Warning: Contains spoilers for Hawkeye episode 5.

In Hawkeye episode 5, “Ronin,” Yelena and Kate Bishop have a chat where Yelena repeatedly uses Kate’s full name, and the choice has a deeper meaning than it might appear. Yelena was first introduced in Black Widow and her appearance in Disney+’s Hawkeye TV series was teased in one of Marvel’s post-credits scenes. While Yelena’s eventual arrival in Hawkeye has conformed to the playful aspects of her Black Widow introduction, the show subtly hints at her true character.

After her appearance at the end of Hawkeye episode 4, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) appears in Kate Bishop’s (Hailee Steinfeld) apartment. She has made herself at home and invites Kate to eat mac and cheese with her, pointing out that if she wanted to hurt her, she would have done so already. During the laid-back conversation, Yelena jokes around before clarifying that she plans to kill Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) because she has been hired to do so and she blames him for Natasha’s death. Throughout the conversation, Yelena repeatedly uses Kate Bishop’s full name and when Kate asks if Yelena is just using it to prove she knows about Kate, Yelena says yes.

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Yelena demonstrates that she has done plenty of homework on Kate before this appearance in Hawkeye, listing off her accolades and history. However, Yelena’s use of Kate Bishop’s full name is likely also tied to her Russian heritage and Russian naming conventions. Russian names have three parts, the first name, the patronymic name (e.g. Ivanovich: son of Ivan), and a surname. To address someone by only the first name is considered casual and suggests a familiarity, whereas using someone’s first name and patronymic name together is more formal. While the surname would normally not be used to address someone directly and would only be used in writing or third-party conversation, as Kate Bishop, because of her family and heritage, does not have a patronymic name, Yelena is using her first name and surname together to denote a formality to the whole affair.

Yelena enjoying mac and cheese with hot sauce in Hawkeye

This gives a whole new layer to the Hawkeye scene between Yelena and Kate. Yelena appears relaxed, laidback, and friendly as far as Kate can tell and it slowly leads her to let her guard down and accept the food and conversation. However, Yelena’s use of the full name for Kate Bishop suggests that a lot of her behavior is a more conscious performance than it might appear but the tell is only notable to someone familiar with Russian naming conventions and modes of speaking.

The use of the formal form of Kate Bishop’s name in this situation gives an insight into the bigger picture of how Yelena is approaching what could be an extremely personal and emotional mission. Yelena also refers to Clint and Natasha during this scene and, like Kate, she uses their full names as Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff. While she has never met Clint and her disdain for him might explain the use of the formal name, she was well acquainted with Natasha. The fact that she uses Natasha’s full name as well makes it clear that she is compartmentalizing her mission and working to keep her Hawkeye task purely professional and not letting her familial ties get in the way.

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Hawkeye releases new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.

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