May 13, 2015 Kerry

This is Your Sword

**This post contains spoilers for episode 3.22 of Arrow, “This is Your Sword”**

I never thought I’d see the day when Thea Queen was the only one making any sense on this show, but this is that day. And I’m mostly glad that the one person everyone tries to protect and coddle is the only person not pulling her punches, so to speak. She never asked Oliver to sacrifice himself, and I’m glad she finally said it out loud. You go, Thea!

This episode of Arrow started with a particularly inelegant reveal that Oliver is not truly brainwashed — I am so surprised that six weeks of… starvation? waterboarding? didn’t make him completely forget his friends and family — by having him visibly react to the news that Maseo is the one who supplied R’as al Ghul with the same deadly virus that killed his son, Akio. I want to reiterate one more time that it does not matter that Oliver isn’t brainwashed. He’s still killing innocent people and he still endangered Lyla’s life, for the greater good doesn’t cut it anymore.

I think this show made a mistake when they tried to trend away from the gritty on-the-streets vigilantism that put them on the map. They’ve been trying to go Bigger Picture by introducing the League and getting R’as al Ghul interested in Oliver on a personal level (which still makes no sense) so that now Oliver is making decisions for everyone. He’s not Superman, and he was never supposed to be. He’s supposed to be a localized vigilante, the protector of his own city, who only gambles his own life for the greater good. We can’t even count on one hand the other lives he’s gambled this season, and for what? The characters barely mention Sara anymore, I can’t even remember the last time Oliver talked about her. Isn’t that where this all started? With Sara’s death? By Malcolm’s hand? But no one’s thinking about Sara anymore (Laurel is, of course, I know she is, so don’t attack me, Laurel fans!) and no one except Thea is holding Malcolm accountable for bringing this mess to their doorsteps.

Speaking of Malcolm, he’s the one who is sneaking to Nanda Parbat, which I guess is next door to Starling City based on how quickly everyone always gets there, to help Oliver with his infiltration of the League. Of COURSE the faux-brainwashing was Malcolm’s idea. Oliver gets the bright idea to send Tatsu, a woman none of his friends have ever met, to convince his team to come to Nanda Parbat and destroy the virus. Tatsu, who is amazing, talented, passionate, and smart… takes time out of her busy day to tell Felicity that she was Oliver’s last thought on the mountain. More and more, this is feeling like fanservice and not like authentic character moments.

I have to say that part of the reason this show is such a slog now is that Felicity is constantly. crying. She used to be the light of the show, but now the show has taken that concept in a more literal direction and they’re using her as the Optimistic Beacon of Hope that Oliver is still out there. Laurel accuses Felicity of being sanguine when really, Felicity is just telling herself that the Oliver she loves is dead now. This show was better when there was balance, when there were light moments of humor and banter in between the darkness of death and revenge, and Felicity was often the source of that sort of light. Now it’s all just constant doom and gloom all the time, much like my reviews.

Nyssa continues to treat her impending nuptials as if it’s her execution, and things only get worse when R’as decrees that she will bear Oliver’s child. *shudders* The League is so gross, and R’as is the grossest of the gross. He continues to threaten Nyssa with torture and pain if she doesn’t go through with the wedding, so really, he and Malcolm are probably in the running for the Father of the Year award on this show.

There’s a pretty good fight sequence in the field where the team successfully takes down the plane that supposedly bears the virus, but it turns out R’as still has the virus and they’re all taken into custody, where Malcolm promptly tries to turn on everyone. In a way, it’s pretty amazing. But mostly awful.

The most hilariously tone-deaf aspect of this episode — of the entire season — is how the drama hinges on Felicity finding out about Oliver’s upcoming wedding. She is crushed. Just devastated. The music swells, she looks thunderstruck and heartbroken, and you’re made to believe that this is it, this is truly the worst thing that’s ever happened to Felicity Smoak.

A wedding. A sham wedding. She’s devastated by a sham wedding, when Oliver’s been threatening and kidnapping and killing for the last few weeks. Those things are just sad, but a wedding, whoa boy, THAT is the true tragedy. (She’s gonna be hysterical when she finds out about Oliver’s secret Central City kid.)

Things get even more tone-deaf when Oliver pulls Diggle aside to try to talk to him and Diggle rips him a new one about trust and respect, and how Oliver has lost both of those things as well as his friendship. I really, truly hope Oliver’s actions from last week are long-reaching, as David Ramsey has hinted, because I’ve just about had it with everyone forgiving Oliver for these “morally grey” decisions.

And then the whole Al Sah-Him contrivance unravels even more when R’as, after Malcolm’s betrayal, finally considers the possibility that Oliver might not be totally loyal to him and the League. You know. After he spent a year bullying and torturing Oliver into joining the League. R’as makes Oliver unleash the virus on his friends, and they all cry and scream at him as he seals the room.

They all fall asleep very slowly and dramatically as Oliver weds Nyssa. We are genuinely supposed to believe they are dead, and then it’s totally ruined by the promos for the next episode, where everyone is very much alive — and angry.

There was nothing really wrong with this episode (aside from the tone-deaf scenes, which at this point are just part and parcel of the storyline) except that it’s a pretty lame climax to a very lame season-long story arc. We’re supposed to care about Malcolm’s motivations, but we don’t. We’re supposed to be cheering for Oliver, but we’re not. Felicity, the “normal” point of view for the viewer, is too wrapped up in dramatics and hysterics to really follow, and Laurel was pretty much sidelined emotionally, again, even if she did have more screentime in this episode. Digg is the only one we can really relate to, but we’re probably not, as the viewers, supposed to be so angry with Oliver.

Other notes:

– RIP Maseo Yamashiro, who was killed by Tatsu. He thanked her for freeing him from his prison. I feel terribly for Tatsu, but I could watch an entire episode of Katana fighting bad guys.

– Ray secretly transferred ownership of his company to Felicity. I’m not willing to suspend my disbelief long enough to buy that Felicity would sign documents without reading them, and I still distrust Ray enough that I feel like these are for nefarious reasons, even though the writers insist he’s a Nice Guy.

– Nyssa tries to stab Oliver during the vows, which makes her my new hero.

– Despite Laurel being kind of relegated to a backseat role, Katie Cassidy really held her own in this episode.

– There was a cute Felicity scene during the big battle where she tossed her broken tablet at a bad guy and momentarily grinned when she thought it worked to stop him — until he turned to reveal an arrow in the back from Malcolm Merlyn. Felicity: “Oh. That makes more sense.”

– Yes, Oliver and Nyssa are officially married, and yes, Oliver took time out of his honeymoon to go to Central City last night and help Barry with his Reverse Flash problem. I can only imagine the Flash writers sitting down to write this episode with a couple of Arrow writers and being like “Wait… WHAT did you to do your own show? How are we supposed to work with this?”

– Celebrate! The one great thing that came out of this episode is that Thea is now Arsenal! I’m gonna cling to this morsel with the hope that next season will be better than this one.

May 5, 2015 Kerry

Al Sah-Him

**This post contains spoilers for episode 3.21 of Arrow, “Al Sah-Him”**

I have great news! I didn’t hate every single aspect of this episode! It’s refreshing, really, because I know these reviews have gotten very doom-and-gloom of late, and the silver lining is that we are almost at the end of the line. Our long national nightmare known as the R’as al Ghul storyline will hopefully be a distant memory. (That’s me being optimistic.)

How great were Nyssa and Laurel? And I’m not even saying it in a “Nyssa was great, and Laurel was there!” kind of way, I mean I genuinely liked both of them in this episode. I think for a long time what Laurel really lacked was a good dynamic to bring a new dimension to her. All we see is her dealing with grief and fallout from other people’s actions (Oliver, Tommy, Quentin, the list goes on and on and it’s filled with men) and reacting accordingly. I didn’t always agree with her reactions, and eventually it got redundant because she never got new material. It felt like every time Katie Cassidy got a new script, it basically said “grief and anger” and that’s about it. She got a reprieve for a while when she got to actually be a sister when Sara was around, but then Sara was tragically taken from us and Laurel amplified her grief and anger. Even her short-lived arc with Ted Grant (why did he leave?) was fueled by vengeance.

But as we saw on The Flash a couple weeks ago, it IS possible for Laurel to smile, to banter, to talk about something other than all of the injustices of the world, even if it’s just for a minute. Cisco Ramon has that effect on people. And thankfully, someone got the message because we got to see Laurel palling around with Nyssa, eating fast food and sipping milkshakes and just chatting like normal friends. It really demonstrated that when Laurel isn’t written just to frame Oliver’s story, she’s capable of being dynamic and interesting.

It doesn’t hurt that it was fun to see Nyssa out of her comfort zone, dipping a fry in a milkshake and making an amazing face of intrigue and slight disgust before she tasted it.

Even when it all went downhill, and Laurel finally broke the news of Oliver’s ascension to the League Throne, we got to see the best aspects of both characters as the events played out. Laurel stayed fiercely loyal and protective, searching for alternatives and refusing to back down, while Nyssa bravely accepted her fate and went off to battle like the warrior we know and love. Laurel’s refusal to trade Nyssa was endlessly endearing, and I’m pleased to say that the only good side effect of this whole R’as al Ghul fiasco is that I’ve softened my opinion on the Black Canary.

So that was the great news. Unfortunately… that’s the extent of it.

When an episode starts with Oliver stabbing a hallucination-version of Diggle through the heart, that doesn’t make me think “Oh, thank God, it was just a hallucination!” It makes me certain that Oliver is capable of killing his best friend and brother. They did this to raise the stakes for the showdown later in the episode, but after a weak 30-second montage of Oliver getting tortured and laying sideways in a cell, it’s just awful. I find it hard to believe that someone who survived on an island for two years (at least) was so easily breakable — that it was so easy to make him stare blankly at his friends and family.

He’s instructed to remove his rival heir to the throne without mercy, and Nyssa warns Diggle and Felicity before going to face the fight. They’re all horrified when Oliver shows up on a rooftop and doesn’t seem to recognize Diggle and Laurel.

The hard part about watching Felicity and Diggle’s steadfast faith in Oliver’s ability to withstand brainwashing is how wrong they end up being. Either Oliver really isn’t as strong as they think he is, or he is only pretending to be brainwashed; if it’s the latter, then he still abducted the mother of his godchild and almost fatally stabbed Diggle in the ensuing gun-and-swordfight. Either scenario is likely, because let’s face it, this wouldn’t be the first time Oliver endangered loved ones For The Greater Good.

But the long-reaching consequences of his brainwashing are damaging to the structure of the show, because Oliver is a powerful weapon in his own right. If he’s capable of being manipulated and brainwashed into a killing machine (sort of like Roy when he was on Mirakuru) then that means he’s innately vulnerable for the rest of the series. The conceit of the show up to this point was that Oliver’s heart was his biggest asset as a hero. If that can be taken away by a few weeks of vague “reprogramming techniques” then what do we even have to hold onto as viewers? So really, either scenario is terrible in my mind.

How many times are we going to have to hear “Oliver, this isn’t you!” before they accept that this is who he is now. And I don’t mean this expressionless, wooden R’as al Oliver from this episode, I mean the Oliver we’ve been dealing with ever since Sara died. He’s lied and manipulated and treated his friends and loved ones like crap, because he’s been convinced all along that he knows what’s best for everyone. When Felicity extends this plea to Oliver in that warehouse, she’s wrong. He’s standing there facing off with his friends in a R’as al Ghul costume because that is who he is. There was no cosmic force of events that led him to being in that place at that time — it was all choices he made on his own, aided and abetted by Malcolm Merlyn.

Increasingly, Felicity’s insistence of Oliver’s steadfastness and strength of character began to ring false as the episode wore on, and not because she didn’t believe it, but because we were tired of hearing it. We are tired of hearing the excuses, even from Diggle, for Oliver’s actions over this season. At this point, I can’t think of an endgame or resolution that will make me okay with anything that’s happened.

If things weren’t whisky-tango-foxtrot enough as it was, the episode ends with R’as sparing Nyssa her life at the last minute (for the head of an assassin organization, he sure is sparing a lot of lives lately) and then demanding that Oliver marry Nyssa to “unite our families.” Nyssa, of course, would rather die, and I don’t totally blame her. She definitely got the crappy end of that deal.

Lastly, the family scene with Thea, Felicity, and the Diggle family was admittedly cute. It’s really important that the show is finally having Thea and Felicity communicate closely. It’s also important to note that Thea is in infinitely more pain than any of the rest of them. Oliver was the last vestige of her family, he was her champion and ultimately her hero, and the only reason she doesn’t feel alone in the world right now is because of John and Lyla thoughtfully taking her in. This is something that I absolutely want to continue seeing, no matter what happens with Oliver in the future, because I am sick and tired of seeing Thea be treated as an afterthought or a pawn by these writers.

Other notes:

– The Canary Cry was a letdown. Sorry.

– Did anyone else notice the weird blocking in this episode? A lot of staring off in weird directions, walking across rooms pointlessly, turning away from other characters at odd beats… it was all very awkward.

– R’as mentioned Damien Darhk, which has caused the internet to predict that we finally know the identity of Felicity’s long-lost father. More importantly, he’s presumably the leader of H.I.V.E., thus he’s likely the Big Bad for season 4. Here’s hoping they cast this villain correctly.

– “What is a black and white milkshake?”

– “I will not cower in the shadows, waiting for death.”

– In the flashbacks, they manage to take down an attempt to release a virus, but unfortunately it’s already taken hold in Hong Kong. The episode ends with Akio falling ill.

– Lyla was a total badass during the fight scene.

– I love that Thea was the one to stop Oliver in the end.

– Oliver is killing now, by the way. Ultimately, Tommy’s death meant nothing after all.

– Felicity finally breaks the news to Thea that Roy is alive, and she gives Thea his contact info and the choice to move away and start fresh, or to stay in Starling City and continue grieving.

– And, surprise! R’as wants Oliver to unleash the exact same virus from the flashbacks on Starling City! Because apparently Starling City is a modern-day Alexandria! Time truly is a flat circle.

Tomorrow night: going to the chapel and we’re gonna get maaaaaarried! It’s funny to me because I actually imagine it going a lot like any of those KGB spy marriages. Or, like, Oliver and Nyssa sitting in marriage counseling. C’mon. If you don’t laugh, it’s just tragic.

April 28, 2015 Kerry

Nanda Parbat, Sex Club

Note: Apologies for not posting a recap last week, I had every intention and then I fell ill.

**This post contains spoilers for 3.20 of Arrow, “The Fallen.”**

There have been rumors floating around ~~my Twitter feed~~ that season 3 is just one giant alternate timeline gambit, and that thanks to The Flash and his ability to time-travel, we will be hitting the reset button and reliving the entire season in a newer, brighter, League-less fashion. I don’t believe that theory, honestly, but I want to believe it, especially after this week’s episode.

When you find yourself at a crossroads in your life, you should always consult a reliable, trustworthy person to advise you and guide you in your time of need. Say you’re considering a move to a new city, or you’re choosing between your dream job and the love of your life, or you work up the nerve to tell your hairdresser, “I want blunt bangs!” You need someone there whose sage advice will help you make the right decision, to guide you through the process, or to put a comforting hand on your shoulder and say “Oh honey, no, you don’t have the face for blunt bangs.” This person will ideally be:

– 100+ years old
– a ruthless murderer
– a relentless bully
– an absentee father
– creepy
– unable to pronounce his own name
– owner of a fountain of youth
– questionable at interior decorating
– incapable of being in a long-term romantic relationship

If you think this is a ridiculous set of criteria for a wise advisor, well, you must think you’re SO MUCH SMARTER than Felicity Smoak, who is a certified genius. Surely if such a person is good enough for Felicity, he would be good enough for you! So next time your life partner decides to go head up a team of ruthless killers, just hop on over to Nanda Parbat, confront “Race” al Ghul, then stand there all silent and defiant as he doles out some unsolicited advice about love, life, and the perks of the one night stand! Nothing can go wrong!

And hey, don’t forget to drug your partner against his express wishes after the awkward sex, so that you can determine what is best for him.

Honestly, the promotion for this episode was 30% Thea getting healed and then leaping out of the Lazarus Pit, and 70% “OLICITY SEX!” with blinky lights and glitter bombs. And as a metaphor for the entire season, BOTH storylines fell flat in an almost spectacular fashion. Thea was momentarily confused, then disoriented, then sad. Malcolm was there. It was hot. A lonely gray couch. “Oh look!” cried Ned. And the kingdom was his forever, the end. (Sorry if you don’t get that reference… I’m a little punchy.)

So naturally, even though Thea deserved to be the main focus of her own death episode (Oliver got three episodes dedicated to his death and resurrection!) production saw fit to just wring out every last vestige of characterization from Felicity and Oliver. Her reasons for going to him were twisted and felt gross, since it was on dubious advice, and the scene itself was stilted and… A friend described it as almost “wholesome” which is not exactly a word you want to ascribe to a steamy sex scene. There was a distinct lack of passion, and it was one of the few times that the viewer can feel themselves watching actors portray characters instead of watching characters be themselves. This is not the Oliver and Felicity of seasons 1 and 2. This is awkwardness, or discomfort, or phoning it in. Maybe it’s on purpose. Maybe the reset button people were right.

And honestly, fandom should be more upset about Felicity drugging Oliver against his will. If the roles were reversed and he had drugged her, that’s all anyone would be talking about this week. As it is, if they were going to the extreme of having Felicity do something so out of character, they should’ve at least used the opportunity to have Oliver rethink his actions in the past. If he didn’t like having someone else try to dictate what was best for him, maybe he would stop trying so hard to “protect” his sister, or Diggle, or Laurel, or Felicity. But of course Oliver, Professional Agency Stealer, immediately forgives Felicity once he quickly and miraculously comes to at the right time, because her heart was in the right place. They’re just baiting me now.

Felicity goes and cries on Laurel’s shoulder, which actually feels like a more meaningful moment for Laurel than anyone else, until you consider the fact that Laurel deserved to be part of the proceedings as well. Why did she have to stay home while the team trooped to Nanda Parbat? Is she part of the team or not?

I can’t believe that a year ago, we were deeply mired in the Mirakuru plot. Episode 2.20 was when Moira was killed, and that was an amazing and tragic episode. Everything after that was full throttle, and we knew we were heading for an epic showdown. What are we aiming for here, exactly? Who is Oliver’s enemy? It should be Malcolm Merlyn, or “Race” al Ghul, but he’s teamed up with both of them right now. What is the endgame? What are we hoping for? Because everything I hoped for is gone — there is nothing left of the characters I once loved, the characters I once wanted to defend to death. There’s no good story to tell when your characters have been compromised in unchangeable ways.

Besides John Diggle running around being all amazing all the time, there’s literally nothing else to talk about from this episode. Oliver is officially becoming the next R’as, and we’re supposed to be excited about that. I will say that the stunts were better in this episode, don’t say I can’t find a silver lining!

I can’t wait for this season to limp into the hiatus. I hope they spend that time getting their act together.

Bonus: Tumblr has a sense of humor about it.

February 20, 2015 Kerry

“I keep my promises, kid.”

**This post contains spoilers for episode 3.14 of Arrow, “The Return.”**

I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is that, Malcolm Merlyn aside, much of the present-day stuff in this week’s Arrow was almost up to par. There were familiar faces, island scenery, a ridiculous booby trap, and some much-needed truth-telling from Oliver. Unfortunately, there were also flashbacks… and the only good things about the flashbacks were Andy Diggle and the incredible Tommy Merlyn. (Sorry, Felicity fans, but you might want to skip this post. I promise this will hurt me more than it will hurt you.)

I couldn’t even write about last week’s episode, aka the Oliver Steals Everyone’s Agency Episode. He was downright awful to Laurel, and he even did it to Roy! It was all just bad, and I think it was a misuse of Caity Lotz when there is still so much of Sara’s story that we don’t know. I will say that Katie Cassidy knocked that one out of the park, but I couldn’t bring myself to write an entire post slamming the episode and then have one paragraph that said “At least Katie was awesome! Go Laurel!” So I’m saying it now: Katie was awesome. Go Laurel!

The only reason I had any sort of hope for this week’s episode can be summed up in two words: Slade Wilson. I don’t even know why I held out hope for him — whether it’s because his season 2 storyline was so great that his face just reminds me of why I loved this show, or whether it’s because Manu Bennett just seems to elevate the show indescribably — but he was definitely a sight for sore eyes. And his scenes with Oliver and Thea brought back a lot of the frenetic action that’s been sorely lacking this season. People like Malcolm and Ray Palmer, they’re calculated and precise, to the point that they get boring. Malcolm Merlyn is boring, his particular brand of psychopath is no longer intriguing because we spent all of season 1 exploring that. There was no outcry when he was gone, because the character arc stopped being interesting the moment Oliver thwarted him.

Slade Wilson’s brand of psychotic is still refreshing, somehow. It helps that his vendetta is focused solely on Oliver, and everyone else is just collateral damage. He’s not acting out of selfishness or self-preservation, he’s still reacting to the love he lost, and he’s willing to die or trade his freedom just to watch Oliver suffer. Malcolm is not that intriguing — selfish characters are not that interesting. Show me a selfish lead character on a show that is fun to watch or is beloved! There aren’t any, that’s why the Bad Boys with a Heart of Gold is even a trope, because people want to believe that selfish people are actually acting out of love. Malcolm isn’t doing that, he’s never done that, even the Undertaking wasn’t really about his wife, it was about control at first, and eventually it became about power.

Slade, on the other hand, has never exclusively wanted power. Power, via his Mirakuru army and Sebastian Blood, was a means to an end. Power was what would enable him to torture Oliver Queen. He’s acting out of love, not just for Shado, but for the betrayal he felt from his brother-in-arms. He even said it in this episode: “Maybe if you’d told me what really happened with Shado, your mother would still be alive.” In this respect, Slade is the killer counterpart to Moira Queen. Everything Moira did, she did out of love for her kids. In a way, and I say this grudgingly, it’s kind of poetic that she died by Slade’s hand.

(Sidenote: Did the writers ever think about that aspect of Sara’s death? That Oliver chose Sara over Shado on that island all those years ago, sealing his fate with Slade and leading to the events of season 2, only to have Sara die for no reason by Malcolm Merlyn? It actually cheapens Shado’s sacrifice. And if and when Slade finds out about Sara’s demise… there will be hell to pay.)

So I was hoping Slade’s presence would bring back some of the energy and pace of the second season, especially in regards to people finding out certain secrets, and it worked for the most part. Thea freaks out when Oliver finds out that Malcolm had freed Slade just to turn them into murderers, and it eventually forces Oliver to tell her the truth about Sara’s death: that Malcolm had drugged and manipulated Thea into doing it.

They have a fantastic tag-team fight to take down Slade, who holds his own even without Mirakuru now, and Thea has him at gunpoint when Oliver stops her and talks her down. Together, they manage to overcome Malcolm’s ministrations and continue to honor Oliver’s promise to Tommy after he died. That, of course, means nothing to Malcolm. And just when you think this episode is going to fix the fundamental problems with the show… Oliver and Thea go and agree to continue working with Malcolm, because they need him so badly. You know. For the mess he created. Sigh.

I’m sad to see Slade go, but I’m happy that he’s still alive, and I loved his interactions with Thea (he seemed to grow to respect her over the course of their encounters; she’s not the same girl he kidnapped only eight or so months ago) and his last conversation with Oliver.

Slade: “She’s lost, your sister.”
Oliver: “No, she’s not.”
Slade: “You can see it in her eyes. She’s been touched by darkness. Was it Merlyn? He’s an interesting man, to do that to his own daughter. So now you’ve lost your father, your mother, and now your little sister. How’s the girl in the glasses? What’s her name? Felicity. How many people can Oliver Queen lose before there is no more Oliver Queen?”

I’ve got news for you, Slade: there already is no more Oliver Queen. This guy is not the same Oliver we saw for the last two seasons, or the Oliver we see in flashbacks. This guy is just a travesty… and Felicity is the least of his problems. (I like how Oliver immediately says Thea isn’t lost, like just by saying it, it must be true.)

Nonetheless, the Slade fan in me appreciates how he can just cut right to the core of Oliver, and I think if Oliver weren’t so wrapped up in his League of Assassins stuff, he’d realize that that was, and still is, Slade’s intention all along: to turn Oliver into himself. Slade lost all the people in his life, so he’s no longer Slade Wilson. And from what he’s seen, the last link to humanity lies in Felicity Smoak, which is why he says her name like a threat.

Which goes to show that even Slade Wilson underestimates the importance of John Diggle in Oliver’s life.

Hey! Speaking of Diggle — we met Andy this week! We only saw him for a minute, just long enough to establish that Andy got Diggle the Rich Kid Bodyguard gig, and that he thinks Diggle was a fool to divorce Lyla, to which Diggle dryly replies, “Thank you, Andy, I appreciate that.” Heh.

Tommy also appeared as an overbearing but good-hearted big brother figure (nice that he turns out to actually be her big brother) to Thea, who was already getting into drugs and acting out. She still goes to talk to Oliver at his gravestone, which is sweet until her drug dealer meets her there. Oliver, who is back in Starling this week for really dumb lampshaded reasons, watches appreciatively from afar as Tommy intervenes. Tommy also flirts adorably with a radiant Laurel, and I had honestly forgotten how delightful they were together until now.

If I could choose one other person to be in flashbacks, it would be Moira. I feel like that deserved a long, resounding DUH after that statement, but unfortunately, this show decided to cater to the lowest common denominator and have Oliver have a near-brush with… Felicity. Who talks to a terrifying picture of him… and calls him “cute” even though he’s dead. It was painful and weird and bad and I hate when shows retcon and rewrite history to have people crossing paths in contrived ways, but the shippers are eating it up. The cynic in me thinks this crew really knows how to manipulate the fanbase.

Oliver kills Thea’s drug dealer, probably causing a lot of emotional and mental harm to his little sister along with the fact that he kind of ruined Tommy’s party, then throws a fit when Waller won’t let him stay in Starling. The only reason Oliver even survived this season of flashbacks is because Maseo is repeatedly sticking guns in his back to keep him from doing stupid things.

They end up capturing China White and turning her over to military custody, with a particularly villainous looking Army guy telling Oliver that he will be debriefed in China before they drop him off wherever he wants to go. Oliver doesn’t seem to notice that Waller seems scared of the Army guy, but we do know that China White somehow makes it out of custody and that Oliver never makes it back to Starling City until the day he’s rescued. Presumably.

The only good thing to come out of the flashbacks is the video Oliver found of his father, Robert, telling him about the list. So that’s one mystery solved, clumsily, but solved nonetheless. I appreciate the casting for Oliver’s father, when he talks, he has a lot of the same mannerisms and facial tics as Stephen Amell, and that’s when the resemblance really comes through.

Quentin was awful in the flashbacks, but in a realistic way. He was deep into booze and blaming the world for his troubles, and it played painfully but accurately; it shows the tremendous growth he’s made since then. Unfortunately, present-day Quentin is really mad at Laurel, not for donning the mask or becoming the Black Canary, but for lying to him for months. He tells her she broke the bond between them, and he leaves for a separate AA meeting from hers. And I’ll just end with this observation: This is the same sort of secret and breach of trust that created the Slade Wilson we know and love today.

Next week: It looks like everyone takes a field trip to Nanda Parbat. Hopefully this ends with Malcolm Merlyn’s demise. Also — ugh — ATOM stuff.

February 18, 2015 beccadearie

I Need a Hero

*Warning: This post contains spoilers to CW’s Arrow Episode 3.13 “Canaries.”

Last week, was one of the first weeks I did not loath Laurel. At the beginning of the episode, we saw Laurel taking out a bad guy Oliver and Roy were going after. Oliver confronts Laurel, and tell her what she is doing is selfish. Laurel replies that it is not selfish and “it’s what a hero would do.” This leads to the problem I have with the show. For some reason the show believes Laurel needed to lose her boyfriend and gain a drug habit so she could find her path to being a hero. Here’s the thing. Before Laurel’s part became mostly a love interest in season one, she was a hero. She fought for justice, and she didn’t have to wear a mask to do it. The people she brought justice to thought she was a hero. You don’t need to wear a mask and prowl through the night finding criminals to fight in order to be a hero. If that was the case, Felicity would not be considered a hero.

During the episode, Laurel gets stabbed with Vertigo by The Count (these are the times I miss ~~Lincoln Lee~~ Seth Gabel as The Count). Her nightmare is revealed as Sara, but in reality it is her doubt in ever becoming a hero like her sister. Illusionary Sara names all of Laurel’s flaws, tells her she will never be a hero, and asks why Laurel is trying to take her place. When Laurel comes to Felicity is there, and Laurel tells Felicity, “I was crazy to think I was fit to wear Sara’s jacket. So much as follow in her footsteps.” Felicity agrees with Laurel’s statement, and the reaction on Laurel’s face is priceless. She wasn’t expecting Felicity to agree. Felicity agreed because she knows Laurel does not face the demons Sara faced. Sara didn’t just wear the mask to hide her identity, but more to hide from who she thought she was. Laurel may have seen her sister as this hero, but Sara did not see herself in that way. Heroes generally do not see themselves as heroes. It what makes them a hero. For them it is a job. Oliver is seen as a hero, but he doesn’t recognize himself being one. He recognizes being Arrow as his job, and Sara was the same. They use fighting because that is what those five years being away taught them. Both of them lost so much of their humanity with those five years. They are/were slowly gaining part of their humanity back, but the demons will always be present.

The last vision Laurel sees from her second dose of Vertigo is Sara without her Canary outfit. The two sisters may not have always been on the best of terms, but Sara would never have been like the illusion Laurel saw and Laurel knows that.

What I do wonder is if Laurel went to see her dad the same night or not because Oliver must have taken her to get the second dosage of vertigo flushed out. She did seem to have all her faculties with her when she finally told Quentin the truth about Sara. Both actors gave their best performances with the scene and it was very moving. I do wonder if Laurel had not seen Lance accusing her of not telling him and Sara’s death, how much longer Laurel would have kept the secret. I guess we can thank Vertigo for something, but will we see any ramifications of nobody telling Lance the truth?

The episode had a couple of other revelations. The DJ was revealed to Thea as a member of the League of Assassins. I’m glad they didn’t bring out the story with him. By revealing who he was, then killing him shortly after made me see a glimpse of the second season where everything was fast paced. Stories don’t need to be drawn out, or visit points Q, M, and Z when going from A to B. The DJ served his purpose, and then killed himself. His purpose was to show Thea that Ra’s al Ghul was a real threat and she needed to be prepared.

The other revelation for Thea was Oliver being Arrow. The show did right with Merlyn in this episode compared to his his “redemption” story a couple of episodes ago. He was there when Roy and Thea couldn’t handle the DJ alone, and he was the one who told Oliver (what the audience has been screaming for a very long time) he needed to tell Thea about Arrow. Of course Thea also finds out Malcolm has known about Oliver for a while now, and whatever trust Malcolm was gaining with Thea is lost. The show uses Oliver’s voice when he tells Thea he is partnering with Malcom because it is the better of two evils. However, If Oliver does not also reveal to Thea what Malcolm did to her at the beginning of this season he may also lose her trust.

Oliver may have revealed to Thea he’s Arrow, but he is still trying to hide part of it from her when he tells her to leave the basement. Roy is the one who stands up to him, and tells him Thea should not be kept out anymore. When Oliver made the decision to tell Thea about Arrow he invited her into all of it. Oliver cannot comprehend his team not jumping when he tries to enforce Thea leaving, and Felicity drops another truth bomb. They all have their own voices, and the mission became even more theirs when they thought he had died. There’s no way they are going back to the way things were before Oliver left. Now Arrow is becoming more of a partnership than ever before. Oliver considered them partners before, but he still was the leader. He is able to understand the teams reasoning when Diggle lays it out for him. Felicity may drop truth bombs, but Diggle is the guru of understanding Oliver’s way of thinking and explaining how things are to him.

Nothing really happened in the flashback front. Maseo told Oliver to get back home before Waller could find him, but Waller found him and Maseo came back for Oliver. One of the last scenes we saw of the three was them entering Starling City. Home Sweet Home. A time where Tommy was still alive. This week will hopefully be a good week with Tommy and Slade appearances.

February 7, 2015 Kerry

Uprising

**This post contains spoilers for episode 3.12 of Arrow, “Uprising.”**

Everything is so bad right now, I don’t even know how to write about it. Should I stop? Should I stick it out in the hopes that it’ll get better? Can it get better? I think I’ve set a mental deadline for myself — if things aren’t amazing by the time Slade returns, I’ll be done writing about this show. It’s not fair to keep coming here and trashing something that, judging by social media, a lot of people are still enjoying. It’s getting exhausting. But I can’t sugarcoat my feelings, so the language gets worse, the writing gets more italicized and exclamation point-y, and I end up sighing with relief on Wednesday nights when I hear those blessed words: Previously, on The 100…

The funny thing is, I’m not angry about any of the things I expected to be upset about. I really, honestly thought that this batch of episodes would be hard for me primarily because of Laurel ascending to the Black Canary, but this week, she was the most inoffensive part of the whole episode. There was a snafu with her when it seemed like she actually wanted to team up with Malcolm Merlyn, but ultimately she cast her vote correctly, and my tiny bit of faith was restored in Laurel. I also thought Ray Palmer would be flitting around in this episode, but he was mercifully absent… unfortunately, it made way for other terrible developments and plot devices and ugh.

We didn’t see Oliver fight his way back. Did you know he was stabbed through the midsection, on a snowy mountaintop, and left for dead? Did you know someone dragged him all the way back to a cabin in God-knows-where to have him nursed back to health, sans magical herbs or a mythical healing pool? Did you know Maseo, and by extension Tatsu, risked everything for him? And we see, what — we see him get on a truck and half-heartedly ask Tatsu to come with him back to Starling. Then suddenly, one commercial break later, he’s back in his leathers, shooting people, bellowing at Merlyn in an alley, and moving around like he didn’t just recover from certain death. They made such a big deal about him almost dying, you guys, they pretended he was dead even though we knew better, they had the characters spin out of control in their grief, they had a madman take over the Glades, and Oliver just… appears. Mid-battle. And gives the most hokey, cringe-inducing speech on top of a truck. It was horrible. It was rushed, it was poorly edited, and worst of all, it was hackneyed.

Instead of going immediately to his team, who kept his image going for as long as they could while he was gone, Oliver went to Thea’s apartment to make a deal with the devil. We got to hear all about how Thea is now Malcolm’s redemption, except for the fact that he already ruined her. And Oliver just nods like this is totally normal language! Like, “Yes, I can see how this is a good thing, you know, you turned her into a killer and our mother wouldn’t recognize her today but sure, yeah, your redemption should totally hinge on my twenty-year-old sister who still doesn’t know the truth about Sara’s death! Hey, let’s get drinks later!”

His team barely reacted when he finally deigned to appear in the foundry; a couple of relieved looks, maybe a grin or two, and Felicity flinging her arms around his neck, but then things got so much worse. Felicity’s been fighting for the Right Thing since Oliver left, she and Diggle are holding the party line, but as the city falls into more chaos, Roy and Laurel have considered making exceptions. Felicity shouted them down.

And then Oliver comes back and the first thing he says is that he’s going to team up with the monster Felicity’s been facing down for weeks. It’s unimaginable.

I can’t even get into the horrible Merlyn flashbacks. Some of the scenes indicate that even Barrowman can’t make this crap work onscreen, and the anti-climactic showdown in the alley was just embarrassing for all parties. (No, I take that back, I think Vinnie Jones can hold his chin up after that.) Why bother doing a three-episode arc of a supervillain trying to take over the Glades, then throw in a random last-minute twist that Brick killed Rebecca Merlyn, then not even resolve the bigger issues around it?! The mayor kowtowed to a terrorists! The police were pulled out of that section of the city. That’s not even Gotham-levels of corruption and misplaced power, that’s just BAD. That’s just anarchy and death.

What was the point of twisting it so that Brick killed Merlyn’s wife? He didn’t even do it for a reason, he just needed someone to kill, so it wasn’t even a compelling backstory. It gave Merlyn a reason to kill him, but having him choose “correctly” doesn’t absolve him of the other horrors he’s bestowed on the people he loves. He killed his son. He turned his daughter, who still doesn’t know the truth, into a killer. He killed Sara and sent Oliver to his certain death. And Oliver made a deal with him? This is not Moira — this is not shades of right and wrong meshing and mixing in a gray area, this is black and white, this is manipulation and emotional abuse and Oliver actually making a decision that will turn him from an every-man hero into an Advocate for the Greater Good. And as Diggle rightly pointed out to Merlyn early in the episode — that makes him no better than Merlyn himself.

So ultimately, by the time the last scene rolled in and Felicity was standing alone in the alley as Oliver wandered over to her, I was done. I was livid, I was over it, and I was ready for the whole thing to implode. I’m so tired of this season, of the choices Oliver has been making for no good reason, of our beloved characters becoming warped versions of themselves… I was done.

I can put myself in Felicity’s shoes and picture falling out of love with Oliver Queen in that moment. Here is a guy who, despite the blood on his hands, I thought was a hero. I fought for him. I defended him to cops, to friends, to family, even to myself. He always did the right thing. He saved lives. He loved his mother and his sister, he defended his father’s honor, he chose not to kill in the name of his deceased best friend. He loved me back. He believed in me. He saved me. He armed me for a takedown, and I followed through. Things were good, and then they weren’t, and he pushed me away. I had to choose how to feel, and I tried to move on, but one of our close friends was killed, and that changed everything — that changed him. Suddenly he stopped believing in the good of people. Suddenly he started aligning himself with a criminal. He went to his death even when he knew it would hurt everyone, even when he knew it would leave his sister in the care of a psychopath. But he went anyway, and I asked him to fight, and he died. I mourned. I thought he was gone, but deep down, I wanted him to be alive, I wanted him to fight back and come back to me and decide life was worth living in the light, that being in the streets and in battle wasn’t fulfilling anymore, and maybe he deserved better… But he came back, and he said, “I’m going to work with Malcolm Merlyn.”

Yes. I can definitely see myself falling out of love with Oliver in that moment. At the very least, I can see myself hating him, and hating that he is who I love. I can see every reason behind Felicity’s speech, even if it was cruel, even if it was worded specifically to hurt him. He deserved it. As angry as I am at Roy for lying to Thea and considering aligning himself with Merlyn, as angry as I am with Laurel for even considering it for a moment, that’s nothing compared to the fury I feel when I think that Oliver is teaming up with the man who stole his sister’s agency, the man who killed Sara for no reason. Now Oliver is the hero Starling City has, but he’s certainly not the hero Starling City deserves. Not anymore.

Other notes:

– Thank goodness Sin was back, even if it was just for one episode. I love that character, and it sucks that they shoved off the “Hey that chick in black isn’t Sara” reveal to Lance on her, of all people, but at least he’s going to figure it out now. I kinda hope he tries to kill Oliver when he finds out the ugly truth.

– Also back was Ted Grant, who might or might not have been killed in the Braveheart battle, because why keep around a compelling side character whose backstory we didn’t even explore and who can actually fight when you can keep… Malcolm Merlyn. #ArrowLogic

– My sister was excited about “baby Oliver and Tommy!” but I couldn’t even work up a little bit of enthusiasm since they were part of the Humanize Malcolm Merlyn Campaign that this show is currently on. Still, here they are:

– I’m sorry I have to do this, but the absolute worst editing and voiceover work I’ve ever seen outside of The Mindy Project happened at the end of the episode, when Thea and Malcolm were chatting and Oliver walked into the apartment with an “Is my room still available?” It was poorly timed and poorly edited and honestly, it might seem like nitpicking, but after that terrible truck-top speech, I can’t abide it. IT WAS BAD.

– Also, I call it the Braveheart Battle because have you ever seen a crowd with assault rifles start charging at each other? Or do they, you know, hang back and use their assault rifles?

– I’m sad that the Vinnie Jones arc ended so lacklusterly. I’m so sad that I might spend tonight rewatching his episodes of Elementary, because THAT was a compelling villain.

– The only people who managed to make this episode watchable: John Effing Diggle and Felicity Friggin Smoak, that’s who. Diggle really Diggle’d this episode and his criminally few lines by being amazing:

And Felicity, well…

– Finally, this needs to be seen in its entirety.

Next week: I don’t even remember the promo for next week. Actually, I wrote this whole thing based on my memory of the episode, instead of rewatching as I write like I normally do, that’s how much I didn’t want to relive it. I think I read a summary somewhere that Oliver won’t be happy with the changes on the team, but hey, that’s what you get for going to your ultimately pointless near-death, bro.

February 6, 2014 Kerry

“We all have to keep secrets, Miss Smoak.”

**This post contains spoilers for episode 2.13 of Arrow, “Heir to the Demon”**

It was a Lance family reunion last night on Arrow, but it didn’t exactly go as Oliver (and Quentin, and Sara, and the viewers) had hoped it would.

Last episode, we saw Sara drawn back to Starling City by Oliver, who called her when Laurel showed up drunk and insulting everyone in sight at Verdant. Sara showed up just in time to watch Laurel collapse in a drunken (okay, poisoned) state and then boom, we were made to wait an entire week — seven whole days! — for sister reunions.

Well, the reunions went a bit out of order. The episode opened with a beautiful woman (Spartacus alumna Katrina Law, but I recognized her from Legend of the Seeker) at the Starling City airport, where her passport is flagged by A.R.G.U.S. She knocks out a bunch of guards and saunters through the terminals, and I actually wanted to see more of that. She’s Nyssa al Ghul, daughter of Ra’s (“heir to the demon”), and she’s here for Sara… but not for the reason we expected.

Yes, readers, Sara is a bonafide bisexual character! Her orientation might have been played as a twist for shock value, but the rest of the characters treat it like it’s non-news. Indeed, Lance outdoes himself for Father of the Year award by simply expressing his relief that she had someone to love during her six years of hardship. Hooray! This show did it right!

Sara admits that she loved Nyssa, and not just because Nyssa rescued her. But Sara asks Nyssa to convince her father to release Sara from the League of Assassins (we learn that he’s only excused one person before: Malcolm Merlyn). Nyssa doesn’t take this well, and decides to kidnap Mama Lance, who is in town to help care for Laurel after her apparent overdose.

The showdown is explosive and emotionally-charged: Lance and Sara bust in and rescue Dinah, who is shocked to see her daughter is alive. Lance drags Dinah out of the warehouse before they can have much more than a tearful embrace, and it turns out Sara’s taken a lethal dose of the same snake venom that Nyssa had used to poison Laurel. After Oliver appears and saves Sara’s life with his Magical Healing Island Herbs of Sunshine and Happiness, Nyssa releases Sara from the League of Assassins. That won’t be the last we see of her!

Speaking of the island, this week’s flashbacks go all the way back to six years ago, where we see the Lance’s side of the story of the week that the Queen’s Gambit sank. Last season, Quentin and Dinah’s relationship was so strained that it was hard to imagine them happily married, but in this episode, we finally got to see the Lance family together and happy, for the most part. Laurel and Sara get into a fight about Oliver, because Sara is flirting with him via text while Laurel’s trying to find an apartment for herself and Oliver.

Sara: “This is kind of assuming that he’s ever ready to settle down.”
Laurel: “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Sara: “We both know at least ten girls that he’s slept with.”
Laurel: “Can’t you just be happy with me? If you met some amazing guy who wanted to spend the rest of his life with you, I would be so supportive and so happy for you –”
Sara: “I wasn’t trying to be a bitch.”
Laurel: “Title of your autobiography.”

It’s not exactly what we were hoping for in the flashbacks of Sara and Laurel. It would’ve been nice to see happier times between them before Oliver came into the picture, but clearly their relationship has always had an element of hostility. Sara leaves the room and texts Oliver, “See you at the docks,” and the rest is history.

Laurel drops a plate when she sees the news that the Gambit went missing, but it’s not until Moira rings their doorbell that they get the news about Sara. “The dock master saw her sneak onboard.” Paul Blackthorne deserves all the praise for his acting in that scene (and really, the entire episode.) It’s nice that Lance’s season 1 antics of drunkenness and tunnel vision vengeance was the anomaly, and that this New and Improved Beat Cop Lance is the real Quentin.

Elsewhere, the nonexistent relationship between Felicity and Moira took a huge hit when Felicity confronted Mrs. Queen about Thea’s paternity.

Her tactics work. She finds a pressure point and bears down (oh, too soon) with all of her might. That Felicity has a history of abandonment was just a bonus; losing Oliver is scary, but the fear of losing someone else was paralyzing enough that she kept that secret for a couple of days, aided by Moira’s constant side-eyes and threatening glances. (I half expected Moira to drag a finger across her throat in Felicity’s direction.)

It’s a natural course for their dynamic to take: Felicity and Moira have similar motivations toward Oliver, and both possess a deep loyalty to him, but their moral codes are wildly different. Moira will do anything for her children, even if it means selling her soul or coming off as selfish and conniving. Felicity has the capability to go that far for the ones she loves, but she has an innate sense of right and wrong that makes her question everything and everyone around her, even Oliver and Diggle. It would’ve been nice to get a storyline where Moira and Felicity team up to help Oliver before it took this turn, just to give them a bit more depth, but Moira showed her hand when she called Felicity by her first name. Felicity showed hers when she gave Moira the opportunity to tell Oliver the truth first.

And in defense of Moira Queen, don’t forget that this was a secret over which she was willing to go to jail. Not just jail, prison. For the rest of her life! So when this upstart blonde girl comes in, aggressively telling Moira she doesn’t trust her and that she needs to tell Oliver the truth, Moira essentially went Mama Bear on her. She saw, in her mind, a family torn asunder by a secret she had moved heaven and earth to keep under wraps. No way was she going to let someone as inconsequential as Felicity Smoak undo all of her hard work! (Unfortunately, she underestimated two things: Felicity’s importance, and the strength of the relationship between Oliver and Felicity.)

I’m not saying she was right to manipulate and threaten Felicity in such a way, but it was a great demonstration of the power Moira wields and how she’s made it this far in her life. If we want women on TV to be portrayed as powerful and varying, then sometimes, those strong women are going to clash. Moira fits that bill: Nothing she does is inherently evil, but in some cases, she’s not morally sound. If her every motivation in life is in the quest to protect her children, that makes her one of the most fascinating characters on television.

Because of her own family history, Felicity struggles with the secret. Oliver proves to be highly perceptive, and after two days of distraction and jumpiness, he finally corners Felicity at his mother’s campaign announcement rally (as she’s walking away, “Felicity? Fe li ci ty…”) and demands she tell him what’s bothering her. That’s when we finally, finally get a bit of backstory on Felicity: Her father abandoned her family, and all she remembers is how badly it hurt when he left.

Moira greatly underestimated their relationship; the moment he takes to process it is probably the most intimate scene he and Felicity have shared. If this were Gossip Girl, Oliver would’ve gotten up onstage and embarrassed his mother, but Arrow is not your typical CW fare. He does right by his mother, but ultimately, he keeps the secret for Thea’s sake. As he leans down to hug his mother, he tells her that he knows the truth.

That night, Moira’s worst nightmare comes true.

“Because Thea can never find out about Merlyn, and she can never know the truth about us, which is that as of right now, we have no relationship. I will keep up appearances for Thea’s sake. Publicly, I will support your campaign. But privately… we are done.”

Keeping in mind that she was afraid of this sort of thing happening back during the trial, and how happy she was when her kids reassured her that none of her secrets would make them hate her, this scene is particularly affecting. She should’ve taken Felicity up on her offer to tell Oliver herself, because it’s not the secret that he’s angry about, it’s the lie. The subtext is that he’s mad that she went to such lengths as to threaten Felicity, that he now has to keep this secret from Thea, that he can’t trust his mother anymore.

The question is, what does this mean in the war between Moira and Felicity? Is she going to give Felicity the respect she deserves, or is Moira going to try to squash one of Oliver’s closest allies like a bug?

Laurel spends most of the episode in the hospital, recovering from her poisoning (which was originally thought to be an overdose, so everyone was relieved to hear that it was just deadly snake venom that someone had slipped her, at least it’s not rat poison). She doesn’t turn up until the end of the episode, when Quentin and Dinah are tearfully hugging their recently revived daughter on the docks. She looks stunned and shaken before it cuts to commercial.

Later, at Laurel’s ill-fated apartment, three of the Lances are talking about how happy they are that Sara’s back and alive, but Laurel’s still boozing. Sara says Laurel must have questions, but Laurel claims she has none. “I already know all of the answers to them. How could you still be alive? Where have you been all this time? Why didn’t you call us? And the answer to all of them: Because it’s Sara.” The fact that Laurel doesn’t even give Sara a chance to explain herself is evidence enough that she’s not ready to hear any hard truths. Laurel spends her days railing against the world that she perceives as unfair to her, but she insulates herself from the harsh reality that other people are paying for their sins, too. Sara’s paid for hers through six years of exile and captivity. Dinah pays for hers in loneliness and regret. Quentin pays for his by watching his daughter disappear into the same bottle he’d hidden in for five years. Oliver pays for his every single day, in ways that Laurel would notice if she’d just pay attention. Laurel wants to believe that her life is harder than everyone else’s because it’s easier to feel like the world’s victim than it is to admit that maybe she’s just weak. She doesn’t have to be weak, she’s demonstrated strength before, but her constant misplaced blame and isolation from the people who love her is a sign of hiding from the larger truth, and that will always breed weakness. Until I’m explicitly told otherwise, I’m going to start watching Arrow with the understanding that Laurel is on a villain arc.

Quentin starts to ask Laurel not to drink the wine she just poured, but Laurel’s already on the sauce and she snaps at her father, “Dad, I swear, if you say one more word.” Sara asks Laurel not to blame their dad, to blame her instead, and that’s all the invitation Laurel needs. She rattles off a list of ways that this is all Sara’s fault.

Given the story Sara told Oliver on the island a couple of episodes ago, it sounds like there’s equal blame to spread around here, but neither woman is blaming the real culprit: Oliver. It was that fateful boat trip that changed everything, he had cold feet about getting serious with Laurel, but he could’ve invited anyone. He chose to invite Sara, and both families were destroyed when the Gambit disappeared.

Laurel forgave Oliver, so why won’t she forgive Sara? It probably goes back to their deep sibling antagonism, and the fact that Sara never seemed to be happy for Laurel’s successes. Coupled with Laurel’s growing self-victimization and the fact that she’s emotionally compromised thanks to the alcohol, it was a tall order to expect forgiveness of Sara anytime soon. Laurel throws her out of her apartment, and Sara goes straight to the foundry.

Oliver loved Sara, that much was evident when she first reappeared and he nearly had a breakdown. He spent five years believing her to be dead, and he never hid his feelings for her, not even on the island (where he chose to save Sara over Shado). Their final scene is actually detrimental (and maybe a nail in the coffin) for the Oliver/Laurel relationship; not only did he not spent the five years of exile obsessing over Laurel as we’d previously thought, he spent a portion of it running around with Sara. When he came back to Starling seeking out Laurel, we know it was partially because of guilt… but could it also have been because he thought she was his last connection to Sara? (That makes Oliver the jerk, and it makes Laurel right about a lot of things, but still, it’s up to her to decide whether to move on.)

Either way, Oliver and Sara’s emotionally charged makeout (which presumably led to other things) at the end of the episode makes a lot of sense. Their shared history and shared double-lives make them naturally compatible, and the actors have a lot of chemistry. However, Sara’s always been portrayed as a free spirit, and I have a feeling she won’t stick around Starling City for long, especially after being rejected by her sister.

Finally, Slade Wilson watches news coverage of Moira’s campaign announcement as Sebastian Blood walks in to his office. “I warned you not to underestimate Moira Queen.” Sebastian asks what to do next, but Slade tells him to do nothing. “I’ll take care of it.” What does that mean?! I want nothing less than a scene where Slade confronts Moira in person.

The bad news is, we have to wait until February 26th (after the Olympics that no one is going to watch) to find out! How will we survive?

January 23, 2014 Kerry

“What color are your shoes?”

**This post contains spoilers for the most recent episode of Arrow, “Blind Spot.”**

This week’s Arrow was a Laurel episode, as least as much as any Arrow episode can be character-centric. It was also heavy on the Roy storyline (with bonus Sin!) as well as the island flashbacks. That means we saw a lot less of Oliver than usual (both in amount of screentime and amount of skin) and we really only got two good scenes of Team Arrow. But there was this:

This episode felt a little disjointed, especially given that we’ve been treated to tightly-plotted and fast-paced episodes since we met Sara. I saw it as a good thing; I think shows like this need to take an episode or two to step back and reconfigure their storylines, at least to establish a base line of normality so that we don’t start losing our connections to the characters. The alternative would be something akin to The Vampire Diaries, a show that went full-throttle with every episode, to the point that some beloved character had to die (and come back to life) at least once a week in order to maintain the momentum. Arrow is doing a better job of striking a balance, and a slower-paced episode couldn’t have come at a better time. Shado is dead, the Mirakuru is at work in the city, and we know that the end of this season is going to be explosive. It’s nice to watch an episode where Oliver spends most of his time in regular street clothes instead of in business attire or a hood.

Unfortunately, the slower pace happened during a Laurel episode. Her character has many detractors (sometimes including me) so it’s easy to pin this episode’s lack of action to Laurel. I don’t think that’s entirely fair. Yes, Laurel’s scenes could’ve been more dramatic and emotional, but she’s not a superhero or a villain. She’s a normal person struggling with addiction, so her scenes are going to be a little more human than the ones with Roy or the island flashbacks.

I will give Katie Cassidy credit where it’s due: her scene with Paul Blackthorne in the interrogation room is some of her best work. Even though she still doesn’t actually shed a tear onscreen, she looks absolutely wrecked, like a person going through the anguish of drug withdrawal. Her sobbing and begging to her father were heartbreaking, and Blackthorne in turn gave a deeply emotional performance.

In fact, if there’s an MVP in this episode, it’s Blackthorne as Beat Cop Lance, because he straight up Diggled this episode. (To “Diggle” something means “to make the most of one’s very limited screentime by being amazing.” I’m determined to make this an actual verb.) He had three key scenes: One in the interrogation room, one with Oliver, and one at the end where he debriefs with Laurel. The scene with Oliver, in particular, shows his growth as a character.

It also supports my theory that Lance knows Oliver is The Arrow, just because I want it to be true.

And Diggle also Diggled this episode big time.

But let’s get into the meat of the episode: Laurel is busted for illegal possession of narcotics. She’s busted because she’s getting too close to Blood, who kills his mother in the cold open. She went to Hooded Oliver for help, and they went on a wild goose chase for a file that would prove Blood killed his father, but the file turns out to be empty.

Present-day Slade gets on Blood’s case for being sloppy, so Blood has Daly ransack Laurel’s apartment with a warrant, which is how they find the drugs. This, plus the fact that Laurel’s kidnapper turns out to be Daly himself, effectively discredits Laurel’s increasingly screechy theory that Blood is a criminal mastermind, as everyone from her own father to ADA Adam think she’s lost credibility. In the end, she loses her job, as well as the trust of her closest ally: The Arrow.

But things aren’t looking so rosy for Laurel from a backstory standpoint, either. Sara tells a story about how she had a crush on Oliver back before he dated Laurel, and that her dear sister called the cops to bust a party so that Sara would be grounded. A month later, Laurel and Oliver were dating.

It certainly doesn’t excuse what Sara did, going on the Gambit and sleeping with her sister’s boyfriend, but… it certainly provides the motivation. And if the details are to be believed — if Laurel truly busted that party just to get Sara grounded so that she could take her shot at Oliver — it certainly changes the commentary on the elder Lance sister, doesn’t it?

The island flashbacks also explored Sara’s Stockholm Syndrome with Ivo, but she manages to separate herself from him at the end of the episode, just as he vows to find her and end her. Sara turns to Oliver and says they should find Slade. Hopefully they find him soon.

Elsewhere, Roy is dealing with his superhuman strength by trying to use it to make the city better. That involves getting Thea to dress up Sin in her “first date outfit” which of course makes Sin look like a prostitute. She’s able to lure someone called the “Starling Slasher” into Roy’s trap so that he can apprehend the guy, but Roy ends up losing control and beating the guy to within an inch of his life. The resulting angst sends Roy running from a concerned Thea, and he sinks against a hospital wall and cries.

Thea later tells Oliver about the man Roy nearly beat to death, and that finally compels Oliver to go to Roy and offer to train him to control his emotions. I’m not sure how Oliver knows how to do that, but I do think it will involve Oliver finally revealing his true identity to Roy in the near future.

Finally, after Blood has successfully discredited Laurel, sacrificed Daly, and taken the heat off of himself, Slade has a logical response: slaying all four of Blood’s henchmen. He’s wearing his Deathstroke mask and warns Blood that if he fails again, he will be the next to die. It’s pretty much the greatest thing ever.

None of that compares to the greatest scene of the entire episode:

That’s a scene you need to listen to in order to enjoy. Never has the question “What color are your shoes?” sounded so threatening.

Next week: Roy gets house trained! I mean… Roy gets trained!

January 16, 2014 Kerry

Shrapnel All Over the Place

**This post contains spoilers for the most recent episode of Arrow, “Blast Radius.”**

Oliver Queen is really stressed out, y’all. He’s worried about this Mirakuru that has resurfaced in Starling City, he has to keep an eye on Roy, he has to track down the man who is blowing up buildings all over the city, and His Girl Wednesday is still out of town tending to a lightning-struck Barry Allen. But he’s totally not jealous, okay? He’s just stressed!

It’s been five weeks since Roy technically died after being injected with the Mirakuru. Oliver’s been spending that time stringing up petty criminals and questioning them about the whereabouts of Skull Face Man. It’s probably earning him a reputation as a crazy person, but Oliver doesn’t really care — Diggle points out that Oliver’s got a bit of tunnel vision about this, and Oliver doesn’t deny it.

Barry’s been in a coma for all that time, and presumably, he will stay that way until his pilot airs in the fall. Whether Felicity will continue to split her time between Starling and Central City remains to be seen, but it’s still an effective way to raise Oliver’s hackles about Barry in general. The thing is, he’s not being jealous so much as he’s being selfish about Felicity’s situation; he’s the kind of guy who doesn’t sit at someone’s hospital bed as they recuperate, instead he’s out hunting down the jerk who put them there. He can’t wrap his head around the idea of spending day after day by someone who is comatose when there are lives to be saved elsewhere. In a way, it’s a sad commentary on Oliver’s current state of being. Will he ever get to the point where he can just press pause on the vigilante-ing and go sit by someone’s bed, just to be there?

I think it’s another good example of the perspective Felicity brings to the team. Diggle is a lot like Oliver, he’d rather be out in the trenches, bringing in the bad guys and making the city safer. Felicity still has the ability to put aside this aspect of her life and just be a person who cares about someone else, and I think that’s something that Oliver (and sometimes Diggle) needs to see.

Diggle: “I’ve just never seen you spooked like this before.”
Oliver: “That should tell you something.”

And with that, we flash back to the island. For once, I was looking forward to these flashbacks more than the present-day plot. It turns out… not a whole heck of a lot happens in this episode, island-wise. They bury Shado, which is so sad to watch because Slade’s basically weeping. He’s also not hiding his feelings anymore, and it’s likely a combination of the grief and the Mirakuru. Still, for now, he’s Slade at his very core, and he hands Oliver the Hood that we know so well.

And doesn’t that just break your heart? It breaks mine. Oliver is distraught over Slade not knowing the truth about Shado’s death, but Sara wisely tells him that dropping that sort of thing on Slade right now is not the best idea. Turns out, Sara’s done the research on the Mirakuru. The Japanese tested the serum on hundreds of people, and “the people who died? They were the lucky ones. The ones who survived, they were deformed. Either their bones or their minds. They became someone else.”

That’s sad for me, I got very attached to Slade, but I know this is also what I signed up for when I wanted him to survive the serum. As they wander around the island, Slade undergoes an obvious change: he becomes rage-filled and hell-bent on taking out Ivo, and it ends with him grabbing Oliver around the neck and lifting him up. It takes Sara actually beating him with a huge tree branch to get him to drop Oliver, and that’s when it becomes clear that Slade was not himself in that moment. Later that night, Ivo contacts them and says he plans to blow up the whole island, and they discover Slade has run away with the Mirakuru. That’s about it for the island.

In the present, Oliver is publicly endorsing Alderman Blood’s campaign for Mayor, while Laurel is pretending to date Blood in order to get information on him. She suspects he isn’t who he says he is, and she later tells Oliver that Blood reminds her a lot of him in that way.

Laurel actually has a pretty solid storyline in this episode! Her brand of non-emotion is a particularly good match for Blood, whose underlying sinister nature makes their scenes compelling. Laurel’s rightfully picking up on the thread of secrecy, but she’s hampered by her growing addiction to narcotics. Blood feeds her a sob story about his upbringing (his abusive father was shot by his mother, who ran away and left him an orphan) which she seems to buy until she sees the name “Maya Resik” on a bill on his desk.

She goes to her dad (who is telling Corrupt Cop Daly that he can’t find his pain meds, leading one to believe Laurel is swiping her dad’s pain pills) and asks him to dig up information on Maya Resik. Beat Cop Lance agrees just to humor her, but later he reveals that Maya is Blood’s aunt, who is in a psychiatric facility. Blood actually gets Lance’s seal of approval, just because on paper he sounds good, but he also advises Laurel to stop looking for reasons for this relationship not to work out.

To her credit, Laurel goes with her gut. (It is part of her characterization, to be so driven to find the truth that she loses sight of everything else. It’s actually refreshing to see her go back to that.) At the end of the episode, she goes to visit Maya, who grabs Laurel and warns her that Blood is a bad, bad man.

Anyway, back at the political rally at the beginning of the episode, Oliver asks Thea how Roy’s doing, and she basically says he’s fine.

Then someone blows up a building and all hell breaks loose.

Thank goodness Felicity gets a news alert about the bomb and arrives at Queen Consolidated bright and early the next morning, much to Oliver’s poorly-concealed delight.

He woodenly asks how Barry’s doing while Diggle makes sympathetic and observant faces at both of them. Felicity says Barry’s “still sleeping” because “‘coma’ sounds… not fun.” Then she ends the whole awkward exchange by going to contact Beat Cop Lance.

They meet on a rooftop again, because Oliver likes to be up high where he can see the city I guess, and Lance even comments on the absurdity. He gets close enough to The Arrow to ask about the mask, which just strengthens my hopes that he knows who it is under that hood. Plausible deniability is a strong motivator. Just ask Blair Waldorf.

Anyway, Lance brought over the sample that Oliver had requested, but not without his own request: phone records for everyone in the department. Oliver is incredulous at the idea that there might be a leak in the department, but as we know, Lance is right. It sucks that he’s finally becoming a good cop right when he’s doling out bad fatherly advice to Laurel.

“Your blonde friend, she’s pretty good with computers.”

Aw, Lance. She’s gonna blush when she hears that.

Oliver’s answer is interrupted by another explosion, which looks like it’s only a few blocks away. Felicity traces the detonator and Oliver chases it down on his motorcycle. But much like that episode where the bad guy was underground, Felicity loses the signal and Oliver nearly crashes into a bus.

Now, for some perspective: We have no idea what happens with Slade now that he’s been injected with the Mirakuru. It’s bad, clearly, because it has Oliver jumping at loud noises and raging without warning. To him, these are high stakes that could end up changing not just the city, but the world. To him, it’s not too ridiculous to expect the same sort of urgency from his team.

Except… he hasn’t told his team anything about this. For whatever reason, he’s keeping the exact facts about the Mirakuru (and Slade) to himself, so neither Digg nor Felicity know the gravity of the situation. So this might explain Oliver’s mindset in this next scene, but it does not excuse it at all, because in the end, it’s on him for not being forthcoming. (And it makes me worry about just what happened on that island.)

Oliver comes back to the foundry and snaps that Felicity was supposed to be the expert on electronics and tracking. Diggle is immediately on alert as Felicity comes back with an “Excuse me?” but Oliver’s on a tear. “People are dying. So I would like you to pull your head out of Central City and get back in the game.” She’s not having any of this, as she tells Oliver in no uncertain terms to get his head out of his ass.

How she managed not to punch Oliver right in the stubble, I’ll never know. Maybe I’m just more prone to violence than she is?

Diggle is such a calming presence in these situations. He gently but firmly tells Oliver that his theory of distraction is complete bull, and then he drops the truth bomb:

Oh Diggle. So much smarter and more observant than the rest of us.

Alderman Blood announces a rally at a downtown plaza, which Oliver sees as a suicide mission. He hoods up and goes to Blood’s office to try to convince him to call it off, but Blood refuses. It scares him, though — he reaches for a concealed gun, fearing that The Arrow has finally figured out who is behind the skull mask.

Oliver and Felicity continue to bicker the next day, and Diggle asks, “Is this how it’s gonna be with you two from now on?” But Felicity’s had a breakthrough — she knows who the bomber is. He’s active on forums and message boards, and he goes by the name Shrapnel. She traces his IP, and Oliver heads that way as Diggle goes to the rally.

At the toy store that Shrapnel owns, Oliver’s trapped by lasers as a recording tells him that the plaza is rigged with explosives. He contacts his team, and Diggle sets off to find the detonator as Felicity works to help Oliver out of the laser trap. “Are you sure you want me doing this? My head might not exactly be in the game.” He yells at her, but she points out a fuse box for him to shoot.

They get to the rally but just as they find the detonator in the sound system, Shrapnel appears and shoots Diggle in the shoulder. The shot causes chaos, and Shrapnel throws the detonator into the crowd. Oliver shoots it in midair and it explodes, causing a light tower to fall straight toward Moira, but she’s saved by Roy, who takes the hit himself. He escapes without a scratch.

Oliver corners Shrapnel, who says he has explosives all over the city, but Oliver simply cuts the wire to the detonator and punches him out. That was easy!

Thea’s figured out that Roy’s hiding something, he’s not scratched from the incident at the rally and he has no marks from when he broke a box of glasses during his and Thea’s makeout the other day. He runs away before Thea can ask too many questions, but she’s the inquisitive type, so he has that to look forward to next week.

Diggle’s wound is “just a through-and-through, a walk in the park,” he might as well have said “Tis but a scratch!” After Diggle leaves, Oliver considers Felicity and then does the one thing we’ve never really seen him do before: apologize.

He actually apologizes twice.

But it gets even better!

But he still wasn’t done!

He relies on her, on them, and even though we all knew it, it’s nice to see him finally admit it to himself and out loud! And it’s so sweet and real that even though Felicity might let him off the hook just a little too quickly, considering how he treated her the day before, it’s a fitting reward for the vulnerability he just showed.

He even talks about Barry without grimacing or clenching his fists!

Maybe he is. And maybe that’s an incredibly considerate thing for Oliver to say to her. She gets all science-y about dreams and hallucinations during comas, but Oliver puts his hand on her shoulder to stop her babbling and reinforce the nice thing he just did, and she smiles and thanks him.

It’s basically the second-sexiest thing to happen with shoulders on TV.

His last errand of the night is to visit Blood once more, to congratulate him on his rally. Blood offers an alliance of sorts — that they work together to save the city. How are these not red flags to Oliver? The last time he met someone who talked like that, it turned out the guy actually meant to save the city by using an earthquake to wipe out half of it. But maybe he’s shaking his hand in a “keep your enemies closer” kind of way.

Next week: Laurel takes her suspicions about Blood to Oliver. This should go well!

December 12, 2013 Kerry

“What’s the matter, kid? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

This post contains spoilers for the mid-season finale of Arrow, “Three Ghosts.”

When we last saw our heroes, Felicity was begging a recently-drugged Barry Allen to “Save my friend,” as Oliver lay unconscious on a table in the foundry. He’d been injected with two different needles during his fight with a scary superhuman, and while Diggle had frantically dialled 911, Felicity had made the executive decision to call Barry instead.

You know how in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Toula’s dad thinks Windex cures everything? Did you think that was ridiculous? Well then you’re not prepared for Barry Allen, who cures Oliver with rat poison. Diggle, the entire time, defers to Felicity to make all of the calls, and she decides that rat poison is the way to go. Diggle’s implicit trust in Felicity with regard to Oliver’s life is so fantastic, I can’t even put it into words.

When Oliver wakes up, he’s livid. Not because Barry, you know, technically poisoned him, but because Felicity revealed Oliver’s secret to Barry. It’s probably 50% disorientation from his current condition, 40% jealousy because it’s Barry, and 10% justified because Oliver is an intensely private person. He tells Felicity that he only brought in her and Digg after he did his research on them, but honestly, Felicity only needed to retort “Helena!” to shut down that line of self-righteous yelling. As Oliver and Felicity bicker, Diggle’s in the background rolling his eyes like “I told her he would react this way, no one ever listens…” and Barry tries to intervene on Felicity’s behalf: “You don’t have to thank me, but you should thank her instead of being kind of a jerk.”

You just know Oliver’s picturing at least seven different ways to disable Barry in that moment. Really, Oliver is a jerk the entire time, but it’s also great to see him be emotional and unreserved around Felicity, and it’s nice to see her hand him his behind in return. Oliver stomps away without a thank you or an apology, and Felicity quips to Barry, “Never meet your heroes, right?”

Oliver “Scrooge” Queen has also forgotten it’s Christmas for the second year in a row. Last year’s festivities ended with his stepfather getting kidnapped, so this year is bound to go better, right? Well not for Oliver Scrooge, who is in for some pretty trippy hallucinations thanks to ol’ Barry and his rat poison; italics are always necessary. (Okay, I’ll level with you: it turns out that hallucinations are psychological, but still, it probably started with the rat poison, right?)

This episode is surprisingly well-crafted. On the surface, it’s a nonstop thrill ride of action, suspense, agony, joy, and even some hilarity. It’s kind of like a regular Arrow episode on steroids, or on the Mirakuru that Blood’s injecting into everyone. But when you break it down and consider that Oliver Scrooge was visited by three “ghosts” at Christmastime, the structure becomes a little more elegant.

The Ghost of Christmas Past is Shado, who we see is killed in the flashbacks to the island. Professor Ivo, with no explanation, tells Oliver to choose who will live: Sara or Shado. Oliver can’t choose, so when Ivo turns his gun on Sara, Oliver leaps in front of her, sacrificing himself. Ivo takes that as Oliver’s choice and shoots Shado instead.

Today, as Oliver recovers from the effects of the mysterious injections and the rat poison, he begins hallucinating, and the first phantom to appear is the most inexplicable death in Oliver’s past: Shado. She begs Oliver to stop fighting, to put down the bow and take off the hood, or else everyone he loves will die. We also got confirmation that Oliver wears the green hood to honor Yao Fei and Shado, which is unbelievably sentimental for him. I need a moment…

The Ghost of Christmas Future is Slade, who first appears on a rooftop as Hooded Oliver is talking to Beat Cop Lance. He only stands there silently the first time, but it’s enough to freak out Oliver. Later, Oliver’s shooting tennis balls in the foundry when HalluciSlade catches an arrow and snarks, “What’s the matter, kid? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

In the flashbacks, Slade wakes from the injection fully healed from the burns on his face, and he roars outside to save Shado. He’s completely primal as he breaks guns in half and rips out hearts, but he sobers when he finds Shado shot dead. He vows to Oliver and Sara that “Whoever did this to her is going to suffer.” In the present, HalluciSlade yells at Oliver for not being a hero, friend, or brother. He harbors a lot of bitterness against Oliver, saying “The island didn’t make you strong, kid. It revealed you to be weak.” (It’s a fantastic scene for Manu Bennett, who has tears in his eyes throughout.) Oliver ends up “fighting” him and ruining the lair.

The fun thing about this particular “ghost” is that Slade is actually alive and well and living in Starling City. He’s the Ghost of Christmas Future because he has a lot of nasty stuff planned for Oliver and his friends, stuff that will run the course of the second half of the season.

“I am going to tear everything that he cares about away from him. Destroy those who choose to follow him. Corrupt those he loves. Once he has lost everyone and everything he values, I will drive an arrow through his eye.”

Fans got really excited that the camera panned over Felicity when Slade said “Corrupt those he loves.” After sweeping up the lair and sharpening his arrowheads for battle, Oliver asks Diggle if he’s lost his mind. Diggle, ever the soldier, says that we’re all a little crazy anyway. He tells Oliver he’s just suffering from survivor’s guilt, something Digg himself has gone through, and he advises Oliver to listen to what the ghosts are trying to tell him.

This scene is lost in the hustle and bustle of the rest of the episode but it’s probably the most important thing that’s happening for Oliver on a personal level. In a lot of ways, Digg is Oliver’s present-day Slade: he’s military trained, he has an instinctual understanding of Oliver, and he’s Oliver’s closest ally. All along, we’d assumed Oliver had lost Shado and Slade to death and nothing more, but now that Slade’s back with a vengeance, Oliver’s friendship with and trust in Diggle is even more noteworthy. Oliver is at his most vulnerable when he asks Digg how to get rid of his ghosts, and Digg, true to form, handled it like a pro. These little moments are going to become more and more important as we get closer to the day that Oliver discovers Slade is alive.

The Ghost of Christmas Present was a terrible, powerful punch of feelings to the viewers. Oliver ambushes a masked Brother Blood and his cronies just a minute too late, as they’ve already injected Roy, whom they captured earlier, with the Mirakuru serum. He dies as Oliver tries to fight off Cyrus Gold, and that’s when Tommy Merlyn appears.

Tommy says the things Oliver needs to hear: that he’s a hero, that he beat the island and his father, and that he needs to fight back. He’s the Ghost of Christmas Present because he represents the normal life that Oliver should be fighting for. Shado reminded Oliver of everything he’s lost in the past, Slade reminded Oliver of everything that’s at stake, but Tommy reminded Oliver that he needs to fight every day because there’s no other way to survive. Oliver jumps up and fights off Gold as Blood runs away. He starts yelling the same sorts of platitudes at Roy, telling him he’s a strong kid and that he needs to fight, and Roy finally wakes up… with superhuman strength, presumably.

Does Oliver ultimately learn the lessons that his three ghosts were setting out to teach him? I think so. Then again, they were all hallucinations, so maybe Oliver just needs to lay off the eggnog for a while. I hear Barry spiked it with rat poison.

Outside of the demons that Oliver’s fighting, there’s a lot going on in Starling. Originally, Roy was recovering from the arrow shot to the leg in the privacy of Thea’s room. Oliver helps out (with a rather sweet and awkward “Hi” to Sin, suddenly I need them to be in more scenes together) by pulling out the arrow and then telling those meddling kids to stay away from that blasted vigilante. His poker face is a thing of beauty throughout the entire scene. Later, Roy wakes in the Haunted Queen Mansion after his ordeal with the Mirakuru, and his leg is fully healed. Oliver tells Felicity and Digg that they need to keep an eye on Roy for the time being.

Oliver also hands over his information on Cyrus Gold to Beat Cop Lance after a failed recon mission by Diggle. Unfortunately, Lance recruits the wrong people to accompany him on the bust–namely Officer Daly, Blood’s right-hand man. The bust ends up being an ambush, and everyone except Lance is killed, including his former partner, Lucas Hilton. Hooded Oliver visits Lance at the hospital and apologizes for the deaths, but Lance sagely tells him “Not every death in this city is on you.” It’s the nicest thing Lance has ever said to him. (I really, really hope it turns out that Lance has known it’s Oliver under that hood since “Broken Dolls.”)

And yes, Laurel was floating on the periphery of this episode, barely crying over her father’s injuries, chastising Oliver for not decking his Haunted House halls with boughs of holly, falalalala lalalala, and awkwardly hugging Alderman Blood in the hallway of the hospital. Where every other character got a great setup for the back half of the season, Laurel got nothing.

Felicity and Barry share some really great scenes, the best of which is when Barry tells Felicity that if she likes Oliver, he would understand why. “I just have a little experience with liking someone who doesn’t see you the same way.” Felicity never concedes the point that she likes Oliver, but she and Barry seem to have a sort of mutual understanding of where they stand.

She also has some rather intense scenes with Oliver; when he prepares to go after Gold, Felicity begs him not to.

Barry looks like a sad puppy as Oliver walks past him, but he doesn’t let it deter him later when he calls Felicity and asks her to give him a ring if she ever decides that Oliver Queen is not the man for her. Felicity, meanwhile, is incredibly relieved that Oliver is back safe and sound from his encounter with the superhuman.

Thanks to a combination of a malfunction with the oft-discussed particle accelerator, a bolt of lightning, and a mess of chemicals, we see Barry go from Barry Allen, Fake CSI, to Barry Allen: Probably The Flash. Don’t worry, bro, I’m sure some rat poison will set you right in no time.

That brings the count of potential superhumans up to three, with only two of them potentially being on The Arrow’s side. We already knew that Roy and Barry were destined to be superheroes, but the fact remains that Oliver is still just a mortal man who is a good shot and happens to like parkour. The danger now is that he’s descending into a world where other people have “powers” and he does not… unless you count the rat poison, of course.

Finally, earlier in the episode Barry had asked Oliver why he wears grease paint instead of a mask, and Oliver snapped, “Find me a mask that conforms perfectly to my face and doesn’t affect my ability to aim while I’m on the run.” Nice try, Oliver, but at the end of the day, you’re still wearing eyeshadow. Just own it. Anyway, the episode ends with Oliver opening a Christmas gift from Barry: a mask!

Felicity puts it on and Oliver asks how he looks. “Like a hero,” she says. And she’s right: Tommy said so.

No new episodes until January 15th, but I think this one gives us enough material to last until then, don’t you?

We Watch for the Plot

No really, we do.

Thea Queen

This is Your Sword

Other notes:

Al Sah-Him

Other notes:

Nanda Parbat, Sex Club

Note: Apologies for not posting a recap last week, I had every intention and then I fell ill.

“I keep my promises, kid.”

I Need a Hero

Uprising

Other notes:

“We all have to keep secrets, Miss Smoak.”

“What color are your shoes?”

Shrapnel All Over the Place

“What’s the matter, kid? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”