Probably due in part to last week’s episode being so great, this week seemed a little blah. It certainly had great moments but the overall feel was just a bit of a let down. Not to mention sort of irritating that the writers finally gave in to the CW “norm” and we had an episode all about romantic relationships. It’s not really necessary given that the main point of the show is a guy hunting down people with a bow and arrow who’ve done wrong in the city. If he happens to find love in his off-time, well that’s great, but we don’t need an entire story arc dedicated to it (I’m looking at you Huntress).
However, I really liked this week’s bad guy – the Dodger. I chose to just go ahead and forget everything I know about the actual comic book character Dodger because it would only irritate me as it’s hard to have Dodger be involved in trying to kill Connor (Oliver Queen’s son) when there is no Connor. Also no
Black Canary (I am hoping that with Laurel’s mom appearing soon they’ll address this finally) so yea, best to just let Starling City’s Dodger be his own man. Of course he did have his “electronic mace” which was cool. I could think of a few times in my life I’d like to have had one of those on hand.
Like I said, the real story of the episode was the love lives of both Diggle and Oliver. I do believe I called the Diggle/sister-in-law thing from the very beginning so it was nice to see I was right. How awkward was it though when he started comparing their first date to her first date with his brother? Yikes. I don’t do well with awkward, even if it’s on the TV. I felt like I was standing there trying to scream “SHUT UP DIGGLE!!” but my mouth wouldn’t open. Clearly, I have issues.
Who else has issues? Oliver. Of course he has a reason behind them, what with the whole “everyone thinks I was alone on that island but really I was getting my ass kicked on the regular never mind the constant mind-games I had to wade through” thing. I don’t know what to think about the McKenna situation. After last week I had a feeling she might be the mole in the police station but now she’s being bugged by Oliver so maybe that rules her out? I don’t know. What I do know is it’s not going to take her long (at least I hope so, she is a detective) to find that bug and the shit is going to hit the fan. That will be fun.
Oh oh oh! Another obnoxious point about this episode! The “nerdy girl takes off her glasses and puts on a dress and is all of a sudden hot” trope. I can just imagine how it played out in the writers room.
[quote] Writer A: So we’ve got this gala thing that Felicity is going to go to.
Writer B: We should totally have her take her glasses off and let her hair down.
Every other writer who hates this move: groans loudly
Writer B: But really, it will work. Then the guys will realize how pretty she is! Yay! [/quote]
Ugh, unnecessary. What purpose does it serve? Absolutely none. I love their little trio and how she’s been able to work her way into their lives already and as much as I think I would like to see her and Oliver
together, I’d rather it just be the three of them. ArrowTeam4Lyfe! Now that I got that ridiculousness out of my system, I think the three of them will end up doing quite well together. Already we’ve seen the good influence that Diggle has made on Oliver. Throw in Felicity and her desire to go after bad guys that aren’t on the list as well and how he could go about “talking” to people differently and it seems like Oliver is becoming more well-rounded. One could say he’s going through the vigilante version of a liberal arts education.
The island parts this week were a major letdown. Basically they were only there to drive home the point that Oliver has changed and the island played a major part in it. One has to wonder if the writers think we haven’t seen the previous fourteen episodes.
Back to ArrowTeam- this week we got to finally meet someone who should be making his way into the ArrowCave any moment, Roy Harper!
Let’s just get one thing out of the way – Colton Haynes is 24 years old. I know this will cause many people to breath a sigh of relief that they aren’t dirty pervs. Not saying I was one of them, but there was a Google search done almost immediately.
I can not wait to see how Roy Harper becomes an Arrow sidekick. I imagine it will sadly have something to do with Thea as it looked like they were setting it up as a love connection between the two of them. Much like Diggle and Oliver, I don’t really care who Thea dates. I actually don’t really care if Thea just disappeared one day and never returned but if that can’t happen at least she can get her bratty paws off Speedy. Doesn’t seem too much to ask, does it?
As great as Roy Harper’s appearance was, perhaps the biggest plot movement of the night came from Moira Queen. I think she only had three scenes but there was a lot involved in those three scenes. Some guy named Frank Chan shows up. He is part of this group that is doing, gods only know what, but Moira wants him to help her stop “the undertaking”. Then the final scene of the show we see exactly how she plans to do that – by hiring China White to KILL MALCOLM MERLYN!!!!
I’ve watched enough television in my 34 years to know that this is not a good idea. Not a good idea at all, Moira. This will end badly for you. Very very badly. On the whole, not a great episode. Roy Harper being introduced and that last scene was great (awful idea, but great scene) but the rest of it was blah. Going to have to go with just a 3 out of 5 this week.
However there is much to look forward to as this picture clearly shows… Until next time Arrow fans!
Grizzly Bomb 