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Hawkeye Episode 5: Who Hired Yelena?


In her debut in the MCU, Yelena Belova had a stellar performance proving how lethal she is as a Black Widow and she set on a mission to free others who are under the control of Dreykov. After losing five years of her life and coming back to the world without Natasha, she sets off to kill Clint Barton in Hawkeye. Who hired her to do so?

Warning! This article contains spoilers for Hawkeye and Black Widow! Read at your own risk!

Hawkeye Episode 5: Who Hired Yelena?
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Credit: Marvel Studios
Hawkeye Episode 5: Who Hired Yelena?

Yelena is surely highly trained to be a spy and an assassin. Her skills are definitely on point. She showed how formidable a fighter she is in Black Widow facing other trained widows. Her sass and sarcasm is exceptional as well. All in all, she’s the whole package but when she is on a mission, she puts her game face on and she could be as ruthless as she could.

In the post-credits scene of Black Widow, Yelena went to the grave of Natasha and even when her body isn’t there, her memory gets memorialized. Still angered about what happened, Contessa Val, who made her debut in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, assigned Yelena a new target – Clint Barton, and she tells Yelena that he is responsible for the death of Natasha.

Her arrival in Hawkeye has been expected since then and in Episode 4, she finally revealed herself as an assassin who tried to kill Clint and in the fiasco are Maya and Kate, too, who were both confused who Yelena is.

Related: Is Kazi the Informant of the Killer of Maya's Father in Hawkeye?

In Episode 5 of Hawkeye, she talked to Kate into tracking Clint as she is dead set on killing him. However, Kate still has faith in Clint that he has good in him no matter how dark his past is. Kate asked something that might have made Yelena think twice – she asked who hired her in killing Clint that by the end of the episode, she followed Eleanor Bishop to a hotel.

Yelena let Kate know that it was Eleanor who hired her and she attached a video of the meeting wherein Eleanor is with someone in a white suit, a familiar face to Clint, the one he calls the big boss – Kingpin. Earlier in the episode, Clint called his wife telling her that he is worried about what happens if the big boss gets involved. Now that he is in the game, what could he bring to the table?

Does this mean that the one behind everything is Eleanor and that her engagement to Jack Duquesne is for her to have an exit plan pinning everything on him? Or is he really involved in the mafia as well? Now that Kingpin is involved, Daredevil’s arrival is only a matter of time. Plus, Yelena, after learning about Eleanor, will she change her mind in killing Hawkeye?

All these are expected to be answered in the finale of Hawkeye which streams exclusively on Disney Plus.

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