Totally caught off guard by the last ten minutes or so of the episode. I mean it felt like it was its own episode. So many twists and turns and then at the end, man, that sucked.
This episode had a nice way of making seemingly irrelevant things relevant. Like the flashbacks. We took time away from the island to check out the year before the island to a near catastrophic event in Oliver's life. Then we had Sin, who, though she didn't do anything, it was nice to see she was still alive.
And then, we got to add another person to the list of people who know Oliver's secret--then almost immediately scratched that name off, sadly--and this one actually made the most sense out of most people who just kind of figure it out, for almost any comic book hero. I still don't know how Laurel hasn't figured out Sara's identity, but, whatever.
This episode, not including the ending which had a whole, seemingly random issue entailed, centered around Roy being overcome by the mirakuru that he went on a rampage around the city just out of blind rage. Meanwhile, Moira (hm, why not use Evil Mom? We'll get to that) prepared for a rally at the club, Verdant, where she had to decide whether or not she would drop out for Thea or stay in to save the city.
Roy's escape seemed kind of weird, since I still don't get how no one saw him get off the table. But whatever. Oliver and Sara track down Roy only to lose him nearly instantly. When Sin gets involved after Roy strikes her, Sara wants mirakuru-tainted blood. Oliver does not, and Sara points out that this is exactly what happened with Slade.
Yeah...but Slade was already a master in the art of the kill before mirakuru, so, his mind was already screwed up. Oliver giving up on Slade feels different. Roy is not a killer (well, he wasn't before anyway) and not only that, but he's just a kid who did not deserve what happened to him. It's almost as if Oliver is trying to save his lost, rebellious son (another way the flashbacks helped out, look at that). Sara, though, is blinded by her instinct to kill.
Sin notifies Oliver and Sara that Roy is hiding in the clock tower. Upon further inspection, Roy swoops in, easily deals with Sara then busts Oliver's knee, and proceeds to kill a few cops on the way to seemingly finding Thea and having a vision of her tell him to kill her.
Very remnant of Slade with Shado.
Meanwhile, Thea interrupts an interview Moira is doing to say that she can't have her rally at the club, but Moira says they are contracted, to which Thea makes another teenage retort. After Moira's support man tells her she needs to reconcile with Thea, Moira takes a trip to Sebastian Blood--yet another character that seemingly fell off the face of the Earth--to tell her she's dropping out. Blood offers condolensces because he is a good person, right? Nah.
Anyway, it turns out that Bruce Wayne has messed up cartilage in his knee and is gonna need a brace.
Oh, sorry, that was from The Dark Knight Rises. Here's what happened on Arrow:
Anyway, it turns out that Oliver Queen has messed up cartilage in his knee and is gonna need a brace.
Wait a second...
Sara makes the executive decision to kill Roy because she can and she's a killer and that's all she can be, to which Oliver makes the remark to Felicity Sara is just like him. But, I don't think that's the case. You don't swear allegiance to Ra's al Ghul and his two daughters and then come home and be a super-hero. Not unless you're Batman. So to give Sara come credit, I get where she's coming from. I mean, for five or six years she's been a part of an international league of assassins that is headed by essentially a demon.
Just before the rally, Oliver and Moira have another not-so-heartfelt conversation before Moira reveals the truth: she's known Oliver is the Arrow. Talk about everything making sense. She said she's known since the Undertaking, but, my money is on her really knowing since the night he attacked her midway through season 1. Just my opinion, though. Oliver is unsure how to take the news, but Moira has a good mom moment where she doesn't freak out, she doesn't do anything, she just says that she could not be more proud of her son for putting everything on the line to save the city when she did nothing and almost destroyed it.
As a result, Moira decides to press onward for the sake of her children. Thea, however, takes the opportunity of the rally being televised to call out Roy, though not blatantly. Thus, Oliver dashes to the Arrow cave, gets a large dose of some pain killer, suits up, and just in time does Roy appear. He nearly kills Thea but Sara, as the Canary, shoots him in the knee, ready to kill him. Before she can do that, Oliver takes out Roy with three arrows tipped with that Tibetan snake venom used on Slade. Since he used three doses, it should keep him out through next episode, I'm guessing.
Though I must admit, having chased Roy around in a goose-hunt only for the result to be putting him in restraints that probably won't work seemed a bit useless. And at the end of the day, Sara decides to leave and find a friend. Who might that be? I don't know. Probably Nyssa Raatko, and they'll bring a small army of Assassins to fight Slade's army of mirakuru dudes. Or Malcom Merlyn.
This week's flashbacks at first felt kind of out of place. We learned that Oliver has gotten some girl pregnant and Moira reacts quite calmly. While Oliver is away, she calls in the girl, and gives her two million dollars to leave for Central City and tell Oliver she lost the baby. She does just that, and while Moira does not come off as too much in the flashbacks, she does make it easier for both Oliver and this woman to have better lives without one another, as Oliver is definitely not ready to be a dad. If this pans out, perhaps we will see a very young Connor Hawke running around with a toy bow and arrow in Flash or something. Who knows.
Back in the present, the Queen family leaves the rally together. Thea is still being a teenage girl and Moira decides to tell them something about Malcolm Meryln before they are hit by a random truck and black out.When Oliver comes to, we see a very similar set-up:
Slade is holding a gun while Moira is to his right and Thea to his left. Just like how Ivo had Sara and Shado. He tells Oliver that he must choose now before Slade chooses for him. Though, it was not nearly as fair...Ivo gave Oliver a countdown! The situation changes, though, once Moira realizes Slade was on the island with Oliver. It changes even more when she stands up and says that she won't let her children die. Slade seemingly has a change of heart before he quickly turns around and stabs Moira with his sword. Oliver passes out and Thea falls over onto her mother in agony. Slade claims there is one more who must die (Diggle, Felicity, probably Sara?) before this torture of Oliver can end. Just kidding, he has an army, that torture is just starting.
And very Game of Thrones "Red Wedding"-like, we get one last second of the two living Queen members before the title screen shows up with no music to really encapsulate the tragedy that has befallen our heroes.
Slade is soooooooo dead!
Anyway, the last nine minutes are what really stand out for me. We got a further look at how desperate Slade makes Oliver and how crazy Slade is. He tried telling all of them that there was someone telling him to do it, and in that way, revealed that he is practically haunted by the memory of Shado. That was pretty interesting to see. But Moira's death was just so freaking powerful. It showed us that she had been right all along, all the way back from when she defended herself from the Arrow in Season 1 with a picture of Oliver and Thea.
Everything Moira did throughout the show was to protect her children. The Undertaking was performed to get Malcolm Merlyn off their backs. The trial was to keep all of those dirty secrets out of the air. And finally, she gave her life to stop a seemingly unstoppable madman from killing her two babies, her two only children. She might not have been my favorite, but, just outside of Tommy dying, this was the most impactful death on the show thus far.
What does this mean for the final three episodes? War. Oh man...it's about to go so down!
First of all, we might get our long-awaited return of Malcolm Merlyn, who can seriously turn the tables on all of this. It's not like he's hanging out with the League anymore since they are essentially hunting him, and should Nyssa indeed return, this could be his way of repayment by fighting off Deathstroke the mercenary, who can pose a large threat to Ra's al Ghul's organization. Plus, there are many reasons for Merlyn to come back. His home, Starling City, is under attack. Moira Queen, mother to her child, just died and is about to have a funeral (I wouldn't expect him to visibly be there, but, I wouldn't be surprised if he makes himself known to Dig or Oliver to fight Slade). And last, Thea has been put in harm's way by the same guy twice now. Merlyn has to have a reason to come back to fight for her.
With Sara out of the picture and Roy currently knocked out (so he's just being Roy), it looks like we're back to our core group of Oliver, Dig, and Felicity. It seems that they get stuff done best when it's just the three of them, because, they did almost stop the Undertaking and did manage to stop the mirakuru from spreading almost all by themselves (Barry only helped with the healing, not the searching).
I think next episode is going to be key for Diggle and Felicity, as it seems that they are going to have to reel Oliver back into hero-mode and get ready for the fight of his life. Obviously I don't think they'll be taking on all 100 of the mirakurus, just targeting Slade and a weird-looking Isabel Rochev, but that probably will still have to be addressed at some point. Also considering how the episode is titled "City of Blood" don't expect to be short on Brother Blood.
This episode closed the book on one of the show's most topsy-turvy characters but her death should have everyone ready for war and to seriously give it to Slade. We should be closing in on that final Green Arrow vs. Deathstroke deathmatch, and I simply cannot wait for it.
R.I.P. Moira Queen.
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