Written by Geoff Johns
Directed by Akiva Goldsman
Hank: "What you're suggesting. You're not like me, Donny. This would be us looking for trouble. You never liked trouble."
Don: "So teach me how to like it."
To be fair, this episode really should've been titled Hank & Don & Dawn as we got the original Dove's backstory and he was a wonderful character to watch but after an underwhelming first episode that debuted this aviary themed pairing, I was a little apprehensive about another spotlight episode for them.
Fortunately, this was an episode that was far better than Hawk & Dove (still this season's dud episode for now) but like that episode, this was another rather dark, somber and violent affair. I did wonder why Hank had some clear anger issues in his previous appearance. This one cleared that up with a rather predictable but still handled well storyline of child abuse at the hands of an evil football coach.
Hank was able to spare his younger brother from being abused by the coach but lied that he himself wasn't a victim, which lead to his hedonist and violent behaviour, resulting in both brothers eventually getting expelled from college and becoming the vigilante pairing and getting their names out there and surprisingly, in a correct fashion.
It's a shame that this pairing was clearly a short lived one as Hank's first meeting with Dawn in the street resulted in the deaths of Don and Dawn's own mother. Still though, their shared grief found the pairing connecting with each other and when Dawn discovered the truth about Hank's vigilante origins and past trauma, she took matters into her own hands.
I'm not going to criticise either Hank and Dawn for killing that coach, even if it initially put a dent in their romantic and working relationship. Despite still having some issues with Hank's characterisation in parts, this episode did largely succeed due to the strong chemistry between Alan Ritchson, Minka Kelly and Elliot Knight, all of whom did an excellent job as our main heroes this week.
It's because of the strong performances I could deal with the lack of continuity from the cliffhanger of the previous episode. Saying that, we did have Raven at various points trying to communicate with Hank and Dawn, resulting in the latter waking from her coma and telling Hank that they needed to find Jason Todd. Given that we got clips from him in the previously on bit, I'm almost surprised the episode didn't end with him appearing to be honest.
- Aside from Raven, none of the other regulars appeared this week. The title sequence even featured Hank, Don, Dawn and the football coach.
- Dawn's mother was played by Star Trek: The Next Generation's Marina Sirtis, who couldn't break out of an abusive relationship prior to her death. We also got to see Dawn's ballet skills and we had that nice moment with her and Hank enjoying afternoon tea. The second Hawk, Holly (Dawn's sister) also got a mention here.
- Nice little bit of fanboy stuff with Don wearing a Superman t-shirt at one point in this episode.
- Chronology: I guess from where Donna Troy somewhat left off, though next week's episode is picking up on that and giving us Starfire's backstory.
Hawk & Dawn is probably the kind of episode that could've been left until the show's second season as it did take away from the cliffhanger of the previous episode but as a diversion, it worked a lot better than expected. It's a shame that Don was killed off, instead of having him just outgrow his Dove persona but he was definitely one of my favourite guest stars we've had in this season so far.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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