Marvel’s Echo is here, with all five episodes now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. The latest Marvel Cinematic Universe entry is the first to receive a TV-MA rating and the first under Marvel’s Spotlight banner, implying that fans don’t necessarily need to be up to date on all the happenings of the MCU.
After meeting her in Marvel’s Hawkeye, we rejoin Maya Lopez to learn more about her past and see what her future holds after her falling out with the infamous Kingpin. The second episode gets further into Maya’s story and further away from the typical MCU project.
The episode opens with a look back in time at the Choctaw tribe in a game of what appears to be the sport that would eventually inspire lacrosse. We learn during the game that they are competing with another tribe, with the loser being banished form the land. We follow a Choctaw woman in the game who, with the game on the line, appears to have visions of the first Choctaw people and her hands begin to glow. She becomes briefly imbued with superhuman abilities that allow her to score the winning point.
After the title sequence, we rejoin Maya as she is awaken by a visual alarm in her new temporary home. She sees a message from Biscuits letting her know he has arrived. He delivers groceries to her but she looks past them and asks questions about his truck, which he has borrowed from their grandmother. She also gives him a shopping list and, after he appears reluctant, she hand him a roll of cash that convinces him.
Biscuits enters a pawn shop that is seemingly run by their grandfather. He watches as his grandfather messes with some tourists and intervenes to help him close a sale. Biscuits then asks for a small camera, in addition to the other various items he is picking up for Maya.
Chula, Maya’s grandmother, plans some kind of event with other citizens of the town when one of them mentions Maya being back in town. Chula is clearly caught of guard by this news but she doesn’t say anything. Meanwhile, Biscuits arrives at Maya’s house and she asks him to go for a ride in the truck. Again he is reluctant but she convinces him and they drive off.
Chula heads to the skating rink, where she meets with Henry, who Maya met in the previous episode. Henry tries to keep as much information from Chula as possible, telling her she doesn’t want to know what Maya is up to. He also says she’s just passing through town and Chula hopes that is the case, while also mentioning she specifically hopes Bonnie doesn’t find out she’s back.
Biscuits drives Maya to an overpass, where she gets out of the car and asks for his phone. She programs a tracker and asks him to follow her before jumping off of the overpass and landing on a passing train. Biscuits sees Maya hanging onto the train and gets in his truck to follow her.
Maya scouts out the train, which is guarded by several armed men. She makes her way past them and works her way underneath a car marked D9-X. From there, she drills a whole up into the car and inserts a camera to scout it out. Once she finds what she’s looking for, she cuts her way in, locates a case and opens it. Once she’s done, she seals the train car back up and leaves.
Maya works her way toward the back of the train but gets her prosthetic leg pinned between two cars. As she struggles to pull it out, she has a vision of her ancestors, both from the game in this episode and the first Choctaw people in the first episode. After having this vision her hands begin to glow and she is able to force her leg free.
She gets to the back of the train just as Biscuits pulls up in the truck. Noticing there is a tunnel coming up, Maya has to jump from the train into the truck, cracking the windshield and causing some more damage. Biscuits tells her he hopes whatever she stole was worth it and she informs him she didn’t steal anything.
We then jump to New York where the train has arrived, seemingly delivering a shipment to Kingpin’s people. We see a team opening a crate from D9-X and finding a bomb, which explodes and takes out the entire building. Maya really has started a war against the Kingpin’s people.
Back in Oklahoma, Henry receives a call and heads to his shipping yard where he is greeted by two of his employees. They tell him about the explosion and he tells them not to worry and that he’ll handle it. He also sends a text message to Maya telling her they need to talk.
Maya visits her grandfather at the pawn shop and asks him to make her a new prosthetic leg. It’s clear their relationship is not quite as strained as the one she has with her grandmother. He gets to work on her new leg while Maya tells Henry, via text, that she simply hit Fisk’s people back. He warns her they’ll know it was her and she assures him “they can’t do much with their armory melted.” Maya’s grandfather returns with a temporary leg and she thanks him before noticing a statue of Chafa on one of his cases. He tells her the story of Chafa again and tries to repair the relationship between Maya and her grandmother by telling her to ask her for more information. Maya brushes it off though and asks him to let her know when her leg is ready.
Chula sees Biscuits drive by in her severely damaged truck on his way to work where he attempts to sell his old PlayStation to get the money to fix it. The only response he gets though is from Bonnie who asks if everyone is okay. Biscuits lets Maya’s name slip and Bonnie immediately asks for more information. Biscuits tries to play it off but it’s clear Bonnie is now aware Maya is in town.
Maya sits on the roof of her house when Henry pulls up and demands they talk. He tries to tell her she’s creating chaos and that people are going to die. Maya assures him she’s in a position of power and wants to know if he is with her or against her. He tells her to lay low before he leaves. Maya turns to see an old swing set that sparks a memory of being young with Bonnie. At the same time she gets a text from Bonnie asking why she didn’t tell her she was in town. She becomes enrage and begins firing a gun at it, a vision of her ancestors popping up with each shot as the episode comes to a close.
This second episode certainly featured a fair amount of action while, at the same time, not feeling like the typical MCU project. There was a lot of good character development here and the stage is well set for an exciting back half of this series.
All five episodes of Marvel’s Echo are now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.