Arrow season 3 episodes 10-14 review

It's been a while, but it's time to take a look at the last 5 episodes of Arrow season 3, where we last left off, Ra's al Ghul killed Oliver Queen, but that's clearly not gonna last, so let's dig in...

Left Behind

Well, I guess they didn’t leave us wondering too long

So, in the wake of Oliver Queen’s “death” a criminal named Brick has begun an operation to destroy evidence relating to men he wants as part of his own personal army, many that were put away after Slade by team Arrow.

So, everyone’s reacting to Ollie’s ‘death’ differently. Diggle was pessimistic about his chances, holding hope but preparing for the worst, and when the worst was confirmed, he tried to dig himself into other things. Roy held back a lot and began wondering what the point was in carrying on the crusade. Roy has always held back his emotions, if the writers don’t let it burst out, I’m gonna have to call bad acting/writing card for them. Felicty starts off in denial, we start off only a few days later, and she’s waiting for him to return, and it when it turns out he’s really dead, she flips out.

It’s not good that the other side of her life is becoming a little too similar to her life with the Arrow. Ray Palmer’s plans are about protecting the city as the Arrow did and she struggles to take it, having it out with him near the end. Felicity is the central character in this story, and unable to take another loss, she lets the bad guys go to save Diggle and Roy.

Then we have Laurel, who… is initially in camp Felicity but when gaining confirmation of what happened, is surprisingly nonchalant about it. Instead she takes the conveniently easy to locate bits and goes out for the first time as the canary.

Thea doesn’t technically know that Oliver’s dead, but she’s got to find out what she ended up doing by the end of the series, right? Being cushy with her father can’t last forever. Especially since he reveals they’re in danger and must leave Starling City permanently.

But not all is as it seems as Maseo takes Oliver to an old friend who “brings him back to life.” Yes it turns out Tatsu is alive, and the Katana mantle is still hers, but… no sign of the child, and I assume the ‘it’ has to be the death of someone close.

Back in China, and because Oliver didn’t appear in this, the flashbacks feel kinda forced, we see that China White needs a component ‘alpha’ to activate the Omega, they succeed in recovering it first, but Oliver deliberately lets one of the men he had cornered go, having slipped a tracker in his pocket, hoping that it’ll lead them to Tatsu. Maseo says that he’ll forever be in Ollie’s debt, and well, we see that debt being paid.

It’s a decent start to the series folks, and I’ll look forward to seeing where everything leads.

Rating 8/10

Midnight City

The best laid plans of mice and men, often fall apart when superheroes get involved.

And so we have this episode, where Brick begins his plans to take over the glades by kidnapping city Alderman’s and holding them to ransom. Meanwhile Laurel learns the perils of being a hero the hard way as her rookie nature results in her taking a beating, and one of the hostages being killed in front of her.

OK, really, seriously, there’s only so long Quintin can be in the dark about Sara’s death before he finds out, and obviously there will be consequences but Quintin hasn’t exactly done that much relating to the plot for a while anyway. I just feel like they’re dragging this out.

On something that I wish was dragged out a bit more, Oliver’s return from the ‘dead’ apparently as a result of some medical herbs and the cold preserving his body after a short fall. Yeah, I’m calling bullsh*t on that too, they could’ve had some reference to the Lazarus pits, but… I would’ve liked to have seen Slade return to find that someone else had killed Oliver, it would’ve been interesting to see Slade duel it out with Malcolm Merlyn, especially since Slade no longer has his powers to rely on.

Speaking of Malcolm Merlyn, his attempts to persuade Thea to leave lead him to revealing the truth that Ra’s al Ghul was after him, he did not go as far as to reveal that she is the target for another reason, that he forced her to kill Sara. Time will pass but she will have to find this out eventually

Roy… OK, you can’t delay his arc much longer, he’s more a bit-character at the moment than anything, although the return of Sin next week (according to the teaser) might kickstart it (where has she been anyway?)

Felicity begins to realise that she can fight not for the people she’s lost but for the people she cares about that are still alive, a lesson which she’s quick to pass on to Laurel in her lowest moment. It’s actually quite rare for the female characters to get moments alone together, so nicely done here.

In China we see Maseo willing to let thousands die by exchanging the alpha for his wife, fortunately Waller knew he would and switched the alpha for a fake. Fortunately we see Tatsu make it out alive, but we know there’s still tragedy awaiting them, as guilt continues to plague Maseo in the present, that he’s still going to play his part in the League (and apparently now the one to hunt down Malcolm Merlyn, also Chase is an informant, would be important if he was an interesting character, but he isn’t so… OK)

Rating 8/10

Uprising

*sigh* this is the kind of episode that once you look past the smoke and noise, you really it… really isn’t very good.

We have all the wrong beats from the Dark Knight Rises here, hero popping randomly up in the city, check, all out assault on villain who has conquered something, check, criminals deciding to charge at the army rather than shoot them, check. Yeah, we’re not doing well here

So, Oliver erm, he struggles to leave, then finds a truck in the middle of no-where and leaves, and somehow ends up in Starling City despite the fact he has no money or equipment. Better yet, the next time he shows up, he’s in full costume. Yeah, TDKR anyone

Oh, and Sin’s back, and they haven’t told her that Sara’s dead because they’re idiots (also, why is she so happy to see Roy, when the last time they met he almost killed her?) and because of that she’s now clued Quintin in as well, I did say I was tired of this story, and if he does find out on his own, it would make for some interesting plot.

Then we have Malcolm Merlyn’s completely out of nowhere desire for redemption. Really? Really? You’re going there Arrow? I like to think of him as a glorious bastard? A guy who does bad things to manipulate people to do more bad sh*t. Yes, we have the fact his wife was murdered, but he has the blood of at least 504 people (if you include the mugger that didn’t kill him wife) then he had brick on the rope, and decide to get nervous about shoot him, for goodness sake, kill him already. Arrow somehow persuades him not to, *sigh*

And then we have the moral dilemma of Malcolm Merlyn and Oliver teaming up to defeat Ra’s. Felicity is fuming, in her absence she claimed that Oliver would never want them to team up with Merlyn. But apparently the truth is, she hope Oliver’s near death experience would’ve brightened his outlook on life at least a little. The problem on both occasions is that she does not suggest any viable alternatives. It is Roy who suggest summoning the Gladers to help (which really should’ve been something that happened on-screen, rather than Roy talking to Sin, and Laurel to Ted, by the way, did Ted survive this?)

Anyway, so yeah, this episode didn’t work, and the flashbacks only confirmed what we already knew about Malcolm, so, what was the point?

Rating 4.5/10 (and I’m being generous)

Canaries

So, after that major slip last week, things are on the right track, if really leading not much closer to its destination.

So, Vertigo returns, Thea knows and Quintin knows as well, that’s basically the entire story, but I’ll elaborate, or this will be a very short review

We have Count Vertigo mk II who managed to escape thanks to the power of having a man on the outside (you know, someone can’t kill your family if they’re in prison) and he’s out in full force, but this time it’s Laurel who has to face her demons.

Ollie’s back in Starling, expecting things to go back to the way they were, but oh my have the backbones grown. Roy and Felicity are both standing up to Oliver (Diggle is usually more subtle when he stands up to Oliver, but he has been since the beginning) moreso than usual, I think both still sore on his agreement to work with Merlyn. (I know it’s a devil’s alliance, but I do believe in the greater good, sometimes)

Anyway, particularly, he’s not happy with Laurel, who also calls him out on his bullsh*t (comparing it to her addictions from where you’re standing is a tad hypocritical, Ollie) but Laurel’s arc is more about her trying to be the hero. Her biggest obstacle, is also the reason she started, the ghosts of her past, made real when she was doused with this fear vertigo.

Laurel vs Sara was quite a fight, both times. As you’d expect, Laurel got her ass kicked, but Felicity’s words about Sara helped her through. For what it’s worth though, I don’t agree with them. Sure Sara always had the darkness in her, but she was trying, she reconnected with her family, she tried to put her past behind her, sure, the darkness came back to haunt her, but that doesn’t mean there was no light inside her.

Thea finally finds out the truth about Oliver being the arrow, and she takes it… remarkably well. It’s a testament to how far she’s come. What I don’t like is this ‘I’m lying to protect you’ BS that everyone keeps sprouting. If any bad guy found out the Arrow was Oliver Queen, his family would’ve been targeted regardless of whether or not they knew the truth.  Forewarned is forearmed and all that.

Anyway, this revelation, and the one that Malcolm knew the truth made her realise that Malcolm is still a lying manipulative sociopath (and don’t you dare change, Malcolm, seriously, I don’t want his redemption arc) but after Chase (yeah, that guy that’s been in 3 episodes) tries to kill her, and she couldn’t stop him alone, she begins to see that Malcolm might be a necessary evil.

Also, Quintin finally remembers that he’s a detective and works out that Laurel is the new Canary, Laurel tells him that Sara has died, and would you believe it? He doesn’t have a heart attack, so glad that plotline was dragged out.

In China, Maseo tries to go into hiding, but Oliver is caught and he comes back to rescue him. They have a new mission in Starling City.

Rating 8/10

The Return

You know in the majority of my Arrow reviews, I save 1 paragraph for Flashbacks, and the rest is talking through the rest of the episode. Yeah, this is a chance for me mention how boring they are, particularly this season. Contribution to the narrative earlier on was there but the fact that it’s so disconnected from the goings on in the present makes it a drag to sit through and breaks up the pacing.

And so we come to our flashback heavy episode, and I just felt like skipping through most of the flashback stuff. So, what do we have? Oliver and Maseo arrive in Starling City, where China White intends to auction off the Omega to the highest bidder, using a partner from Queen Consolidated. I didn’t get the rest because I was tuning out. Anyway, Oliver is told not to look up on old friends, and he pretty immediately disobeys that order. He also finds a message about the list, that he talked about in season 1. (Quite a nice reversal that the flashback stuff is in Starling City, and the present stuff is on Lian Yu)

OK, so can we talk about the good stuff now?

So, we’re on Lian Yu, and Malcolm has released Slade from his ARGUS Prison cell in order to help Oliver gain that killer instinct. So it’s a race to find Slade before he leaves the Island and kills everyone that the Queens love.

In the process, Thea finds out that she had a hand in Sara’s death, all be it under the influence of mind-controlling herbs (because herbs solve everything in this world) and that was her last straw with Malcolm, as she officially disowns him as a father.

Seeing Oliver squirm under this secret was interesting, but it’s nice that Thea has wisened up, and was able to take on the now depowered Slade.

Overall though, this was too short, more time should’ve been spent here rather than on the China White stuff.

Rating: 6.5/10

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