Today, I continue my look at Christmas Villains from television productions. The MCU has been a bit bumpy lately and that is rather evident with their TV shows. For every WandaVision, there’s a Secret Invasion. Hawkeye was the third Disney+ MCU show and it was the first Christmas entry in the franchise (if you don’t count Iron Man 3 as that was released in May) and yes I do know that technically Wilson Fisk/Kingpin is the true villain of this show but a couple of things, he doesn’t show up until the finale and considering he is played Vincent D’Onforio who previously played the same character in the Netflix Daredevil, it felt rather wrong to focus on him for this event when focusing on Eleanor Bishop I believe makes for a more interesting entry considering that she is the mother of the co-lead of the show.
Now I’ll admit I don’t much about her comic book counterpart though I do understand that she is believed to be deceased and another big change they made to the MCU Bishop family is they cut out Kate’s sister, Susan.
While it is disappointing to see her cut (perhaps she’ll show up in a future project considering what the end of The Marvels hints at), it makes sense from a storytelling perspective to not have her in this show as a large aspect of Kate’s arc is her relationship with her mother and how fractured it is by the end of the series. Being able to focus on that without another sister in the mix doesn’t muddy the waters having said that though, I do think Susan could have worked in the show as the older sister who doesn’t want to believe what Kate is saying about their mother or who knows and has been keeping this secret as she doesn’t want the image her little sister has of their mother to be tarnished. It is a small idea but it is a way that Susan could have worked but I do understand the decision to not include her.
Actor
Vera Farmiga
I’ll be honest that I believe this is the first thing I’ve seen Farmiga in anything. She does a good job with the role that she is given though from what I understand from looking at Elenaor’s entry on the Villains Wiki, this is not the first time Farmiga has played a villainous mother as notably she also played Norma Bates in Bates Motel. So, that tells me that she is good at this type of role.
First Appearance
We first see Elenaor in the prologue to the TV show and this is important to her character for many reasons, first, we see a little Kate eavesdropping as her parents are arguing and we learn that Eleanor pointing out to her husband that she didn’t grow up with a plush lifestyle and had to fight for what she has. An important factor for this prologue is that it happened during the Battle of 2012.
During this time, Eleanor loses her husband and that reshapes her into the person that we see throughout the series as someone who wants to have control over every little detail of her life including her daughter. This need for control is in many ways her biggest downfall.
Personality
Eleanor is a driven woman who as I mentioned wants control over everything and we see this when she thinks she can just up and walk away from her deal with Wilson Fisk. That is perhaps mistake number one but she was in this mess because her late husband owed the Kingpin a massive debt that she was trying to pay off.
This ties into perhaps the biggest aspect of her character, Bishop is a loving mother who wants to protect her daughter and that is why she wants to walk away. And while I do believe that she truly does love Kate, I feel as though there are moments when she undermines and underestimates the capablity of her daughter. Throughout the whole series, I get the impression that she doesn’t view her daughter as an adult or as a hero. This is perhaps best exemplifed when Elenaor is arrested in the finale and what she says to her daughter as she is bing carted away.
Is this what heroes do, arrest their mothers on Christmas?
The disdain in her voice speaks volume and this says that she still sees her daughter as the young girl that first asked for a bow and arrow and not the young woman she has become. In this respect, Clint was the first person to see Kate as a young woman and it’s sad that it took someone from outside of Kate’s family to see her this way.
Grand Desire
Elenaor says that she is trying to protect her daughter and to an extent I beleive she beleives that. But there are many other factors at play such as how she hired Yelena to kill Clint Barton as he was getting too close to figuring out what was happening. This along with how she set Sloan Ltd as a shell company shows that Elenaor is the type of villain that doesn’t like to get her hands dirty.
This ties back into how Elenaor is the type of person that wants to have control and everyting tied up in a bow and becomes unraveled when she doesn’t have control over things . It reminds me of something my parents taught me that if you can’t control it, don’t worry about it. Seems Elenaor never learned this lesson.
Most Evil Deed
I believe Elenaor’s evilest deed is two-fold. First is the assassination of Armand which is cold-blooded as she killed someone as she was oredered to by Fisk but the truly awful part of all of this is that she allows her daughter to think her fiancee Jack is the guilty party and allows for him to be arrested to keep her tracks covered. And to take this further Armand was Jack’s uncle. Sure they didn’t exactly get along but still to allow him to take the blame is so cold and ties back into how she has to have control.
This again ties back into hwo she has to have cotnrol over everything.
Demise
I already touched upon this but after Kate has an intense fight with Kingpin and walks away.
Her mom does run the car into him but we learn that Kate called the cops to report her mother for the murder of Armand and that is where she asks Kate “Is this what heroes do?” And yes it is, Elenaor didn’t seem to think that this would catch up with her which is rather humrous considering how after we see Kate damage a clock tower in the first episode, she warns Kate that she isn’t invincble and that is a lesson that she seems to have forgotten.
The only thing Kate can do in this moment is tell her mom that she loves her. A bit of a tangent but this reminded me of the end of Tangled when Gothel is killed and there is a breif glimpse where you see Rapunzel still cared for the woman that she thought was her mother. Though this is almost worse as this is Kate’s biological mother and yes this is what heroes do, they do the right thing even when it hurts and even if it is a family member.
Is Elenaor Bishop A Good Villain?
She’s an interesting villain and I do hope that we get to see more of her in the future and what her relationship with Kate is like now. As I imagine Kate has been established as Hawkeye for a while now and would her mother still treat her the same way even after she has proen herself as a hero. And what is she like now in an evnivorment where she doesn’t have an semblence of control. Join menext time as we head back to the world of The Santa Clause by looking at the villain of the first season of the TV show.
Simon Choski
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