So late this week! I apologize, I was too busy trying to get the Yao Fei fan club back together. That’s right, “Vertigo” has restored my faith in humanity! Yao Fei has redeemed himself in my eyes, as well as Ollie’s but more on that later. Let’s discuss the rest of the episode first.
As we learned last week, there is a new drug in Starling City and it’s a fantastic little trip called “vertigo”. Thea was enjoying it a bit too much as she found herself driving her car into a telephone pole. Of course the driver of the other car involved ended up dying so now Thea has been brought up on vehicular homicide charges. I can not be the only person that was hoping she’d go away to prison never to be heard from again. Especially with this episode! Oh my god they took teenage petulance way too far. You are looking to go to prison probably for a very long time if not the rest of your life and the only thing you’re worried about is if your mom was schtupping her son’s best friend’s father while her husband was missing? Seriously Thea? Just go off to jail and make everyone happier.
Of course Oliver just had to get involved in the case. He wouldn’t be Oliver if he didn’t. So he goes off to the police and meets and old flame, McKenna Hall (played by Janina Gavankar aka Shiva from ‘The League’) who is now a detective. Her name is very frustrating because how cool would it be to have Shiera (Sanders) Hall aka, Hawkgirl, on the show? That would be rather kickass. Of course it would be difficult given their “no meta superpowers” stance but still, it would be cool.
No shocker here, the police aren’t really too keen on having Oliver help them out. Also not a surprise, Oliver goes after him anyway. This episode fully illustrates how frustrating the writer’s decision to have the villains be one and done. Seth Gabel (Fringe) did an awesome job as ‘The Count’. I would love to see more of him. Obviously the way they left the episode certainly left the door open for his return but I’ve been saying that about Deadshot in the pilot so what do I know? Back to Gabel though – I loved him as Vertigo. He was sufficiently unhinged and just a bit manic to make it work. His first scene where he gave the guy the option to shoot himself or suffer the effects of ‘vertigo’? Deliciously evil.
Another part of this episode I really liked? The call back to the third episode, “Lone Gunman”, when Diggle get’s shot with Deadshot’s poisoned bullet and Ollie takes him back to the Arrowcave to make him Yao Fei’s tea. This time Ollie gets a pretty substantial dose of ‘vertigo’ and Diggle is the one helping him back to the lair and fixing up a nice cuppa. Although Count Vertigo is gone, it looks like we’ll see his effect on at least the next episode as Oliver appears to be feeling a little off as this episode ends.
Of course, it’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Felicity and she has been great in these last few episodes. The back and forth between she, Oliver, and Diggle have been something to look forward to each week. Of course really it’s the exchange between Felicity and Oliver and then the “you’ve got to be shitting me” reaction of Diggle. He has perfected that “wtf is happening right now?” look. Best look though? When Oliver “killed” the guy during the meet-up with Bratva. Hands down. Poor Diggle looked like Ollie had just punched him in the junk.
I damn near squealed with delight when we found out where Oliver learned the “kill a man but not really” trick. I’d like to say that I truly believed in my heart of hearts that Yao Fei was a good guy all along, but I had my doubts. I apologize Yao Fei, I should have known that you could never betray Oliver like that. I’m still not sure what your end game is but I’m happy to see that you at least have Oliver’s best interests at heart. I imagine it won’t be the last time we see you and your fellow ass-kicker, Deathstroke. I’ll be waiting with bated breath.
Thing I’m most looking forward to? Now that Felicity has given Oliver the book of names, surely he’s going to bring her onto Team Arrow. Right? (SPOILER) It only makes sense for how much longer can he keep up the ridiculous cover stories when he shows up asking her to Google things for him? We’ll just have to keep watching!
This episode wasn’t as good as last week, but was still pretty strong and the return of Yao Fei… going to go with a 3.5 out of five.
Until next time Arrow fans!
Grizzly Bomb 