The debut of the Echo series on Disney+ expands the character and culture of Maya Lopez! The show is under Marvel Spotlight with the graphic violence warning. It is directed by Sydney Freeland who also directed two episodes of Reservation Dogs. It is written by a group including series creator, Marion Dayre, Josh Feldman, Steven Paul Judd, and Ken Kristensen. Dayre was the executive story editor and writer for Better Call Saul. Kristensen was the story editor and writer of the Netflix The Punisher series. Maya Lopez was introduced in the second episode of Hawkeye, “Hide and Seek” (2021). The character first appeared in Daredevil #9 (1999) by David Mack and Joe Quesada. The beginning features a disc of swirling blue energy, the Sacred Hoop?
In a misty, gold-rimmed pool, a woman emerges with clay-like skin, this is Chafa (Julia Jones). The actress played Leah Clearwater in the Twilight films. Others emerge in the cave and Chafa drinks from a pool that sends energy around her arms and into her palms. A woodpecker hands on right hand. It flies off when the cave starts to collapse, Chafa tries to hold up the cave ceiling, when we fade to white. She holds up her hand to see the outside world with grass and green trees. The clay falls from all of them, now with clothes, and Chafa says, “Follow me” in the Choctaw language. The narration by a young girl, Bonnie (Wren Zhawenim Gotts) says in whispers that she was the first Choctaw and the others turn to her as she walks from the mound, Nanih Waiya, all part of the Choctaw creation story.
Bonnie tells the story through shadows on a tent with her cousin, Maya (Darnell Besaw). Maya signs that they are sisters before thunder rumbles overhead. At the front yard before a camp fire, Skully (Graham Greene) tells about Biscuit’s father signing while he talks. He is the step-grandfather of Maya. Greene starred in three episodes of Reservation Dogs as well as the “Kin” (2023) episode of The Last of Us. Next to him is Chula Battiest (Tantoo Cardinal), his wife. Cardinal appeared as Lizzie, the mother of Mollie Burkhart, in Killers of the Flower Moon. On the other side is William Lopez (Zahn McClarnon) and his wife, Taloa (Katarina Ziervogel). McClarnon starred as Big in Reservation Dogs. Ziervogel was one of the writers of the sci fi film, Finality of Dusk (2023).
We get the setting, Tamaha, Oklahoma, the setting and backstory of Maya is more developed in this series than the comic book where she was originally Cheyenne. Skully says that Biscuit’s dad loved peaches, holds his wife’s hand, and William and Taloa also hold hands turning to see the tent. Skully and Chula drive away in their truck noting that Biscuit was sick. Chula sees a woodpecker on a wooden post before it flies away. In the kitchen, William worries about the kids in the storm. Taloa says they will be out in five minutes. There is a knock at the door as Bonnie enters saying the rain got through the tent, I know this from camping! Maya signs that they need hot chocolate and her mother says she will have to go to the store. I like the sign language so much, it feels more personal, loving than simple talking, I wish the whole show was told through it.
Taloa adds that Maya should come with her. Chula wrings her hands and Skully asks her if it is the ancestors. Taloa smiles at Maya and finds that she can’t use the brakes! Another car’s headlights glare and tries to honk when they crash! This is so shocking I hope that th audience should be prepared if anyone has been in a similar accident. The collision, breaking glass, the side of the truck is crushed. A shard of glass is buried in Maya’s right leg, her face is streamed with tears, she turns to see her mother’s bloody face! Day, we see a nurse checking on Maya in a hospital bed with her amputated leg. Chula and Skully walk up as William stares into her room. He says he hasn’t told Maya about her mother’s death. In the comics, her mother just left the family.
William says he has “taken care” of the person who cut the brakes. Chula says she begged her daughter not to marry him, the Lopez boys are criminals. She tells William that she will never forgive him and wants him to go away. William says his brother, Henry, has found a job for him in New York. A powerful scene; Cardinal’s anger is shown in her face, then the despair in McClarnon’s face. He goes to check on his daughter, she has drawn a smiley face of Bonnie, Maya blames herself for her mother. This one hurts. He signs no. Later, William lifts Maya from her wheelchair to his truck. Chula watches with Bonnie. At the passenger side, Maya signs that she wants Bonnie to go. Strange that the grandmother is ok that her granddaughter goes with her father whom she thinks is a danger.
Bonnie tries to run after her as Maya signs Bonnie’s name. New York traffic, Maya is in a classroom, we saw in Hawkye that William said he couldn’t afford a deaf school for her. I think there would at least be a teacher’s aide for her. At night, they are playing shadow puppets, and Maya signs if dragons are real. He signs no and that they are in a different world. William signs that Maya has to go between worlds. We find Maya at the Brooklyn Karate Academy signing that she wants to be like her father. In his red tracksuit, William signs that she will have a better life. She sees him give an envelope to another member of the Tracksuit Mafia. Her face is pinched by another man, we know from the third episode of Hawkeye, that this is Wilson Fisk, (Vincent D’Onofrio), The Kingpin! D’Onofrio last played the character in the finale of Hawkeye.
She bows to her opponent and this shifts to the older Maya taking down her sparring partner in a boxing ring. Maya rides her motorcycle to Fat Man Auto Repair and ducks as a battle takes place. This was also in the “Echoes” (2021) episode of Hawkeye. The assassin, Ronin, brutally slaughters Tracksuit Mafia members. She sees Ronin plunge his katana into her father, he breaks through a window, as she sees William die. He puts his bloody hand on her face, the imprint was painted in white in her comic book identity as Echo. She later stands at her father’s grave and Bonnie texts her that she will be there for her. Maya just leaves. At night, she is about to take a red motorcycle, and thn surrounded by police cars. This part is entirly in silence: Maya uses her hair scrunchie to send the motorcycle crashing into a police car!
A car pulls up and we see the white suit of the Kingpin of Crime! He takes Maya from police custody. In his car, he tells Maya that his father was killed when he was twelve, sitting next to the Kingpin, a woman signs for him. I think this is his wife, Vanessa Fisk. She walks over to two men in suits, part of the Black Knife Cartel, by a bar. They walk over to a security guard who has them identified by a camera. He checks them and then lingers on checking Maya. She slams him against a wall. Maya is shown a video of the people they are going to kill. The leader knocks on a door and says, “The Kingpin thanks you for your loyalty”, the guard shoots the other with a silencer-fitted gun and opens the door. He is given a gun and bursts into a room shooting. The action becomes muffled into silence as Maya watches the killing.
ECHO - - “Chafa” - - ALAQUA COX - - Photo: Chuck Zlotnick. © 2023 MARVEL.
One of the men tackles Maya and she grabs his head, a thumping heart, Maya snaps his neck - her first kill. She is flurry attacking others and then sees the security guard again! Maya thrashes the poor guy and then dodges a club sent by a shadowy figure, Daredevil (Charlie Cox). Daredevil was last seen in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. It is impressive that Maya holds her own against Daredevil. Still, she rushes into a weapons cage, but Daredevil is too quick. He slams down a shelf trapping Maya. At his dinner table, The Kingpin is impressed by Maya’s skills and says they ar family. Quick flashes of Maya in Hawkeye. Ronin reveals himself, it is Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) who says Kingpin ordered her father’s death. This was in the fifth episode, “Ronin” (2021). Then, we have the last episode of Hawkeye, “So This is Christmas?” (2021), Echo shoots The Kingpin without remorse, and we hear his body thumping to the ground.
It is "5 Months Later”, at a gas station, Echo rides up on her motorcycle, and then checks the bloody wound on her stomach. She wraps a bandage on it gasping in pain. Echo rides on, blood on the engine, an impressive shift from day to night, into Oklahoma Native America. Her eyes become drowsy with the wound and she almost slams into a truck! Maya returns to the house and flashes back to playing with Bonnie at tent. She takes the house key from a brick and enters. At the bathroom, she stitches the wound, again gasping before falling in bed. She sees visions starting with Chafa. In the morning, Maya is on a couch looking at a photo of the family. She hears someone coming and draws her gun. The person is knocked down, she looks at him, the man is Biscuits (Cody Lightning). Bearded and dressed in shorts. Lightning starred, wrote, and directed the comedy, Hey, Viktor! (2023).
He hugs her and then signs that she has been gone for 20 years. His dog, Billie Jack, barks and he explains that Maya is his cousin. Maya is still suspicious. There is something funny, light, about Biscuits from the previous drama. She signs that she is there for business and wants him to keep her stay quiet. Maya rides into downtown Tamaha. She stops to watch a basketball game at the fire department. It is the older Bonnie (Devery Jacobs) who heads over to her ambulance. I do like Bonnie has a healer, the opposite of Maya. Jacobs played Elora Danan Postoak in Reservation Dogs alongside McClarnon. Named after the character in Willow (1988) love it! Maya heads over to Black Crow’s SkateLife rollerskating rink to the “Angel in a Centerfold” by The J. Geils Band, 80’s staple. It is disco with young kids using walkers to help them skate.
She walks over to the skates window, the attendant, Vickie (Thomas E. Sullivan) sprays down skates, and Maya is annoyed he doesn’t notice her! Maya rings the bell several times and points out the photo of a man on the wall, Black Crow (Chaske Spencer). She turns to see that he is a dj and leads her to his booth. He has a green light and red light game going for the skaters. Maya signs she wants to meet in private. The attendant texts that he has information on the “King killer.” Black Crow realizes that Maya has run into trouble and he brings in Gretchen (Daktota ay Hebert) to help with the wound. He notes that Gretchen is the mortician(!), Maya shows her the wound that has pus, infected! Afterwards, Black Crow takes her to a station above a water tower and shows Maya a telescope that is pointed at Bonnie. He signs that if Bonnie finds out that Maya was there without telling her that her heart will be broken. Black Crow is conflicted, wanting to prevent The Kingpin bringing a war to Tamaha, but it is inevitable! Echo has a formidable cast taking Maya Lopez on her path of revenge to what must be redemption!
#Echo, #SydneyFreeland, #MarionDayre, #JoshFeldman, #StevenPaulJudd, #KenKristnsen, #AlaquaCox, #DeveryJacobs, #CodyLightning, #ChaskeSpencer, #GrahamGreene
#TantooCardinal, #VincentDOnofrio, #ZahnMcClarnon, #KatarinaZiervogel, #WrenZhawenimGotts, #DarnellBesaw, #CharlieCox, #JeremyRenner
