Arrow Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 20 - Seeing Red

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




Plot

Hallucinating due to the Mirakuru in his veins, Roy Harper escapes from the Arrow Cave and goes on a rampage.  As Ollie and Sara argue about whether or not it is still possible to save him, Ollie must contend with further turmoil at home as the relationship between himself, Thea and their mother continues to deteriorate, even as Moira Queen becomes poised to become the next mayor of Starling City.

In the flashbacks, we see an incident in the Queen Family home seven years earlier and learn just how far Moira would go to protect her children even then, as Ollie comes to her with disturbing news.  He got a girl pregnant... and it wasn't his girlfriend, Laurel!


Influences

Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters (the scene of Ollie and Sara in bed discussing their relationship), Green Arrow: Where Angels Fear To Tread (the idea of Ollie unknowingly fathering an illegitimate child while in college).  And while not based on any particular story, the whole episode has the feeling of a Mike Grell Green Arrow comic as we see Ollie benefiting secretly from people he's helped in the past as The Arrow (the doctor who treats Ollie's injuries) in a manner not dissimilar to an urban Robin Hood.  There's also the reoccurring themes of trust broken and lies told by those closest to us to protect us.


Goofs

In the flashback, Laurel says "Good night." to Moira as she's leaving the Queen Mansion, when daylight is still clearly coming in through the windows.

Why hasn't Thea asked why this Slade Wilson guy was so invested in telling her "the truth" in the first place?

Where was Diggle when The Queen family limo was attacked?


Performances

Susanna Thompson is given a great episode to go out on, delivering a number of great speeches in both the modern and flashback scenes.


Artistry

There's some very nice orchestral music throughout the episode.


Trivia

This is not the first time that Oliver Queen has fathered a child out of wedlock.  During Mike Grell's run on Green Arrow, Ollie was raped by the assassin Shado, who later gave birth to a son.

Later, during the Chuck Dixon run, it was revealed that Oliver sired another son - Connor Hawke - with a girl he knew back in his hippie college student days named Sandra "Moonday" Hawke.  Connor become the second Green Arrow after Ollie's death.

Finally, there's a long-running theory - first proposed by Green Arrow expert Scott McCullar - that Cissie King (a.k.a. the heroine Arrowette) and daughter of former Green Arrow sidekick Bonnie King (a.k.a. Miss Arrowette) was Oliver Queen's illegitimate daughter.

We do not find out the name of the woman Ollie impregnated nor the gender of their child, so there's a fair chance the unnamed woman could be either Sandra Hawke or Bonnie King.  Given that reference is made to her returning to college in Central City, it seems more likely that it is Sandra Hawke.

Sara's leaving Ollie, claiming Ollie deserves someone better than her, is similar to arguments why Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance couldn't make a relationship work in the comics, with the genders flipped.


Technobabble

Ollie uses three tranquilizer-dart arrows to bring Roy down.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Ollie in Sara are in bed together, kissing one another softly)
Sara: Do you think Roy's okay?
Ollie: Please tell me that you're not thinking about Roy right now.  We're finally alone.  In a very nice hotel room.
Sara: A hotel room that you couldn't afford.
Ollie: I have something of a history with the manager.
Sara: Mmmm... I can only imagine.
(Ollie glances around the room)
Ollie: I think I trashed this specific room once.  When favors run out, we should think about getting a more permanent place.
Sara: ... we?
Ollie: Well... you're probably getting tired of staying with Laurel.  And we can't sleep in the foundry now that Roy's there.  So..
Sara:  But I mean... "we"... are you asking me to move in with you?
(Ollie answers this by kissing her.  Suddenly, his phone starts ringing)
Sara: Your phone's ringing.
Ollie: I know.
(The two go back to kissing.  Sara's phone starts ringing)
Sara: Okay, BOTH our phones are ringing.  That's nothing good.

Ollie: Mom, I know a little something about... sacrificing the people closest to me for the good of this city.  That's what you need to do now.
Moira: ... I know.
Ollie: Good.
Moira: Oliver... I KNOW.
(Ollie stops dead in his tracks.)
Moira: (quieter) I know.
(Ollie turns around.)
Moira:  I've known... since last year, I suppose.  The night of The Undertaking everything became so clear.  That 's pretty much the night I stopped sleeping.
Ollie: Before you say anything else...
Moira: There's nothing else to say.  Nothing I need to say.  Except I could not be more proud.

Woman: I'm not looking for money.
Moira: Of course not.
(Moira hands the woman a check.)
Woman: I told you I don't want money.
Moira: And I'm telling you that this is my first grandchild.  And I want to make certain that he or she has a bright future.  Please.
Woman: (looking at the check) ... this is a million dollars!
Moira: I want to make certain my son has a bright future as well.  That money is yours once you tell Oliver that you've lost the baby.
Woman: ... what?!
Moira: And another million when you return to Central City, never to speak to him again.  Can I offer you some advice, one mother to another?  When it comes to your children, there is no action that is inconceivable.  There is no decision that is impossible.  You do what you must to provide the life that they need and I think that two million dollars is sufficient to provide the life that both our children need.   Don't you?

Sara: I would have killed him.  I was ready to.  He'd be dead right now if you hadn't stopped me.
Ollie: But he's not.  That's all that matters.
Sara: That's not true.  I WANTED to kill Roy.  Because that's what I do.  That's who I am. Because I spent six years in the darkness.  And I looked into the eyes of The Devil.  And I gave him my soul.
Ollie: I can help you get it back.
Sara: No, you deserve someone better.  Someone who can harness that light that's still inside of you.  But I'm not that person.  And I never will be.
Ollie: Sara... don't.
Sara: I'm sorry.  I just care about you too much to be with you.

And the whole scene with Slade's sadistic choice between Moira and Thea.  But especially the final lines...

Slade: (To Moira) You possess true courage.  I am truly sorry... you did not pass that on to your son.



Continuity

As the episode opens, we find out that STAR Labs is still working on the Mirakuru antidote, after Felicity gave Caitlin Snow a sample of the drug in 219.

We also find out that Isabel Rochev's death hasn't made the papers.  We know that's because she isn't really dead thanks to an emergency blood transfusion from Slade Wilson, but Diggle thought he killed Rochev in 219.

The on-line newspaper Felicity is reading in the opening scene has headlines regarding Moira Queen's lead waning and a series of controversial court room reforms being pursued - perhaps in response to the DA's office rehiring a lawyer with a history of drug abuse who was about to be disbarred to an assistant district attorney's post?  Or due to a recently fired assistant D.A. cutting a deal with a mob boss to lure out a violent vigilante that got several people killed (217)?  Or due to both of the aforementioned lawyers illegally withholding evidence from the defense in a capital murder trial (207)?

Another mention of The Big Belly Burger - The DCU's favorite fast-food franchise and - in Starling City - the burger bar run by Diggle's sister-in-law/ex-girlfriend.

Diggle says that Roy was more out of control than Slade was at Oliver's house, referring to 215.

Moira's campaign manager makes reference to Thea's kidnapping in 218.

Sara is still employed as a bartender at Verdant - a job she was hired for in 214.

Sin does not wear make-up.

Ollie is given treatment at Glades Memorial Hospital.  The doctor who treats him makes reference to the Triads stealing medicine meant for the hospital (202) and wondering how he could thank The Arrow for stopping them.  He gives Ollie a brace and some painkillers, noting that Ollie will be able to walk but it will still hurt.

Ollie refers to Helena Bertinelli and Sara not killing her (217).

Sara says the only way to disable a person on Mirakuru is with a head-shot.

Sin tells Thea about how Roy was injected with something that is messing with his head.

We see that Roy has hallucinations of Thea telling him to kill her, similar to how Slade Wilson has visions of Shado telling him to kill Ollie.

Ollie tries to write off his limp as being the result of a motorcycle accident.  Moira calls him on this, saying it is his second accident in as many weeks, referring to Ollie's injury in 219 following Slade Wilson's attack on The Arrow Cave.

Moira reveals that she has known about Ollie being The Arrow since 123.

Moira offers the girl Ollie impregnated two million dollars if she'll tell Ollie that she lot the baby and go back to Central City, never speaking to Ollie ever again afterward.

Ollie makes use of Sara's Tibetan Pit Viper venom (first seen in 212) to keep Roy sedated.

Sara dumps Ollie, saying she doesn't deserve him.  She says her goodbyes to Sin and says she is "going to see an old friend".

Moira is about to tell Thea and Oliver that Malcolm Merlyn is still alive when their car is hit.  The rumors of Merlyn's death being greatly exaggerated was revealed in 208.

Slade sets up a sadistic choice, trying to force Ollie to choose between his sister and his mother, mirroring Ivo's actions in 209.
 

The Fridge Factor

Sin is imperiled to drive home how much Roy has changed.  Thea is imperiled to give Ollie more angst.  And Moira gets fridged to give Ollie even more angst.


The Bottom Line

A powerful episode with a number of honestly shocking and surprising moments.  Definitely one of the best episodes of the season.  Possibly the best one yet!

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 13 - Heir To The Demon

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



Plot

Sara Lance returns to Starling City, just in time to save Laurel from dying of an overdose.  But there is more than meets the eye and Sara isn't the only member of the League of Assassins in town.  Nyssa Al Ghul - daughter of Ra's - has come to collect the wayward Black Canary.  But are her motivations entirely business-like?

Meanwhile, Moira Queen prepares to announce her candidacy for Mayor of Starling City.  This leaves Ollie in the awkward position of having to abandon his support of his new friend Sebastian Blood.  And things become even more awkward when Felicity - following a money trail from Moira's old holdings - uncovers the secret of Thea Queen's parentage.


Influences

Greg Rucka's Detective Comics (the character of Nyssa) and Gail Simone's Birds of Prey (Sara's personality and the plot idea of Black Canary defying the League of Assasins to save her family)


Goofs

Sara's smart-phone looks awfully advanced for a 2007 model.


Performances

I've praised Caity Lotz's performance as Sara Lance before but this episode really brings home what a talented actress she is.  Like Stephen Amell, she plays Sara Lance as different characters across a relatively brief period of time and this episode gives us our first chance to see the Sara of the past as she interacted with her family.  The flashback sequences - this time focusing on six years ago - give us our first look at the Lance family in happier times and it makes for an interesting counterpoint to all the modern-day scenes where we see a very different Sara who is capable of fighting but is tired of killing.


Artistry

The action sequences in this episode may be the best this show has ever produced.  The opening sequence with Nyssa fighting airport security does an effective job of establishing her skill.   The chase sequence with Arrow and Canary going after Nyssa's van looks like it came straight from the comic books (except for the fact that Canary always drives the motorcycle) and the final fight between Arrow and Nyssa is the best fight we've seen yet between Ollie and another archer.


Trivia

Nyssa Al Ghul is based on the character of Nyssa Raatko.  Created by writer Greg Rucka during his run on Detective Comics, Nyssa was a daughter of Ra's Al Ghul who was born in 19th century Russia.  Enthralled by her mother's stories of her dashing father (Nyssa being the result of a brief affair as Ra's was passing through), she sought him out and eventually tracked him to North Africa.  Ra's was so impressed by her skill and resourcefulness he let her join him as a trusted lieutenant and even allowed her to use the Lazarus Pits that extended his life.  The two eventually had a falling out over Ra's goals and she turned against him and plotted revenge after he allowed her family to die during The Holocaust.  The Arrow version of Nyssa seems to be far more loyal to her father and shows no signs of having lived for over a century.

Nyssa Raatko is the name Nyssa uses on her passport.

There is some precedent for Black Canary being bisexual.  According to Gail Simone (who has written Black Canary more than any other writer in recent memory), Black Canary is "70% hetero".  It's also telling that in one Birds of Prey story, when going into what she thought was her final battle, Black Canary asked for her love to be given to two people - Oliver Queen and Barbara "Oracle" Gordon.  While there's never been any confirmation of a romantic/sexual relationship between Oracle and Black Canary in the comics, the two are a frequent target of shipping.


Dialogue Triumphs

Sara: You saw Laurel.  Is she going to be okay?
Ollie: You saved her life.
Sara: Hey, thanks for calling me  And I never did ask you - how did you find me?
Ollie: ... I wasn't going to lose you again.

(After Felicity tells her she should tell Ollie the truth about Thea's parentage)
Moira: I''m not going to tell my son anything.  And neither are you.  If you won't keep my secret for Oliver's sake, you should keep it for your own.  I see the way you look at him.  If you tell him this, you will rip his world apart.  And a part of him will always blame you.  Oh, he'll hate me for sure.  But he will hate you too.  We all have to keep secrets, Miss Smoak.

Sebastian Blood:  Blood is thicker than politics.  And it should be.

(After Sara tells her dad about her relationship with Nyssa)
Sara: Are you upset?
Quentin: Honestly, Sara?  To take what you've been through these past six years?  The pain?  The loneliness?  I'm just happy to hear you had someone to care for you.

Moira: I know we need to talk.
Ollie: You need to listen. For the past year, I've stood by your side.  And I've fought.  Because I wanted to believe that you weren't this... monster.  And I needed to believe that I still had a mother.
Moira:  You do, Oliver!
(Ollie puts up a hand to stop her as she moves in)
Moira: Oliver, I only lied about Thea to protect her from Malcolm.
Ollie: No.  You lied because that's what you do.  And that is what you are, Mom.  Lies.  And now you've made a liar of me.  Because Thea can never know the truth about Merlyn.  And she can never know the truth about us.  Which is that as of right now, we have no relationship.  I will keep up appearances for Thea's sake.  And publicly I will support your campaign.  But privately?  You and I are done. 

(Sara enters the Arrow Cave, walking in on Ollie practicing with a dummy)
Ollie: You've been crying.
Sara: I was happy to know I still could.
Ollie: Are you okay?
Sara: Laurel wasn't as happy to see me as you thought
Ollie: Give her time.
Sara: I gave her six years.  What exactly are you taking out on that dummy?
Ollie: My mother... She's not who I thought she was.
Sara: I guess that's going around.
Ollie: So what now?
Sara: I don't know
Ollie: I don't either.
Sara: I know one thing.
Ollie: What's that?
Sara: I'm home.


Dialogue Disasters

Laurel's entire spiteful, whiny, drunken rant about how Sara is responsible for destroying her life will destroy any bit of sympathy you might have left for Laurel as a character. 


Continuity

Sara returns to Starling City for the first time since League of Assassins (205).  We find out the person who called Sara "beloved" referred to in that episode was Nyssa Al Ghul and that the two had a romantic relationship.

It is revealed that the man who was watching Laurel at Verdant in Tremors (212) was a League of Assassins member who poisoned her drink with Tibetan Pit Viper venom.

Felicity tracks Moira's holdings in Tempest - the company she first uncovered for Walter in Vendetta (108).  She discovers money from this company was directed to Dr. Gill - the doctor who knows that Malcolm Merlyn is Thea's biological father.

Dinah Lance's occupation is uncertain, save that she is "a professional" and works in academia.

Sara Lance did live in Nanda Parbat with other members of the League of Assassins.  Nanda Parbat was first mentioned by Malcolm Merlyn in Dead To Rights (116).

Malcolm Merlyn was the first person Ra's Al Ghul allowed to be released from service in the League of Assassins.  By the episode's end, Sara Lance becomes the second.

Sara makes use of her electronic Canary Cry for the first time since Crucible (204)

Felicity makes the first reference to her troubled home life.  She is vague about her mother but says she remembers little about her father, save how much it hurt when he left abandoned them.

Based on the date on her tombstone, Sara Lance is 26 years old. 

Ollie uses his antidote herbs to save Sara, making this the first time he's used them since saving Malcolm Merlyn in Dead To Rights (116).


The Fridge Factor

Averted, for the most part.  Laurel continues to be worse than useless and now exists only to hinder the lives of our heroes.  And it's a bit jarring to see Alex Kingston play the damsel in distress after years of seeing her as River Song on Doctor Who but it fits her character on this show.  Still a shame we didn't get to see the older Dinah kick some ass.  Everyone else is awesome though.  Felicity is actually shown being as smart as she's supposed to be.  Moira is back to being the tough-as-nails manipulator.  And Canary... oh, sweet baby Loki... every single moment of Sara/Canary on screen was awesome!


The Winick Factor

Shockingly averted, with Ollie being far more empathic than we've seen in recent memory, immediately noticing something is up with Felicity and taking steps to help her.


The Bottom Line

Darn near flawless in every regard.  The fight scenes are fantastic.  The script manages several honest surprises that don't seem the least bit forced.  Best of all, Starling City has a Black Canary, at last.  The only downside?  We have to wait three weeks for the next new episode! 

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 8 - The Scientist

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


      Plot

With his mother free from jail, Oliver Queen is quick to try and reintroduce Moira to both her company and high society... despite Isabel Rochev's vocal objections to both.  He soon finds himself distracted as Queen Consolidate is robber by a burglar capable of breaking down reinforced titanium doors with his bare hands.

Enter Barry Allen - a crime scene investigator with the Central City Police Department.  Allen claims he's working on a similar case involving a super-strong burglar.  But is the young police officer hiding something besides his obsession with the Starling City Vigilante?  If so, he's not alone.  For Oliver Queen knows something about people with powers beyond those of mortal men.. and he's fought them before!

At the same time, Roy Harper launches an investigation into the disappearance of one of Sin's friends in The Glades.  The trail leads to a dead body bleeding from the eyes - something that Roy finds far more interesting than The Arrow.

On the island, our heroes are in a race against time and Ivo's men, as they hunt for the submarine containing the Mirakuru drug that is Slade's only chance of survival.


Influences

The Flash: Rebirth (Barry Allen's origin in Arrow corresponds to his back-story in this book - no surprise as both were written by Geoff Johns), JLA: Year One (Oliver as the first active superhero, working as Green Arrow for over a year before the emergence of The Flash and Black Canary), Green Arrow: Year One (the island sequences), Marv Wolfman's Teen Titans (Brother Blood, his cult, and the story of how Slade Wilson got super powers ) and J.T. Krul's Green Arrow run (the drama between Moira Queen and Isabel Rochev).


Goofs

Felicity's red dress with the cleavage window in the first part of the show seems decidedly unprofessional.

How did Merlyn's actions with The Undertaking violate Ra's Al Ghul's code of honor?  Ra's isn't exactly afraid of causing collateral damage and killing millions, as fans of the comics and even Batman Begins know.  503 dead shouldn't even ping on Ra's personal radar.  (Perhaps Ra's objected to the use of an earthquake machine that might cause untold environmental damage or to Merlyn taking such actions over a personal vendetta?)

Was it really necessary to knock Barry out with a blow dart at the train station?  If they're going to expose Ollie's secret identity to Barry anyway, surely Diggle and Felicity could have just talked to him?


Performances

Grant Gustin plays Barry Allen somewhat more like Peter Parker than the Barry Allen from the comics.  Since Barry Allen from the comics is notoriously dull and free of personality, this is an improvement.  There is a shy likeability to Gustin's portrayal - a sophomoric eagerness that immediately endears him to the viewer.  We can see why The CW is confident to give him his own series.

Susanna Thompson has been given surprisingly little to do this season.  She honestly doesn't get much in this episode either, but she steals every scene she is in - from her first cool encounter with Isabel Rochev to her final confrontation with Merlyn at the episode end.  Her name dropping of Ra's Al Ghul is easily the best moment in an episode full of great moments. 


Artistry

The thunder-rolls and lightning-strikes throughout the episode are a nice touch.

The musical theme for Barry is a good one.  Light and playful - a nice contrast to the more somber yet bombastic theme that follows Oliver around.


Trivia

Two more references to the STAR Labs particle accelerator in Central City - another TV news broadcast and the cover of the Science Showcase magazine Barry uses to shield himself from the rain when we first see him.

The magazine itself is a fast reference to The Flash, as Barry Allen first appeared in Showcase #4 and was created as a means of teaching real science facts to comic readers in the 1950s.

Barry always running late is a running gag from the comics.

Barry's background here - becoming obsessed with crime scene analysis after his mother was murdered by a mysterious killer with super-speed and his father was framed for the crime - is consistent with his background as presented in The Flash: Rebirth.

Barry's straightening the rack of dangerous chemicals in the Queen Consolidated lab during a storm is a reference to how Barry Allen originally gained his super-speed powers in the comics.  Originally he was struck by lightning and thrown through a rack of chemicals.      

The tenseness between Moira and Isabel Rochev may be a hint that Isabel was the woman Robert Queen cheated on Moira with.  This would fit with the character of Isabel Rochev from the Green Arrow comics by J.T. Krul, who had an affair with Oliver's father, thought herself in love with him and then became obsessed with taking everything associated with his name as her own.

As in the comics, Barry is an even worse liar than Ollie.

At this point in the show, Barry is only a lab assistant - not a fully-fledged CSI officer.

This is the second episode this season to not feature Laurel in any capacity.


Technobabble

Barry notes it takes 1250 foot-pounds of torque to crush a person's neck.  As noted, this is impossible for a normal person to do one-handed.

Centrifuges are used to separate the component parts of something by accelerating it at high speeds in a circle.  They are commonly used in blood tests.

Barry notes that The Arrow uses carbon-shafts for his arrows and that a aluminum-carbon composite would offer better penetration.

Ketamine is the sedative Brother Blood is using to create his soldiers.  Felicity notes that it's a common surgical anesthetic derived from hydrochloric salt.

Felicity figures out that, based on the way one of Ollie's arrows is bent, that the muscle density of the thief is at least 120 pounds per cubic feet.  That is almost the same density of common concrete. 


Dialogue Triumphs

Felicity: You look fabulous!  Really!  Better than ever!  Did you do something to your hair?
Moira: Yes.  I shampooed it without eight women and a guard watching.

(After finding out the vehicle used by their burglar was just used to rob a blood bank)
Diggle: Super strength?  Likes blood?  Please don't tell me we're starting to believe in vampires.

Brother Blood: Blood provides life.  Blood provides power.  And with power, there's no limit to what I can do.

(After Ollie exposes the truth about who Barry is and dismisses him)
Ollie: He did lie about who he really was.
Felicity: Then what do we do every day?

(Upon examining the nearly empty party)
Moira: I guess these days I only draw a crowd is when I'm on trial for murder. 
Thea: Mom, you don't have to -
Moira: We have guests.  However few of them there are.
(She puts on a smile and enters the room)

(In the alley behind the Verdant club)
The Arrow: What?
Roy: I need your help. A friend of mine's friend... Well, the cops think he ODed but we think he was murdered.
The Arrow: Why?
Roy: Well, he wasn't an addict for starters and this (holds up photo of Max) This doesn't look like any OD I've ever seen.
The Arrow: Stay away from that.
Roy: You know something? 
(The Arrow says nothing)
Roy: What happened to him?  You're the one who told me to be your eyes and ears on the street and you know what?  That is NOT good enough anymore!
The Arrow: Fine.  Then we're done altogether.
(The Arrow turns around to leave)
Roy: I don't need you! 
(The Arrow stops dead)
Roy: I have friends that can help me.  You can't stop us.
The Arrow: (whispered)  I can slow you down.
(Ollie turns around and shoots Roy in the lower leg)

(Merlyn enters Moira's room)
Moira: And I thought it couldn't hurt to add extra security guards.
Merlyn: It hurt them. (throws their guns to the floor) Badly.  Have you prepared Thea?
Moira: No.  You will not go near Thea.  You will not speak to her.  And you will never set foot in this house again.
Merlyn: I set you free, Moira!  Your life belongs to me.
Moira: I am through being afraid of you.
Merlyn: (laughs) You think you can stop me?  Even The Vigilante couldn't kill me.
Moira: No, he couldn't.  But I know someone who can.  Ra's Al Ghul.
Merlyn: How do you know that name?
Moira: Well, I didn't.  Until you mentioned Nanda Parbat.  The League of Assassins - however twisted their aims - believes very deeply in a code of honor.  Your Undertaking betrayed that code.
Merlyn: You told Ra's I'm still alive?!
Moira: He was so grateful to hear it.  Because he so very much wants to kill you himself.  So my advice to you, Malcolm?  Run.


Continuity

Officer Lance quips, when asking what might have been stolen from the Queen Consolidated lab, if they had a spare earthquake machine lying around.

Shado finds out about Oliver's relationship with Sara. 

Sin is seen for the first time since 204.

Thea does an about-face on Roy playing vigilante and indeed goes along for the ride this time.

Ollie opens up to Diggle and Felicity about his experiences on the island during his second year, telling them about Mirakuru and how it enhances the strength, reflexes and endurance of those who took it and survived. 

Ollie says that Ivo is dead and that everyone who took the serum on the island is dead, the last of whom he burned personally.  He says he has fought people on the Mirakuru formula and won before.

Ollie notes the Mirakuru formula requires three components to be created - a centrifuge, blood and a strong sedative.

Roy notes that Max disappeared the same day as a blood drive.  He, Sin and Thea are spotted and followed by Officer Daily - Brother Blood's minion in the police department we've seen in the previous few episodes.

Later, Daily seems to recognize Roy and Sin as they are poking around the scene where Max's body was found.

Oliver injects Slade with Mirakuru, despite not having a sedative ready.  This causes Slade to bleed from the eyes and apparently kills him.

Moira has the means to contact Ra's Al Ghul.

By the episode's end, Ollie has been injected with Blood's Mirakuru formula and Barry has been told that Oliver Queen is The Arrow. 


The Bottom Line

A solid introduction to Barry Allen as a character and a solid episode of Arrow on its own.  The flashback sequences and present-day scenes merge together incredibly well, building off one another.  Despite learning more of Ollie's past on the island in this episode than we have ever learned in previous episodes, there are still many mysteries yet to come.  A welcome return to form after last week.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 2, Episode 7 - State v. Queen

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



Plot

Moira Queen's trial begins and is expected to be the story of the week in Starling City.  That's before a mysterious malady begins afflicting random people around the city, including John Diggle and Adam Donner.  With Donner ill, Laurel must take over the city's case against Moira and finds herself privy to the terrible secret Moira wished to hide from her children.

It turns out the mysterious "plague" is the after-effects of a new version of Vertigo.  The Count is back in Starling City and he's found a new way to hook the entire city and create a demand for his new Vertigo formula, which he claims is the only thing to stop the withdrawal pains now afflicting Diggle and hundreds of other citizens.  Both Starling City and his family need him but can Oliver Queen see to them both?


Influences

Batman/Green Arrow: The Poison Tomorrow (Vertigo's plan to create demand for a drug by poisoning random people resembles the plot of this classic story) Green Arrow: Year One (The island sequences)


Goofs

The trial scene is a bit of a shambles all around.  Ignoring the obvious conflict of interest in having a family friend of the defendant act as prosecutor, Jean Loring doesn't come off as a particularly competent lawyer.  One wonders why Ollie wasn't called as a character witness as Thea was.  It might make sense given that it's a matter of public record that Ollie left town for several months but you'd think if Loring was worried enough about that to not call Ollie as a character witness, she'd be equally worried about Thea's refusal to talk to her mom for that long.  Finally, one wonders what evidence the D.A's office had that proved Malcolm Merlyn and Moira had an affair and - more importantly - how it could have destroyed her case that she was being blackmailed/threatened by Merlyn.  Surely the idea of someone blackmailing someone with evidence of an affair is not unheard of in Starling City?

Ollie says he developed an antidote for Vertigo.  Maybe this is short for "I had someone in our Applied Sciences department at Queen Consolidated develop an antidote for Vertigo" because magical healing herbs aside, Ollie has never been portrayed as being that kind of chemical genius.  Particularly given that he needed Felicity's help to analyze the drug back in 112.  


Trivia

Felicity notes that a The Count used a STAR Labs satellite to bounce his broadcast signal and that he could have been broadcasting from Markovia.  Markovia is a fictional European nation in the DC Comics universe, located in between France, Belgium and Luxembourg.  It is the home of the earth-manipulating heroes Geo-Force and Terra.  A reference to Vlatava - the small European nation ruled by Count Vertigo - would have been more appropriate.

Kate Spencer is once again identified as one of the lawyers in the Starling City District Attorney's office.  In the comics, Kate Spencer is a lawyer who later adopts the identity of The Manhunter to fight crime.

Roy gives Mia a pair of red boxing gloves in order to allow her to relieve some stress.  Red, naturally, is Roy's color in the comics and The Boxing Glove Arrow is one of his and Ollie's most infamous trick arrows in the comics.   

The numbers on the back of the Arrowhead - 30 31 75 12 - do translate to a real-world map coordinate when converted into  Degrees and Minutes.  The location is in Northern India, near the border with Pakistan.  Apparently that Japanese ship went VERY far inland.

Transposed for the Western Hemisphere, the numbers point to a location in the Bermuda Triangle. These are the exact same as the coordinates Percy Jackson is given in the novel The Sea of Monsters, which turn out to be the coordinates of Polyphemus's island. Arrow show-runner Marc Guggenheim was also the screenplay writer for the film adaptation of Sea of Monsters. (Thanks to Mythless for that information.)

With the right half of his face blackened from the burns, Slade's face now resembles Deathstroke's mask in the comics.




Dialogue Triumphs

Shado: They have Oliver.  I'm going after them.
Slade: Not alone.
Shado: You can barely walk!
Slade: All the more reason not to stay here.  I'm not giving them another chance of blowing me up.

(Regarding The Count being free)
Felicity: I know what you're thinking...
Ollie: No you don't.  I made a choice not to put an arrow in this guy and it was the right choice.  There's no more killing.

Ollie: What do you want?!
The Count: World peace and personal satisfaction, though not necessarily in that order.

Felicity: Oliver?  I just want to say thank you -
Ollie: Yeah.
Felicty: And I'm sorry.
Ollie: For what?
Felicity: I got myself into trouble again and you killed him.  You killed again and I'm sorry that I put you in a position where you had to make that kind of choice.
Ollie: Felicity... he had you and he was going to hurt you.  There was no choice to make.


Dialogue Disasters

(After Laurel exposed his mom's affair in court)
Ollie: Hey!
Laurel: If you want to attack me, go right ahead.  But you should know you're not going to say anything that I haven't already said to myself.
Ollie: Woah!  I know that was difficult for you and I just wanted to make sure you were okay.
(Ollie takes a step towards her and she backs away)
Laurel: No!  No!  I don't understand how you can forgive me after what I just did in there!  I don't understand how anyone could!


Continuity

We see Moira's press conference from 123 as The Count escapes from Iron Heights.  We find out that he was transferred there after recovering from the effects of his Vertigo-induced madness as depicted in 119.  During his escape, he hands the keys to the cells to The Dollmaker from 203.

As in the case of The Dollmaker in 203, SCPD covered up The Count's escape.

The STAR Labs particle accelerator is mentioned once again. 

Bethany Snow is once again the featured news anchor on Channel 52 news.

Kate Spencer, last seen in 105, appears again as one of the lawyers in the Starling City District Attorney's office.

It's revealed that Moira's allegations that Robert Queen cheated on her in 111 were true, as was Thea's guess that Moira had an affair with Malcolm Merlyn.

Count Vertigo figures out that Ollie is The Arrow after going through Felicity's belongings.

Count Vertigo says his new lab was funded by a man he met in prison who also has a grudge against Arrow.  A "man of means".  It is revealed at the end of the episode he was referring to Brother Blood

Ollie kills The Count after a confrontation at Ollie's office

The news media is now calling The Starling City Vigilante by the name 'The Arrow"

Moira Queen is found innocent of all charges but it's revealed this was due to the influence of a not-yet-dead Malcolm Merlyn.

Malcolm Merlyn is Thea's biological father.

Shado is seen wearing a green hood whens he first confronts Ivo, just as Sara said in 205.

The information on Miracle is revealed to be hidden in the arrowhead Ollie took from the Japanese grave.

The information turns out to be a map coordinate - 30 31 75 12. 


The Fridge Factor

Felicity - showing the intelligence one would expect of the heroine in a horror movie - goes into an unlocked ambulance in a dark alley by herself.  You'd think in the absence of Diggle she'd call Detective Lance (who is curiously absent from this episode) to go along as back-up or - better yet - tip him off as to the location of a suspicious abandoned vehicle.


The Bottom Line

Easily the worst episode of Season Two so far.  The focus is shifted to the season's most minor subplot and we're reminded of how horrible all the court scenes from Season One were.  Thea and Roy's romantic scene seems oddly out of place, even if you ignore Roy's suggestion that Thea should beat on him instead of a heavy bag or some other piece of appropriate equipment... which suggests things about Roy best left to fan fiction.  Laurel continues to be annoying and Felicity is dumbed down to give Ollie someone to rescue.  All this and the return of Count Vertigo - everyone's least-favorite villain from Season One.  Even the title is bland and unimaginative.  The only thing that saves it apart from the island sequences is the last ten minutes, in which we see just how far Oliver has grown as a character this season as he shows more concern for his friends than himself at a personally trying time and the revelation that Malcolm Merlyn is still alive. 

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...