Echo Episode 2: Maya's Surprising Superpower Explained

Contains spoilers for "Echo" Season 1, Episode 2

The whole story behind Maya "Echo" Lopez (Alaqua Cox) is more complicated than some fans realize. When she first appears in "Hawkeye," it's clear she's no pushover. However, apart from some focus on her martial arts training, the actual reason this hearing-impaired criminal with a grudge can keep up with Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), an actual Avenger, is largely unclear. "Echo" director Sydney Freeland also revealed that the minds behind the show changed Echo's powers from what she can do in the comics, which annoyed some fans. However, the ire might calm down when viewers see where the show goes with the character.

From its very first scene, "Echo" weaves Maya's personal history into that of the Choctaw people, dropping hints that she's far more connected to their history than she knows. Maya is heavily implied to be a direct descendant of the first Choctaw, which enables her to access memory "echoes" of her various ancestors during times of duress. As the train scene in Episode 2 demonstrates, this allows her to tap into the powers of her ancestral bloodline, much like her Chocktaw stickball-playing forebear Lowak (Morningstar Angeline) does in the opening scene. Whenever this happens, Maya — like her ancestors — temporarily gains glowing palm spirals that signify her special abilities.

This is an interesting spin on the "Echo" name and concept — one that distances the character from the comic book version of Maya, who's essentially a physical mimic. The way the MCU reimagines her power set not only strengthens Maya's ties to her cultural background, but it also solves the issue of her original powers being a little too close to Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) for comfort.

Echo's MCU powers are not only fascinating — they may also explain why a seemingly normal human can stand up against the likes of the black ops veteran Hawkeye and the super-powered ninja Daredevil (Charlie Cox). After all, if she can tap into enough ancestral power to move train carriages, why wouldn't her baseline abilities be above and beyond, as well? However, her reimagined ability set also poses an interesting, as-yet unanswered question: If all Maya's direct female ancestors have access to this power, does her grandmother Chula (Tantoo Cardinal) secretly wield it, too? 

The comics version of Echo doesn't have an established grandmother, so it's anyone's guess whether Chula is an MCU original or a reimagined version of some familiar Marvel character. However, she certainly seems to carry herself with the kind of fearlessness that might come from the ability to punch through a wall should the situation require. This is a particularly interesting prospect since she doesn't seem to like Echo very much. Chula blames Maya's dad William Lopez (Zahn McClarnon) for the death of her daughter and seems to have transplanted the animosity from the deceased father to the very much alive and around daughter. 

Does this mean that "Echo" Episode 2 is starting to stealthily set up a battle between the protagonist and her superpowered grandma? Only future episodes of "Echo" will tell.