You may have noticed a hiatus in our “Arrow” reviews the last couple weeks, and a lot has happened!
Beginning tonight, yours truly will be reviewing episodes of “Arrow” going forward, so I wanted to take a moment to catch you up on everything that has happened thus far – along with some of my thoughts.
Our last review was way back on episode two, “Identity”, and you can read up on that here. So let’s dive in to episode three . . .
“Broken Dolls”
This episode introduces us to The Dollmaker (Barton Mathis) of this DC Television Universe. Mathis has been in prison since Officer Lance put him there years ago. Unfortunately for everyone, Mathis was able to escape during the “undertaking” at the end of season one. Mathis wreaks havok on Starling City by once again injecting his female victims with a chemical that hardens in them and turns them into “dolls”. With the help of Officer Lance, Oliver is able to stop The Dollmaker before he can kill Laurel and capture him. Unfortunately for The Dollmaker, the other vigilante in town (Read: Black Canary) shows up and kills Mathis. Toward the end of the episode, an assassin shows up to bring Black Canary back to him. She disposes of him but, did he say “Ra’s al Ghul”?!
Thoughts: Another great episode of “Arrow”. We finally got a better look at the “female vigilante” – or as we familiar with the DC Universe know her, Black Canary. By this episode, it was pretty apparent to me that this is Sara Lance, Laurel’s “dead” sister. What I was definitely not expecting though was the connection to Ra’s al Ghul! That blew me away and made me an incredibly giddy geek. We also get another DCU call out when, in the Island Flashback, Oliver is taken aboard a ship called “AMAZO”.
“Crucible”
Thanks to the smart and sexy Felicity, it is revealed that the female vigilante has not been following “The Hood” around, she’s been following Laurel Lance. Oliver ambushes the female vigilante and discovers that it is Sara Lance – the very girl he was on the boat with when it sunk and was thought to have drowned. There is a lot of exposition around Sara; what happened to her, why doesn’t she reveal to her family that she is alive, etc. This episode also introduces us to a gang lord named “The Mayor”, who has been stealing weapons to maintain control of The Glades. Sara and Oliver team up to take down The Mayor, but he escapes only to find himself being injected with a mysterious green substance by Sebastion Blood (Brother Blood anyone?) and dying. Also, Laurel is developing a drinking problem and distancing herself from those who care about her. In the Island flahsbacks, it is revealed that Sara is also on the AMAZO and Oliver finds out she didn’t drown afterall.
Thoughts: Having the Black Canary be Sara Lance as opposed to Laurel (as she is in the comics) is a smart move and makes a lot more sense while only slightly diverging the continuity. She is still the daughter of Officer Lance, but the genesis of her becoming a vigilante will tie closely to Oliver’s and probably make a lot more sense to the continuity of the show. Perhaps Laurel will pick up this mantle later on down the line, but we will have to see. The Mayor was a pretty stock “villain of the week”, but served his purpose as a focal point for Oliver and Sara to team up on. It really should not have come as much of a surprise that Blood has some nefarious motives up his sleeve – his last name is “Blood” for hell’s sake!
“League of Assassins”
When Sara Lance wass summoned by Ra’s al Ghul back in “Broken Dolls”, I got very excited, but just assumed it was most likely a throwaway reference to get people like me all excited. I was definitely wrong. Oliver and Sara are attacked by a man Oliver initially believes is a Merlyn copycat, but Sara informs him it is a man by the name of Al-Owal and he is a member of the League of Assassins and he is after her for leaving the League. Merlyn did apparently have ties to the League, and despite the fact that Oliver had trouble dealing with just him, he and Sara hunt down Al-Owal and fight him and two other assassins to a draw. As they make their exit, Al-Owal threatens to take out Sara’s family, prompting her to reveal herself to her father, Officer Lance. The League tracks Sara, Lance, and Oliver down at Sara’s clock tower hide out where the three heroes defeat them and Sara finishes them off “for good”. She then decides to leave Starling City to protect her family and Lance agrees to keep her secret. Back on the Island in the flashbacks, Sara is brought to Dr. Anthony Ivo on board the AMAZO – another great DCU callout.
Thoughts: This may have been my favorite episode of the season so far. It’s clear Oliver is being thrust into the greater DC Universe with Ra’s al Ghul and the League of Assassins, Dr. Anthony Ivo, Sebastion Blood, and Black Canary all coming into the picture. I believe Oliver is starting to realize there is a lot more evil going on in the shadows than he’s aware of and it seems to be making him a bit anxious. I also am really enjoying having Officer Quentin Lance getting more to do and actually siding with “The Vigilante” – he’s a great character and I think he deserves more story time.
So there we have it! We are all caught up in preparation for tonight’s episode, “Keep Your Enemies Closer” – which I hear is a Diggle-centric episode, which I am all for.
Call it blasphemous to say it, but “Arrow” is the best live-action offering DC has put out in recent years, on the big screen or otherwise.
Season two of “Arrow” has upped the ante in every way from the first season, and in this viewer’s opinion, all for the better. The change in Oliver’s combat tactics moving from lethal to non-lethal made a lot of sense after the events of the season one finale and makes him even more true to the Green Arrow of the comic books. The best supporting characters, Felicity, Diggle, and Officer Lance are getting more to do and Oliver is starting to depend on and trust them more, which means more for these great characters to do and more screen time for us to learn more about them.
We know that The Flash will be making a few appearances this season, and it is rumored that we may even see the likes of Nightwing at somepoint; this coupled with the reveal of additional major DC players like Black Canary and Ra’a al Ghul, it’s obvious the creators are willing to expand this universe far beyond Starling City. So far I think they have done this incredibly well and Oliver, Diggle, Felicity, and Lance’s reactions have all been appropriate (a “we might be in over our heads” mentality); I can’t wait until they are exposed to someone with superpowers.
Call it blasphemous to say it, but “Arrow” is the best live-action offering DC has put out in recent years, on the big screen or otherwise. If this show at the very least maintains the quality it has thus far, then I hope to see Warner Bros. and DC putting more eggs in this basket while they try to figure out what the hell they are doing on the silver screen.
“Arrow” airs on The CW Wednesdays at 8pm/7pm Central.