Hailee Steinfeld Reveals How That Hawkeye Episode 5 Reveal Changes Kate Bishop

Contains spoilers for "Hawkeye" Episode 5

There's only one more episode left of "Hawkeye" Season 1, and the penultimate episode dropped a bombshell that completely recontextualizes everything that's come before. Yelena (Florence Pugh) reveals who hired her to go after Clint (Jeremy Renner). To everyone's shock, she accompanies it with a picture of Eleanor Bishop (Vera Farmiga) meeting with none other than Kingpin (Vincent D'Onofrio). It's a huge reveal that Kingpin, let alone the one from the hit Netflix series, "Daredevil," has been the one pulling the strings all along, and it sets up an epic showdown during the season finale. 

It's easy to get swept up in the Kingpin reveal to the point of overlooking the emotional ramifications of the cameo. Eleanor Bishop has always seemed a little sketchy, but this is official confirmation she's in bed with some dangerous people, which must be devastating for her daughter, Kate (Hailee Steinfeld), to witness. In a new interview with TVLine, the actress spoke about how the reveal will change her character going into the final episode.

The last time Kate and Eleanor physically saw each other, Eleanor had just called the authorities on her new beau, Jack (Tony Dalton). It seemed as though everything was on the up and up for the Bishop family, but Yelena had other things in mind. She tails Eleanor before providing all pertinent information to Kate, positively destroying her emotionally. That's what Steinfeld believes anyway, as she told TVLine, "She has this realization. She's just completely broken and confused and absolutely lost. She doesn't know who to trust or who to look to."

However, she does have one person in her corner — Clint Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye. After telling her to stop following him everywhere, Clint and Kate seem to be a proper team at this point, despite his dark past as Ronin. Still, no one could ever replace a mother, and according to Steinfeld, that's precisely what she's lost through all of this. "The stakes are higher than ever, and the one person that she's been tirelessly trying to protect is now someone that she might need to be protected against," she explained. "She comes to her senses as quickly as she possibly can after learning this information and puts her head down and does what she has to do."

What exactly will Kate do now? You'll have to tune in to the "Hawkeye" season finale, which airs on Disney+ on Wednesday, December 22.