Hawkeye Episode 5 fuels a shocking Rolex theory
The watch could hide a dark secret.
Hawkeye is Clint Barton’s big moment in the sun, but he’s not above sharing the spotlight. There are now four strong women in his life: Kate Bishop, Yelena Belova, Maya Lopez, and his faithful wife, Laura Barton. Laura has been holding the fort at the Barton farmhouse for the entirety of the series, calling every so often to help out with Clint’s research and to make sure he’s okay.
Laura came in especially handy when Clint was trying to track down the Rolex stolen from the black market Avengers auction in the show’s first episode. Then, in Episode 5, Clint provided an update on the Rolex — and Yelena — and Laura responded with a statement that could throw everything we know about the Rolex into question.
Clint previously told Kate the Rolex belonged to a “friend” who’s been out of the game for a long time. It seems this “friend” was Ronin, and Echo was looking for the information in order to track down the person responsible for her father’s demise. If the Rolex contained Ronin’s secret identity, this would explain why it was next to a list of the members of the Barton family.
However, this isn’t the only theory surrounding the Rolex’s true owner. The watch could also be Laura’s, revealing the superhero identity that forced her into hiding when she gave it up. We’ve never seen Laura outside the farmhouse, but maybe that’s because she has too many enemies in New York.
The mysterious Rolex is the secret to someone’s true identity — the only question is who.
Episode 5 provides more evidence for this theory: when Clint calls Laura to tell her about his ever-growing Echo problem, she signs off by saying “I trust your judgement. You do what you have to do. And know that I'll always understand more than anybody else ever could.”
How does Laura understand more than anyone else ever could? The only people who truly understand what Clint is going through are the other Avengers, so that sentence doesn’t make sense unless Laura is somehow connected to them.
Laura may be hiding a giant Avengers secret, which means she relates to Clint more than we first thought.
Comics fans are pointing Mockingbird, an Avenger who, within the comics canon, eloped with Hawkeye in the 1980s. Is this line another hint at what could be a huge finale reveal? If Echo knows the location of the Bartons, she may go after them, forcing Laura to defend her family by unleashing her old skills.
Regardless of the watch’s true owner, Laura and the Barton family are no longer just window dressing for Clint’s own crisis. Their names in Echo’s apartment mean they’re now in serious trouble, which may force everyone involved to take drastic action.
Hawkeye is now streaming on Disney+.
