Marvel fans everywhere got all misty-eyed over their favorite super-solider/spy, Scarlett Johannson’s Natasha Romanoff, in a blink-and-you-miss-it emotional homage from Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton in the latest episode of the Disney Plus series Hawkeye.
Warning: Spoilers to follow.
In case you’ve been living in a cave the last few years, Natasha AKA Black Widow, sacrificed herself in Avengers: Endgame on the planet Vormir, overseen by Hugo Weaving’s Red Skull, in order for Clint to be able to take home the Soul Stone and reverse Thanos’s snap. This move eventually resulted in Clint’s entire family — who were wiped out by Thanos — back to the world of the living.
However, before the Avengers were able to save the day, Clint had become stricken with bloodlust, eschewing his heroic Hawkeye persona for darkly vengeful Ronin, a ninja-suited vigilante that bodied Yakuza members in an attempt to fill the empty hole left by his then-deceased family.
But Black Widow swooped in to redeem Clint from his revengeful ways, bringing him back from the brink, and recruiting him back into the Avengers to help save the universe.
In the new show Hawkeye, the third episode makes a subtle but gut-wrenching nod to this arch from Endgame that brought many fans weak in the knees.
The show partially revolves around people trying to figure out the still-unknown identity of Ronin after the vigilante seemingly resurfaces. In a bit of back and forth between himself and Alaqua Cox’s Maya Lopez AKA Echo, Clint explains that Black Widow killed the vigilante and that Ronin’s resurgence is nothing but a rumor.
This got many fans emotional for invoking the strong friendship that Clint and Natasha shared.
And we were reminded of the sacrifices both characters made for each other over the years.
For many, we were transported back to the moment when Natasha reached out for Clint’s hand in Endgame, proving to him that he was not past the point of redemption.
One user put together an emotional montage of the scenes, as if our tissue boxes weren’t running out fast enough.
The third episode of Hawkeye is streaming on Disney Plus now, with new episodes arriving each Wednesday.