The Game In Echo Episode 2 Is More Important Than You Think
Contains spoilers for "Echo" Season 1, Episode 2
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has tackled mythology, historical events, and street-level superheroics before, but "Echo" combines all three by connecting Maya "Echo" Lopez (Alaqua Cox) to her Choctaw ancestry. The first episode of the Disney+ show draws a line from her to the creation of the very first Choctaw people. The flashback of Episode 2, on the other hand, looks into a highly specific moment in history. The viewers meet Maya's temperamental ancestor Lowak (Morningstar Angeline), a star player who faces a formidable enemy in a high-stakes ball game where teams wield netted sticks to get the ball in the opponent's goal, and the losing team is banished.
The scene sets up a particular power Maya taps into during the train heist scene — a boost of physical prowess that resembles the one Lowak summons to win the match. However, ancestral superpowers aside, the game itself has plenty of significance. The teams are playing Choctaw stickball, aka Ishtaboli. Even the modern version of the game can get pretty physical, but in the past, the Choctaw used it for various purposes, from keeping warriors and hunters fit to settling disputes as a (comparatively) safe version of actual combat.
The sport's similarity to lacrosse isn't an accident, either. In fact, a similar Iroquois game is the original inspiration behind lacrosse as we know it.
The implied location is as meaningful as the game
The round of Choctaw stickball that "Echo" focuses on is particularly important since the winner gets to stay in the lands the game is played on — Alabama, circa 1200 A.D. So, why is this particular area so important to Lowak and her people? "Echo" Episode 2 doesn't quite spell it out, but the time and the rough geographical area offer a potential explanation.
The playing ground is located in a riverside settlement dominated by a vast, rectangular, artificial-looking hill. This is likely one of Alabama's old earthwork mounds constructed by the first indigenous people in the area. Based on its size and its clear importance to the Choctaw people, this may be the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Nanih Waiya – a particularly large mound associated with the Choctaw origin myths. As such, the location would tie Lowak's scene even more firmly into the first episode's Choctaw origin story.
It's worth noting that the real Nanih Waiya is located in Eastern Mississippi instead of Alabama, though. With that in mind, the mound we see in "Echo" may be a fictionalized version, or the MCU might be deliberately avoiding identifying a culturally significant real-life spot too clearly.