TV Retrospective: Arrow Season 2 episodes 4-6 review

It's Arrow o'Clock, finally

Let's dig into episodes 4-6 and see what's what

Episode 4 - Crucible

After some time they discover the women in blonde is in fact Sara Lance.

But that’s only the B-plot of the story; the A-plot is that someone calling himself the Mayor is supplying guns all over the glades. Oliver tries to sponsor a cash for weapons event, and despite there being money issues which Isabelle pulls him up on, the whole day goes ahead as plan, making the whole money issue…

Meanwhile, Laurel’s sinking into depression the only way she knows how, by drinking, and getting pulled over for drink-driving. Once again putting her at odds with her father, seen that already, next!!! She also can’t admit she has a problem… yay!

Sarah doesn’t want her family to know because of several reasons, most of which we don’t know because the happened off the island

Ah, the Mayor shows up at the gun-rally and rather than doing the smart thing for a gun-runner to do and stealing the guns, he just shoots up the place, injures Sin and leaves… smart move there.

So, they find the Mayor, and with the help of Sara they take him down, they both seem pretty adept with each other’s weapons. Sin meanwhile was injured in the gun-shooting, thanks to Roy she survived.

Meanwhile on the Island, Oliver is tortured, shot in the stomach, forced to repair himself and dragged through the AMAZO to find Sara

And we’re introduced to Brother Blood, who kills the Mayor in an attempt to inject him with something, we’ll see how this goes later.

Another decent episode, the Laurel subplots are getting irritating and will only get more so as the series progresses, but it will conclude on something interesting, so…

Rating 8/10

Episode 5 - League of Assassins

Yes, we know your name is Oliver Queen, you can shut up about this already?

We see flashbacks from Sarah’s point of view this week, as she’s having dreams/daydreams about them. Brought aboard the AMAZO, by the evil black people she’s saved by the nice white man (because that’s not racist at all)

Wait, wouldn’t a jury have to be… Not out for blood over the murders, from another city perhaps. Seems it would be impossible to get a fair trial, which is a legal right, isn’t it? Yeah, this legal case seems a little bit implausible to me.

And we get a League of Assassins attack before the opening credits, Al-Owal the first, after Sarah to get her to come back to the League.

Meanwhile Moira is offered a plea bargain, and because she doesn’t want more secrets to come out, plus feeling that she can’t win over a jury, and not entirely certain she deserves to. But Thea and Ollie talk her around, and the plea bargain is denied. This case will proceed to trial.

Al-Owal reveals that he isn’t alone, and threatens to kill her family if she doesn’t come willingly. Oliver, being obsessive and entirely delusional, thinks he can guard Laurel from close quarters when she’s on his mother’s case! (5 idiots are born every minute apparently) and Laurel gets her depressed moment, again! And she’s taking pills… yay!

Meanwhile Felicity thinks she can convince Quintin that an assassin is after him without explaining anything at all. Is there a word for someone who’s both smart and stupid at the same time? So Sarah admits she’s alive, they talk, and retreat back to the clock tower.

Time for fighting, and traps; what is this, home alone? The Arrow arrives making this a 3-on-3 fight. The assassins are defeated for now, but Sara has to leave, or the assassins will target her family once again.

Another good episode, plenty of action, the problem is actually something problematic in both Arrow and the Flash, story wise things tend to go very slowly in the first half.

Rating 8.5/10

Episode 6 - Keep your enemies closer

Roy starts by making a fool of himself, and revealing that he’s still out fighting to Thea, wise up you dumbass!

Meanwhile Diggle is taken by ARGUS, Amanda Waller reveals that Agent Layla Michaels is missing in Moscow where she was tracking down Deadshot. Ollie decides to visit Queen holdings in Moscow, except he does so without running it by Isabelle first, because he’s an idiot (I know she’s a b*tch-and-a-half, but we don’t officially find that out until later)

Oliver finally meets Ivo, who explains that some Japanese submarine crashed somewhere around this island, which contains a miracle drug called Mirakuru (miracle cure?)

Of course Isabelle is smart enough to realise she wasn’t invited and invites herself instead

And so we enter subplot territory, as Roy’s arrest might make Moira look like a bad mother, which could be a problem in her trial, so Thea is urged to break up with him. To be honest… we all know this will not end with this breakup.

Anyone, Ollie uses his Russian contact, who we will meet in an Island flashback I think, to find Layla, who’s in a prison called Qurac, because to be hypo-realistic, Qurac and Bialya don’t exist in this reality, pity…

He can’t break in, Diggle needs to enter as an inmate with the others serving as his extraction team. Am I watching the right show? Oh, and there’s the guy, right next to Oliver in a prison cell, Sarah explains her situation to Oliver, whilst subtly revealing that he knows Slade and Shado are alive… and they are. Slade’s alive but the burns are severe, he’s dying. We may not know that yet, but we will soon enough.

Diggle’s not popular in prison because he’s black… erm…. That’s nice… yes, racism still exists, and it’s horrible that it does, but it does. Diggle of course kicks a guy’s ass and ends up in the cooler, right opposite Floyd Lawton. (Don’t you just love conflict)

With some Vodka in her, Isabelle is asked why she’s so interested in saving Queen Consolidated. And I suppose “I’m working for a diabolical mastermind who’s hell-bent on making you suffer” (spoilers) didn’t have quite the same ring as the women in business speech.

Things get intimate between Oliver and Isabelle, but as Diggle is released, Deadshot kills the guy who released him, leaving the ultimatum of rescuing Layla, but freeing Deadshot in the process.

On the Island (again) Oliver is tricked into revealing that Deathstroke and Shado are still alive, by Sara none-the-less. 

The escape goes off without a hitch, and my god this review is getting long, Deadshot was working for HIVE when he intentionally killed Diggle’s brother, which he reveals after Diggle doesn’t shoot him. Did Isabelle not notice the extra passenger on the plane?

It’s a fun episode, a tad predictable in places, but…

Rating 7.5/10

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Images used in this review are from Arrow and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.