‘Arrow’ Episode 3.23 “My Name is Oliver Queen” (8 out of 10) Starring Stephen Amell, Katie Cassidy, David Ramsey, Willa Holland, Emily Bett Rickards, Paul Blackthorne. Guest Starring Brandon Routh, Katrina Law, Matt Nable, Rila Fukushima. First aired May 13, 2015. 

This third season of “Arrow” has kind of been all over the place. There are reasons, and some of them made sense, but the result has been a very uneven season. Trying to put everything back together and tie up so many disparate stories in a single season finale episode is a daunting task. “My Name is Oliver Queen” did an adequate, and sometimes good, job doing just that. 

When last week’s episode closed, Team Arrow was locked up in Ra’s Al Ghul’s dungeon in Nanda Parbat. They’d been gassed, they were dying…and at the beginning of this episode, they’ve been revived with an antidote that Malcolm Merlyn was planning on using all along. They were still stuck in the dungeon, of course, until The Flash zips in. Within 90 seconds, he’s bound up the League of Assassins, freed Team Arrow, and headed back to Central City to deal with his own (much more entertaining) problems. 

Ra’s, Nyssa, and Oliver are en route to Starling City to use the Alpha/Omega Virus to destroy the population; Oliver uses the flight to turn the tables on Ra’s, and tries to bring down the entire plane, killing them all. It doesn’t quite work out according to his plan, but hey. He’s no Malcolm Merlyn. 

There’s a reunion in Starling City, where Oliver and Nyssa meet back up with Felicity and Diggle and Merlyn and Thea and Ray and uh…Felici–no…Laurel. Yeah, that’s it. Once you’ve got more than four heroes in a room, it gets messy. Another problem with this season. In order to defeat Ra’s Al Ghul, they’ll need to split into teams and stop the virus from being released at four different locations. Once again, the comic book villain gives away his evil plan. Sigh. 

In the ensuing ass-kicking montages, a few things are important. Thea dons her ex’s mantle and becomes Speedy, a red-and-black wearing, arrow-shooting sidekick. Which has been teased since the first season, and has finally happened. I dig it. Damien Darhk (ugh such a stupid name) is moved into position as next year’s Big Bad. Felicity gets to fly in the Atom armor. And Oliver and Ra’s Al Ghul have their final duel. 

By the end of the episode, most of the major threads have been tied up. Some of them messily, like Ray Palmer blowing himself up in his laboratory (temporarily or microscopically, since he’s in the “DC Legends of Tomorrow” spinoff series coming to CW next season), some of them quite neatly, like Malcolm Merlyn ascending to become the next Ra’s Al Ghul. Some things are teased, like Diggle taking on his own masked/costumed persona (yay? maybe?) and Oliver and Felicity are finally leaving Starling City on a happy note. Driving a Porsche into the sunset isn’t a bad way to go out.

driving a porsche into the sunset isn’t a bad way to go out

Previous summer breaks on “Arrow” have been in real time, so when we rejoin them in October, five months will have passed. What will bring Oliver back to Starling City, and what will his new heroic persona be? I’m sure it will be grim, and dark and tragic…but you know, it was nice to see Oliver smiling. Happy. Surrounded by friends. More than half of this season he’s been in Nanda Parbat or other places, where he’s solo, and his friends/colleagues are mourning him in different ways. That got old quick, CW. And when I’m having a lot more fun watching “The Flash,” I end up watching “Arrow” out of loyalty instead of being excited about it. 

I already said this season has been uneven, but there have been highlights, some strong episodes, and characters growing on me. Laurel, who was the Character I Most Wanted to Die in all of season one and most of season two, has become someone I look forward to. Diggle is growing more developed as a husband and father than he was before. And if Oliver and Felicity can work things out and become a power couple, instead of moping around all the time? It’ll make for a stronger series. Part of the delight (yeah, delight) of having Ray Palmer around is that he was smart and funny, and even smarter and funnier with Felicity. They both lifted the other up. They need to bring some of that lightness to Oliver/Felicity/Olicity. The entire show doesn’t have to change, but they need to find other hues in their palette. 

The show needs other hues in its palette

It looks like next season’s flashbacks may take place in Coast City–which is most famous as the DC Comics Fictional City of Green Lantern. Coast City is associated with him in the comic books as much as Gotham City is with Batman. In the comic books, Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen are best friends. The “missing test pilot” referenced on “The Flash” this week was Hal Jordan, working for Ferris Air. Coast City has been name dropped several times in recent episodes, with Barry running to Coast City for pizza, turning up in casual conversation, etc. I may be wrong, but I also think Oliver and Felicity were on their way to Coast City at the end of the episode. Whether or not he’s Green Lantern, I’m guessing we’ll meet Hal Jordan in season four. Could be cool. It’s gotta be better than the Green Lantern movie was. 

This season ended on an unusually upbeat and hopeful note for “Arrow.” I’m hoping some of that will carry on into season four. 

‘Arrow’ Episode 3.10 “Left Behind” (7 out of 10) Starring Stephen Amell, Katie Cassidy, David Ramsey, Emily Bett Rickards, Colon Haynes. Guest Starring Vinnie Jones, Cynthia Addai Robinson. First aired January 21, 2015.

When we left Oliver Queen in early December, he had traveled to the Himalayan kingdom of Nanda Parbat, home of Ra’s Al Ghul. There he challenged Ra’s to a duel…and died pretty quickly. A sword through the chest, followed by a fall off a cliff. A literal cliffhanger. Nice! Back home in Starling City, the Arrow’s been gone less than a week, and things are falling apart. A new crime boss named Danny Brickwell is taking on the cops. “Brick” seems to be nearly invulnerable to bullets (and arrows, we’ve gotta assume), and is more than just a thug. He’s set himself to work freeing all of the prisoners that Team Arrow have put away over the last two years. He’s taking evidence from the Starling City PD, and using quasi-legal means to get them out. Not a jailbreak, but worse–they’re all hitting the streets, all legitimate-like.

This crime wave is quickly overwhelming Oliver Queen’s allies. John Diggle becomes the de facto leader of the crew, but feels unequal to the task. He’s an incredible right hand man, but isn’t quite sure how to turn his muscle and brains into a leadership role. He’s also not the Arrow, and is left with tools that don’t fit his needs. One of those tools is Arsenal; Roy has been getting better at the sidekicking, but as with Diggle, needs more leadership. Felicity is kind of a mess; one hero she loves is gone and presumed dead. The other, Ray Palmer, is about to take his life in his hands by putting on the A.T.O.M. suit, and wants Felicity’s help fine-tuning it. She (to her credit) refuses.

On a third (fourth?) front, Malcolm Merlyn is sure that Oliver Queen is dead, he travels to Nanda Parbat, he retrieves the sword used to kill Oliver, and brings it back to the Arrowcave for analysis. By the way, how many villains now know where the Arrowcave is? I know at least Merlyn, Deathstroke, and Captain Boomerang have the address–add all of the heroes and sidekicks who know about it, and it’s becoming quite the hub of activity. It is under a nightclub…one of the only series regulars who doesn’t know it exists owns the damn nightclub. Anyway. Merlyn sees which way the wind is blowing and wants to take Thea and hit the road…hopefully continuing her training in the ways of the dark side. 

Then in flashbacks, we have Amanda Waller using Oliver and Maseo to do her bidding, superseding Maseo’s need to find his wife Tatsu. It brings Oliver and Maseo closer together, even as it creates friction between them and Waller. This flashback connects neatly to the current story in Nanda Parbat.  

It’s nice to see them try, and fail to fill Arrow’s quiver

In all, the episode felt messy. More disjointed than it needed to be. Even though we know Oliver Queen isn’t dead, we still get over the top emoting from Felicity about the whole thing. Which is appropriate, but seemed to drag the narrative. It also gave her motivation to refuse to help Ray Palmer with his A.T.O.M. suicide mission. It added depth to their relationship, but also meant there wasn’t the banter that serves to lighten the tone of this sometimes bleak series. We do get some nice moments between Diggle and Roy, and it’s nice to see them try and fail to fill Arrow’s quiver.

The final scenes of the episode have Laurel at long last donning the Black Canary costume. We see her lawyer mode, failing to stop Brick’s prison breaks. We see her fears about losing Oliver, but also the only one with hope that they’d see him again. It’s been a natural buildup of the character over this season and last, so it’s nice to see her handily kicking some ass. She also used the “Canary Cry” sonic bombs, something I think we only saw Sara’s Canary use twice before. I hope this Black Canary uses them more. Showrunners have said this will kick off an arc of three episodes centered on Black Canary, something I’m looking forward to.

Episodes like this have a lot of forward movement; there are about ten characters whose stories move forward in “Left Behind.” I wonder if it would be better to have some focus on a smaller family of characters, and put others on the back burner. In any case, it was a solid episode, but missed on a few marks. Hoping for better next week.

“Arrow”; starring Steven Amell, Katie Cassidy, Davide Ramsey, Emily Bett Rickards, Colton Haynes, Manu Bennett, and Paul Blackthorne; airs Wednesday nights on the CW at 8/7C.

Warning: This review will contain spoilers.

“Arrow” Season two is fully committed to the “City of Heroes” tagline that was teased at the San Diego Comic Con. The latest episode, “Tremors”, is heavily focused on Roy Harper’s training under the tutelage of Starling City’s vigilante, The Arrow.

The Arrow continues to keep Roy in the dark about his real identity. Roy’s recent injection with the Mirakuru serum has caused him to have enhanced strength and healing, but the side effects that have apparently caused Slade Wilson to become a crazed villain are having similar effects on Harper. Oliver does his best to teach Roy patience and control but he mostly fails miserably. Roy is charged with emotion and Oliver’s tricks like punching water in the bowl and sparring with a wooden dummy only amp Harper’s emotions up to eleven.

While Oliver is training Roy, The Bronze Tiger gets help escaping prison from a mystery man who hides the Tiger’s claws inside his “bum knee”. The Bronze Tiger is told that his benefactor requests only that he perform a job that he will be greatly rewarded for. Proving that there is some honor amongst criminals, the Tiger agrees to the job. The job of course, being the worst kind of trouble for Starling City and its group of heroes because The Bronze Tiger’s target is a prototype earthquake machine in Malcolm Merlin’s abandoned mansion.

Oliver gets word of the break-in from Felicity and he takes a frustrated Roy Harper along to see if a little action will help calm the fledgling hood. Ollie tells Roy to suit up and they break into the Merlin Mansion to see if they can find out exactly what’s going on. They end up in the garage where The Bronze Tiger and his men are stealing the prototype earthquake device. A fight breaks out and through Roy’s over zealous pummeling of the wheel man, the thieves get away. Oliver knows the city is in danger now and inadvertently upsets his already sensitive protege. It’s at this point you’re certain The Arrow would much rather have Diggle at his side than his sister’s boyfriend.

The Laurel drama continues to spiral out of control as her father, the former detective Lance, tries to trick her into attending an AA meeting. She isn’t having any of his fathering, especially because she sees him as a hypocrite because of his past struggle with addiction. Laurel ends up out of control at Oliver’s bar and is notified by Thea of the situation. He, Diggle and Felicity are meeting in the basement to go over the failure to secure the earthquake device. Felicity is able to bring up the club’s security so everyone can take a good look at Laurel’s self-destructive behavior. Oliver tells Thea to send Laurel home in a cab and has to quickly dash away because Felicity has found where the earthquake prototype is.

Oliver Dashes off to save the day but is caught allowing the villain to monologue. The Bronze Tiger, done with his job, is an honorable crook. He attacks Oliver from behind and it’s only because of Roy’s stubbornness that The Arrow is saved. Of course Roy followed The Arrow because he wanted to prove that he can save the city even though he is partially to blame for the device getting away in the first place. The device is armed anyway though, and is behind a blast proof door that Oliver’s explosive trick arrows cannot get through. Oliver knows he needs Roy but Roy is caught up in his rage again. Harper will not listen to the voice modulated voice of The Arrow and continues to beat on The Bronze Tiger. It’s only when Oliver uses his real voice and grabs Roy that Roy stops. Oliver tells Roy that he knows how much Harper loves his sister and that he needs to focus on that because only Roy can break through the blast door and destroy the prototype before it destroys Starling City. Harper saves the day and Oliver’s secret is out. He makes Roy swear that he will not tell anyone his secret and now Roy is officially part of Team Arrow.

Roy, “You saved my life. You gave me purpose.”
The Arrow, “We’re just getting started.”

© Copyright, The CW

At the end of the episode Amanda Waller visits the Bronze Tiger in prison to request his services. She tells him that his unique talents are wanted for a unit she’s putting together–a unit that’s really more of a squad. That certainly confirms the rumors of the Suicide Squad showing up in Arrow in the near future. The DC characters don’t stop there though, as Sarah Lance aka The Black Canary makes a blurred appearance in the final scene of the episode. She’s probably there to help Laurel with her addiction problem but I’m happy we may get a chance to see her and Ollie fighting side by side again next episode.

The episode was a fun one, even if it felt a bit rushed. It would have been nicer to focus more on Roy and Ollie’s interactions and less on Laurel’s downward spiral but that character development is going to be necessary as the series continues. Hopefully the Laurel addiction story means that Roy will be saved in the CW version of the DC universe from the drug addiction his counterpart in the previous DC universe suffered, but only time will tell. In that time we’re going to see exactly who else DC is going to add to the ever growing list of characters in The Arrow, and from all appearances “Arrow” will continue to thrill.

“Arrow”; starring Steven Amell, Katie Cassidy, Davide Ramsey, Emily Bett Rickards, Colton Haynes, Manu Bennett, and Paul Blackthorne; airs Wednesday nights on the CW at 8/7C.

Warning: This review will contain full spoilers.

After a brief hiatus over the Holiday season, “Arrow” is finally back with the latest episode called, “Blast Radius”!

Coming off of the epic mid-season finale in which we saw the “birth” of The Flash, I was curious to see if “Arrow” could come back strong. “Blast Radius” was definitely a strong return and abated any concerns I had as I fired up the DVR.

This episode introduced the villain “Shrapnel” to the “Arrow” universe. He is nothing like his comic book namesake, but while he may not have been the strongest villain we’ve seen on this show, he was a great baddie that helped drive the plot for a very strong episode – plus, we was played by “Firefly’s” Sean Maher! Oliver is putting in over time looking for Brother Blood, but continues to hit nothing but dead ends. Ollie is forced to put his search on a bit of a hold however when this building-bombing terrorist calling himself Shrapnel rears his head.

Back at the “Arrow Cave”, there is some tension among Ollie and his crew, namely Felicity, who has been spending a lot of time in Central City at the side of a comatose Barry Allen. Ollie feels that Felicity has been distracted from her vigilante-support duties due to her new friend’s condition. A bit petty? I thought so. But, Ollie is clearly under a lot of stress trying to hunt down Brother Blood and the Mirakuru serum with a terrorist who has a love of blowing things up running a muck in Starling City – enough to get a man to snap over even a legitimate reason for a partner’s absence. Luckily, Diggle is able to break up a heated argument before it escalates too far.

On the Sebastian Blood front, we didn’t really see any dastardly deeds from the man we know as a villain. I really love the way the writers are handling this character; he’s tragic and I actually like the guy when he’s not donning the skull mask, but we all now know his strings are being pulled by Deathstroke and nothing good can come of that. Oh, and there’s that little bit of information we found out about how exactly Blood became an orphan – by killing his father and locking his mother in a mental institution. It’s going to be very interesting to see what happens when Ollie finds out that this man he has been supporting for Mayor is the same man he’s trying to hunt down and put away.

We saw some follow-up with Roy and his new found super strength thanks to Brother Blood injecting him with the Mirakuru in the mid-season finale. He’s trying desperately to hide his new abilities from Thea, but when you live in a dangerous city like Starling City, that can be difficult. Roy saves Moira at Sebastian Blood’s rally by covering her to protect her from falling scaffolding and walks away uninjured. He explains this away to Thea by saying it was an adrenaline rush, but that doesn’t explain the already-healed severe cut he obtained earlier in the episode. He explains this away by . . . going home?

Roy has some work to do on hiding his new strength and endurance, and with an inquisitive girlfriend like Thea, he better step up his game. Oliver and company know that he was injected with the Mirakuru, and what that means for him, so why they aren’t keeping a closer eye on him to perhaps help hide this new development is beyond me. Roy already has some latent anger issues and we know the serum can exacerbate this so Oliver is going to have his work cut out for him keeping this young “go-getter” in check.

Back on the island, Slade is mourning the death of Shado and Oliver is feeling all sorts of guilty and responsible for her death. Sara Lance stops Ollie from coming clean to Slade about his role in her death, but I’m sure this little secret won’t stay a secret for too long. There is also the problem of Slade having been injected with the Mirakuru which puts Ollie in danger from his own “friend” on the island. The flashback for this episode wraps with Dr. Ivo trying to make a deal with the threesome by offering passage off the island in exchange for the Mirakuru they stole. A tempting offer, but upon hearing the offer, Sara goes to wake up Slade and he is nowhere to be found and has taken the Mirakuru with him.

“Arrow” came off it’s mid-season hiatus with a very strong episode in “Blast Radius”. The writers continue to prove they can consistently write quality episodes while driving several plot lines forward. Even though we have probably seen the last of Barry Allen until the Flash series pilot premiers, I am glad to see his presence is still impacting the events in Starling City. This helps in making it feel like a cohesive universe and will be a strong point when the two shows begin airing simultaneously. Ollie is going to continue unraveling the threads that lead to Brother Blood – and eventually Deathstroke – and I have a feeling that journey is going to be a hell of a ride.

Roy is seemingly on a crash course to become a hero alongside Oliver. However, I think that path is going to be a bit rocky for him. He has superhuman strength and endurance he needs to get used to, I’m sure he’s going to have to work on keeping that temper in check, and it will take some training for him to step in to the role of hero. Ollie can’t ignore Roy’s condition forever, and I am betting this will be acknowledged in an upcoming episode very soon; but don’t count on Roy donning the “Speedy” or “Arsenal” alias too soon, the writers have a knack for the “slow burn”, so I am betting this journey may not hit full speed until next season with maybe a bit of progress towards the end of the current season.

© Copyright, The CW

My favorite thing about this episode was that we got to see “The Hood”/”The Arrow”/”Green Arrow” back to form and being a bad ass. The show opened with Oliver’s own style of interrogation, and followed that pace with an exciting motorcycle chase through the city, Oliver being trapped in Shrapnel’s toy store with booby traps, and an impressively accurate shot when he finally confronts this week’s villain. Of course, we also have the drama. I’ve noted before that the drama on this show is not your “typical” CW fare. We haven’t really seen much romance this season, but there has been plenty of drama between Oliver and his team, members of the family, and so forth. These interactions are superb at character building and it prevents the show from becoming the type of show in which you just endure the drama to get to the action (I’m looking at you “Smallville”!).

“Arrow” is just gearing up for the second half of the season and we have a lot of plots in play and moving forward. Deathstroke is working Brother Blood from the shadows, villains are becoming more than just thugs with a plot, and Malcolm Merlyn and Ra’s al Ghul are still out there somewhere, and I’m sure they are up to no good. This DC television world is expanding, and Oliver and team have their work cut out for them.