Arrow: "Birds of Prey" Review

"I called you Speedy and it calmed you down."
"Don't call me Speedy."

Oh Roy. Just you wait.

Much like how last week's "Suicide Squad" episode emphasized the 'suicide' part of the title more than the other half, this week's episode seemed to emphasize 'prey.' It was a fairly "eh" episode of the CW's Arrow, which is not to say it was a bad episode of television, because even the worst episodes of Arrow are better than most television shows in general. The fact remains that there was a lot that could have happened and a lot that didn't happen.

So, then, let's just right into it.

First, I was very pleased to see Roy back in the lineup. Just before the episode I was thinking, "Wow, we haven't seen Roy used since he found out about Oliver." And then, poof, we got some Roy. And what a way back he got, since he took a bullet to the hand like a pro. However, he almost killed someone again, and Oliver almost had to put an arrow in his other knee.

So there's that.

But before any of that, we find out that Frank Bertonelli is back in town, and with him, comes the Huntress. Now, in my opinion, the Huntress is a powerful villain but I didn't think she was such a scale for Oliver to be freaking out about. It was almost as if Slade had come back is how bad it was.

And speaking of Slade, he wasn't mentioned like at all this episode, until the end of course. Yeah, we saw him being a big baddie in the flashbacks, which I will get to soon, but, yeah, he wasn't relatively talked about. I was hoping, before the episode, that the Huntress would come back on like Slade's orders or something. It would have been neat to see her working for him, since he probably knows their history since he seems to know everything else about Oliver.

So while Oliver is freaking out and Sara is joking around that he has a psycho-ex girlfriend, we see Laurel in her second AA meeting and we also see her slowly gaining the respect of the crowd. However, we find out that Laurel is on the Bertonelli case, and as such, Oliver freaks out even more. Sara goes to talk Laurel out of it, and when that fails, Oliver is sent in. However, the two get caught right in the middle of a hostage situation with the Huntress, who apparently has mercenary friends.

Okay.

Oliver manages to get out with Bertonelli but Laurel somehow gets away from him. Meanwhile, in the Arrow cave, Sara asks Dig and Felicity about the Huntress, to which they curtly reply for Sara to annihilate her. To Sara, that means kill her, but to them, it means just beating the heck out of her.

Thus, Oliver worries some more.

On another, teenage-front, Roy is attempting to break up with Thea under Oliver's orders so that he can protect her until he has the Mirakuru rage under control. Roy tries to tell her but then Thea catches him in the act of cheating with another girl, which breaks Thea's little heart. Roy gets very angry and that made me consider Oliver's decision.

We've got a substantial amount of time without Roy having a little accident and that whole time Roy and Thea have been together. I don't see the dangers of having them stay together while Oliver just tries to train Roy some more. In fact, keeping Roy and Thea together could help out immensely, as that is what Roy is fighting to protect. That's the thing that snapped him out of it the last time against Bronze Tiger. It could work again when a bigger threat, like I don't know, DEATHSTROKE, comes along (yes, I am still all-capsing his name)?

But, with that little dramatic turn-around out of the way, we return to the hostage situation at the courthouse. Oliver and Detective Lance have a funny moment where Det. Lance calls the Arrow while Oliver is standing just behind him, nearly blowing Oliver's cover. I think the line of the episode is, "I keep forgetting who knows whose secret identity." Thank you, Felicity!

The situation is seemingly under control, though, as Sara arrives in the courthouse to get Laurel and kick-butt...in that order! She almost saves Laurel, even getting her own little voice changer that raises her voice like half an octave, but then comes across Huntress and gets subsequently thrown out a window.

A deal is arranged, however, between Team Arrow and the Huntress. Frank Bertonelli for Laurel Lance. Fair enough, right? They meet up, all the while a rogue cop follows them to take down Oliver, Sara, and Helena. The exchange is about to go through when the cop fires down on them, scattering the group. Sara and the Huntress meet up in what is a much quicker-exchange as Sara beats the crap outta the Huntress and has her ready to be killed. Oliver, meanwhile, deals with the rogue cop alongside Lance.

Laurel saves the Huntress, though, only to find that Frank Bertonelli is dead. Helena is arrested and we return to a familiar scene in the interrogation room. Oliver and Helena discuss Helena's drive, and we are left to question her drive now. Maybe when she busts out we can really have a Birds of Prey episode, with Felicity as Oracle, but for now, that does not seem too likely. Heck, maybe Amanda Waller will recruit her to replace Diggle on the Suicide Squad? Who knows!

I do think, though, that having Frank die by saving Helena would have been far more profound, as now it's kind of like all the stuff with the Huntress went straight down the drain and was useless. It was all building up to Helena maybe finally deciding that killing her father was not the best decision. But, nope, he's dead.

Luckily, though, we did get our impossible decision, only this time, it was in Sara's hands, as back on the island Slade deducts that the Amazo's engineer is with Sara, and that if he is not handed over to Slade, then Oliver will be electrocuted. The man does not want to go, but, Sara chooses Oliver and knocks him out, telling Slade that the deal is on. Back on the ship, Slade brands Oliver with the same dragon tattoo Shado had, as a way of remembering that she died. So yeah, we finally got that explained.

Finally, though, we got our end of the episode-cliff-hanger. Thea is walking on home, all depressed because of Roy and stuff, when a car pulls up, revealing Slade. Thea gets into the car with him as Slade offers to take her home.

Darn it, Thea. Don't you know not to get into cars with people with eye-patches?

Laurel also gets her job back and Donner, who works for Brother Blood, is fired. All part of Slade's plan? Maybe. All I know now is that Slade has Thea.

And next episode is titled "Deathstroke."

And in the promo we got to see three members of Team Arrow surrounding Slade.

That's right, folks.

Arrow, Canary, and Roy

VS

Slade.

Next. Episode. Just yes.