Summary
The Echo finale is a decent thematic payoff, but the low stakes and lack of action can’t help but feel a little anticlimactic.
The ending of Echo is personal, and this seems right for a season that has been quite impersonal for most of its run. What were tokenistic teases of an underexplored mythology in previous episodes coalesce into an actual point in Episode 5, where Maya “defeats” Kingpin not by overpowering him but by subjecting him to the parts of himself he has been terrified of acknowledging.
Thematically, this is a powerful way of addressing Maya’s ancestry and trauma while also entwining her arc with Fisk’s, showing how she was finally able to embrace her pain and fears in a way that he wasn’t. She outgrows her “uncle” and realizes in the process that she doesn’t need the power he represents to feel fulfilled – she can find that in her family, those still living, and those lost along the way.
These themes crop up immediately in the cold open when we see how Maya’s mother was a healer. The power of the Choctaw manifested through her as a way to bring living things back from the brink, symbolized in a bird that Maya accidentally injures as target practice. This bird becomes something of a totem throughout the finale, leading Maya to where Kingpin is holding Chula and Bonnie hostage.
It’s revealed quickly that Fisk didn’t leave Oklahoma after Episode 4. Instead, he remained behind and used the cover of the Choctaw Nation Powwow to snatch up Chula and Bonnie to lure out Maya. Since she rejected his offer to join him, Fisk now wants to punish Maya in the most painful way possible. This feels like something Kingpin should be doing as a villain, but he doesn’t get a chance to flex much before, as in Hawkeye, he’s defeated once again without much ceremony.
Where does Maya get her powers?
When Biscuits texts Maya to tell her that Chula and Bonnie are both late to the powwow, she immediately intuits something is wrong and makes her way back to Tamaha. On the way, she runs into a vision of her mother, who heals her in the same way she did the bird. But it isn’t “healing” in the strict physical sense. She’s calming Maya’s rage so that she can see the bigger picture, which is that she, like her mother, channels the spirits of her ancestors all the way back to Chafa. The Choctaw people echo – cue Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the TV meme – through her.
Maya’s mother directs her to the traditional outfit Chula made for her and implores her to wear it to fight for her people, with all the gifts bestowed upon her by them. And Maya does.
How does Echo Season 1 end?
The final confrontation between Maya and Fisk is a little disappointing. Maya is able to transfer the Choctaw powers to Chula and Bonnie, who help her fight off Fisk’s goons, but the sequence isn’t edited very well and it’s hard to see what’s going on. Outside, Henry kills Zane, and Biscuits drives a monster truck over Zane’s hidden men, but it’s all over in a flash.
Thematically things fare a little better. Maya uses her mother’s “healing” powers on Fisk, transporting him back into his memories of childhood, recognizable for Daredevil viewers. She implores him to let go of the pain he experienced from his father’s abuse, the rage he felt when he killed him, and the anger he has unleashed on everyone around him throughout his adulthood and rise to power. But Fisk isn’t capable of doing that. When he comes to, he’s mostly just confused about what Maya did to him, and his last remaining employee spirits him away before the police arrive.
Season 1 of Echo ends with Maya finally joining her family for dinner.
Echo Season 1 Mid-Credits Scene Explained
There is, of course, a mid-credits scene in Echo, but it’s underwhelming. In it, Fisk, while on his private plane, watches a news broadcast about how New York is clamoring for a mayoral candidate who is a real “fighter” rather than a politician.
Fisk quite clearly gets the idea to run for mayor of New York as the season comes to a close.
RELATED: Echo Season 1 Recap
