Monday, February 11, 2019

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 13 - Star City Slayer

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Disappointed that William lied to him and Felicity, Oliver takes some time off from his Green Arrow duties to focus on his family. Luckily, the rest of Team Arrow is now sworn in as deputies and ready to deal with the new serial killer that is plaguing Star City... until it becomes apparent that the Star City Slayer is targeting them!



Influences

The Green Arrow comics of Kevin Smith (concept of Star City Slayer, Mia)


Goofs

Any drama to the Star City Slayer targeting Dinah is nullified by the fact that we know Dinah is alive 20 years in the future.

The Claytons say they should have filed for custody of William years ago. One wonders, in retrospect, why they didn't. As they say, Oliver is a convicted felon and that he is a professional superhero who was absent for most of William's life. Even though Samantha's dying wish was that Oliver take care of their son, there's no way to prove that in court and everything Samantha had done before then was aimed at limiting Oliver's influence on William. Throw in the multiple kidnappings and yeah - there's no way any judge in Star City would think twice about getting William out of Oliver's home.

Curtis' T-Sphere is much less conspicuous and likely to attract attention than the giant Maglite that Diggle is carrying when he tells Curtis not to use his T-Sphere.

Granting that Stanley Dover is insane, why hang onto his old prison jumpsuit?

Stanley Dover's miraculous drug completely paralyzes a person's muscles... except for the ones needed to talk.

Felicity says that it gets really cold in Central City in the winter. Given that Star City is based in the Arrowverse where Seattle should be, it should be pretty cold there in the winter too.


Performances

Juliana Harkavy steals the show in both timelines.


Artistry

The production team did a good job establishing a creepy mood with the Star City Slayer house. The lighting, music and set decoration are all fantastic, though the creepy stuffed monkey and music box were a bit much.



Trivia

The concept of The Star City Slayer was first utilized in Kevin Smith's story Green Arrow: Quiver. The name was given to a serial killer who was kidnapping children and murdering them. He was eventually unmasked as Oliver Queen's friend, Stanley Dover.

Curtis says that the phone number Diaz called trying to reach Dante was traced to a line in Egypt belonging to one of Dante's contacts who is named Virgil. In the Green Arrow comics, Virgil was a member of the Ninth Circle and one of Dante's chief lieutenants. In the Divine Comedy, the Roman poet Virgil acts as Dante's guide to Hell.

When talking on the phone with Dinah about her difficulties in coping with her job now that her status as a metahuman has been outed, Captain Singh refers to a case Dinah handled as an undercover cop where she brought down the Bludhaven-based organization of a gangster called Blockbuster single-handed. Blockbuster was the codename of Roland Desmond - a gangster who ran the criminal underworld of the city of Bludhaven and was the arch-enemy of Nightwing.

Felicity makes reference to Oliver making his famous chili. In the comics, Oliver Queen is indeed renowned for his chill cooking skills,. Ollie's preferred recipe is said to be so spicy it can break Hal Jordan's concentration, burn Superman's tongue, dehydrate Aquaman instantly and allow The Flash to resist the effects of Leonard Snart's cold gun. The only people who can safely eat it besides Oliver himself are Black Canary and Batman. His recipe can be found here.


Technobabble

The Star City Slayer is tied to eight murders in Central City through the angle of entry in all of the victim's wounds.

Curtis says that all of the Star City Slayer's victims had elevated levels of magnesium in their blood. This wouldn't be a red-flag on its own, but high levels of magnesium in the blood coupled with a decreased red-blood cell count indicates the presence of a drug called Mivacurium - a neuromusclar blocking agent that could be used to paralyze someone, which wouldn't show up on a standard toxicology scan due to its rarity.

Curtis has been working on a new mini-infrared laser that proves capable of cauterizing Dinah's throat wound.



Dialogue Triumphs

Dinah: It was one thing when all the people in our inner circle knew about my secret identity, but now everybody knows. The cops at SCPD. Everybody. I dunno - maybe I'm just worried people are gonna treat me differently now that the secret's out?

Curtis: Look at us. Working together again. Being targeted by a homicidal maniac. Feels like a Monday.

(Blackstar claims Felicity is still alive.)
Zoe: Don't listen to her! She's a liar! She'll say anything-
(Blackstar slaps Zoe.)
William: You didn't need to do that.
Blackstar: No, but I enjoyed it.

William: Come on! Don't give me a reason to pull this trigger.
(Blackstar shoves Dinah away.)
Blackstar: You're not gonna shoot me.
(Blackstar drops her knife.)
William: You sure about that?
Blackstar: Yeah. Because my name is Mia Smoak. I'm Felicity's daughter. And your sister.


Continuity

The Star City Slayer develops film the old-fashioned way and uses a type-writer to make his threatening notes.

Dinah finds a letter on her desk at work which says "I SAID I'D KILL YOU ALL. NOW YOUR TIME HAS COME."

Diggle finds a note in his mailbox which says "YOU WILL SUFFER."

Rene Ramirez finds a note taped to his door which says "I CAN FIND YOU ANYWHERE."

A newspaper headline on the Star City Slayer's murder-board confirms that Dinah's secret identity as Black Canary has been revealed to the public.

William was expelled for fighting with another student. He says he won and went for the nose, like Ollie taught him over a year ago. He refuses to discuss the matter further.

Diggle had a DNA rest run n the note that was left in his mailbox.

Curtis says that the phone number Diaz called trying to reach Dante was traced to a line in Egypt belonging to one of Dante's contacts who is named Virgil.

Curtis tells John he was offered a job with the Kohler Humanitarian Institute in Washington DC, creating technology that could help people on a global scale and that he intends to take it.

Dinah has begun teaching Zoe martial arts. She's thrilled to be learning how to "kick ass" from the Black Canary.

Rene shows Dinah the threat he got. She tells him about her threats and the one Black Siren got in 711.

The Star City Slayer kills former Star City Councilman Kullens after injecting him with a paralyzing drug. Kullens was last seen in 618. Apparently Kullens was forced from office and imprisoned after being revealed to be taking bribes from Ricardo Diaz, but his lawyer was able to get him released.

Kullens received a note which read "DO YOU THINK YOU"RE SAFE NOW? YOU'RE NOT."

Oliver asks if the two victims from the murders referred to in 712 might be connected to Kullen's murder. Dinah says those victims also had their throats slit and, after further questioning, their families revealed that they had gotten threatening notes as well.

Black Siren is said to be at a conference in Washington D.C. this week.

Oliver says that nobody on Team Arrow knew the first two victims.

Dinah says she encountered a similar serial killer when she was working undercover in Central City.

John offers Curtis a job as the head of ARGUS' science and technology division. He would be in charge of shaping the future of ARGUS and making all the decisions, just like he wanted.

Captain Singh from The Flash makes reference to some new metahuman villain sending most of his officers to the hospital before The Flash and his friends saved the day. This could be a reference to a future episode of The Flash.

Felicity reveals her favorite Rubik's cube pattern - a cube within a cube - to William. This was referred to in the flash-fowards in 704.

Oliver tells William that he'd like for him to live with him and Felicity.

Mr. and Mrs. Clayton - William's grandparents - show up because he called them. They tell Oliver that they intend to file a suit for guardianship.

William says he wants to live with his grandparents because he has no chance at a normal life with Oliver and Felicity.

The Star City Slayer committed 8 similar  murders over the course of 2 months in Central City.

Curtis determines that the Star City Slayer is using a drug called Mivacurium to drug his victims. It is a rare neuromusclar blocking agent that doesn't show up in toxicology screenings.  It is so rare that only one shipment of it has been sent out within the past month in Star City. It was sent to a condemned house in The Glades to a man named John Doe.

Diggle finds bloody hand prints in one bathroom in the condemned house.

Curtis finds a Slabside Penitentiary jumpsuit hanging in the closet in the condemned house.

Dinah finds the murder board with her pictures on it, as well as the Star City Slayer's typewriter and two new notes. One says "DEATH IS COMING FOR YOU AND ALL THOSE YOU HOLD DEAR." The second one says "YOUR FUTURE IS IN THE HANDS OF A VENGEFUL PAST." She also finds a scrap book of recent news articles about Oliver.

The Star City Slayer is revealed to be Stanley Dover, last seen in 707.

Dinah's throat is cut by Stanley Dover.

Curtis is able to treat Dinah's wound with a laser built into his T-Sphere.

William thinks Oliver's chili is too spicy.

Stanley Dover pumps a paralytic gas into Oliver and Felicity's apartment while the power is out.

Stanley says that his father was a doctor and that he gave Stanley a lot of the same drug he now uses to paralyze people when he was bad.

Stanley says there are other people who are trying to hurt Oliver and that he did things to make sure they couldn't, like former Councilman Kullens.

Stanley Dover says his older brother tried to take his punishments to protect him but that only made things worse.

Stanley finally drugged his parents and "corrected them" when he couldn't take it anymore. When Stanely's brother found out what he did, he said he belonged in Arkham Asylum. Stanley "corrected" him too.

Before Oliver, Stanley fixated on at least three other older brother figures and began killing the people around them who he felt were getting in the way of their relationship.

Curtis decides to take the job in Washington DC rather than stay with ARGUS.

Curtis signs over his half of Helix to Felicity, making her the sole owner of their company.

Oliver agrees with William that he never really asked him what he wanted and asks what he wants now. William says he wants a normal life. Oliver says he is pretty sure he can't ever give that to William.

William moves to Central City to live with his grandparents.

Oliver says that he will come visit whenever it's cool with William and his grandparents and William will always have a home in Star City if he needs it.

Felicity gets a call from Dr. Schwarz with the news that she is pregnant.

Zoe is unable to find the bombs with The Archer Program.

Roy spent the last few days trying to find Blackstar, but he says she's very good at being a ghost.

William says the problem with finding the bombs isn't his algorithm - it's the fact that The Archer Program was designed to monitor The Glades. Star City is 10 times larger and has half the technological infrastructure of the Glades in 2038.

William guesses that the bombs haven't been planted yet and they must be somewhere off the grid. This leads Roy to guess that they are in the old Team Arrow Bunker.

Blackstar is able to take William, Zoe, Roy and Dinah down with knock-out darts.

Blackstar threatens to kill Zoe if William doesn't give her the codes to hack into Archer.

Blackstar once again denies having anything to do with the bombing plot or killing Felicity.

Dinah recognizes Connor Hawke as John Diggle's son.

Blackstar says that Felicity isn't dead. She claims to just know this and says she needs the Archer codes to find where Felicity is hiding. She says that she and Felicity owe each other.

William tells Blackstar that he's gay and that Felicity was his stepmother. She had no idea that William was Oliver Queen's son.

Blackstar and Connor Hawke are able to hold their own in one-on-one fights with Dinah and Roy respectively.

Blackstar reveals that her name is Mia Smoak and that she is Felicity's daughter by Oliver Queen.


Location

Central City
Star City - 2038


Untelevised Adventures

Captain Singh makes reference to Blockbuster and his gang in Bludhaven trying to muscle into Central City and starting a turf war with the crime families and how Dinah's work prevented a city-wide bloodbath.


The Bottom Line

A mediocre episode for so many big events. Curtis is shuffled out of the show with far less drama and violence than expected. William is likewise sent out of the picture. Yet most fans are likely to feel more relief than sadness because Curtis has felt like a fifth wheel for a while and William's presence on the show, when he has been around, felt equally unnecessary.

The whole Star City Slayer subplot feels just as haphazardly handled. After all the build-up for Stanely Dover, this was a disappointing and hasty conclusion to say the least. For all the effort to build up the horror elements of this episode, they fall flat because we know Dinah is going to survive another two decades and the audience can easily guess the killer's identity long before he shows up. Frankly, the best thing to come out of this is the revelation that Ollie and Felicity have a daughter and that she is awesome.

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