Arrow Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 23 - Sacrifice

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

    Plot

The hoods are off and both Malcolm Merlyn and Oliver Queen know one another for who they are.  Not that it matters with Oliver chained up in one of Merlyn's buildings and  The Markov Device armed and ready to level The Glades.  Every member of Team Arrow as well as The Queen Family will be tested within the next 24 hours as truths are laid bare and masks thrown aside when Starling City faces its' darkest hour.

On the island, Oliver has a knife in his hand and mere seconds to stop a disaster that could wreck the world economy.  When push comes to shove, will the spoiled playboy transform into a killer? 


Influences

Green Arrow: Year One (the island sequences), Green Arrow: Quiver (Diggle's remark about not making fun of Ollie's preparedness), Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters (the idea of Ollie choosing to be a killer in order to save a life), Green Arrow: City Walls (rioting in Green Arrow's city after a billionaire causes a disaster), Justice League: Cry For Justice (super-villain destroys a good portion of Green Arrow's city) the Black Canary mini-series by Tony Bedard (Ollie's speech about how Laurel saw the best in him mirrors a similar speech Dinah Lance makes about when she first noticed the man Oliver Queen really was) and the repeated theme of sacrifice, particularly parents giving up for their children. 


Goofs

It's night when Detective Lance picks Felicity up at Queen Consolidated. yet when he takes her into the interview room for questioning sunlight is clearly streaming through the windows.

Why is Detective Lance still at the police station during Moira Queen's press-conference if he's been suspended?  Even if the police got word that his tip on Malcolm Merlyn was on the up-and-up before then, that still doesn't change that he'd been working with The Hood.

How exactly does Shado know how to reprogram a missile targeting system?  She's a lawyer by trade and while it makes sense for her soldier father to teach her how to fight, it seems unlikely that his lessons to her would include the technical programming of military hardware.

While there's a rainstorm where Quentin Lance is driving into The Glades seeking an underground entrance. it isn't raining in Roy's neighborhood or on the rooftop at where Ollie and Merlyn are fighting.

Granting that a motorcycle gives him more mobility, Ollie seems to have a ridiculously easy time getting to the CNRI office considering the chaotic state of the roads following the quake.


Performances

Again, I can't single out just one performance this time.  Everyone in the cast does an excellent job in their roles and it's a shame that we'll be seeing some of these actors for the last time.  Probably.  (Hey, it IS a comic book show and Deadshot's already come back after a supposed death already!)  I will pick out one scene for each core character.

Oliver - Stephen Amell has done a masterful job of playing the many faces of Ollie all season and this episode showcases that talent.  But the moment in which Ollie makes the decision to kill Eddie Fyers to save Shado and sacrifice an offer of escape perfectly captures a similar moment in the classic Green Arrow story The Longbow Hunters, right down to the look in his eyes before and after the deed is done.

Laurel - Surprisingly absent for most of the episode, Katie Cassidy spends what scant screen time she has reacting to other actors during their big speeches.  Still, her reactions as she listens to her father speak to her over the phone for what may well be the last time are truly heartbreaking.

Tommy - Colin Donnell has a lot of fine moments throughout the episode, from his drunken confrontation of Ollie at Verdant to the final death scene where he proves he is not his father's son.  And yet, I think his strongest moment comes when Tommy - having heard his father confess to all the evil things he's been accused of and finding him to be utter remorseless - pulls a gun on his own father.  Even before one word is spoken, Donnell make's Tommy's resolve clear

Moira - Moira Queen was ready to sacrifice thousands of innocent lives to protect her family from Malcolm Merlyn, never thinking that her children would be horrified to discover the price others paid for them to live.  Moira then sacrifices her own freedom and safety in order to expose Malcolm's plan to the world.  The ultimate irony is that her actions may have had the opposite result of her goal, as Thea angrily storms off to find Roy, placing her right in the heart of Ground Zero.  The look of pain on Moira's face in that moment - as she realizes all she did for good or ill was for nothing and there's nothing she can do to save her daughter as the police take her away - is Susanna Thompson's finest moment all season. 

Thea - Like Katie Cassidy as Laurel, Willia Holland as Thea seemed woefully underutilized during the second half of Arrow's first season.  That didn't stop her from putting a lot of power into what few scenes she did have.  Ironically, her best moment in this episode is her understateded rescue of Roy Harper.

Roy - For the past few episodes, Roy Harper has been seeking The Hood as a means toward redemption for his criminal past .  Yet this quest has been driven just as much by Roy's hero worship as any desire to be a hero.  This episode finally gives Roy both the revelation that he already has the ability to help others and the opportunity to do so.  Colton Haynes nails the character of Roy Harper from the comics with his speech about how he has to help people independent of The Hood.  It's a nice way of giving Roy the drive to succeed apart from Ollie that was such a big part of the comic character while still staying true to the reality of the show. 

John - John Diggle is well familiar with the themes of sacrifice which dominate this episode.  A soldier sacrifices much to be part of an elite that is further expected to sacrifice their lives if needed - brothers in arms.  Without saying as much in words (he's not that sort of man), John Diggle reaffirms his commitment to Oliver and the mission he walked out on several episodes earlier. Why did he come back?  Because you don't walk out on your brother and in many ways Oliver Queen has become a proxy for the brother John Diggle lost to a sniper's bullet.  David Ramsey conveys all this and more as John offers Oliver his hand and informs him that he won't be facing Malcolm Merlyn alone a third time.

Felicity - My antipathy for Felicity Smoak is well-known at this point, yet her growth in the past few episodes has warmed me to the character I've largely dismissed as  plot device in glasses.  While I still wish there was more to the character and that we knew more about her than "good with computers" and "crushing on Oliver", this episode does show her steel.  There's no reason that Felicity can't do what she does from the relative safety of her office at Queen's Consolidate but her decision to work from under Ollie's club in The Glades is symbolic of her finally embracing her own role as part of Team Arrow.  Since discovering Ollie's secret, she's insisted she was only in the mission to help save Walter Steele... and yet she still hung around once that mission was accomplished.  Why?  Because as she told Quentin Lance, she'd come to see The Hood not as a dangerous killer but as a hero.  Emily Bett Rickards carries all these moments off with style but her greatest moment comes when the steel breaks and Felicity spends 10 seconds trying to compose herself while calling Oliver as she watches the destruction of the city unfold on the monitor.  The expression on her face tells us far more than millions of dollars in CGI and explosions could about just how badly the city is fairing.

Quentin - One of the core ideals at the heart of the Green Arrow mythos is that sometimes the law fails in its' basic intent and that in those times outlaws are needed to assure the common good.  One of the more brilliant conceits of the series was making Laurel's own father - a cop in the comics  - one of the series' primary antagonist while still allowing Paul Blackthorne to play the character sympathetically.  As the series progressed, Blackthorne played Quentin Lance as a man disillusioned in his family, his work and life in general.  All that comes to a head in a speech, where Quentin asks what the point of the law is if it isn't used to save lives.  At first I thought this speech seemed completely out of place here until I realized the speech is not Quentin trying to justify dealing with The Hood to his boss.  It's Quentin reminding himself why he became a cop in the first place.

Malcolm - John Barrowman dances over the line between melodramatic and over-the-top for much of the episode.  And how can you blame him when the episode opens with his character delivering a James Bond villain speech to the captive hero?  And yet, even when he does go over-the-top, Barrowman sells it.  When he shouts "They deserve to die!" regarding the people of The Glades, you believe he believes it.


Artistry

Kudos to the writing team, who make the entire episode fast-paced and still manage some honest surprises with every character feeling honestly imperiled along with the whole of The Glades.  Amazingly, they give every character a full arc and a moment of development, with the theme of sacrifice coming up repeatedly.  This episode captured the spirit of a good superhero comic while avoiding the cheesier elements.  True, there's a few points that don't make much sense logically but make perfect sense thematically.  For instance,

On a related note, I'm relieved that we've avoided the cliche of the villainous father dying and his son - already wronged by the hero on a more personal level - taking up his mantle.  It would have been all too easy to turn Tommy Merlyn into The Dark Archer II, seeking revenge for both his father's death and Ollie's stealing away the woman he loved.  This would have been predictable and resulted in much snark from fanboy and casual viewer alike about "Oh, they ripped this off of the Spider-Man movies".  So kudos once again to the writing team for doing the unexpected.

The choreography of the final fight between Oliver and Merlyn is perfect.



Trivia

For those who care to nit-pick these things, Det. Lance's phone call to Laurel and the time spent deactivating the bomb after do take up less than two minutes of time.  A much better question is just how Det. Lance gets such clear phone reception in an abandoned subway station underground.


Dialogue Triumphs

(As Ollie is woken up with a bucket of cold water, awakening hung up in chains and bleeding...)
Malcolm: I hope I didn't hurt you.

Malcolm: You can't beat me, Oliver.  Yes, you're younger.  And you're faster.  Yet you always seem to come up short against me.  Want to know why?  Because you don't know, in your heart, what you're fighting for.  What you're willing to sacrifice.  And I do!

(After shooting the henchman who had a gun pulled on a weaponless Oliver)
John: I take back every joke I made about you sticking a tracking device in your boot!

Quentin: Not exactly a hardened criminal, are you? 
Felicity: No, I'm not any kind of criminal.
Quentin: Then what do you call computer hacking?
Felicity: A hobby.
(Quentin gives her a disapproving look)
Felicity:... that I do not engage in!

Felicity: You know, I used to think The Vigilante was a criminal too but... you know, whoever he is, he's willing to sacrifice an awful lot to help the people of this city.  That makes him a hero, doesn't it?

Quentin: I swore to uphold The Law cause The Law is steady, The Law is unchanging, The Law needed to be protected..  But what are laws... rules... if they don't protect people?  Now listen, I know I'm throwing away my career by telling you this but I'm willing to sacrifice catching this guy if it means saving people's lives!

Oliver: Those five years didn't change me.  They just... they just ripped away...all the things I wasn't and revealed the person I always was, which was the person... That's who you always saw.  And I don't know how you saw it.  But you did.  Nobody in my life is who I thought they were.... except you.

(Regarding Ollie surviving a third fight with Merlyn and it being unlikely)
John: Ok.  Well, how about this time you bring along something you didn't have the last time you two fought.  Me.
Ollie: I can't let you..
John: And I can't let you do this by yourself, man. Oliver, you are not alone.  Not since you brought me into this...
(glances to Felicity)
John: ... US into this.  Besides, Army Regulations.  A soldier never lets a brother go into battle alone.
(John offers his hand.  Ollie shakes it.)

(To Ollie, regarding Fyers' destroyed camp)
Slade: I should've figured you couldn't save the day without making a mess.

(While holding Shado hostage, while Ollie has an arrow tracked on him)
Fyers: Tell me, Mr. Queen.  Are you prepared to sacrifice your freedom for her?
(Ollie puts an arrow through Fyers' throat)
Ollie: Guess so.

(After Thea saves him from a mugger with a gun)
Roy: Where did you learn how to do that?
Thea: I guess I have wicked aim!

(After Roy stops his car, spying a group of people trapped in a bus where the door was jammed shut by a crashed car)
Thea: Roy, stop!  The Device is about to go off any second!
Roy: I can't leave any of them behind!
Thea: Look, I know you think you have something to prove. But you're not The Vigilante!
Roy: Look, I can't do this unless I know you're safe.
Thea: Then you'd better haul ass out of here too.
(The two kiss before Thea heads back to her car, leaving Roy behind)

The entirety of Tommy Merlyn's death scene.  The dialogue alone doesn't do the performances of Stephen Amell and Colin Donnell justice, so I shan't transcribe it here.



Dialogue Diasasters

Ollie: Where is the transmitter?!
Malcolm: Somewhere I can easily get to it.
John: I doubt it.  You'll be too dead.

The oh-so-subtle "don't text and drive" message, as Roy and Thea escape The Glades.  Made all the more painful by Willa Holland's real public service announcement later on during the commercial break  I know there's a tradition of painfully inserted messages in Green Arrow stories but was this really necessary?


Continuity

We once again see the scene in Pilot where Robert Queen sacrifices his life to save his son's.  Oliver keeps a tracking device in his boot.  Quentin refers to Felicity's work computer showing signs that she hacked Blackhawk Security (11), researched arrows sent to the Sagittarius company (9), and analyzing a water sample that lead to a Vertigo lab (12).  Shado knows how to reprogram a missile targeting system.  Reference is made to Salvation and when Team Arrow first realized the symbol on The List was a map of the old Starling City subway system.  Oliver has a second bow - the same bow he used to kill Eddie Fyers.  Ollie shoots an exploding arrow at Merlyn, expecting him to catch it - a frequent tactic Ollie uses against enemies with super-speed in the comics. 


The Fridge Factor

A bit of a mixed bag for Laurel, who is sidelined for much of the episode and both Ollie and her father tell her to stay out of The Glades.  She ignores their warnings and goes into work anyway, which results in her being imperiled so Tommy can get his moment of heroism before his death.

The rest of the female cast fares better, with Felicity showing some steel both in standing up to Detective Lance, Moira standing up against Malcolm and Thea proving surprisingly capable of throwing a beer bottle at close-range to save her boyfriend.  Shame Thea didn't decide to stay behind in The Glades to help Roy with saving people, even if he insisted he needed to know she was safe in order to do it.  Better if she had said "Well, you can do a better job keeping me safe if I'm here with you."

Also, while somebody had to be the hostage for Ollie's final showdown with Eddie Fyers, it still rankles me a little bit that Shado - bad-ass ninja lawyer - was that somebody.  It could have just as easily been the wounded and limping Slade Wilson. 


The Bottom Line

The perfect capstone to the pyramid of Arrow's first season.  An effective action-movie in an hour, with some amazing performances and visuals.  There's a lot of plot threads that are still active to carry the show into Season Two.  It's going to be a long summer waiting... 

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 22 - Darkness on the Edge of Town

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

    Plot

With The Undertaking about to begin, Malcolm Merlyn is covering his tracks and killing everyone involved in the creation of The Markov Device he needs to destroy The Glades.  Unaware of the enemy they are facing or the exact disaster they're trying to avert, Team Arrow turns their attentions on the one link they have - Oliver Queen's mother, Moira.  At the same time, Thea Queen and Roy Harper continue their own efforts to track down the Starling City Vigilante and Laurel confronts Oliver over their mutual feelings for one another.

In the flashback, Eddie Fyers plan is finally revealed - use the missiles he's acquired to down an American plane and trigger a chain of events that will destroy the Chinese economy.  With Shado, Slade and Ollie in custody, Fyers has everything he needs to force Yao Fei's cooperation with his plan and make the prisoner into a patsy for the plan.


Influences

Green Arrow: Year One (the flashback sequences on the island), Mike Grell's Green Arrow (Fyers' plan is reminiscent of the sort of international intrigues Fyers was involved in and Ollie was trying to stop) Ocean's Eleven (Ollie and company breaking into Merlyn's building and the increasingly unlikely complications) and the Bruce Springsteen album/song Darkness on the Edge of Town.


Goofs

Cool as Team Arrow's infiltration of Merlyn's building is, if they were able to sneak Diggle into the building as a security guard and have him take over the security room, why couldn't they fabricate an easier way to get Felicity into the mainframe room disguised as an IT person?  Surely that wouldn't be any more difficult?



Performances

Honestly, the whole ensemble cast does great and I don't feel like discriminating so I'm going to name something I liked that each main actor did well.

Stephen Amell: It really is amazing how this man can play so many variants of Oliver Queen so well.  What Christopher Reeve did so well with just two identities, Amell manages with four - there's Pre-Island Douchebag Ollie, Ollie on the Island, Ollie as he pretends to be around his family and Laurel on his return and Serious Vigilante Ollie.

Katie Cassidy:  The way she portrays Laurel's disbelief as Ollie says, despite her protests the the contrary, that he hasn't changed in the past year without saying a single word. 

Willa Holland: Her perfectly, wordless expressions of sadness and annoyance throughout the episode.


Colton Haynes: His struggling to maintain his tough guy facade even in the wake of the revelation that he lost someone important and that is why he wants to find The Hood.

David Ramsey: Does a fine job of imitating Ollie as The Hood.  In fact, he's so good we don't know for sure it's him at first and wonder if maybe Malcolm Merlyn is portraying The Hood in order to test Moira's loyalty again.

Paul Blackthorne: How he can convey so many emotions at once with a single sigh.

Emily Brett Rickards: Felicity ranting about Merlyn's security network.  Specifically, the way her awkwardness goes away when her mind is focused on a problem.  It's a nice touch, reminding me of many other nerds I know who are socially awkward until their minds are distracted away from focusing on the situation onto something else.

Colin Salmon: Walter's cool, even rebuttal of every single thing Moira tries to say to convince hm to stay. 

Suzanne Thompson: Her tortured, wordless expression of pain as she loses another husband despite her best efforts, after Walter serves her with divorce papers.

Colin Donnell: The look on his face where he conveys how every last hope he had is dashed as he sees Ollie and Laurel together through her living room window.

Sebastian Dunn: He goes a little over the top, but he does seem to enjoy acting like a Bond villain.  Somehow, it works.

Manu Bennet: Does a wonderful job of acting conveying the pain of someone just shot in the leg.

Celina Jade: Plays the distraught daughter well as her father is imperiled.

Byron Mann: Dies in a most convincing manner.

John Barrowman: The look of shock and torment as he discovers that Ollie is The Hood is perfect, though we don't know precisely why he's so upset nor why he says "Oh no."




 
Artistry

The script does a fine job of balancing all the subplots and helping us keep track of who knows what secrets and why they're doing things the way they are in the modern day. 

The whole heist sequence with Team Arrow hacking the Merlyn mainframe is brilliantly paced.

In the flashback sequences, we finally have some honest drama to push the story.  Interesting as it is to see Ollie gradually become the bad ass we know he'll become, there's little sense of urgency since we know Ollie is going to survive his ordeals on the island.  With Fyers' plan explained in this episode, we now have a specific stake for Ollie to fight for and that makes the island scenes more compelling than they've been in a while.

The final fight scene between Ollie and Merlyn is well choreographed.
 

Trivia

The name of this episode comes from a Bruce Springsteen's fourth album and the final song on said album.  His first album after hitting it big with Born To Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town marked the first time Springsteen performed more serious songs about the realities of working-class life.  The song itself contains several lyrics that seem relevant to the stories of several characters, particularly Ollie (Everybody's got a secret, sonny, Something that they just can't face,) Malcolm (I lost my money and I lost my wife,
Them things don't seem to matter much to me now.) and Roy (Some folks are born into a good life, Other folks get it anyway, anyhow.)

The scientist responsible for building the Markov device is named Dr. Brion Markov.  In the comics, Brion Markov is the name of the earth-manipulating superhero Geo-Force.

The plane Fyers plans to bring down is Ferris Air Flight 637 out of Berlin.  In the comics, Ferris Air is one of the leading aerodynamic firms in the United States.  It's also the employer of Hal Jordan a.k.a. The Green Lantern, as those of you who saw the Green Lantern movie might remember. 





Dialogue Triumphs

Thea: Walter doesn't really seem like himself.
Oliver: He's gone through a lot.  It's just... going to take bit a little time.
Thea:(sighs)  I'm getting sick of us all having to go through a lot, you know?

Ollie: That's a commercial airline, Fyers.  It's not like it can land here!
Fyers: It won't be landing anywhere, Mr. Queen.  I'm going to destroy it! 
Quentin Lance: Arrows are black. Not green.  Copycat archer again.  Psychopaths are color-coding themselves, now.  That's helpful.

(As Roy is staking out the cops working the Vigilante case)
Thea: Where did you even get that camera?  Come to think of it, where did you get this car?
Roy: I borrowed it... illegally.
Thea:  You know, when I imagined being in a car with you, this isn't exactly what I had in mind. 

Moira: You know, I would never willingly be a part of anything like this.
Ollie: ... I don't know anything anymore.

Moira: You held him (Walter) for nearly six months!  Surely you had him questioned?
Malcolm: He was. 
Moira: And I assume, that if Walter knew something you'd rather he didn't, agreement be damned, I would be a widow again.  Am I wrong? 
Malcolm: Rarely.

Laurel: I know!  I know!  Say it!  You think I'm crazy!  I mean, Oliver... he cheated on me!  He broke my heart!  He lead Sara to her death! And you would probably rather drink acid than see me with him again!  Dad?  I'm sure you're disappointed in me.
Quentin Lance: (sighing) Since Queen's been back, he's... different.  (pause) I'll deny having ever said that.  Let's eat.

(To Tommy, regarding Laurel and both of them loving her)

Ollie: She's not anyone's property.  Laurel makes her own decisions.  And she chose you.  Until you couldn't handle it.  Lord knows I'm guilty of a lot of things between us, but not you and her.

(After Roy calls Oliver a wimp and Thea tells him not to say things like that.)

Thea: My brother survived five years, alone, on an island!  Five years I thought I had lost him!
Roy: Yeah?  Well,  I lost someone too!  And they aren't coming back.
Thea: Who?
Roy: It doesn't matter.  That is why I need to find him.  So he can teach me to be like him!  I'm not losing anyone else, ever again.
Thea: I can't do this, Roy.  If you don't give this up, you're going to lose me.
Roy: Better now than later.

Moira: (after being handed divorce papers) Walter... please... divorce is an extreme reaction
Walter: Well, considering the circumstances I thought it somewhat reserved.  Or do you think I believe that my abduction on the night you told me that I was getting too close to your conspiracy was a coincidence?

Ollie: Ever since I've been back, we've been doing this dance.  We come together and then I pull away.  Something pulls me away.  But I think.. finally... that something might be over.
Laurel: What are you trying to say?
Ollie: That... you know me better than anyone.  And that you... are more important to me than anyone.  I just hope I didn't wait too long to say it.
(Laurel kisses him)
Laurel: You're not too late.  You're right on time.

Malcolm: There is nothing you can do to stop what is about to happen.  And you shouldn't.  This city needs what is about to happen in order to survive  The people who are destroying it from the inside need to be erased from the map.
The Hood: Fine.  Let's start with you!
(Ollie shoots an arrow, which Malcolm catches)
Malcolm: Ironic, isn't it?  Last Christmas, I almost killed you.  Three months ago, you saved my life. And now you're here trying to kill me.  You should make up your mind!
The Hood: Done!


Continuity

A week has passed between this episode and The Undertaking (21).   Malcolm Merlyn kills six scientists and three guards at Unidac Industries as The Dark Archer.  Diggle impersonates The Hood so Ollie can be in two places at once, despite swearing that he'd never do so again in Damaged (5).  This is the first time Ollie and Roy meet face to face, officially.  Walter serves Moira with divorce papers and leaves her.  The SCPD know Feliciity by name and have evidence she hacked Merlyn's mainframe.  Malcolm refers to his fight with Ollie "at Christmas" (9) and how his life was saved by The Hood three months earlier (16).     


In the flashback, Ollie recognizes one of Fyers' men as Alan Durand - the man he met on the island who claimed to be a foreign exchange student, who Ollie suspected of being a spy (15).  It is unclear if he was a spy or if he was recruited by Fyers after Ollie refused to help him, though the former seems more likely given his stone-faced expression as Ollie charges him.  Yao Fei slips Ollie a knife.  Fyers' employer is either a business woman or a man who favors wearing short-skirts and high heels at the office.  By the end of the episode Yao Fei has been filmed making a statement claiming responsibility for the attack on the Ferris Air Flight 637 and shot dead.
 

The Bottom Line

An enjoyable episode despite being low on action and high on exposition.  While most of the story is devoted toward setting up next week's finale, enough long-running subplots are resolved to make this episode enjoyable on it's own merits.  It helps that most of the ensemble cast is given at least one moment to shine, even if their own storylines aren't being advanced this week.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 1, Episode 21 - The Undertaking

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


   

Plot

After The Hood's raid on a corrupt accountant's office yields a money trail that seems to point to Walter's kidnappers, Oliver is ready to drop everything else in his life to rescue his step-father.  Felicity is also eager to help but sending her into the city's most infamous underground casino in search of the kidnapper is not Ollie's idea of a good plan.  Still, with John Diggle having quit the vigilante business, Oliver is low on help and on options.

Meanwhile, Laurel is determined to get to the truth of why Tommy dumped her.  She turns to Oliver for support and assistance in approaching Tommy.  Little does she know that Ollie has his own troubles with talking to Tommy about anything - let alone Laurel!

In a flashback to five years earlier, we see how Malcolm Merlyn came to organize "The Undertaking" and precisely what it entails - nothing less than the complete destruction of The Glades through an artificially generated earthquake!  We see both Robert and Moira Queen's reaction to this mad plan, as the two begin to work against their old friend.  We also get a look at the Laurel Lance and Oliver Queen of five years ago and just how their relationship began to fall apart before Ollie's departure on The Queen's Gambit with Laurel's sister.


Influences

Superman: The Movie (artificially created earthquake used to cover a land grab), Batman: No Man's Land (Malcolm Merlyn's plan resembles one of the villain's plan to take advantage of an earthquake to seize control of an entire city and rebuild it in his image), Casablanca (Ollie quotes the film when he sees Laurel in his bar but also the theme of a man lying to the woman he loves for a greater cause) and Green Arrow: City Walls (a rich man uses his fortune to try and save his city through rather extreme measures). 

 
Goofs

While Walter Steele does have some rather extensive beard growth to show how long he's been held captive, his captors were apparently kind enough to keep his head freshly shaved.

Performances

After several episodes, it finally happened.  I finally liked  the way they wrote Felicity Smoak and Emily Bett Rickard's performance as her.  I think it's because this is the first episode to fully show her having some vestige of a personality and a life outside of being Oliver Queen's miracle geek girl.  For the first time, Felicity's helpfulness seemed to be born of a natural kindness and desire to help people rather than a means of pushing the plot along.  It may also have helped that the show hung a lampshade on the fact that Felicity is completely unknown to most of the cast despite being neck-deep in the action of this episode.  Oliver says it all at the end of the episode.  "She's my friend."  Not a plot device.  Not the chick who helps me fix my computers.  A friend.  And Walter agrees with him!   And the writing, for once, treats her like just that.

I could write paragraphs about the awesomeness that is John Barrowman, but since I'd like to get to sleep sometime the evening I write this report, let me just say this.  Barrowman is a fine actor and a chameleon who fades into his parts.  When he talks about his dead wife and listening to her crying for help to his answering machine over and over because he was too busy to take her call when she'd been attacked, you forget he's an actor playing a role.  He's that good.

Katie Cassidy doesn't get much screen time this episode but she takes advantage of every moment she is there.  Some fans may worry about the idea of Laurel Lance - any version of the woman who may be Black Canary - seemingly obsessing over a man the way Laurel seems to obsess over Tommy dumping her.  Personally, I see no contradiction here.  I do not see a helpless girl who feels that she needs a man.  I see a strong woman who refuses to be lied to or to be pushed aside so easily  That is very much the spirit of the Dinah Laurel Lance I know and love.


Artistry

All of the episode's fight-scenes are top-notch.  The battle between The Hood and nearly a dozen thugs in the hallway as he's trying to rescue Walter is particularly memorable.


Trivia

Diggle apparently paints and plays the saxophone.

The gadget Malcolm Merlyn intends to use to create an earthquake is called "The Markov Device".  This is a reference to the DC Universe's fictional country of Markovia as well as Tara Markov and Brion Markov.  Better known as Terra and Geo-Force respectively, the two siblings were part of the royal family or Markovia and both had superpowers that allowed them to control the earth around them including, but not limited to, generating earthquakes.  

In the flashback, Moira refers to "just another Ted Kord fundraiser".  In DC Comics, Ted Kord was a brilliant inventor and industrialist who fought crime as The Blue Beetle.

In the flashback, Laurel refers to another couple - "Ray and Jean" and how Ray had just asked Jean to move in with him.  This is likely a reference to Ray Palmer and Jean Loring.  In the DC Universe, Ray was a scientist who gained the power to shrink while maintaining his mass and he fought crime as The Atom.  Jean was his long-time girlfriend before becoming his wife and then his ex-wife.  Ironically, they are perhaps the only romantic couple among the Silver Age Justice League members to have a more troubled relationship than Oliver Queen and Dinah Laurel Lance.


Technobabble

Accountant Harold Backman protects his personal files with an "asymetric encryption algorithm."

The gadget Malcolm Merlyn intends to use to create an earthquake is called "The Markov Device"

Oliver makes use of a bug-arrow to listen in on his mother and Malcolm Merlyn discussing Walter's being held hostage.   


Dialogue Triumphs

Ollie: Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks in to mine.

Laurel: (sipping from her cup) This coffee is terrible, Oliver.
Ollie: Well, that's what you get for ordering coffee in a bar.

Laurel: Did he say anything to you?

Ollie:  No, Tommy and I haven't talked very much since he quit.  But he'll come around.  It's probably just cold feet.

Laurel: Like it was with you?  Oliver... you don't sleep with your girlfriend's sister unless you're looking to break the relationship up.

Ollie: If you still want to be with Tommy, do what we should have done.  Talk to each other.  And be honest.

Felicity: I can count cards.  It's all probability theory and mathematics.  Have you met me?  Bottom line: I know my way around a casino.

Malcolm: It still feels like yesterday, that day.  When she called my cel phone for the first time, I remember being annoyed.  She knew I was busy, so I just let it ring.  When she called back a minute later, I shut my phone off.  A little after midnight, two SCPD officers showed up at my office.  All I remember them saying was she'd been shot.  Murdered.  In The Glades.  After the cops left I sat in my office the rest of the night, listening to Rebecca's messages.  She kept calling my name.  Asking for help.  Until she was just struggling to breathe... gasping for air!  I listened to my wife die.  Over.  And over.  And over again.

Robert Queen:  ... I can't imagine, Malcolm.

Malcolm: Try!  Imagine it was Moira lying on that pavement, bleeding, calling your name... and then tell me you wouldn't be prepared to do what I am! 

Felicity:  Look, I know Oliver didn't help you find your brother's killer.  And that hurts.  It sucks.  But... you've got to know that if it was your life on the line and not your... VERY understandable vendetta, he would be there for you.  No hesitation.
Diggle: I don't want a partnership with those kind of qualifications, Felicity.

Felicity: I know.  Oliver's.... religiously... against admitting he's wrong.  He needs you.   
Diggle:  Yeah.  And when Oliver is ready to say that, he knows where I live.

(While scoping out the casino while Ollie listens in on the radio)

Felicity: It feels really good having you inside me. (beat) And by you I mean your voice. (beat) And by me I mean my ear and I'm going to stop talking RIGHT now!

Ollie: That would be my preference.

Ollie: Welcome home, Walter.

Walter:  Thank you.  Son.

Laurel: I talked to Tommy yesterday and the reason he broke up with me is because he thinks that you and I still belong together.
Ollie: What did you say?
Laurel: Nothing.  He walked out on me.
Ollie: I just want you to be happy.  (pause) That's what I've always wanted.

Laurel: Then will you please go talk to Tommy for me?

Ollie: And say what?
Laurel: Say that you and I are over!  That you're not still in love with me!
Ollie: I can't do that.

Laurel: Why not?!
Ollie:  Because it wouldn't be true.  And I have enough lies in my life already.


Continuity

It's been six months since Walter was kidnapped and the events of Year's End, according to Moira Queen. Ollie apparently keeps the bar at Verdant open during the day.  They serve coffee but it's not very good.  Dominic Alonzo runs the biggest underground casino in Starling City.

In the flashback we see Walter Queen (first seen in Pilot) and Frank Chen (killed in Salvation).  Adam Hunt (killed in Year's End) is referred to in the meeting of the people behind The Undertaking and it is suggested he might help fund an upgrade to the police radio network in exchange for information on his embezzlement being ignored.  We find out that The Undertaking was started to blackmail the worst people in the city (i.e. everyone on The List) into doing things to help it.  It is Malcolm Merlyn who says it isn't enough and suggests investing in a firm to develop a device that will take five years to develop a prototype.  Moira blames herself for Robert Queen's death as she encouraged him to abandon The Undertaking after he told her that Malcolm Merlyn was planning to kill thousands.  Robert Queen accidentally killed a city councilman who demanded a bribe.  He joined The Undertaking as a means of making up for that crime.  Both Robert Queen and Frank Chen agree to work together to try and buy up parts of The Glades before Malcolm Merlyn can.  Ollie and Laurel are friends with another couple named Ray and Jean.  Oliver makes arrangements to sleep with Laurel's sister shortly after being pressured to move out of his parents house and find a place for them to live together.  Laurel gave Ollie her picture right before he left with his dad on The Queen's Gambit.  Frank Chen was the one who arranged to place the bomb on The Queen's Gambit.

Location

We find out Walter Steele is being held hostage in Bludhaven.  Ollie travels there to rescue him.

The Bottom Line

An expository episode which avoids feeling like an information dump thanks to some stellar performances by the show's spectacular ensemble cast and a smooth, well-written script.  What little action there is looks amazing and the information we learn about several of the show's less established characters more than makes up for the slower pace.  This episode may be more concerned with setting up the season finale than telling its' own individual story but it manages both tasks with ease.

Arrow Reviews: Season 1, Episode 20 - Home Invasion

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

 
     

Plot
 

Deadshot is on the prowl again in Starling City and John Diggle is ready to bring him to justice, despite a threat from his friend Lyla at ARGUS about staying far away from this case.  Thankfully, the Starling City Vigilante is on the case so Diggle can keep his distance.  Or is he?  Laurel's most recent case has seen her clients murdered by an assassin known as Mr. Blank and their seven-year-old son is the only witness.  When Laurel takes the boy into her own home, putting herself and Tommy in danger, Oliver will have to make a fateful choice about which assassin he will focus on - Deadshot or Mr. Blank?

In The Glades, Roy Harper is obsessed with tracking down The Hood, sensing a kinship with the vigilante who saved his life that he can't explain.  Will Roy's new relationship with Thea be imperiled when his search for answers puts him on the bad side of Detective Lance yet again?

On the island, Shado begins to teach Oliver the fine points of archery so that he can cover her and Slade as they raid Eddie Fyers' camp.  There is a brief hint of romance between the two, but Ollie - citing his love for Laurel - cuts things off after one brief kiss.

Influences
 

Green Arrow: Year One (the island sequences), Mike Grell's Green Arrow (the training scenes with Shado), Cyrano DeBergerac (love triangle where one man realizes the woman he is attached to would leave him in a heartbeat if she knew the truth about their friend's secret nobility), Witness (the hero protecting a young boy who is the sole witness to a murder), Serenity (With his professional manner and habit of talking to his targets, Mr. Blank could be an ancestor of The Operative), and various Errol Flynn swashbuckler movies (Ollie's fencing with a poker before a fireplace)

Goofs

Deadshot makes a big deal about not killing Diggle because nobody is paying him to do it.  While this does correspond to the code of ethics employed by Deadshot in the comics (he always made sure his contracts were fulfilled if he got paid and wouldn't complete any contract where the money didn't come through) it doesn't jibe with what we've seen of Deadshot elsewhere in the episode or in the show so far.  He was perfectly willing to gun down both The Hood and Diggle before (3) even though they weren't his targets and he was perfectly willing to gun down the ARGUS agents trying to ambush him.

How has Diggle not been arrested by ARGUS for interfering with an investigation by the episode's end?  Lyla warned him before about getting anywhere near Deadshot at the start of the episode and it's unlikely she'd let it go even if Diggle did save her life. 

Performances

Yay Laurel finally getting a storyline devoted to her work and doing something besides supporting her dad or her boyfriend! Laurel taking charge of protecting an endangered child is very true to Black Canary's character in the comics and it was nice seeing that reflected here.  Katie Cassidy plays the mama bear role to the hilt.

There's a magical little scene where Colin Donnell talks with the young witness about Tommy's mother's death and how he sees her every time he closes his eyes.  Should the unthinkable happen and an American version of Doctor Who ever get approved by the BBC, I'm going to immediately start a petition for Colin Donnell to play The Doctor based on this scene. 

For that matter, I want Paul Blackthorne to play Samuel Vimes in any upcoming films based on Terry Pratchett's Watch books after this episode.  His speech to Roy Harper about the problems with vigilantes - in terms of tone - totally a Vimes moment.

Honestly, there's so many little things in all the performances this time I could spend another five hours trying to write about them all and still not cover everything.  See the Dialogue Triumphs section for the many, many, many examples of what went right with this episode.

Artistry

The script, which gives a lot of good material to the entire ensemble cast.  Even Moira gets a few brief but nice moments.

The fight scene between Oliver and Mr. Blank is very well choreographed and artfully shot, with perfectly timed lightning strikes and effective noir-esque use of shadows.

Trivia

Felicity is not a natural blonde.

Oliver is a skilled enough shot that he can shoot two arrows at once through the windshield of a stopped mini-limo and pin the shoulders of a man sitting in the back of the limo without  hitting the driver.

Diggler's friend Lyla's call-sign is Harbringer.  Harbringer is also the name of a superheroine whose real name was Lyla Michaels.  A servant of the Monitor (the life-affirming cosmic being who sought to save all reality during Crisis On Infinite Earths), Harbringer had the power to create multiple reality-hopping duplicates of herself as well as flight, super-strength and also possessed an orb that told her the history of the multiverse.  It was she who traveled to the various Earths, gathering the heroes and villains needed to thwart the Anti-Monitor.
  

Detective Lance refers to Roy Harper and Thea Queen as "The Wonder Twins".  Best remembered from the Superfriends cartoon (despite repeated attempts to introduce them into the actual DC Comic books with no degree of success), The Wonder Twins were a pair of alien fraternal twins named Zan and Jayna.  Zan had the power to transform into various objects made of ice or water.  Jayna had the power to transform into any animal, including alien species unknown on Earth.  They were not criminals but most people found them as annoying as Detective Lance undoubtedly finds Roy and Thea.

Dialogue Triumphs

Diggle: So when did you become, ah.. "lunch dates" with Laurel? 

Ollie: Look... we're just.... *sighs* We're friends.

Felicity: Friends are good. 

Ollie: ... But?

Felicity: Couldn't you be friends with someone less complicated than your ex-girlfriend, who's you ex-best friend's current girlfriend?  

Ollie: I wear a hood and I put arrows into criminals.  So when it comes to complexity, I grade on a curve.

Quentin: Ok.  Look, I'm gonna park a patrol car outside your place.

Laurel: Fine.
Quentin: (To Tommy) And you.  You look after them, alright?
Tommy: I spend most nights at your daughter's anyways.
*long silence as everyone glances at one another*
Tommy: There was probably a better time to tell you that.

Quentin: Probably not.

(Talking to Taylor about his mom)

Tommy: Every time I close my eyes, I can see her.  Every time I go to bed, I see her in my dreams...Try it.  Close your eyes... Whenever you are sad or scared just remember that they will always be there. 

Mr. Blank: It was the badge that gave me away, right?
Laurel: You know, my father's a cop?

*Mr. Blank spins around to where he heard Laurel's voice and fires, looking surprised when Laurel returns fire with a shotgun*

Laurel: And that's not all he taught me!

Quentin: Hey!  I think you've got something that belongs to me.
Roy: You set this up just to get your radio back?
Quentin: Well, I DO love that radio.

Shado: You're thinking too much.

Ollie: Nobody ever accused me of that before.

Shado: I see my target in the distance.  I feel the variation in the wind.  I hear the bowstring tighten.  And I let go.  Give in to your senses.  Don't think.

*Ollie and Shado kiss a moment but Ollie pulls away*
Shado: You're right.  This is definitely not the time or place.

Ollie: No, it's.... no... There's someone... and it's a mile past complicated, but... I can't.

Shado: She knows how much you love her? 
Ollie: I suspect right now she doesn't.  But as soon as I'm home, she will.

(Looking at old pictures with Laurel)

Moira: I remember Oliver telling me once that he wished your father would let him come over to your house more often.  That being there made him feel less like Robert Queen's son and more like himself.  I liked who my son was when he was around you.

(As Detective Lance shows Roy Harper the body of a man killed by The Hood, trying to scare him straight)

Roy: Maybe this guy deserved it.

Quentin: Maybe he did.  But that's not how justice works.  You see, the vigilante?  He doesn't have to answer to anyone but himself.  That's a dangerous power for one man to have.

Roy: He saved my life!

Quentin: How do you know that tomorrow he won't just as easily take it?

Tommy: You still love her, don't you?

Ollie: It doesn't matter how I feel.  Because of what I do... I could never be with her.  So you don't have anything to be afraid of.  She is never, ever going to know my secret. 
Tommy: It doesn't matter if she knows.  I know.  And I don't know how to be with Laurel knowing the entire time... that if she ever found our who you really are... she would choose you.

(After Tommy dumps her)

Laurel: You can't be serious.
Tommy: This is me serious, Laurel,

Laurel: But... it doesn't make any sense.  I mean... Why now?  Why even at all?
Tommy: I thought I wanted this... you.  The other night made me realize I don't.
Laurel: .. you're lying.

Tommy: I am not a liar.

Laurel: If you've changed and I know that you've changed... then you... you would never do this!
Tommy: Then I guess I haven't changes as much as people thought, then.

(Roy and Thea discuss why Roy is trying to find The Hood)

Roy: I can't stop replaying that night in my head.  The night I got kidnapped by that psycho.  I just... I thought I was going to die.

Thea: But you didn't!

Roy: Yeah.  Because of him.
Thea: You don't owe him anything.

Roy: You're wrong.  I owe him everything!  I can't go back to the way things were, Thea.  I can't just go back to being nothing!  You're the one who keeps telling me that I can be better than who I am and... this... this is my chance to be.  I can't explain it.  It feels... like my life is connected with his.

Thea: So let's find him.

*Roy looks up, surprised*  

Thea: I can tell this means the world to you.  And you mean the world to me.  So let's find him.  You and me.

Oliver: I want us to get back on the same page.

Diggle: Oliver, we're not even in the same book, you and me.  Not anymore. 

Dialogue Disasters

Mr. Blank: The child got away. 
Rasmus: Got away? Did he see you?

Mr. Blank: No, Mr. Rasmus.  All he saw was the face of the man who will reunite him with his parents.

Thea: Do you have a police radio in your pocket?

Roy: No, I'm just happy to see you.

Mr. Blank: What happened to you on that island?
Ollie: You're about to find out!

Continuity 

Oliver refers back to his promise to help Diggle bring down Deadshot (19).  Diggle meets with Lyla from ARGUS, last seen in 19.  Starling City patrol officer's badge numbers begin with a 0.  Lieutenant badge numbers begin with a 1. Quentin says he thinks Laurel should consider moving, indirectly referring to the last few times her apartment was destroyed by criminals because of a case she was involved (2 and 13).  Roy Harper and Thea Queen are apparently officially a couple, after their falling-out in 18.  Deadshot has a rule against killing people unless he's being paid to do so but he has a space reserved for John Diggle's name next to his brother's on his body just in case.  The Hood's official murder tally with the SCPD is 26.  Yao Fei leads Fyers and his men to Slade's base.  

The Fridge Factor

Totally averted.  When Mr. Blank storms Laurel's apartment, it's Tommy who takes the traditionally female role of hiding with Taylor while Laurel takes the fight to the assassin.  Granted, this does make sense given that we know Laurel's taken gun use/self-defense classes but it's still nice to see the cliches being avoided.

The Bottom Line

Arrow needed to come back with full force after it's most recent break.  It did.  There's not a false note or a bad performance in the whole episode.  Even the Roy/Thea subplot - which feels somewhat tacked-on relative to the rest of the interwoven story-lines in this episode - pays off big in the end.  One of the best episodes of the series so far.

Arrow Reviews: Season 1, Episode 19 - Unfinished Business

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



Plot

When a refined version of the designer drug Vertigo hits the streets of Starling City, both Oliver Queen and Detective Quentin Lance have the same idea - question The Count, the drug dealer who created the drug in the first place.  They both find that The Count is still incurably insane after getting a taste of his own medicine at the hands of The Hood.  Or so it seems before The Count escapes from the psychiatric hospital where he was being kept under observation. 

As if Ollie didn't have reason enough to track down The Count already, the investigation into where the drugs are coming from points toward his own nightclub and his best friend, Tommy Merlyn.  Could Tommy have fallen back into his old habits of supplying "party favors" for his guests?  And can Ollie count on John Diggle - currently distracted by his own investigations into the whereabouts of the assassin Deadshot - to be there when Ollie needs his right-hand man?

On the island, Shado tries to teach Ollie something about fighting.  


Influences

Green Arrow: Year One (the island sequences), Green Arrow: The Poison Tomorrow (Oliver struggling to fight a drug-dealing villain after being poisoned) Mike Grell's Green Arrow run (Oliver and Shado training together) and the Batman: Arkham Asylum video game (the sequences of Oliver breaking into and sneaking around the asylum searching for The Count).


Goofs

How does Ollie get out of The Count's cell undetected?  For that matter, how did he get in there in the first place?



Performances

Celina Jade gives a most impressive performance in this, her first extensive appearance on the show.  An actress/martial artist/singer/songwriter/model, she certainly looked the part of the martial artist/assassin Shado from the comics.  Here, she shows the same grace and poise of that character, whether it is by doing some impressive yoga poses or by calmly teaching an impatient Oliver Queen a seemingly pointless training exercise to strengthen his hands. 

Colin Donnell runs the gamut of emotions in this episode and fully explores just how far the character of Tommy Merlyn has changed over the past six months.  The early scene reminds us of the comic figure from the early episodes - the man-child chuckling over the women's underwear left behind at their club.  But as the episode continues we see the steel that seems common to the Merlyn family - both in how he sticks up to a bullying Detective Lance and in how he confronts Oliver on his suspicious nature and inability to let others change.

Paul Blackthorne spends most of the episode in hardass cop mode but his final scene with Katie Cassidy takes the curse off of it.  In an entire episode devoted to the theme of change, it is Detective Lance who undergoes the most subtle changes, finally recognizing his own inability to give up on a good mystery.  Ironically, he finds the ability to give up the chase by simultaneously giving up his drinking.

David Ramsey gets a bit more time in-action in this episode rather than being the passive voice of reason.  It's a change to the regular script formula that works wonders, yet we still get some nice, subtle character moments like the brief scene of John Diggle interacting with his nephew.   


Artistry

The script by Smallville writer Bryan Q. Miller and writer Lindsey Allen is smart and well-balanced.  No surprise for those of us familiar with Miller's work on the Stephanie Brown Batgirl book and the current Smallville: Season Eleven comic

The cinematography on the final sequence, where the camera slow-pans past a wall at the end of one scene and then moves into the next scene, seemingly on the other side of the wall is interesting.  It feels a bit like one is watching a comic book, as the action moves from one panel to the next. 


Trivia

Tommy says at the beginning of the episode that they are "in the black and in the green".  While he is referring to the nightclub's finances (being in the black means they are making a profit, being in the green means they have lots of cash), it's also a bit of a joke as Green and Black are the main costume colors of Green Arrow and Merlyn respectively.



Technobabble


The overdose of Vertigo that The Count received at Oliver Queen's hands caused damage to his "Anterior Cingulate".  This is the portion of the brain that handles both automatic functions such as heart-rate regulation and blood-pressure as well as active cognitive responses such as base emotions, empathy, impulse control, decision making and reward anticipation.

Ollie makes use of an explosive arrow to take out the Vertigo dealer's car.  Later, he uses a hand-held trigger to remotely detonate one of the explosive arrows in his quiver to create a distraction after being captured by the Vertigo dealers.

The new Vertigo formula is mixed with Chlorpromazine.  It's described as an anti-psychotic medication.  While this is technically true, the drug - marketed as Thorazine in the United States - has fallen out of favor in recent years.


Dialogue Triumphs

Ollie: (examining the club's lost and found box) What sort of business has a 'Lost and Found' that's just filled with women's underwear?
Tommy: The best business ever!  (sighs happily) Having this much fun should be against the law.
Det. Lance: (entering the club) Oh, if wishing made it so...

(After being fed some technical jargon about why The Count isn't able to answer questions and walking in to find The Count repeatedly shouting "You have failed this city!")
Det. Lance: You could have just said he was nuts.

(In the midst of taking off his gang-banger costume after buying some Vertigo to analyze)
Diggle: Alright.  The person of color has successfully purchased our drugs.
Felicity: For the record, I offered.

(After it comes out that Tommy bribed a city health inspector but there's no evidence he's involved in trafficking Vertigo)
Tommy: Is there something you want to say to me?
Ollie: Thank you.
Tommy: No.  I meant the thing that you were thinking when Lance accused me of dealing out of the club.
Ollie: I don't understand why you wouldn't just tell me about the bribe.
Tommy: I run the club, Oliver!  I don't tell you a lot of things!  (hits the bar) So let me ask you a question, pal.  What have I done in the last six months since you've been home that would lead you to believe that I would sell drugs?
Ollie: In the last six months?  Nothing.  But before I left, you played hard.  You played with bad people who were into bad-
Tommy: And so did you, Oliver!  But I changed!  Just like you did!  Now you put arrows in people who do illegal things.  Last time I checked bribing a city inspector was not legal. 
Ollie: Do you actually think that I could hurt you? 
Tommy: Truthfully, I have no idea what the hell you would do.  You are a complete mystery to me.  I've got no idea how you find it so easy to kill people.  The next time that you decide to think the worst of me, imagine what I now think of you.


Dialogue Disasters

Ollie's table-flip at the end of the first sequence just looks silly.

Emily Bett Rickards' delivery during the bit where she questions Ollie as to why he's making an antidote for the Vertigo user taking hostages at the aquarium rather than just killing him is incredibly flat and passionless.  Kristen Stewart flat and passionless.

The whole sequence where Ollie is chasing after the Vertigo user who freaked out while at the aquarium seems somewhat laughable when you consider that Ollie is shouting "Stop!  I don't want to hurt you!", in his modulated Batman voice, to the man he knows is tripping balls on a powerful hallucinogen and, oh yes, WHOM OLLIE JUST SHOT THROUGH THE HAND WITH AN ARROW!


Continuity

The Count appears for the first time since Vertigo (112).  Deadshot has killed a Senator since the last time he was seen in the news (117).  Diggle's nephew appears for the first time and apparently he loves having his uncle read him stories at bedtime.  Felicity is still analyzing The Sign (here referred to as 'The Glyph) from 118.  Diggle meets once more with Lyla - the old army buddy now working with intelligence first seen in Arrow #25.  This time we find out what organization she is with - ARGUS.  Yao Fei was a general in the People's Liberation Army, who was framed for a massacre by the Chinese Military and sentenced to The Island for life.  Eddie Fyers's plans involve using Yao Fei as a scapegoat for whatever he and his men are doing.  Shado spent several years trying to find Yao Fei before being captured by Fyers' men.  Tommy quits his job as General Manger of Verdant and meets with his father to ask for a real job.  Oliver agrees to help Diggle with tracking down Deadshot.   


The Fridge Factor

Laurel doesn't really have any purpose in this story other than offering emotional support to her father and her boyfriend.  At least she's fierce in standing up to her father and defending her boyfriend but she really hasn't had a storyline focused on her in a while.


The Winick Factor

Ollie's standing around in an moderately well-lit alley with his hood down while waiting for Felicity to call him.


The Bottom Line

An enjoyable episode with a smart script that moves several on-going plots forward without feeling like it is tackling too much. 

Arrow Reviews: Season 1, Episode 18 - Salvation

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

 
 
Plot

Starling City has a new vigilante - a master hacker called The Savior, who is kidnapping prominent criminals that prey on the people of The Glades and executing them on-line.  Normally Ollie wouldn't lose much sleep over the death of a slum lord but The Savior's antics deny the guilty any chance of redemption or restitution.  And then things become personal when Thea Queen's new boyfriend Roy Harper becomes The Savior's next target...

Quentin and Dinah Lance have reconciled, seemingly reunited by the search for proof of their younger daughter Sara's survival.  Laurel would be happy if she weren't convinced that her whole family was giving in to false hope.  And then Laurel's own investigation brings up evidence that Sara Lance might be alive... 

Tasked with tracking down the assassin who tried to kill Malcolm Merlyn, Moira Queen is between a rock and a hard place.  The good news is that Merlyn still has no idea that she was the one who hired the assassin.  The bad news is that a recently arrested Triad boss is ready to finger the people who hired Deadshot in exchange for a reduced sentence.  Just how far will Moira go to protect her family?

On the island, Slade and Ollie try to bargain with Eddie Fyers - a boat for the circuit boards for the missile launcher.  Fyers agrees to a meeting but immediately proposes a counter offer - the circuit boards for the life of Yao Fei's daughter.  In the fight that follows, Yao Fei is wounded but he orders everyone to go on without him, including his daughter Shado.  The team finds later that Fyers has recovered the microchips but Shado knows what Fyers is up to. 


Influences

Green Arrow: The Midas Touch (a villain who broadcasts his killings on-line), Green Arrow: Year One (the island sequences), Mike Grell's Green Arrow (the underground sequences are reminiscent of several of Ollie's adventures in the Seattle underground), the Batman: Arkham City game (again, the sequences in the subway and how Ollie goes about fighting The Savior), Macbeth (Moira Queen's reaction to the blood on her hands in the epilogue) and the general theme of salvation and rescues.



Goofs

The employee profile Felicity pulls for Joseph Falk from the Starling City Department of Transpiration website seems to be written more as a prompt for the actor's lines than as a legitimate employee profile unless someone at the SCDOT is making note of which of their ex-employees are going "off the grid" after the murder of their wife.

Felicity says she's never seen somebody die before.  Assuming the comics are happening in chronological order relative to the TV series, she's completely forgotten the events of the comic Arrow #24, where she got a front-row seat to a man falling to his death. (Maybe that story does take place after this episode?)


Performances

Colton Hayes really comes into his own in this episode.  His interaction with Willa Holland comes off quite well and the two actors have real chemistry.  What really sells his performance, however, is the little touches that subtly reveal the real character of Roy Harper - like how even drugged and knocked down, he's still trying to protect Thea first.  For all the good it does him with an unloaded gun - the same gun he promised her he'd keep unloaded.  There's also some great non-verbal acting in the final confrontation between The Hood and The Savior - a moment of revelation for both The Savior and Roy Harper as the former realizes he's been killed by the man he thought would be his ally and the later realizes that The Hood chose to save him rather than the man who was emulating him.

The entire ensemble gels together and - as usual - it's the duet scenes that really sell this show.  Ollie and Diggle discussing Ollie's lack of a life over burgers.  Felicity unloading on Ollie about her own loneliness.  Thea and Laurel discussing their problems with going after bad boys.  Thea and Roy, of course.   



Artistry

The cinematography and choreography in the final subway sequence are both brilliant. 


Trivia

There's a bit of irony in Roy's comment that he uses a gun because he's no good with knives.  In the comics, Roy Harper was a master of  Moo Gi Gong - a martial art that emphasizes the ability to use multiple weapons and improvise ordinary objects into combat equipment.


One of the subway stops mentioned by Diggle is Locksley and Adams.  Locksley is one of the more common surnames for Robin Hood in the various legends of that famous outlaw.  Adams is a reference to artist Neal Adams, who redesigned Green Arrow's costume to more closely resemble Robin Hood in 1970.

At the end of the episode, Dinah Lance flies to Central City.  She says she should be home "in a flash."  In DC Comics, Central City is home to the super-speedster superhero The Flash.  


Dialogue Triumphs

(Regarding The Savior kidnapping their target for the night)
Felicity: You went over there to be all "Grrrr! Stop being bad or I'll arrow you!" and now you want to rescue him?
Ollie: I don't like the idea that somebody dangerous is out there.
*Felicity just looks at Ollie*
Ollie: Somebody else.  Cause typically, they don't show my level of restraint.

Ollie: Hungrier than I thought.
* Diggle just looks at Ollie*
Ollie: Are you waiting for me to finish before giving me the lecture?
Diggle: Oliver, you've been spending a lot of time under that hood the last couple of weeks.
Ollie: Keeps my ears warm.
Diggle: And you made this decision to ah... avoid entanglements-
Ollie: - for their protection.  The people who get close to me get hurt.  What's the problem?  You think I'm losing my grip?
Diggle: No.  Just the opposite, really.  You seem calm.  Scary calm.  I get that things didn't go well with Helena... with McKenna-
Ollie.  - With Laurel?! ... with Sara?  The list goes on.
Diggle: Yeah.  But what do you do?  You hood up.  You go home.  You repeat.  That's not much of a life.
Ollie: But the life that I'm living for myself right now doesn't leave much room... for an actual life.  And I don't need one.
Diggle: Wow.  That's a pretty bleak future you plan on spending with no one.
Ollie: I'm used to isolation.
Diggle: And that is exactly what worries me.  You've been home for eight months, Oliver, but I don't think you've left that island in your head yet.

Roy: I was waiting for this.
Thea: Waiting for what?
Roy: The whole 'you can change, I can see the real you' speech.  Look around, Thea!  This his Home Sweet Home for me.  You either starve or you do things that mean you're lucky enough to make it to 21.
Thea: I.. I can't accept that,
Roy: No.  You can't accept me.

The Hood: Let.  The Kid.  Go!  You kill this kid, he'll never get an opportunity to change!  You can give him a second chance!
The Savior: We're the only ones who can save this city!  We can't stop now!
The Hood: We're not the same!
The Savior:  You've killed people for this city.  So have I.  What's the difference between you and me?  Emma never got a second chance... you have no idea how lonely it is.
The Hood: Joseph!  Joseph?!  I understand being alone.  But it doesn't give you the right to kill people in cold blood.  

The whole scene between Ollie and Laurel that ends with Ollie saying "I don't want to be an island anymore."


Dialogue Disasters

Thea: Why do you have a gun?
Roy: Because I'm no good with knives.

(As Ollie goes off to track down The Savior)
Diggle: Aren't you going to hood up?
Ollie: It's the middle of the day!

Dinah Lance's breakdown near the end is pure Narm.


Continuity

Ollie refers to his disastrous run of recent relationships with McKenna Hall and Helena Bertinelli (117).  At the episode's end, Roy has one of The Hood's arrowheads.  The Symbol in The Book With The List, first seen in 102, is revealed to be a map of the decommissioned subway line running underneath The Glades.



The Fridge Factor

Averted with Shado, who is the first to start fighting while Ollie is frozen-up during the fight sequence in the island flashback.



The Winick Factor

Ollie attempts to storm Savior's hideout in broad daylight without a costume or any attempt at disguising his identity.  Granting that he is wearing a motorcycle helmet on the ride over, that comes off once he's at Savior's base.  I'm pretty sure Ollie was riding his personal motorcycle too.  He then goes parkouring across several city blocks in broad daylight.  What's particularly vexing is that Diggle asks him if he'll "hood up" but Ollie dismisses him, saying that it's the middle of the day.  Well, yeah.  But that hood still covers most of your face, even if you do depend on the shadows to look even creepier.



The Bottom Line

This episode has many fine moments but ultimately collapses under the weight of the subplots.  There's just too much going on!  Between Ollie chasing The Savior, Thea and Roy's romance, everything with Laurel's family and the multiple conflicts there, everything with the noose tightening around Moira's neck and the multiple conflicts there, there's hardly any room for the island flashbacks, Felicity's crisis of faith, Oliver's increasing loneliness and the sudden revelation of just what The Symbol on The Book with The List means.  Everything seems to be rushed and fighting for storytime, which makes the final outcome of Laurel's arc with her mom seem somewhat pointless given that they never get any time together alone until it's time to say goodbye.  A waste of the great Alex Kingston on a shaggy-dog story.

Arrow Reviews: Season 1, Episode 17 - The Huntress Returns

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



Plot

Things are going great for Oliver Queen.  His relationship with cop McKenna Hall has become serious and his nightclub is just a few days from opening.  Yes, things are going great... until Helena Bertinelli shows up at his house and her father's lawyer turns up dead.  Seems Frank Bertinelli cut a deal to go into Witness Protection and The Huntress is out for blood.  Worse, she expects Oliver to help her take on a small army of FBI agents... or else.

Laurel attempts to get her father to listen to her mom regarding what she's spent the last few years researching - evidence that like Oliver Queen, Sarah Lance survived the sinking of The Queen's Gambit.  The only problem is that the evidence amounts to one photo of a woman who looks only vaguely like Sarah and a map of the area around the island where Ollie was found which shows hundreds of islands a person could live on.  Even ignoring the spotty evidence, Quentin Lance is in little mood to talk to his estranged wife about anything - much less the possibility that the daughter he's finally come to mourn might be alive.

Thea Queen continues to shadow purse-snatcher Roy Harper.  She offers to help him get a job working for her brother but the young crook is reluctant to take charity from anyone.  Still, there is a hint of something developing between the two youths.

On the island, Ollie and Slade plan on how to disable the Scylla weapon and stop Eddie Fyers from starting a war.  In the end, Ollie comes up with a better idea than simply blowing it up - stealing the circuit boards from the weapon's interior and using it as leverage. 


Influences

Green Arrow: Year One (The Island sequences), Huntress: Cry For Blood (Helena Bertinelli seeking revenge against her family, even as a more experienced vigilante tries to train her to be more balanced) and the generally repeating theme of leverage.


Goofs


Considering all the trouble Ollie went through to make sure the police could never seriously accuse him of being The Hood after Damaged (105), he does seem awfully worried about Helena telling the cops his secret identity even though she's hardly the most credible witness.


Performances

Paul Blackthorne gets some great moments playing all over the emotional spectrum as Quentin Lance.  We've seen him Blackthorne play Lance as the tough guy for most of the show's run but this is the first time we see just how badly his daughter's death and his wife's departure shook the man behind the badge and Blackthorne plays Lance's confusion perfectly.

Colin Donnell plays Tommy Merlyn's internal conflict perfectly.  As far as he's concerned, The Hood is a murderer.  But he's also the one man Tommy trusts more than anyone else in the world.  Tommy hates what Oliver is to the point where he refuses to hear any of Ollie's excuses as to why he does what he does and yet Tommy can't bring himself to turn Oliver in or share Oliver's secret... even with the woman he loves!  And that's how Tommy feels even before Ollie's secret identity causes him to get his wrist and throat injured.


Trivia

Helena's stripper costume seems to be based in part on Jim Lee's redesign of the Huntress costume, with a dominant white-crosses on purple theme.

Diggle is seen reading a newspaper which mentions the assassination of the President of Bialya.  Bialya is a fictional Middle-Eastern country in the DC Comics Universe, said to lie to the North of  Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Ollie's club is named Verdant - a word meaning green.  Specifically, the green of lush grass and thick vegetation.

DJ Steve Aoki plays himself, working as the DJ on Verdant's opening night.

Given Roy Harper in the comics is well-known for his past as a heroin addict, there's some small irony that Roy Harper in this universe should have a fear of needles.

Coast City, where McKenna is moving, is best known as the hometown of Hal Jordan (a.k.a. Green Lantern) in the DC Comics Universe.


Technobabble

Oliver's plan to disable Fryer's super-weapon involves stealing the circuit boards on the grounds that the weapons are completely useless without the inner workings.  


Dialogue Triumphs

Ollie:  She was in my house. She made a not so veiled threat.  I want extra security around my mother and sister.
Diggle: I'm way ahead of you, man.
Ollie: Thank you -
Diggle: Just doing my job.
Ollie:  - for not saying 'I told you so'.
Diggle: (beat) The night is young.

Ollie: I'm sorry.  But... I kept this a secret to protect the people that are closest to me-
Tommy: Do you think that's what I care about?  That my feelings are hurt?  You're a murderer.  A killer.  You were my best friend in life but now it's like I don't even know you.
Ollie: You're right.  I've changed.  Listen - buddy?  Now, I can explain to you.  Now I can explain how and why-
Tommy: What would be the point?  I wouldn't believe a word of it anyway.

(Regarding Huntress and her blackmailing Ollie into helping her find her father)
Ollie: What do you want me to do?!  Do you want me to kill her?
Diggle: I think you would have a long time ago if she looked like me instead of the T Mobile girl.

The whole scene in the police questioning room where Helena expertly plays McKenna Hall and Quentin Lance by taunting them about Oliver Queen, all the while knowing they have no idea she answered their question about who The Hood is honestly.

Tommy:  Hey.  I heard about McKenna.  You okay?
Ollie: ... not really.
Tommy: Look, I know that I've been a jerk lately.  I just couldn't understand how you could keep such a huge secret from me.  But I never considered the toll it must take on you.
Ollie: Lying to the people that are closest to me... is the hardest part.
Tommy: I get that.
Ollie: (sighs) I was wrong.  That I could have it both ways To think that I can do what I do and still have a normal life with anyone.
Tommy:  Except if you're alone... you're never going to be happy.
Ollie: Maybe not.  But me being happy isn't what's important right now.

Continuity

Helena Bertinelli, last seen in 108, returns to Starling City.  Diggle is seen reading a newspaper which reports that the Biaylan President was assassinated and Deadshot (last seen in 116) is the prime suspect.  Helena refers to traveling the world, which occurred in Issue #11 of the on-line Arrow comic.  At some point during this time Helena has been trained to catch arrows. Felicity is a skilled enough hacker to break into the FBI's computers undetected.   After the fight with Huntress leaves McKenna injured with a shattered femur requiring at least one year in rehab, she plans to move to Coast City and stay with her sister.  Reportedly Coast City has the finest physical therapy facilities in the country. Ollie says he can be whatever McKenna needs after she basically dumps him.  Quentin finally agrees to hear Dinah's story. 


Untelevised Adventures

Helena refers to the events of Issue #11 of the on-line Arrow comic, which showed her traveling the world and training.  

The Fridge Factor

Dinah Lance only shows up in two scenes and everything she's doing is defined in terms of her husband's inability to cope with emotional trauma.  While it is a nice shifting of stereotypes to have the man in a relationship being the emotionally upset one, it still doesn't change how ill-defined Dinah is as a character so far. 

Laurel doesn't fair much better, with most of her scenes in this episode being devoted toward either dealing with her father's skepticism or chewing Tommy out for not being there to help her in dealing with her father's skepticism.  A scene of both mother and daughter together, going over the evidence on their own would have been nice after the last episode's cut-off.  Hell, ANY scene of both mother and daughter together would be nice given how long it's been since Dinah and Laurel have spoken, much less seen each other.  

Finally, McKenna - so quickly introduced as a love interest for Ollie - is just as quickly dismissed after receiving a career-ending injury that mostly serves to give Ollie angst over losing a girlfriend and being responsible for her getting hurt and ruining her life.


The Bottom Line

A good starting point after the brief break in the episode airings.  The performances in this episode are so good that one can forgive the Thea/Roy subplot being completely unrelated to the main action of the episode and the Laurel/Dinah/Quentin subplot not really going anywhere and Dinah being an incredibly flat character thus far.