye picked up where Episode 3 ended, with Jack holding Clint at the point of his stolen Ronin sword and Kate locked out of her mother’s laptop after trying to find dirt on Duquesne. After a very uncomfortable dinner in which Clint found himself grilled by Eleanor about his intentions with her daughter, she escorted him to the elevator. Eleanor told Clint that risking Kate was unacceptable. But then, instead of asking him to protect Kate, she asked him to drop the case that brought them together.

It was an odd way to frame the request. Not “leave my daughter out of it” but “drop the case” altogether. Clint responded that he would do everything his best to keep Kate safe, but he couldn’t drop it. As he exited, having quietly stolen back his Ronin weapon, he asked his wife, Laura, to look into Sloan Inc., which had come up in Kate’s database search on Kazi. She came back with the reveal that Sloan was a shell company, laundering the Tracksuit Mafia’s money. The CEO is listed as Jack Duquesne.

On the one hand, that confirms all Kate’s suspicions about Jack ever since she saw him and Armand at the illegal auction. But what Clint doesn’t know is that directly after his refusal to “drop the case,” Eleanor hurried off into a private room and made a phone call telling someone to get in touch with her because they have a huge problem.

Each of these details might, on their own, not seem suspicious. Perhaps Eleanor is calling someone because Kate is in danger, and that’s a big problem for her. Maybe she asked Clint to drop the case because she thought it was the only way her daughter would be safe. It could be Eleanor’s laptop only locked up after Kate searched Jack’s name (and not Kazi’s) because it was a timed lockout, and Kate managed one search, but not two, before it went off. And maybe she then asked Kate to help her party plan because that’s the thing she’s focused on this holiday season.

But taken as a whole, this no longer looks like the moves of an innocent woman, especially when coupled with Jack’s uncle, Armand, telling Kate his suspicions of her and his death-by-sword in the series premiere. Clint may have proved Jack is tied to the man Maya and Kazi refer to as “Uncle,” but who made him CEO of this shell company? Perhaps Jack got in on his own, but maybe his fiancée put his name on the documents to keep hers off.

Either way, Eleanor’s the one calling to report there’s a big problem of an Avenger on a case, and not Jack. It sure looks like he’s not the one in charge. Perhaps Kate really should stop looking into this, because it doesn’t look like she will like what she uncovers.

Hawkeye continues with new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.