Hawkeye Directors Open Up About That Character Reveal In This Week's Episode

Contains spoilers for the "Hawkeye" episode "Partners, Am I Right?"

After weeks of anticipation, we finally saw Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) make her debut on "Hawkeye" in the final moments of this week's episode. After observing Kate (Hailee Steinfeld) breaking into Echo's (Alaqua Cox) home (which should definitely be called the Echo Chamber), Clint (Jeremy Renner) was attacked by an unknown assailant with familiar gear to his former partner, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). Following a classic mask-off reveal, Natasha's younger sister Yelena had a brief stand-off with Barton's protege before jumping off the roof. It was, in scientific terms, absolutely awesome.

Of course, throwing a new character as big as this into the festive mix of Disney+'s new show took some planning. Yelena's entry couldn't just be an easy slice of fan service; it needed to be a solid piece to a puzzle that's already set to be filled in even further in the final two episodes. It's a task that "Hawkeye" directors Bert and Bernie were fully aware of when handling "Partners, Am I Right?" and its impact on the characters involved.

Speaking to Variety this week, the helmers of the fourth episode of "Hawkeye" discussed how they handled introducing a character the audience was already familiar with, but that the heroes of this show didn't know. "So much of 'Hawkeye' is seeing the world through the characters' point of view of it," explained Bertie. "So if we look at the end of [Episode 4], we are with Kate Bishop as she's seeing this person, who she has no concept of who she is, actually, and how she's going to fit into the story."

With that said, even though Kate and Yelena are new to one another, they're standing in similar shadows as being the next in the line of their relevant mentors. "But there's this connection, and you can see and feel the presence of this new character," Bertie said regarding the silent encounter. "It's actually a balance between what the audience feels about this character and what Kate's feeling that makes that ending so special."

As brief as it is, it's certainly the start of something that is bursting with potential and that can only signal an exciting new element to a series that has even more surprises in store. We can see exactly how Kate and Clint handle Yelena when "Hawkeye" returns next Wednesday on Disney+.