Disney Plus Echo season 1, episode 1 recap “Chafa"

Echo season 1 has premiered on Disney Plus and we have a lot of ground to cover about our main character Echo AKA: Maya Lopez. Episode 1 sets up a lot of exposition, which includes her childhood and how her life changes after one fateful car accident.

Let's dive in and learn more about her first encounter with Daredevil and if The Kingpin is still alive!

Echo season 1, episode 1 recap – Maya's childhood

If you are unfamiliar with the Choctaw and their culture, the opening sequence will confuse you greatly. But it's not long after the story of the first Choctaw people is told, that we are introduced to child Maya and her cousin Bonnie playing together, while Maya's parents and grandparents have a nice evening living in Oklahoma.

Things take a turn when Maya's grandmother notices a specific bird, which we also see in the retelling of the Choctaw story while leaving that evening. That same evening Maya asks her mother, who is also deaf, for hot chocolate.

Unfortunately, they are out so Maya, and her mother decide to pick some up. In the process the brakes fail and they get involved in a car accident that kills Maya's mother.

At the hospital, we learn that Maya's grandparents are her mother's parents. Her grandmother blames the accident on her son-in-law.

As Maya recovers in the hospital, having lost half of one of her legs, she blames herself for the accident. Due to this incident, Maya and her father leave Oklahoma and move to New York City, where her life changes forever.

Echo season 1, episode 1 recap – All caught up

Maya learns at a very young age how to defend herself and with the help of a prosthetic leg, she grows up to become quite the fighter. After a day of boxing, where we see how she uses her intuition, strength, and ability to study her opponents' every move, she returns home to find Hawkeye (though she doesn't know this is him at the time), killing everyone, including her father.

Filled with rage she causes a scene and is almost arrested but her uncle The Kingpin bails her out. He decides that she needs to use her rage for good use by getting a job.

So, she becomes a practical killing machine. It is during her first "job" that she meets and battles Daredevil, with him getting the upper hand.

The Kingpin finds the introduction of this unknown masked man disturbing. Sometime afterward Maya learns the truth about how The Kingpin planned and technically caused her father's death.

We then follow the events of the Hawkeye season 1 finale, where she then proceeds to shoot him. But does the Kingpin die?

Echo season 1, episode 1 recap – Maya's current predicament

Now that we are all caught up, what happens next? Because Maya "killed" The Kingpin she cannot stay in New York and decides to return home to Oklahoma.

On the way, she suffers from a stab wound but is able to just barely make it on her motorcycle. Her initial reaction is to see her cousin Bonnie, who is an EMT, but she decides against it.

Instead, Maya gets aid from a mortician. Unfortunately for Maya, she has no job, no direction and it seems word got around back home about what happened to The Kingpin.

They do not want to bring a vicious war to their doorstep, but little do they all know, The Kingpin did not die. Much like Carl in The Walking Dead, he is shot but survives, losing an eye in the process.

Will he seek revenge? Echo's troubles seem to be just beginning.

Echo season 1, episode 1 review

As a whole, this was one episode that really tried to get as much exposition out as possible. At times Maya's story was told very smoothly and naturally.

However, other times it felt very rushed and nearly crammed in order to get by, so that we can move on to the actual story. I'm glad they took the time to set up the timeline of events, making it quite clear that Echo is taking place after the Hawkeye season 1 finale.

Admittedly, I find Maya's story to be incredibly tragic. Although we do not know much about her father and his family, it is pretty obvious his family is nothing but trouble.

Their illegal or underhanded dealings in the world are definitely the catalyst for Maya's entire upbringing. But that doesn't mean she's some villainous, anti-hero.

Now that she knows the truth and can attempt to start over, she has the potential to become a hero for herself and others. The fight scene choreography was top notch and I look forward to when Maya and Daredevil meet again, if they even do.

Although this might be just a minor detail, I couldn't help but notice that as much as The Kingpin loves and cares for Maya, he never learned ASL (American Sign Language). The first time we see Maya and The Kingpin in his limo together, discussing her need for a job to get her rage out, utterly surprised me for one reason: the interpreter.

Is The Kingpin's love and care for Maya so misguided that he couldn't be bothered to learn ASL?

What did you think of Echo season 1, episode 1? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

You can watch Echo season 1 on Disney Plus.