Arrow: Season 2.5 #16 - A Review

For the third time in his life, Oliver Queen finds himself faced with a sadistic choice. Two women he cares about are threatened and the villain will only let one live. Can Oliver Queen get out of this without losing yet another loved one? And even if he does, can he and his allies escape the clutches of the new Brother Blood?


Marc Guggenheim faces an uphill battle with his script for this issue.  Most fans of Arrow are well aware which of the core cast have survived to see Season Three, so the drama that opens this chapter is not that urgent.  Yet Guggenheim finds other ways to thrill us. And - to his credit - he allows Oliver to be called upon his double-standards regarding his own past as a killer and the differing standards he holds for his allies individually.  We even get a neat nod to what MIGHT be going on elsewhere in the DCTV Universe and who Ollie might know that we're not allowed to mention for legal reasons.


The artwork adheres to its usual high standard.  Penciler Joe Bennett perfectly captures the likenesses of the cast though some of the expressions are a bit odd, with Huntress smiling far more than she ever did on the show. And inker Craig Yeung manages to shade the original art without obscuring it, though the world of Arrow is a place of deep shadows and dark secrets.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #15 - A Review

Oliver's managed to turn the tables on the new Brother Blood, but he isn't out of the woods yet.  It seems that Blood has some powerful friends - including two old enemies The Arrow has fought before! But Oliver has powerful friends too... if you can consider the ex-girlfriend you sent to prison a friend. But The Huntress could be useful in the fight to come. Assuming she doesn't kill anyone...


Marc Guggenheim's story for this series has provided surprise after surprise. This is no small feat given that we Arrow-heads who are actively following the series already know who survives to see Season 3! But just as last issue surprised us with the revelation that the ARGUS-provided back-up Roy recruited was Huntress, so too does this issue surprise us with the return of some of The Arrow's enemies from Season 1 in addition to some fan-favorite comic villains we're seeing in the DCTVU for the first time. The script by Brian Ford Sullivan also features some great dialogue that is evocative of the classic Green Arrow comics of old.


The artwork by Joe Bennett and Craig Yeung proves equally excellent. Bennet's pencils have been somewhat mixed in previous issues but he is firing on all eight cylinders here.  This issue is ultimately one big action sequence and Bennett doesn't miss a step in depicting any of the action. Yeung's inks are perfectly balanced, enhancing the action without being overly dark.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #14 - A Review

To save Felicity, Ollie has surrendered himself to The Church of Blood!  Roy has the means to track him but with Diggle helping The Suicide Squad overseas he's a little short on back-up. Thankfully, there is one ARGUS agent who is available to help but calling them an unlikely ally is the understatement of the year.


Meanwhile, in Nanda Parbat, student Mesi Natifah is brought before Ra's Al Ghul. The leader of the League of Assassins does not impress easily but the young woman's actions in troubled times have accomplished that deed. And now he's ready to make her a rare offer...



One would think it impossible for a comic set between the seasons of a TV series to truly surprise its readers - we already know what characters will survive to see Season 3!  Yet Arrow: Season 2.5 #14 managed to surprise me not once, but twice!  I won't say anything beyond that save this - if you're a fan of the Arrow TV series and you aren't reading this comic already, you should start. Now.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #13 - A Review

As the Suicide Squad return home from their mission and debrief, Oliver Queen and Roy Harper leave on a new mission.  Brother Blood has captured Felicity Smoak and he demands a high price for her safe return - The Arrow himself!


I have mixed feelings about the script for this issue.  On the one hand, it's nice to see Roy Harper indulging in some of the snark so common to his comic-book counterpart.  On the other hand, I'm not sure that Felicity - even with her increased confidence post-Season One - would be quite so free about heckling Brother Blood as she is here.  There's a lot of good comedy here but I'm not sure it really fits Felicity's scared mode.


While I may quibble with the dialogue in this issue, I have no qualms about the artwork.  Joe Bennett and Craid Yeung continue to do a fine job on the main Arrow comic.  And Szymon Kudranski proves as impressive as always on the back-up Suicide Squad story.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #6 - A Review

The main portion of Arrow: Season 2.5 #6 is high on action and short on plot.  The focus lies upon Ollie and John, fighting to escape the clutches of The Church Of Blood.  At the same time, The Church of Blood begin the process to convert one of their own into a Mirakuru-enhanced soldier.


The script by Marc Guggenheim and Keto Shimizu is up to their usual standard, up until the last page. It is then that we are hit with something that honestly surprised me and things go above and beyond the usual high standard. I won't say what but suffice it to say it will inspire talk regarding a number of fan theories about the story-line of Season Three.

Sadly, the Suicide Squad page this week is a little lackluster, serving no purpose other than to let us know that Amanda Waller is more concerned about punishing the wicked than saving the innocent.  This is not exactly a newsflash to any fan of the show or the comics who has been paying attention. It's unclear why this scene is necessary beyond showing Lyla Michaels' growing discomfort with her job.


Still, the artwork is as wonderful as ever.  Joe Bennet is a wonderful fight choreographer and the action scenes in the main portion of the comic are well laid out.  And Szymon Kudranski adds his usual shadowy aura to the Suicide Squad back-up.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #5 - A Review

When the suspect in Laurel's latest case begins spouting off about a leather-masked god named Blood, it hits too close for comfort.  The rest of Team Arrow agrees it bares investigation, even though it's impossible for Sebastian Blood to have returned from the dead.  Meanwhile, Malcolm Merlyn - who would be faintly amused to hear anyone say that the dead don't come back - begins his training of his daughter Thea.

Meanwhile, in Khandaq, the terrorist leader responsible for kidnapping a number of schoolgirls gives the public a name.  He calls himself Khem-Adam - the ancient Egyptian phrase for Black Adam.  More, he claims to be a conduit for the ancient gods and to feel no pain...


The script for this issue by Marc Guggenheim and Keto Shimizu is fast-paced and feels just like a storyboard for an episode of the show.  The dialogue is crisp and hilarious and the action scenes well-played.  As before, I find the Suicide Squad back-up story to be as interesting as the main story and wish more space was being allocated for it, particularly in the wake of this issue's revelation that the terrorist leader for the group we've seen in action so far is Black Adam. Time will tell if we're about to see the first proof of magic in the unified DC Television Universe or if this is just another bone for the long-time comic fans.


The artwork is just as good as the scripts. Joe Bennett and Craig Yeung offer up some fine heroic artwork that is reminiscent of the works of Mike Grell, though not so heavily inked. The equally wonderful work of Szymon Kudranski in the Suicide Squad story is grittier and more realistic by comparison, in keeping with that story's darker aesthetic.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #4 - A Review

Arrow: Season 2.5 #4 is primarily concerned with the back-story of the new Brother Blood and how one of Sebastian Blood's underlings came to acquire his boss' mask and formed a doomsday cult in Starling City. The writers do a good job of delivering this information without it seeming like an exposition dump.  Nevertheless, this issue does feel somewhat repetitive as much of it repeats scenes from the show verbatim before building on the established material.  Nice as it is to see the "Bitch With Wi-Fi" scene again, it would have been better to see more new material.


The artwork by Joe Bennett and Craig Yeung is largely excellent, save that it loses fine detail in the middle and far distances.  A larger problem is that Bennett draws nearly every page as if he were emulating a camera that was in the process of falling to one side when it took its shot. I can understand wanting to vary up perspective but there's a number of pages where one wonders if they need to tilt their head to view the artwork properly or if someone changed the alignment of their monitor.


Personally, I found the all-too-brief back-up story involving the Suicide Squad far more interesting, if only for the revelation that Barack Obama is the president in the DC Television universe.  That's not to say the plot - based on current events involving religious extremists in Africa - isn't gripping stuff.  It is and I wish this comic devoted more than a page every two weeks to it.  I'd also like to see more of the photo-realistic artwork of Szymon Kudranski, whose previous work on Green Lantern I enjoyed.

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Arrow: Season 2.5 #3 - A Review

Times are tough for Oliver Queen and company.  Money is getting tight and it's getting harder and harder to get all the wonderful toys Ollie needs in his crusade to protect Starling City.  And things are becoming harder still, with Brother Blood seemingly returned from the dead and leading a new gang.


The third issue of Arrow: Season 2.5 is largely a housekeeping issue.  Little happens here in terms of the long-term plot, save that Ollie learns about Brother Blood's return and we, the readers, learn the secret of Brother Blood's resurrection.  One wishes they had kept the secret going a little longer but the story doesn't suffer from the revelation.  And there's a fair bit of humor in the opening sequence where we learn just who has been providing Ollie's new trick arrows.  The issue closes with the first part of a Suicide Squad mini-comic that promises to be an interesting read, if only for the real world issues it is based around.


The artwork is largely competent but nothing special.  Craig Yeung continues to create some wonderful splash-pages and close-ups but his work loses fine detail in the mid-range.  The Suicide Squad story drawn by Szymon Kudranski isn't bad, though it is heavily shrouded in inks as is typical of Kudranski's work.  Thankfully, the deep shadows fit the story, so in this case it works.

Arrow: Season 2.5 #2 - A Review

The second issue of Arrow: Season 2.5 is remarkably light on action, compared to a typical episode of the show.  That does not mean it is entirely free of action.  Indeed, the issue opens up with an amazing sequence where we get to see yet another classic trick arrow employed - The Parachute Arrow.


Once Oliver and Roy are safely out of harms way, this issue mostly concerns itself with reestablishing the status quo in Starling City and Mark Guggenheim handles the exposition perfectly.  We're updated on how Quentin Lance is doing after his injuries at the end of Season 2 as well as where Felicity is working in the wake of the hostile takeover of Queen Consolidated.  We also get a little more development of a minor character introduced in the first issue and how they will tie in to the major villain of the series.


The artwork seems slightly stronger this time around.  While I found Joe Bennet's fight scenes in the last issue to be sloppy and rushed, he proves himself no mean caricaturist of the show's cast in these quieter, low-impact moments.  The inks by Craig Yeung also seems to be more evenly applied.

Bottom Line: If you're a fan of Arrow, you should definitely be reading this series.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 21 - City Of Blood

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




Plot

With Moira Queen dead, Sebastian Blood is quickly sworn in to office as Starling City's new mayor.  Thea Queen is planning to leave town for good in the wake of Verdant being seized by Isabel Rochev and Oliver Queen is planning to surrender himself to Slade Wilson in the hopes that nobody else will have to die because of him.  But will Ollie's surrender stop Slade from unleashing his army of Mirakuru enhanced convicts?  Or will it just leave the city defenseless?

In the flashback, Oliver and the rest of Ivo's former prisoners work to get the Japanese submarine that carried the Mirakuru back into fighting shape so they can use it against Slade Wilson and The Amazo.


Influences

Green Arrow Year One (The flashback sequences), Hamlet (Ollie's monologue on the pier and the general theme of a young man contemplating the merits of suicide vs. seeing justice done) and Green Arrow: The Black Arrow Saga by Mike Grell (Oliver established a secret base in an abandoned building).


Performances

Colin Salmon reminds us how much we missed Walter Steele in every little scene he has throughout the episode.  One wonders why we didn't see him sooner given the trouble his family was having in previous episodes but I'm not knocking it now that he's here.

David Ramsey and Emily Bett Rickards nail ever single scene they have together.  After spending much of Season 2 on the sidelines, it is good to see Digg and Felicity getting the focus for much of the episode.


Trivia

This episode does not begin with the standard "My name is Oliver Queen" introduction.

The use of pink roses at Moira's funeral is unusual, as pink roses are traditionally a flower used as a "thank you" gift.  Pink roses are meant to symbolize sweet thoughts and gentle emotions as well as fun and happiness.  They can also be used as an expression of sympathy, which could be their meaning in this case.  Alternatively, pink may have been Moira's favorite color or pink roses her favorite flower.

Diggle uses 9 mm hollow-point rounds in his gun.  At the very least, this is what he used to bring down Isabel Rochev.

Oliver is described as a Priority 3A in his ARGUS file.

Oliver's secret lair - a place to be alone and think - is reminiscent of Superman's Fortress of Solitude.

Sebastian Blood's bodyguard is a man named Clinton Hogue.  This is also the name of a character from the New 52 Animal Man series.  In that book, Hogue is a follower of Brother Blood and leader of a group called The Splinterfolk - a group of people warped into half-bestial forms through a connection to The Red.  It's worth noting that this storyline was written by author/artist Jeff Lemire, who is currently the writer of the Green Arrow comic.

Isabel Rochev's costume, when she confronts Diggle seems to have been inspired, in part, by the design for the female version of the villain Ravager.  In the comics, the first Ravager was Slade Wilson's son, Grant Wilson, who was an assassin for hire like his father.  Later, Slade's daughter - Rose Wilson - took on the name after being brainwashed and trained as an assassin by her father.


Technobabble

Felicity geeks out over the computer equipment ARGUS uses, noting that some of it isn't even supposed to exist yet.

The Japanese submarine has manual torpedoes.  Someone has to be inside them to steer, effectively turning them into suicide ships.



Dialogue Triumphs

(As Felicity and Diggle wonder where Oliver is and why he didn't attend Moira's funeral)
Isabel: If Oliver's smart, he went back to his island to hide.  Maybe he'll attend your funerals?

Ollie: What about my idea for you to fix the sub?  You were in the navy!
Anatoly: The Russian Navy!  They taught us how to sink Japanese subs, not pilot them!

(After Oliver explains his intention to sacrifice himself)
Felicity: Please don't do this.
Ollie: Felicity... someone once told me that the essence of heroism is to die so others can live.
Diggle: It's not that simple, Oliver.
Olie: Yes it is.  Slade's whole plan was to take everything from me.  He did.  He wins.  All that's left is for me to die.

Ollie: (to himself) This is where it all started.  Out on the Queen's Gambit, right over there.  I should have died on that boat.  If I had, none of this would have happened.  I never would have met you.  Shado and my mother would still be alive.  No one else is going to die because of me.

Ollie: Peter, what you're doing is-
Peter: Practical.  My time's already up.
Ollie: Brave.  You need do know that... I don't think I could do something like this...
Peter: But you have!  What you did for us?  Comnig back to that boat?  Setting us free?
Ollie: I came back to the boat because I want to go home.  I wasn't thinking about saving anybody.  That's not who I am.
Peter: Maybe not yet.

And the whole "torture" scene with Diggle and Felicity tormenting Blood's bodyguard.  But especially...

Clinton Hogue: Bitch!
Felicity: (cheerful) Bitch with WiFi.


Dialogue Disasters

Felicity: (to an ARGUS technician) Can I touch it?  I know that sounds a little weird.  And creepy.  But I've never seen one in real life.

Laurel:  I don’t know anything about hoods and masks or human weapons or any of this but I know you. I know you like I know my own name. And I realize it may sound crazy in light of your secret, but I know who you are in your bones, Oliver.


Continuity

Laurel, Quentin, Diggle, Felicity, Thea and Walter Steele are in attendance at Moira's funeral.  Oliver isn't.

It is made clear early on that while Thea knows that Slade was on the island with Ollie, she still does not know about Oliver being The Arrow.

Felicity says that looking at Roy in a coma reminds her of Barry Allen, who has been in a coma since 209.  She also makes reference to the Mirakuru cure she asked STAR Labs to begin work on in 219.

Diggle uses 9 mm hollow-point rounds in his gun.  He deduces that Isabel Rochev must have been injected with the Mirakuru due to the fact that she survived being shot with that kind of ammunition back in 219.

Amanda Waller refers to the events of 216 and how Diggle no longer has any favors to call in with her.

Laurel gets assistance with hacking Sebastian Blood's computers from CSU Tech Kelton, who was last seen in 208.  He is later killed by one of Deathstroke's men.

Isabel Rochev takes away Verdant from Thea.

Anatoly was in the Russian navy.  He has no experience with Japanese submarines but is able to improvise rather well.

Felicity's mother is a cocktail waitress in Las Vegas.

Peter was given radiation poisoning by Professor Ivo to see if Mirakuru could cure cancer.  He volunteers to pilot the torpedo that sinks The Amazo.

Oliver deduces that Sebastian Blood is the man in the skull mask.

Ollie sends Sara away from the sub so that she will be safe.

Oliver reveals his secret identity to Sebastian Blood after revealing he knows Blood's secret as well.

By episode's end, both Quentin and Thea are imperiled by Deathstroke's men at the police station and train station respectively.  Diggle is facing down Isabel Rochev as Felicity is fielding a call from STAR Labs.  And Ollie and Laurel are trapped in a cave-in of sorts.


The Fridge Factor

This episode tries far too hard to redeem Laurel's character and winds up doing more damage to her reputation in the process.  Yes, she is the one who finds the proof that Blood and Wilson are working together but only through the assistance of a police technician and her dad.  Even then, the victory seems hollow since Laurel is only successful because Blood comes off as a bigger idiot than she does, due to the time stamp on his incriminating documents.  Yes, she does save Ollie from a Mirakuru enhanced criminal... but then quickly requires Ollie to become a seeing-eye man who can lead her by the hand, away from the peril .


The Winick Factor

Granting that the death of his mother taking the wind out of his sails is not unbelievable, it is still a little shocking that Oliver would disappear for several days and not think about the danger to his loved ones with Slade running loose.  It's also a little unbelievable that after everything that has blown up in his face lately that Oliver still refuses to tell Thea his secret, or thinks to mention that her boyfriend is still alive in the basement of her club or that he thinks pushing the people he loves away is honestly going to protect them.


The Bottom Line

Not a bad episode but a bit slow at times.  This episode exists primarily for three reasons - redeeming Laurel's character by having her find the connection between Slade Wilson and Sebastian Blood, driving home how badly Moira's death has changed everything and setting up the action of the next episode.  It succeeds in two of these tasks.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 11 - Blind Spot

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




Plot

After Maya Resik dies shortly after her visit to St. Walker Hospital, Laurel Lance becomes convinced that Sebastian Blood is not all he seems to be.  Naturally her boss at the District Attorney's office is reluctant to go after the beloved mayoral candidate, leaving Laurel without any options or allies... except, perhaps, for The Arrow.

At the same time, Roy Harper turns to Sin to help him in understanding the strange super-human abilities he seems to have developed since his abduction by Brother Blood.  The two decide to make a go of it as vigilantes without The Arrow's guidance but quickly find that there's a flip-side to Roy's new powers.

In the island flashbacks, Sara Lance considers Ivo's offer of rescue in exchange for the Mirakuru.  Never mind that Slade Wilson has disappeared into the jungle with the only sample and that Ollie is understandably reluctant to make a deal with Shado's murderer.


Influences

Green Arrow: Year One (the island scenes), Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters (refers to a serial killer called The Slasher who prays on prostitutes) and Judd Winick's Green Arrow/Black Canary (some resemblance between how Connor Hawke developed super-powers after being abductedby a super-villain mad-scientist and what is happening to Roy).


Goofs

The whole sequence at the Starling City Archives reeks of contrivance.  Why is it necessary to pull a heist in the middle of the night when surely, as an assistant DA Laurel, would have the ability to access to city legal records during the day?  Why do the police send a fully armored SWAT team out to respond to a routine burglary?  Could they have gotten a SWAT team out there that quickly?  Why would a public facility like the city archives have private security guards rather than police protection?  What are the odds that said security guards are good enough with computers to thwart a hacker of Felicity's skill?  And finally, if the Starling City Archives are as secure as we're told, why do the main archive rooms have have big plate-glass windows painted with the building's name on the upper floor of the building?


Performances

Every moment Manu Bennett is on-screen as Slade Wilson is heavenly.


Trivia

The Starling Slasher - the bad guy Sin picks to be Roy's first target - is likely a reference to The Seattle Slasher - a serial killer who was Oliver Queen's first target after moving to Seattle in the graphic novel Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters.  Ignoring the similar names, both killers targeted prostitutes and used knives.

There are some superficial similarities between Roy Harper's character arc here and that of Connor Hawke - the second Green Arrow - in Judd Winick's run on Green Arrow/Black Canary.  Both storylines saw a young hero being kidnapped by a super-villain who used them as a subject for medical experimentation that left them with enhanced strength and healing abilities. 

According to the police file on his murder, Sebastian Blood's father was named Sebastian Sangre.  Sangre is the Spanish word for blood.


Technobabble

Felicity has software on her rig that can act as a vocal polygraph but it requires a true statement to calibrate itself.

The prescription Laurel stole from her father is some kind of azepine-based drug - most likely a pain killer..


Dialogue Triumphs

The Arrow: What color are your shoes?!

(Regarding Sebastian Blood)
John: Felicity, he's dedicated his life - risked his life - to help the people of The Glades and in his spare time he's a murder trying to create an army of living weapons?
Felicity: You're a personal bodyguard who fights crime at night with his billionaire boss.   Not a lot of people show their real face in public.

Sara: Not everybody's what they seem.

Felicity: You certainly know how to talk yourself out of a victory.
Ollie: It's a gift.

Deathstroke: Your incompetence has now cost four lives, Alderman.  Fail me again and yours will be the fifth!

The Arrow: I can teach you.  To control your new ability.  And to control yourself.  Let me help you.
Roy: When do we start?


Dialogue Disasters

The entire sequence between Sebastian Blood and his mother at the start is incredibly hokey.

Laurel begging her father for help in the police interrogation room.  Katie Cassidy hams it up horribly and Paul Blackthorne looks less like he's putting up a tough front and more counting the seconds until he can get off camera.


Continuity

Adam Hunt refuses to investigate Blood, referring to his reputation already having been hurt thanks to his being exposed to Vertigo on live TV (207). 

Ollie thanks Roy for saving his mom, referring to the events of 210.

When accused of being late for their appointment, The Arrow tells Laurel he was checking around the building for a hidden SWAT team, referring to Laurel's ambush in 203.

Laurel makes reference to Cyrus Gold killing four cops (209).

Roy is now strong enough to break industrial building stones with one punch and to rip a car door off of its hinges.


The Fridge Factor

The whole subplot regarding Laurel's drug abuse comes to its inevitable conclusion only to be just as quickly swept under the rug.  And a good thing too as any viewer sympathy for Laurel as a character has likely disappeared along with her career prospects by the episode's end.  It's notable that the villains didn't have to do a thing to frame Laurel - just expose her very real crimes.  Hell, if it weren't for Slade's nebulous master plan to make Ollie's life hell, Blood wouldn't have had to have bothered with trying to kill Laurel and having Officer Daly take the fall for it.  She'd be completely discredited as a witness and disgraced in everyone's eyes... and rightly so! 


The Bottom Line

As in State vs. Queen earlier this season, the last ten minutes of this episode salvage an otherwise uninspired script.  The island sequences are a distraction and serve little purpose apart from giving Sara the thematic line of the episode.  The bits with Roy trying to use his powers to help people are interesting but all too brief.  Everything with Laurel is agonizing to watch since any sympathy the viewer might have for her is obliterated by the fact that she's actually guilty of the crimes she is accused of that force her out of her job.  And yet, to see Manu Bennett kicking ass and taking names in the Deathstroke armor and The Arrow officially taking Roy Harper on as his apprentice... it just manages to make up for everything that came before it.  Barely.   

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 4 - Crucible

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





Plot

When a new crime-boss who calls himself The Mayor starts stealing and reselling military-grade weaponry, Oliver Queen decides to tackle the problem in both his identities.  As The Arrow, he begins hunting The Mayor and his men.  As Oliver Queen, he privately sponsors a gun buy-back program in The Glades, over the objections of business partner Isabel Rochev and councilman Sebastian Blood - the former of whom doesn't want the company resources spent on what she sees as a waste of time and the later because he refuses to believe anything good can come from Oliver Queen's hands.

At the same time, Laurel turns towards the bottle and away from her family and friends as the grief of Tommy Merlyn's death and her guilt over her role in it fully hit her.  And Oliver unmasks the mysterious new black-clad, blonde-haired female vigilante only to realize she's someone from his past.... Sara Lance!

In the flashback, Oliver finds himself tested again on the prison ship Amazo, shot and left for dead as a test of his will to keep living. 


Influences

Numerous Green Arrow/Black Canary team-up comics and Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy (the hero unknowingly saves a criminal mastermind, the design of Brother Blood's mask is reminiscent of Scarecrow)


Goofs

Canary's mask disappears in between when she says Ollie's name and when he pulls away her wig.

In the final fight with The Mayor, Ollie and Sara both drop their weapons of choice - a bow and a bo staff - and switch weapons.  Where does Sara get the arrow she uses to shoot one soldier before she and Ollie trade weapons again?


Performances

Caity Lotz justifies her re-casting in the role of Sara Lance throughout the episode.  We don't learn much about her character and what's happened in the past five years through the text but the subtext in Lotz' carriage of herself and her expressions speaks volumes.  As Stephen Amell plays Oliver Queen across multiple levels (The Arrow, the public facade of Oliver Queen, the damaged "real" Ollie and the spoiled rich boy he was in the flashbacks), so too do we get hints of a similar psyche split from Lotz.  Sara Lance seems to be her true self when she confronts Ollie at his club but her walls come down when she hears her father's voice.  Her manner when talking to Sin in private is different than the facade she wears when fighting The Mayor's men.  Even the brief glimpse we see of her in the flashback suggest something else going on.    


Artistry

The direction in this episode is top-notch.  The action sequences are all incredibly well shot and choreographed, particularly the final fight with Arrow and Canary fighting The Mayor together.


Trivia

As in the comics, Black Canary wears a long, platnium blonde wig as part of her costume.  Unlike the comics, her natural hair color is not black.  Sara's hair is dark blonde and cut to about shoulder length.

The weapons The Mayor stole were taken from Camp Kirby.  This is likely a tribute to legendary comics creator Jack "The King" Kirby.  A prolific artist and writer, Jack Kirby is probably best known for his work at Marvel Comics, where he co-created Captain America and the Fantastic Four.  He is somewhat less well-remembered for the brief period he worked at DC Comics in the late 1950s, where he penciled Green Arrow.  Some comic historians believe Kirby may have had a hand in plotting several of the stories he drew, including the first retelling of Green Arrow's origins which saw Oliver Queen gaining his legendary skill with a bow after being shipwrecked.  Until that point, Oliver Queen has been an archeologist specializing in the study of Native American cultures. 

Sara knew Slade and asks Oliver about what happened to him. 

Sara and Oliver both saw each other die more than once.

Roy Harper having an extensive and varied gun-collection is a call-back to his time in the comics as the hero Arsenal.

Oliver is a good enough shot he can deflect a grenade in-flight.

Ollie is trained in the use of a bo staff.

Sara is a good enough archer to use Ollie's bow.

Sara really does not like the word "bitch".

Sara wears a black baseball cap with a stylized red-outline that resembles a rocket.  This may be a reference to the Star City Rockets - the official baseball team of Green Arrow's hometown in the comics.

The stylized skull mask that Sebastian Blood wears as Brother Blood does resemble the skull helm the character wears in the comics.


Technobabble

The guns being used by The Mayor's men are stolen M4A1 assault rifles. The Colt M4A1 carbine is the primary weapon used by Navy SEAL operators.

Ollie makes use of crossbows hooked to motion detectors to set a trap for The Canary.  The crossbows shoot out cables that wrap around the target, bola style.

Sara's sonic device also functions as a timed explosive.  She is able to escape after the one she tosses to the ground after being bound by Ollie explodes, knocking him off balance.

The tracking system used by The Army to monitor their weapons shipment was designed by Queen Consolidated.  It has a design flaw where if it is deactivate, it can be reactivated remotely by use of a "sub-form wave".

Roy Harper's sells a Colt 1911, a Jennings 32 and  K-Frame revolver at the gun buy-back.

The Mayor's final robbery targets a shipment of SCAR 16s.  Diggle notes these are military-grade assault rifles with grenade launchers.

Laurel is on a prescription for Benzodiazepine - a drug traditionally used to treat insomnia, anxiety and panic attacks.  They are generally discouraged for long-term use, however, as it can be easy for the user to develop a tolerance and/or dependence on the drug.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Ollie notices Laurel is drinking rather heavily at his party)
Ollie: Hey?
Laurel: Please do not ask me if I am okay because I am sick to death of everyone asking me that!
Ollie: I would never do that!
Laurel: Good!
Ollie: You okay?

Arrow: Why are you following Laurel Lance?
Canary: I could ask the same of you. I guess some things never change.  You and her.  Always and forever.
Arrow: Who are you?
Canary: Once you know, your life will never be the same.
Arrow: I can take it.
Canary:  Not this time ... Ollie.
(Ollie looks at Canary and reaches out, pulling away her wig)
Arrow: Sara?

Sara Lance: No woman should ever suffer at the hands of men.

Felicity: (smugly) I believe you ordered the crate of stolen military weapons, Mr Queen?

Russian Prisoner: Living is not for the weak.

Sebastian Blood: Sooner or later we all go through a crucible.  I'm guessing yours was that island?  Most believe there are two types of people who go into a crucible - the ones who grow stronger from the experience and survive it and the ones who die.  But there's a third type - the ones who learn to love the fire.  Who chose to stay in their crucible because it's easier to embrace the pain when that's all you know anymore.  That's why I'm on the clock to help this city.  Before it becomes used to living like this.
Ollie: Living is not for the weak. (beat) A friend of mine once told me that. 

(Canary has The Mayor in a choke-hold)
Arrow: Let him go!
Canary: You can't save this city with forgiveness!
Arrow: You don't have to forgive him!  But you do have to let him live.
(Canary loosens her hold)
The Mayor: Bitch!  Knew you didn't have it in you.
(Canary knocks him unconscious)
Canary: I really don't like that word.


Continuity

Felicity is the one who realizes that The Woman In Black is following Laurel, not The Arrow, recalling the incidents where she showed up in 203.  There is a momentary flashback of the Queen's Gambit sinking, as seen in 101, though reshot with Caity Lotz in the Sara Lance role.  Oliver spent his first year on the island thinking Sara was dead, pulled under when the ship sank but he did see her again a year later but "not exactly" on the island.  By episode's end, we discover that Sara was working with the crew of the ship where Ollie was taken captive.  Diggle meets again with Lyla, his contact with ARGUS first seen in 119.  She is single and rather pointedly tells him this fact after he notes that he's single now when she jokes about his girlfriend getting jealous.  Sebastian Blood expresses skepticism about Ollie's willingness to finance a gun buy-back program without getting any credit, referring to Ollie's failure to appear at his own fundraiser in 202. The weapons The Mayor stole were taken from Camp Kirby.  One of Oliver's fellow prisoners is Russian and explains that their captors shoot all the new captives as a test of prochnost (Strength).  They force the captives to remove the bullets and dress their own wounds unaided to see how strong and willing to live they are.  He tells Ollie that living is not for the weak - a line which Ollie quotes later as once having been told to him by a friend.  The captain of The Amazon questions Ollie as to whether or not he found "the graves", "the bones" or "the shipment", noting his crew has been searching for two years.  Despite Ollie not answering his questions, he concludes they have the right island.  The Mayor's real name is Xavier Reed.  Again, the Channel 52  news (with anchor Bethany Snow) mentions the protests of STAR Labs particle accelerator.  Ollie and Blood make their peace, with Blood noting there is more than one way to save a city when Ollie asks him about the graffiti that reads "Blood For Mayor".  Sin recovers from her injuries and seems to befriend Thea.  Sin promises to keep Roy's life as "the vilgilante's errand boy" a secret.  Ollie pays for Sin's medical bills and encourages Sara to tell her family she is still alive.  Laurel only avoids formal DUI charges thanks to Quentin's intervention.  Quentin Lance attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and confesses to his group he is worried about his daughter having the same disease he does.  Laurel is drinking heavily and on prescription Benzodiazepine.  Brother Blood's followers include at least one police officer, who removes The Mayor from the police station in order that he may be recruited.  Brother Blood injects potential recruits with a green formula he terms "a miracle" that causes the injected to bleed from the eyes.


The Fridge Factor

Laurel's sudden turn to wine and pills comes out of left field.  Both Ollie and Quentin take actions to try and "save" her throughout the episode.


The Bottom Line

 Lots of major plot threads get a little bit of development here, to the point where the plot with The Mayor is almost a distraction from the far more interesting revelations regarding Sara Lance and what she's been doing for the past five years.  Still, the action scenes are all very well choreographed and the pace of the episode doesn't let up for a moment.