Arrow "Sara" Review

As you who read last week may well know I kinda sorta flipped out over the reveal that Komodo was in this episode. Given the fact that he is my all-time favorite Green Arrow villain, as well as a favorite DC Comics villain in general, I had good reason to hype this episode up. Now, I know Arrow and how it tends to underplay its villains sometimes, so I figured that even if he was just a one-time deal, I wasn't going to complain and let it slide. I even considered the possibility of them killing him, and came to terms with that. It's happened before, you know?

While Komodo wasn't the focus of the episode, he didn't need to be at all. In fact, if he wasn't in the episode and we were just on a murder mystery, I would have been fine with that. He was sort of thrown in just so that Oliver and gang could have someone to fight but it also served as a possible culprit, and a way for the writers to mention Bludhaven again, in the murder of Sara. Because of the murder we know two things: 1. Sara is familiar with the killer and 2. The killer is a skilled archer, and a powerful one at that to have forced Sara back to fall down.

Most of the emotional weight of the episode was carried by Felicity and Laurel. Though Felicity does not have as personal a connection with Sara as Laurel, Sara is also the first one on Team Arrow to bite the dust, so it's to be expected that such a large death would affect her. Laurel was sad, yeah, but surprisingly knew she had to get things done and used her rage to fuel her. She even decided to go out on her own to get answers, a very bold, certainly dangerous, move.

You may be wondering why Oliver wasn't all teary-eyed and what not. Well, he, as usual, had a lot to deal with and he even addressed it. He was worried about Thea, had to deal with Komodo, mull over Sara's death, and had to settle down Laurel while Felicity was breathing down his neck to actually have feelings. Which, obviously, he does.

I don't know about you guys but Felicity seems to be pushing all the wrong buttons lately, she's nagging a lot. For good reasons, of course, but it seems a bit much. By now she should know Oliver enough to the point where he does not show suffering externally and has mastered his emotions to stay in control of himself. It was one of the biggest lessons from last season when everything was falling apart around him and he had to regain control of himself. Heck it was Felicity herself who told him to get it together. So him not really showing any emotion was his way of showing that he was broken. Oliver's already a very broken person, suffering the loss of his father right before his eyes, surviving the trials of A.R.G.U.S. and the island, the death of his best friend and former lover, and being forced to "kill" his former best friend, Slade Wilson, on the island. So while Sara's death is a big deal, it's something he can cope with.

Unlike Felicity and Laurel, this episode shows that he won't let Sara's death affect his avenging it. He won't be driven by anger or emotion, but instead he'll control it all and fight on because that's what Sara would do as a person who was also very broken inside. In that way he makes himself the emotional leader of Team Arrow and is how he is able to stay in command even when everything is falling apart. Not to say he doesn't have his emotional moments. The times where he and Diggle are alone are the times when he is allowed to let it all out, since Diggle has been around the longest and gets all the pain Oliver is feeling.

The episode starts off getting straight to the point, too, with Laurel bringing Sara's body to the Foundry. I mean, yeah, I would have brought her there too, considering how everyone else would have been suspicious that Sara was alive once again. Oliver decides to immediately take action and goes to find out who did it, even recovering a little something from where the killer stood. Diggle shows up and says he's back on the team to help Oliver get through this and find the killer. Oliver gets a call from Lance that sets up Oliver's investigation into Laurel, and it is here where it's pretty much stated without saying that nobody wants to tell Lance because he's already got heart problems, the death of his daughter would literally kill him.

As the episode progresses, too, we see Oliver keep trying to contact Thea. Considering how when we last saw her she was simply leaving for a little while, it makes sense that he would be wondering where the heck she's been. Roy shows Felicity the note Thea left him and she tells Roy that Oliver must see it regardless of the consequence on Roy.

Oliver manages to track down the killer and tries to fight him off but in a pretty cool scene where the two are jousting on motorcycles shooting an arrows at each other, the killer gets away after snagging Oliver in the shoulder. Oliver charges Diggle with the task of finding out who did it. Diggle contemplates if he is part of the League and if he killed Sara, to which Oliver instantly declines, which is something I'll touch on in a moment.

Felicity heads up to see Ray Palmer who has been essentially begging her to work for him, even buying out Felicity's former company to make him technically her boss. She quits the job out of frustration that everything is really bad now and is basically just taking it out Ray, who only wants the best for her. It's nice to see a good person running the company after a psychopath mother, a vigilante, and a nut-job Russian lady. Ray Palmer's not so bad.

Felicity's fun times don't get any better when she and Oliver have a talk and he basically reveals that he knows being a hero is going to get him killed, and that the day will come when he least expects it. Felicity gets all over him about this, that he needs a life outside being the Arrow, and that she does not want to die in the Foundry like Oliver thinks he wants to. While this moment should have been profoundly emotional, it was just one of those moments where you can't help but slow down and ask Felicity if she knows anything of what Oliver has been through. This life of hunting and killing is the only one he has known for seven years and though he may have chosen it and can still get out of it, is one that keeps people safe. It seemed very nagging of her to try and tell him what to do, to try and fix him. Felicity just isn't scoring the big points lately.

Roy also decides to tell Oliver about the note, giving it to him, and apologizes for not telling him sooner because he wasn't sure when the time was right. Instead of flipping out on him, Oliver just gives him the casual "okay," which basically meant, "okay, we're cool, thanks bro" because really, it took guts from Roy to even do that to someone who would just as easily have killed him before. There's definitely a grown understanding between the two and even if they haven't been shown in action a whole lot yet, there is a strong bond between them.

Anyway, Laurel has her little moment where she uses aggressive negotiations on Komodo's target, finding out they were part of some big money plan before Komodo kills him right in front of Laurel. Lance then Oliver confront her about it, and when they find out where Komodo will strike next, Laurel takes a gun and heads out after Oliver, Roy, and Diggle who head over to apprehend him.

Of course, Komodo strikes at Ray Palmer's charity where he declares he will drastically lower his salary for the betterment of the company as well as the future Star City. Komodo attacks but not before Arrow and Arsenal can try to stop him. I say try because Komodo expertly holds both of them off and is able to get away. Classic. His strong enough to know he can hold them off but smart enough to know he can't win.

Oliver tracks him down and we also find out that Roy doesn't have trick arrows yet. Kinda sucks but hey, part of being a side-kick. Oliver manages to stop Komodo after the two have a fight (they even split each other's arrows like in the comic :D) but Laurel steps in with the gun ready to shoot him. Komodo admits to getting drunk in Bludhaven the night Sara was killed, taking him out of the equation of being the killer. Laurel still tries to kill him but Oliver rigged the gun and took the bullets out so she couldn't.

Oliver and Laurel meet up after where Laurel tells she only wants more and more to take down the man who killed Sara, willing to get stronger to do so. She also realizes that her father must know sooner or later, and opts to go tell him, but when he has to take his meds, she can't let him know and leaves without telling. Team Arrow groups up at Sara's grave, the same one that reads "1987-2007," telling us that she will die without anyone knowing who she really was. Laurel gets upset about it but Diggle tells her that she can never die, and that he and Lyla have decided to honor Sara by naming their daughter after her.

I really liked Diggle and Roy in this episode. Roy showed maturity in all the scenes he was in, able to take all the hits he was given and still stand tall. Telling Oliver about Thea was rough but he knew he had to do it. Roy is definitely no longer just some street punk and even if he isn't a full-fledged hero yet he's on the way. Diggle was, of course, the emotional anchor for the team and once again proved what a great dad he was to everyone. The final scene in the Foundry shows Diggle officially rejoin Team Arrow in order to hunt down Sara's killer as well as get Thea back, because he knows how much it means to both the team and himself now.

The final scene of the episode just shows us that Thea is now on her way to becoming Mia Dearden and it is kind of awesome, as she was able to take down two fighters without showing much exhaustion. She's even cut her hair, wow!

In terms of flashbacks, this episode had ones that were kind of pointless but cool regardless. Oliver was given his first target and discovers that it is Tommy. So yay, we got to see Tommy again! Waller set it up so that Tommy, who got an alert that Oliver tried to send an email to his mother, would be killed and off the trail of Oliver, who is meant to be dead. Which basically means Oliver is the perfect man for Waller since he is just a ghost hitman nobody would be looking for. However, Oliver manages to convince Maseo that there is another way, and sets it up so that he tricks Tommy into thinking he was dead and Maseo, as a cop, brings Tommy to the airport to flee.

Overall, this was a really good episode. It was very strong throughout with a good balance of action and emotion to keep it going, as well as raising a huge mystery:

If the League and Komodo aren't the culprits, then...who the heck killed Sara? I don't even know at this point, and I don't want to know until they tell me who it is so I can freak out then. I mean, there's still a shred of hope in me that it was Komodo, but, honestly, I think this episode may have served as something of an origin for him. Perhaps he will leave Starling to become a better archer, stumble across the Outsiders, then return to Starling to take down Oliver, the one man who bested him in an archery duel. And then they go to Prague and stuff and why not?

Also, the shout out to Jeff Lemire ("he's on the corner of 3rd and Lemire") was absolutely perfect. In spite of all else that happened, highlight of the episode right there.

Next week, though, Team Arrow heads over to Corto Maltese in order to take back Thea, who seems very intent on staying with Daddy Merlyn despite Brother Oliver wanting her home. See ya then!


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