Hawkeye: What’s hidden in plain sight in episode 4

Who does that Rolex belong to?

Between all the ruckus cased with the Tracksuits mistaking Kate for Ronin, Clint trying to get the Ronin suit back, the murder of Jack Duquesne’s uncle Armand, whatever is really going on with Eleanor Bishop, and two women trying to kill Clint for two different reasons, is the reason for why this whole mess started. That reason is that the Tracksuits tried to steal from the secret auction a seemingly simple Rolex wristwatch.

Considering that the Rolex was among the other possessions found at the destroyed Avengers compound, it had some connection to one of them. Well, it seems as if Hawkeye knows who the Rolex belongs to, telling Kate that it “Belongs to someone [he] used to work with.” The natural assumption he’s talking about a fellow Avenger. But when Kate presses about it further, Clint adds, “They’ve been out of the game for a long time, but their identity is still attached to [it].” He also stresses that if the wrong person gets their hands on this watch, then his friend’s cover gets blown.

Note that the way Clint talks about this person, he seems particularly close to them. Note, too, that Clint is using the present tense, which means the person he’s talking about is still alive. That eliminates Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff right off the bat. It also rules out Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, and definitely Thor as all of them have very public identities. So if Clint isn’t talking about an Avenger, he’s likely talking about a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. That certainly leaves out Nick Fury and Maria Hill as they’re very much still “in the game.”

But there’s one other possibility that we may have been overlooking: Clint’s wife, Laura (Linda Cardellini). After all, she’s the one who texted Clint that the watch wasn’t destroyed and that it’s still acting as a location beacon. How would she know about that? And why would she be concerned about this watch anyway? Moreover, the episode reveals that she’s multilingual – which would be quite an asset for an undercover operative – speaking German so as her kids wouldn’t overhear about the watch. Clint even texted her to run a background check on Duquesne’s shell company, Sloan LTD. Come to think of it, Laura’s always been comfortable with the idea of being married to a secret agent turned superhero, hasn’t she? And she definitely treated Natasha like a member of the Barton family, too.

All of this suggests that Laura is more than a mere housewife, And if the Rolex belongs to her, then Laura may not even her real name. So what if she’s actually the MCU version Bobbi Morse, codenamed Mockingbird? Yes, technically there’s already a Bobbi Morse in the MCU who starred in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., who had been married to someone else and had no ties to Clint Barton whatsoever. Then again, it’s questionable whether Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is even part of the official canon of the MCU. Thus it’s likely that Hawkeye could pull a retcon and reveal that Laura Barton is the real Bobbi Morse, instead.

But even if Laura isn’t, the odds that she’s a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent turned homemaker is very high. And we will very likely will find out more about her mysterious past, along with her husband’s, either next episode or in the finale. One thing for certain: if Clint doesn’t take care of things soon, the Barton household could wind up having a few uninvited guests for Christmas.

Any other potential clues or Easter Eggs that we overlooked in episode four of Hawkeye? Let us know what they are, and what you think they mean, down in the comments section.