Marvel‘s Echo is finally here on Disney+ in all its five-episode glory. The delayed spinoff of Hawkeye and Netflix’s Daredevil is being presented as a standalone watch that you don’t need to have deep knowledge of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to understand. But you might need some knowledge about the show itself, which is where this Echo ending explained comes in.
Specifically, woven throughout the five episodes are various threads that include residents of Tamaha, Oklahoma, as well as the deep history of women throughout the Choctaw tribe, and some mysticism that skirts the line between mythology and your run-of-the-mill superhero origin story.
So, let’s get into it. First, a little bit of recap on the season as a whole, and then the Echo ending explained.
Echo Recap: What Happened In The First Season Of Echo?
Here’s the short version, with all the side trips and various montages of Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) riding her motorcycle around town cut out. After shooting her “uncle” Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) in the face in the finale of Hawkeye as revenge for Fisk, aka The Kingpin, having her father (Zach McLarnon) killed, she’s fled back home to Tamaha.
She’s come home for two reasons: one, a train passes through town that heads directly to Kingpin’s weapon storehouse, and she wants to blow that up; and two, this is where she’s going to start her ascent to Queenpin of Crime. The former happens, the latter does not, as Fisk is mostly recovered from his massive head wound, and comes to Oklahoma with an offer: join him, and together they can rule the galaxy. Or at least all crime in New York (and a small town in Oklahoma).
Maya refuses, and as payback, Kingpin kidnaps her grandmother and cousin. Escalation! But while that’s happening, Maya is riding her bike out of town. Sorry, recapped one bike montage, my bad.
Meanwhile, throughout the series, Maya has been somehow connecting with her Choctaw ancestors – brave women throughout history who changed the course of the tribe. We’ll get back to that in, oh, I don’t know, the next paragraph or so.
Marvel’s Echo Ending Explained:
In the final episode of the series, a bunch of different things happen. First, Maya discovers that her grandmother, Chula (Tantoo Cardinal), and cousin, Bonnie (Devery Jacobs), have been taken by Kingpin. She heads back to town to find them but instead runs into the spirit of her mother.
Back in the premiere of the series, Maya’s mother died in a car crash, which also took Maya’s leg. In the finale, the spirit of her mother returns to explain that she is part of this line of ancestors and she can… Wait for it… Echo them. Her mother, it also turns out, isn’t a healer in the sense that she helps people through things so much as she can make yellow energy glow from her fingers and literally heal people and birds. Presumably other things, but we only get to see the people and birds.
Not only that, but Maya discovers a superhero costume Chula made for her.
The final showdown happens at the Choctaw Pow Wow, a public fair-type event that Kingpin is going to… Blow up with a rocket launcher? After he kills everyone with machine guns, and murders Maya’s grandmother and cousin in front of her? Weird plan, bro.
It goes wrong because Maya uses her Echo powers to summon the strength of her ancestors, and, er, echo that back into Chula and Bonnie. They help take out the thugs while Maya’s actual Uncle, Henry “Black Crow” Lopez (Chaske Spencer), shoots a guy in the face, and her cousin Biscuits (Cody Lightning) murders a whole slew of bad guys with his monster truck.
Does Maya Kill Kingpin In Echo?
Kingpin, enraged, goes to attack Maya. Instead, she uses her mother’s healing powers to make Wilson confront his deepest trauma: his abusive father. She urges him to let it go, but he can’t, despite flashing to various scenes from Netflix’s hit show Daredevil. I would certainly let go of my lifelong trauma if someone showed me scenes from Netflix’s hit show Daredevil, but you do you, Wilson.
Fisk immediately leaves town, unsure of what Maya did to him. And Maya decides to stay in Oklahoma with her family. She’s no longer the crime hopeful Queenpin raised by Wilson Fisk… Maya is Echo, the resonance of her ancestors and a member of her extended family. Good for her.
And just to answer the question above: no, Kingpin does not die. In a post-credit scene, New York’s own Pat Kiernan tees Wilson up for the idea that — presumably in Daredevil: Born Again — he should run for Mayor of New York. Honestly, not a much worse scenario than what we currently have, to be honest.
All episodes of Echo are now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
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