Arrow Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 2 - Welcome To Hong Kong

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



Plot

Returned to Earth-1, Oliver finds himself back in Hong Kong with Diggle and Black Siren, who refuses to believe that Earth-2 is gone. As she runs off to try and find another way home, Oliver and Diggle focus on finding an abducted Doctor who is important to The Monitor's plans and cross paths with their old ally, Tatsu. Unfortunately, their old enemy China White is also back in Hong Kong and once again after the Alpha-Omega virus.


Influences

The flashback sequences of Arrow Season 3 and Crisis on Infinite Earths.


Goofs

Despite saying he doesn't really know anything about breach devices and only knowing the technology by reputation, David Chen has software on his computer that enables him to determine that Earth-2 is gone.

China White claims that she was released from custody because the American government feared a scandal if word got out that a federal agency was planting explosive bombs in the necks of convicts and forcing them to runs special ops missions for them. Wouldn't they have just killed all the Suicide Squad agents to cover their tracks rather than release them and hope they keep their mouths shut?

The Monitor chides Oliver for not blindly following orders, yet Oliver passed the Monitor's test in Elseworlds precisely because he challenged the Monitor's moral authority.

On the flip side, what makes Ollie think disobeying the Monitor by sneaking off to learn more about him is going to help matters?


Artistry

The fight scenes between the Triad and Ollie and Diggle are well-handled.



Trivia

This episode is the first to include a new opening introduction for Season 8.



Technobabble

Dr. Robert Wong is a renowned biophysicist and Nobel Prize winner, in the field of complex proteins and antibodies.



Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: (V/O) My name is Oliver Queen. For 7 years, I have fought with only one goal - to save my city. But now a new threat has emerged - a danger so severe it has forced me to leave my family in order to face it. And it won't be enough for me to just be the Green Arrow. To prevent the crisis that's coming, I am going to have to become someone else, I am going to have to become something else.

(Oliver awakens with a start from a nightmare of all his loved ones dying. He is in a strange bed in a strange room. The Monitor is in one corner.)
The Monitor: I warned you not to interfere.
Oliver: You didn't bring us here?
The Monitor: No. I discovered what had transpired on Earth-2, that you intervened to save Laurel Lance. I redirected you.
Oliver: What the hell happened back there?
The Monitor: A herald of what is to come. An entire world erased from existence.
Oliver: (confiused) Where's my mother? Where's... where's Tommy? Where's... where's Rene, where's Dinah?
The Monitor: They are no more.
Oliver: Did you hurt John and Laurel?
The Monitor: They are alive and nearby, but now you know that if we fail to stop the coming crisis, what you witnessed will occur on infinite Earths across the expanse of time.
Oliver: How did I fail? Your Dwarf Star particles are right there. (gesturing to a bag) 
The Monitor: You disobeyed my instructions to avoid entanglements on a parallel Earth. You confronted Tommy Merlyn. You altered the fate of Laurel Lance.
Oliver: I watched her die once. Okay? I wasn't prepared to do it again.
The Monitor: You are not a man accustomed to following orders. But the survival of the multiverse requires that you obey mine.

Oliver: I ignored the orders of a cosmic being, and as a result, I watched an entire world just disappear, so I'm just trying not to make the same mistake twice.
Diggle: Well, if this cosmic being wanted someone willing to watch the mass murder of innocent people, then he picked the wrong hero. Shouldn't blame yourself, man.
Oliver: (dryly) Well, what about my behavior over the past 7 years has given you the impression that I would?


Continuity

The Monitor says the he redirected Oliver, Diggle and Black Siren to Earth-1 after they entered a breach trying to escape Earth-2 without thinking of the destination.

The Monitor confirms that Earth-2 has been destroyed and blames it directly on Oliver's interfering with the affairs of that Earth instead of staying focused on the mission.

The Monitor instructs Oliver to find a man named Dr. Robert Wong. Again, he refuses to explain why he requires this.

Black Siren refuses to believe Earth-2 is gone. She takes the breach device and leaves to find someone local who can fix it.

The Internet cafe where Oliver tried to contact his family in 301 is revealed to be an ARGUS front. Diggle gets access to the backroom and a high-tech computer connected to the ARGUS intranet by telling the employee that Harbinger sends her regards.

Diggle calls Lyla into Hong Kong to keep an eye on Black Siren.

Dr. Wong has been missing for over a week. He was last seen at Wan Chai University, where he is a professor.

Tatsu Yamashiro (aka Katana) appears for the first time since 412.

Tatsu reveals that she left the Crescent Order after they demanded her death for giving the Lotus Cure to Nyssa Al Ghul. Since then, she has been a vigilante in Hong Kong.

The Cresent Order has knowledge of The Monitor and his true name, Mar Novu.

Tatsu recognizes the pins worn by the men in the last photo of Dr. Wong as the emblem of Hong Kong's secret police.

Black Siren met a hacker named David Chin through Cayden James several years earlier, who claimed to be able to get her back to Earth-2.

It is determined that Dr. Wong wasn't abducted but placed in protective custody, due to his working for the Chinese government to recreate the Alpha-Omega virus.

China White leads the Triad group that tries to kidnap Dr. Wong.  Both Oliver and Diggle thought she was in ARGUS custody. John says that as far as he knew, Lyla thought she was in their custody as well.

Black Siren learns that Earth-2 truly has been destroyed.

China White was last seen in 714, as part of John Diggle's new Suicide Squad.

Olive plans to use the virus as bait to draw China White and Dr. Wong out of hiding. Tatsu points out this was the same plan her husband attempted and it failed.

China White says the American government released her from custody because they feared a scandal if word got out about what ARGUS had been doing to force criminals to work for them.

Black Siren saves Katana from being killed by China White.

Dr. Wong is saved and the virus is secured.

Oliver gives Tatsu some of the same healing herbs she gave him after she saved his life in 310.

Oliver says he is going to Nanda Parbat in search of information on The Monitor.

Lyla is revealed to know the Monitor and to have been in communication with him for some time.

Connor says The Deathstrokes already took everything of value from Alberto Vasquez's private vaults, except for one flash drive that is completely fried.

William starts trying to fix the drive, as Zoe, Mia and Connor prepare to confront John Diggle Jr. by staking out the one black market where he can fence what he stole from Vasquez.

John Jr. agrees to have a friendly talk with Connor. This turns out to be a distraction and his plan was to leave the drive behind so William could fix it, so his people could then get the drive and the information on it.



Location

Hong Kong - Earth-1


The Fridge Factor

Tatsu is made out to be much less competent than she has been in the past as a sword fighter to give Black Siren a chance to save her and play the hero.


The Bottom Line

A lackluster episode that revives one of the weaker portions of Arrow's history and drags out the flash-forwards to ill-effect. There's nothing really bad about it, but there's a lot of characters it would have been better to see again than Tatsu, if only because her appearance in Hong Kong makes me wonder why a Japanese woman has made herself the protector of Hong Kong. Still, it could be worse.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 14 - The Sin-Eater

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


Plot

When three of his enemies break out of prison together, Green Arrow is quick to move to recapture them. Unfortunately, the Anti-Crime Unit seems to be more interested in bringing Green Arrow in for the murder of Detective Malone. At the same time, Quentin Lance blames himself for the break-out, after learning that Eliza Warner - an ex-cop gone bad - is apparently out for his head due to the recently revealed truth about how he'd once worked with Damien Darhk. And Thea and Felicity work to discover just how Susan Williams found out Oliver Queen is Green Arrow and what her game is...

In the flashbacks, Oliver and Anatoly must escape from Gregor and Kovar's after an ambush is arranged at the hospital where Anatoly is being treated.


Influences

The Green Arrow comics of Judd Winick. (Oliver Queen tries to balance being mayor and a vigilante, everyone acts like idiots.)


Goofs

Even if China White and Cupid weren't their intended target, it's unlikely that the ACU wouldn't move to stop their escape in case they were accomplices of Green Arrow. Or, at the very least, there wouldn't be a perimeter outside to stop Green Arrow from escaping that would catch them.

By the same token, are the ACU (or the rest of the SCPD for that matter) really going to sit on their asses and ignore the escapees while waiting for Green Arrow to show up again?

Even if they did, isn't it remarkably stupid of Cupid, Warner and China White to bet on the cops not taking an interest in them?

Did the cops just gun down an unarmed China White?

The flashback cliff-hanger of Anatoly being held at gunpoint would be a lot more dramatic if we didn't know he's alive five years later.


Performances

Paul Blackthorne, as always, is a wonder as Quentin Lance.

Willa Holland, likewise, is fantastic as Thea.

Juliana Harkavy isn't given much to do as Dinah in this episode but she makes every moment she's on-screen count.


Artistry

The script does try to draw parallels between Oliver, Quentin and Thea all taking blame upon themselves for something that wasn't their fault - i.e. Sin-Eating.


Trivia

The episode title comes from a custom practiced in some cultures, which Anatoly explains in the flashback. A Sin-Eater is one who lives apart from the other people in a village and - when one of the villagers dies - consumes a ritual meal prepared from food left with the corpse of the deceased in order to eat their sins (which pass into the food) and allow the deceased to pass on free of guilt.

The name Sin-Eater has been used by a number of characters in comics history. The most famous is probably a trio of serial killers - all using the name - who appeared in the pages of Spider-Man and Venom. The name was also used by two different Ghost Rider villains.

Most recently the name was used by an enemy of The Phantom Stranger. This Sin Eater was accidentally created by The Phantom Stranger after he broke and scattered the soul of serial killer Phillip Stark across time and space. The soul fragments reassembled and became the twisted demon known as The Sin Eater.

Curtis' new jacket has white pieces which make it more closely resemble the Mister Terrific costume worn by Michael Holt in the pre-New 52 comics.

Oliver says that Prometheus' mother was from Opal City. In the original DC Comics Universe, Opal City was the hometown of the original Starman, Ted Knight and his two sons David (Starman VI) and Jack (VII).


Technobabble

Curtis and Felicity make a sniffer device, which pulls electronic data from any hard drive or devices close by. It works so effectively it pulls a petabyte (1 quadrillion bytes) of data in one go.

Chǔ Cáng is the Chinese phrase for depository or storage space.

Curtis rebuilds his costume, adding a Kevlar weave into the jacket.

The edgework on the Billy Malone's death-wounds was consistent with the arrows used by Green Arrow, according to a Medical Examiner's report.


Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: Thanks for coming along. I know that being my body man isn't your job anymore.
John: Sure it is. Just a different suit, that's all.

Susan: Are you The Green Arrow?
Oliver: Yeah.
Susan: (stunned) Really?!
Oliver: No! (smiles and chuckles) I'm sorry. I thought you were doing a joking thing. So I did a joking thing back. Are you not?
Susan: I was working on a different story. And... uh, well some things came up that relate to you...
Oliver: And then you just immediately jumped to the most insane conclusion possible.
Susan: So that's a no? For the record?
Oliver: No. For the record.
Susan: Well, good. Because I think our relationship is complicated enough already just with you being mayor.

Green Arrow: Wild Dog and Mr. Terrific are staking out The Bertinellis. Dinah and Spartan have eyes on the Bratva.
Quentin: You know - you've got to get that new girl a code name.
Green Arrow: Well, when she's ready I was considering Black Canary. You all right with that?
(Quentin seems to consider that.)
Quentin: Well, so long as she does Laurel proud.

Quentin: I think that Warner is my mess to clean up.
Thea: And I'm assuming Oliver said that's not the case?
Quentin: What Oliver doesn't know is that the reason her rehabilitation was short-lived was because she caught my confessing to working with Damien Darhk on TV.
Thea: Oh wow.
Quentin: Yeah.
Thea: That is... an unbelievable load of crap, Quentin.
Quentin: What?
Thea: Liza Warner is a criminal. You didn't make her into one. You've got to stop taking responsibility for other people's sins.
Quentin: You know, I really like how wise you're getting lately?
Thea: That's just because I have committed my own sin today.

(Oliver is standing at his office window behind his desk, looking out on the city. Thea enters)
Thea: You asked to see me?
Oliver: (looking out the window) Did you know that Susan got fired today?
Thea: ... I didn't know she was going to get fired.
Oliver: (turning around) You should have come to me with this.
Thea: Listen, Ollie. I just wanted to discredit her-
Oliver: Thea! You should have come to me with this!
Thea: (coolly angry) And then what? We would have the same conversation we are having right now. I would have told you that she was going to out you as The Green Arrow...
Oliver: She wouldn't do that to me!
Thea: And then you would say that.
(Oliver sighs in annoyance.)
Thea: Look, Ollie. The only reason I didn't tell you was because I was trying to keep your hands clean. I know you care about her, so -
Oliver: (quietly) I do care about her. I also care that you destroyed her reputation. She's going to have a tough time finding a decent job. She's certainly not going to find a job in journalism.(suddenly shouting) You just blew up her life!
Thea: Honestly, I didn't mean for it to go this far...
Oliver: Yes, you did. You knew exactly what you were doing. And that's the part that I don't understand. Who does that to a person?

Quentin:What, you're just giving up now?
Oliver: Prometheus isn't giving me a choice.
Quentin: Neither did Slade Wilson. Or Damien Darhk. But with those guys you didn't just pick up your football and go home.
Oliver: This is different.
Quentin: How?
Oliver: Because what's happening now - it's not something that Prometheus did. It's something I did.
Quentin: You're talking about Malone, right? That was Prometheus.
Oliver: I fired the arrows.
Quentin: (pauses) Listen, earlier Thea was talking to me about not taking on other people's sins. What happened with Malone? That's on Prometheus. Not you.
Oliver: Well Quentin, that advice would mean a little bit more if it wasn't coming from Thea right now.
Quentin: Well, I don't know what that means. But I do know that if you're letting Prometheus, ACU or anyone else keep you from stopping Warner and her buddies, then justice isn't being served.

Quentin: So... Oliver tells me that you're the new Black Canary.
Dinah: Um. Not yet. I'm not ready to take your daughter's place. Sir.
Quentin: Laurel didn't want someone to take her place. She wanted someone to carry on in her place.

Thea: I'm really sorry, Ollie.  I know I screwed up but-
Oliver: - but you didn't make a mistake. You made a choice. And you reminded me of someone.
Thea: Who?
Oliver: Mom.
(Thea looks taken aback by this as Oliver moves to a chair.)
Oliver: She would have done something like this. Well... she would have done exactly this. She was a wonderful mother. But I think we both know that she didn't always make the best choices. Whatever's going to happen with Susan is... whatever's going to happen. Right now... right now, I'm really worried about my baby sister.


Continuity

Justin Claybourne's mistress is named Amanda Westfield. She claims that she has not seen her son since Justin Claybourne's funeral. She does not confirm or deny that her son is Prometheus but does refuse to give Oliver Queen his name.

Carrie Cutter (a.k.a. Cupid) last appeared in 416.

Liza Warner last appeared in 404.

Chien Na Wei (a.k.a. China White) last appeared, in the modern day, in 202. She appeared in the flashback scenes of several Season 3 episodes.

Dinah is sworn in as an SCPD cop.

The three escapees kill several of China White's former associates in the local Triad.

Felicity hacks Susan Williams' computer. Williams' password is 1234. She discovers all of Susan Williams' information that Oliver Queen is Green Arrow, but doesn't delete it since the information can just be retrieved again from whatever source she originally got it from.

Reference is made to Tobias' Church's deal with Amertek in 502 and the money he made off of it. This is what the escapees are searching for.

Liza Warner claims the reason she escaped was because she saw Quentin's testimony from the trial in 416 and decided that she might as well be selfish and look out for number one from now on.

The ACU discovers the cause of Billy Malone's death and that Green Arrow was meant to look responsible. This evidence turns out to be a second medical examiner's report, which determines the cause of death to have been arrows with edge work consistent with those used by The Green Arrow.

The letter with the ME report was postmarked from Opal City.

Amanda Westfield was originally from Opal City.

Susan Williams is fired from her reporter job after an anonymous tip is sent to her producers about how she's been plagiarizing stories for over two years. Evidence confirming this is found on her laptop.

Susan tells Oliver that she recognized his chest tattoo as that of a Bratva captain, had photos of him with Bratva members in Russia when he was supposedly shipwrecked and photos of a man who looks like Green Arrow in Russia at the same time. Of course having been totally discredited as a reporter, she can't go public with any of it.

Felicity admits to hacking Susan Williams computer and putting some files on it at based on Thea's instructions.

Thea tells Oliver that she did what she did because she felt Susan Williams was about to out him as The Green Arrow.

Oliver tells Captain Pike that DA Chase covered up the cause of Billy Malone's death, that Green Arrow was manipulated into killing Malone and that he knows this because he is in contact with The Green Arrow.

Felicity gives Dinah Laurel's old mask to wear into the field.

Rene is superstitious about disturbing a cemetery at night.

Captain Pike elects to move on the escapees rather than bring down Green Arrow and the other vigilantes. China White is apparently shot by the police. Cupid and Eliza Warner are taken alive.

The episode ends with Oliver and DA Chase watching a news report on information making it to the press on how the Mayor's office ordered a cover-up of Billy Malone's death.


Location

 A suburban house somewhere in Illinois.


The Winick Factor

It's a toss-up who is stupider in this episode - the cops who let a trio of escapees go in an effort to bring down the local superhero or the trio of escapees who gamble on the cops not being interested in them because they're after the local superhero. Hell, Oliver even points out how illogical it is to believe that Green Arrow has gone bad to the ACU Captain. And when Ollie is talking sense in an episode...


The Bottom Line

A typical mid-season filler episode, made tolerable only by some excellent performances and a script that cleverly parallels the shared hubris of three of the main cast. The villains of the week are wasted (which I never thought I'd say about Cupid of all people) as the main thrust of the episode is rightly on the continuing torment Prometheus is inflicting on Team Arrow and how everyone is being forced into darker and darker places in their support of Oliver Queen.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 2 - Identity

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



 Plot

Newly committed to being the hero Starling City needs, Oliver Queen still needs a place to start his war on crime anew.  He finds his direction thanks to Roy Harper, who tells him (in the process of being bailed out by Thea after his latest run in with the law while playing Hood Junior) about the local Triad robbing the FEMA trucks that are supposed to be delivering life-saving medicines to the overburdened hospital in The Glades

Ollie tries to stop the robberies as The Hood but finds the police are more interested in capturing him than the crooks robbing the hospitals and the martial-artist muscle in their employ.  His efforts to aid the hospital directly as Oliver Queen are met with suspicion, thanks to Alderman Sebastian Blood whipping up the people and the press against him.  Ollie tries to reason with Blood and assure him that the sins of his family are not his own.  But when Ollie's double life requires him to be in two places at once - a charity fundraiser or the latest robbery - how will he choose to save his city?

On the island, Ollie fears what he's becoming because of his time on the island.  Shado tries to calm his worries but there's no time for introspection with mysterious invaders closing in.


Influences

Green Arrow: Year One (the island sequences), Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunter (Ollie's reaction to Shado being tortured is similar to his response to Black Canary being tortured in this book) and various Elliot S! Maggin Green Arrow stories (theme of Ollie wondering what good he's doing in either of his lives).


Performances

I've always found Felicity much more tolerable as a character when she's not fawning over Ollie or playing the Manic Pixie Geek Girl who is ever so delightfully quirky.  This episode turned her into Pepper Potts on speed... and I liked it!

Manu Bennett does some great non-verbal acting as Slade in the bits where he is watching Shado and Ollie.  There's clearly something bothering him and I think it's something more than simple jealousy that the one woman on the island is showing affection to the only other man besides him.   


Artistry

 The nice dissolve shot in the new intro text, where we shift from Ollie in his street clothes to Ollie in the hooded costume, all while staring at the same arrowhead.

By the same token, the shot taken through the clear water turning red as Ollie washes his hands following his defense of Shado during the island sequence is quite striking.

Finally, there's the sequence where Sebastian Blood gives his speech about how Oliver Queen doesn't care about the city, intercut with footage of Ollie changing into his costume, retrieving his gear and riding off to stop the medicine robberies once and for all.



Trivia

China White addresses Ollie as "The Emerald Archer".  This is one of Green Arrow's more popular nicknames in the comics, similar to how Superman is called The Man of Steel or Man of Tomorrow.

The muscle brought in by China White is an assassin known as The Bronze Tiger.  Originally a heroic martial artist who trained alongside Richard Dragon (of Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter fame), Ben Turner was abducted and brainwashed by The League of Assassins into adopting the title and mask of The Bronze Tiger.  He eventually broke his programming and served as a "good" member of The Suicide Squad.  He is one of the few characters in the comics to have defeated Batman in a one-on-one martial arts fight.


Technobabble

Lots of new toys, this time around.  Ollie uses a smoke-screen to evade the police along with the Grappling Hook arrow we first saw last week.  He also makes use of a Taser Arrow against Bronze Tiger and saves Diggle from China White through what seems to be a bola-based Handcuff Arrow. 


Dialogue Triumphs

The new intro - "My name is Oliver Queen.  I spent five years on a hellish island.   I have come home with only one goal: to so save my city.  But to do so, I can't be the killer I once was.  To honor my friend's memory, I must be someone else.  I must be... something else."

Ollie's Elliot S! Magin response to Roy's disbelief that Ollie knows how he feels. - The world doesn't work anymore. It broke a long time ago but it was like you were the only one who noticed. That makes you angry. And you're afraid that anger is going to burn you up inside if you have to live in the world for one second longer knowing that you could do something to fix it.

Diggle's glib response to Felicity's complaining about her new "secret identity" as Ollie's personal assistant - Well, it could be worse.  My secret identity is his black driver. 

Every moment involving Ollie, Felicity and her making coffee. 

Ollie: Well, I'm just lucky that Oliver Queen has a reputation for not showing up on time.
Diggle: You know, I've been meaning to tell you it really weirds me out to no end the way you refer to yourself in the third person like that.   

Blood: Crucifixion has such a bad reputation.  The Romans used it to punish people who acted against the public good.  

China White: (The Police) still won't see you as anything more than the enemy.  Yiou'll never be anything more than a criminal to them.  Which means you'll never be a hero.
The Hood: As long as this city is safe, it doesn't matter.



Continuity

The stone pendant Ollie gave Thea back in The Pilot makes an appearance, as Thea gives it to Roy as part of her ultimatum.  In a flashback, we discover that Ollie originally took it from the body of a dead WWII-era Japanese soldier on the island.  China White, first seen in 102, appears again leading the Triad thugs stealing from FEMA.  Roy makes reference to there being other vigilantes in The Glades besides The Hood but Laurel Lance is only interested in The Hood.  Precisely 503 people died in The Glades because of Malcolm Merlyn's earthquake machine.  First appearance of Sebastian Blood.  John and Carly broke up because Diggle felt guilty dating his brother's widow while his killer (Deadshot) still roamed free.  Laurel saw The Hood walking away from Tommy Merlyn's body sometime after the events of 123 and blames him for Tommy's death, claiming Tommy might have lived had The Hood not been busy dueling Malcolm Merlyn.  Roy has one of The Hood's arrow-shaped throwing darts, but he painted it red.  The Hood tells him to put it in the alley behind Verdant when Roy needs to contact him.  Roy is officially recruited to work for The Hood as his eyes and ears in The Glades. 


The Bottom Line

This episode is amazing from start to finish.  And then it hits the cliffhanger and your mind is completely blown.  They are not pulling any punches this year.  In the words of Willy Wonka, "The suspense is terrible.  I hope it lasts!"