‘Hawkeye’ Directors Break Down The Key Clint Scene That ‘Echoed’ Natasha’s Death On Vormir

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Hawkeye’s fifth episode became the show’s most important episode yet. Clint opens up about Natasha to Kate for the first time, and Yelena Bolova comes onto the scene. In the midst of Clint and Kate’s fight with Yelena and Maya, Kate is thrown over the top of a building. The moment when Clint saves Kate eerily mirrors what happened between Clint and Natasha on Vormir just before Natasha fell to her death in Avengers: Endgame.

This time around, Clint is able to save Kate. For any Marvel fan, the scene is a total gut-punch as you witness Clint realize that he’s back in the same position as he was on Vormir. HollywoodLife got EXCLUSIVE inside scoop from directors Bert and Bertie, who directed episodes 3 through 5.

“When Clint sees Kate go over the edge, that’s exactly what you’re meant to feel,” Bert told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “We actually went back and looked at that scene to make sure that some of the shots kind of echoed what you went through at the time of Natasha[‘s death]. It’s a relief to hear that that comes across, and then you understand why Clint makes that decision he does to cut her loose. Any other character would have just left it at that, but of course, Kate Bishop is her own little unicorn, so she heads back up into the fray and ends up saving the day.”

Bertie added, “We literally replicated the size of the shot. We had to have a wide of Kate so you get a sense of what’s happening. But the size of the shot on Natasha back then, the size of the shot on Clint, and even the arm reaching down just as it was before we did a lot to try and make sure we mirrored as much as possible. Jeremy [Renner] really went there again. He kind of relived that experience both as Jeremy and as Clint. It was a powerful scene to shoot.”

Kate doesn’t listen to Clint after he saves her, and she returns to the roof. This brings her face-to-face to an unmasked Yelena. Earlier in the episode, Clint tells Kate that the best shot he never took was the one aimed at Natasha. Kate has her arrow aimed at Yelena but she doesn’t take the shot after Yelena shakes her head.

“What we love is so much can be said with a look rather than a line,” Bert said. “You’re right, there’s a moment that they connect. If only we knew if that was going to play out or not. We just, unfortunately, don’t, but you can really get a lot out of that moment and I think in those instances you are making those assumptions about what Kate’s feeling, what Yelena’s feeling, but of course Florence [Pugh] has the ability just to hold that space, and then she’s gone.”

Bertie brought up these key points about Yelena: “Also, does she know Kate as a character? How much does she know about Kate? Kate has not killed a person so, like, she’s going, I’m a hardcore lethal weapon. I can see you and you’re not. You’re talented but you’re not like me.”

During that moment, Yelena never says a word to Kate. “We went through many iterations of that. I feel like there was some dialogue. I feel like that scene was longer and then we realized,” Bert revealed. “Bertie and I are fans of just what do you really need? What is the essential part of a scene? And as I said, sometimes something can be done in a look and with someone like Florence that is achievable.”

Before she is unmasked, Yelena goes after Clint, the man she believes is responsible for Natasha’s death. Fans have been wondering if Clint is even aware that Natasha has a sister. “You’re going to find out more about that for sure, and he doesn’t get a good look at her on the roof,” Bertie told HollywoodLife. “But he does get a good look at her fighting style, so while they’re fighting there’s a certain way that a Black Widow moves and obviously the widow bites as well, you see at the end when he’s talking, you see that he’s understood that this person is a Black Widow.” New episodes of Hawkeye drop Wednesdays on Disney+.