It's been a while since my last blog post, so, hey, why not start off with the best thing on television?
Now, the CW advertised this week's episode of Arrow as the one that is going to raise the stakes so high that the astronauts on the space station will feel it's tremors...okay that's not entirely true but they did say that it was going to make the season 1 finale look like a "student film from the 80s." And while this was one of the best episodes to date, I wouldn't go so far as to say it makes the season 1 finale look any worse. Heck, the Season 1 finale is an amazing episode, but is this episode that much better?
No, but, it is much better.
Everything about this episode worked. The innuendos, the tension, the flashback scenes, the fight scenes, ROY HARPER ACTUALLY BEING ON THE SHOW AGAIN. Everything!
But, what good is this schpeel if I don't explain what happened?
We start literally right where we left off in "Time of Death" where Oliver and Slade have just 'met' in the present time.
Haha. No.
Oliver kind of forgets that, you know, Evil Mom doesn't know that he knows Slade and acts rude around Slade. Granted, after having seen the horrific capabilities of this guy and undoubtedly having to fight him a couple times, I would assume that saying, "Hello, Mr. Wilson, welcome to Starling City" wouldn't be very fitting.
The thing about Oliver and Slade's interaction is that the only way you would know what the heck is going on is if you were aware of the situation. Everything they say to each other screams innuendo. They talk of best friends, betrayal, love, all of that, and every time they do, they look straight at each other. I bet Evil Mom thought they were former lovers.
Of course, we the fans know otherwise. We know that Oliver slid in front of Sara before Ivo could shoot her, thus making it apparent Oliver preferred Sara to Shado. Did he? No, he wanted them both to live, but couldn't let the other die. Does Slade know that?
Well if he did, I don't think we would have much of a show. Or much of a climax for this episode.
But I digress.
So while the dialogue, at least to me, was a little cheesy (because it was just so obvious that it became painfully obvious), it didn't take at all away from the episode. In fact, it was a nice reminder that the fight on Lian Yu was still alive and was even more of a fight with more players, with Slade asking to see Oliver's family again...with his Deathstroke uniform on...to kill them.
The episode was dominated by island flashbacks and rightfully so. This episode was action-packed and actually very tense regarding the island scenes. We got to see many new aspects of all the characters, such as Oliver, Slade, and even Ivo. We were even introduced to the Bratva guy that Oliver promised to save that Sara actually saved...whatever. He's back too!
This episode also got me wondering just how much of a time-skip there was between Fyers and the freighter. We see Oliver working on his bowman skills as well doing a little working out. Sure, he got some training in when he was just with Slade before they destroyed Fyers, but, this bowman skill thing kind of came out of left field. He's doing all this crazy parkour and while not hitting all of his targets, is doing a heck of a lot better than before. His movements mirror, sort of, the movements of present-day Oliver, like how he can quickly take out an arrow and fire it in like a second. So was it like six months like in the present day between seasons or was there a full-on year?
Regardless, Oliver, Sara, and Slade prepare to take back the freighter. Oliver and Sara burn the Mirakuru, and then Oliver has a dream where Shado kills him because he didn't save her. Then they gear up! It's actually really cool seeing Oliver don Yao Fei's green hood for the first time, but equally as cool is seeing Slade put on the Wintergreen-Deathstroke mask. You know it's about to go down.
Oliver manages to get on the boat by lighting a bonfire and seemingly has a truth serum injected into him.
Someone went into Snape's closet...whoops...
But, as we find out, Sara was one step ahead and had Oliver eat/drink/somehow consume something that counters the effects of the injection, so he was just faking out Ivo the whole time. After the hull is cleared, the invasion begins. Slade takes out the guards, Sara frees the prisoners and Oliver...watches. Kind of weird, but, his role is shown a few seconds after he saves Sara from some big guy that wanted to kill her.
As the battle for the Amazo freighter rages on, Oliver blows open the door to Ivo's room. Oh, I should also mention that Ivo is apparently doing experiments on a certain "her" and that he was talking to a "Jessica" on the phone before Oliver interrupted. Now, apparently there are quite a few Jessicas in DC lore, one of which Geoff Johns, who works on Arrow, has worked with before (she's part of Green Lantern lore, which has been teased before in Season 1). Maybe it's her? I don't know.
But, before Oliver can kill Ivo, Slade finds out, by creepily standing in the doorway, that Oliver chose to save Sara over Shado. Before Oliver can explain, Ivo escapes and Slade prepares to kill Oliver. Everyone on the boat starts to escape, and of course before Oliver can, Slade gets to him, though does not kill him.
Meanwhile back in the present, Oliver has managed for the rest of Team Arrow to listen in on the conversation, and as such, Dig, Sara, and Roy jump into action, hatching a plan for Slade to be kicked out and killed, as well as safe the Queen family.
The ex-prisoners, well some of them (the ones we care about) manage to swim to the island, only to discover their archer in green armor is still on board with the obviously-now-psychotic Slade. Slade makes Ivo prepare to shoot Oliver before cutting off his hand and then promising Oliver that he will kill everyone he loves, then kill him.
DC just loves telling people when they're allowed to die.
So, basically, Oliver is screwed on the freighter. Minus the fact that we know he lives, but still. He's totally and utterly screwed.
But back in the present we get one of the most satisfying moments of the show. Visually speaking of course. Roy barges in, asking Thea what's going on. Then, Sara sneaks in and appears. So let me spell this out for you:
Green Arrow. Deathstroke. Black Canary. Red Arrow.
All four of those iconic comic-book legends all stood in the same room together at the same time (with the soon-to-be-famous John Diggle aka Black Driver just outside). You can't make this stuff up people, THIS is why Arrow is the best show on television. It goes the step beyond. Maybe that's why the episode is supposed to be the biggest yet. I'm just waiting for them all to suit up and fight--that's gonna be awesome.
However, not all goes according to plan. Before Dig can shoot Slade right in his good eye, a mysterious figure knocks him out. Slade apparantly knows about this, which confuses me a lot.
We know that Dig is a part of Arrow's Suicide Squad, but at the same time, we know that the Suicide Squad is going after Deathstroke (based off the promos). So, either Amanda Waller, who knew Oliver Queen is the Green Arrow and that Dig works for him, doesn't know that Slade is Deathstroke, or she is trying to rope him into the squad. But if that's the case, then, were they working together to get Dig into the Suicide Squad that is going to end up fighting Deathstroke? Or is Deathstroke, like in the comics, already the leader and Amanda Waller is tricking Diggle? Again, the promo for the next episode is telling us that opposites attack, which means that opposites attract, which means...uh..
Can we just have this and not be so confused? Please DC? Batman or Nightwing, I'll take either of them.
So does this episode really make the Season 1 finale look bad? No. Is it one of the best episodes to date? Yes. I just think that the CW needs to calm it down on the hype train. That's our job, as fans. We hype it up, you guys don't have to. Because then it hypes us up and we get a little disappointed by what we get. And we shouldn't, this is Arrow (that's not to say I was disappointed, because I wasn't, this episode was great). Maybe I'll just stray away from commentary promos and stick to the regular ones.
But the next episode is promising to be awesome. I mean, it's the Suicide Squad, its like their first big live-action appearance...in fact I'm pretty it is their first live-action appearance. And with pretty strong characters like Deadshot, Bronze Tiger, Amanda Waller, Lyla, and Black Driver, how can the Squad not be awesome?
It's shaping up, guys. All we need is the Huntress to show up for an episode, and we've got our corners set:
Team Arrow
Suicide Squad
Deathstroke + Brother Blood (who I am convinced is H.I.V.E. but we'll cross that bride later).
See you next time!
P.S.: Just realized that Slade might be using H.I.V.E. to capture Diggle to work for the Squad that is going after Deathstroke who they don't know is Slade but that Dig probably knows is Slade and recruits Oliver into working with the Squad thus having Amanda betray Deathstroke and ah man this show RULES.
Links to images:
Spongebob and Patrick: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR9gcmS26JXb0VhVHGe5L2O58sRsQHeg2G8WhYfIQZyaP9SygUNkw
Snape: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/chamb169/myblog/Veritaserum.jpg
Bane's permission: http://wallpaperswide.com/permission_to_die-wallpapers.html
Green Arrow and Batman: http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/16300000/Green-Arrow-Batman-green-arrow-16384945-1024-768.jpg
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