Review: Echo, "Lowak" | Season 1, Episode 2

Hey free subscribers—some wonkiness on the Substack backend meant that yesterday’s first Echo review (which you can read here) didn’t arrive in your inboxes like it was supposed to, so I’m extending the “free preview” ethos to this second review as well. Subsequent reviews will arrive daily for paid subscribers, and you can read more about our Winter 2024 schedule here.

Now that’s more like it! After a premiere that felt caught between establishing a new show and rehashing Maya Lopez’s uneven path through Hawkeye, “Lowak” actually offers a cohesive, distinctive point of view. The premiere’s lack of lived-in worldbuilding or likable supporting characters gets course corrected here, as the town of Tamaha, Oklahoma swiftly snaps into focus. And though there’s not much plotting beyond a big train heist, this episode at least provides some reassurance that Echo intends to do more than just revisit old MCU plot points in rushed montage.

That starts with a totally unexpected opening prologue that takes place at a sporting event in 1200 A.D., in what will eventually become Alabama. It’s an intro that confirms the premiere’s Choctaw origin story wasn’t just a thematic table setter but an active part of this season’s plot. And, more importantly, it’s the kind of historical scene I can’t remember ever really seeing before—not just in superhero storytelling, but in television in general.

It's rare that the well-trod superhero genre can actually pave new ground, and it’s exciting to see Echo do so here, cleverly using the sports setting to give an immediately relatable “in” to ancient Choctaw history. The prologue also suggests that Echo intends to embrace a mystical element to its storytelling, as we learn that the descendants of the first Choctaw, Chafa, have inherited magical glowing hand powers from her, and that includes Maya via her grandmother Chula (Tantoo Cardinal). It also presumably that means Maya’s deceased mom and her cousins Bonnie (Devery Jacobs) and Biscuits are on the table for potential powers as well.

Indeed, though it took me until a rewatch of this episode’s “previously on” segment to realize that roller rink owner Henry (Chaske Spencer) is Maya’s paternal uncle (who presumably got connected with Fisk at the same time Maya’s dad did), the overall structure of Echo is starting to take shape now. There’s the side of this show connected to grounded small town life (Bonnie, Biscuits, and pawn shop owner Skully), the side connected to Choctaw mysticism (Chula and her ancestors), and the side connected to crime (Henry and Fisk). And at the center of it all is Maya, trying to choose which direction her life goes now that she’s free from Fisk’s emotional manipulation.

For now, that means hijacking some train cargo and blowing up a warehouse full of (at least some of) his old crime empire crew, which is honestly pretty villainous, even for an MCU antihero. Still, Alaqua Cox’s performance comes alive this week as she’s paired with a supporting cast who unlock different sides of Maya’s personality. While she’s all-business around Henry, her cousin Biscuits and her (pseudo? literal?) grandfather Skully (Graham Greene) bring out a warmth and playfulness from her, which is more than welcome. If Echo is going to be a show about Maya rediscovering the parts of herself she lost after her mother’s tragic death, it’s nice to see hints of her warmer childhood personality here.

As for the big train heist itself, it’s… fine? It’s not a top tier Marvel action sequence by any means, especially since it’s shrouded in darkness in a way that feels less like an aesthetic choice and more like a way to hide any CGI flaws.1 But it gets the job done when it comes to proving Maya’s mettle, introducing her new superpowers, giving Biscuits some comic relief beats, and exploring how Maya’s prosthetic leg can be both a help and a hindrance when it comes to her vigilante activities. Plus it gives Cox the chance to expand beyond her Hawkeye stoicism and embrace a sense of roguish swagger instead. For as impractical as her exit strategy may have been, Cox is great in the moment Maya flops into Biscuits’ truck bed with a smile on her face.

Of course, the big benefit of a binge-drop is that there’s less pressure on any one episode to deliver a totally satisfying action scene when viewers can just move on to the next hour immediately. And while I was initially worried that Disney was trying to bury Echo by releasing it all at once, I now think the binge-release was more so a way to give the show the best chance to thrive. This episode functions so much like a proper pilot that it’s almost impossible to imagine judging whether or not to watch the series based on the premiere alone. I just hope viewers made it this far to see that.

Stray observations

• The MCU timeline has always been fuzzy, but Maya’s childhood prologue is set in 2007 and everyone keeps mentioning she’s been gone for 20 years, so I guess the MCU is currently set in 2027?
• It took me several rewatches to catch this, but Chula works for the post office and that’s why the steering wheel on her truck is on the right side. 
• I love that Maya always wears her hair up when she’s going to doing something physical. It makes so much more sense than all the female superheroes who wear cascading blowouts into battle.
• The scene with Graham Greene pointing the white cultural tourists towards Anthropologie was really funny and a great example of the endearing energy that was missing from the premiere.  
• Rutherford Falls’ star Jana Schmieding pops up as Chula’s hilariously passive aggressive neighbor, which, again, feels like the sort of worldbuilding detail that could’ve livened up the premiere.
• It’s really tragic that Chula’s hatred of William spilled over into an estrangement from Maya as well. The way Chula only worries about how Maya’s reappearance might impact the two grandchildren she actually cares about is so harsh.
• Henry’s a welcome addition to the canon of superhero crime contractors. He’s not ruthlessly ambitious or secretly sadistic, he seems to just genuinely want to keep a steady job and do right by his employees.