TV Retrospective: Arrow Season 2 episodes 13-15 review

It's time to look at Arrow once again, as things begin to heat up

Episode 13 – Heir to the Demon

Nyssa definitely knows how to arrive with subtlety, wonder if she knew ARGUS would recognise them. Pity for the poor security guards.

Felicity has found out about a transfer to the bank through Moira’s tempest account, which is the bribe money for the Doctor who knows about Thea, again lacking subtlety here, I get using sketchy accounts to pay bribes, since most known accounts could be looked into, but Felicity is a little too good for that.

Oliver finds out that Laurel was in the hospital, and Dinah Sr has arrived, Laurel reveals that she thought she saw Sara when she passed out, but has chucked it out to a hallucination. Sara is back in Starling it would seem, and Quintin knows it

Nyssa meets, knife at the ready and they… kiss. Whilst Ollie watches. Why is it members of the League seem to use the soft a Ra’s pronunciation, whilst those from outside the league uses the hard a.

Felicity confronts Moira over the information. Moira essentially blackmails Moira by saying that if she reveals the information to Oliver, a part of him will blame her for it. Nyssa and Sara have a heart to heart.

But Ollie soon reveals that Nyssa poisoned Laurel with snake venom to bring her back, so it’s time for a chase sequence. Nyssa has Dinah Sr, Sara isn’t happy, she gives Sara 1 day to return or she’ll kill Dinah Sr.

They find a lead to Nyssa, but the assassin in question takes a suicide pill before he can reveal any useful information. Oliver notices that Felicity hasn’t been her usual chatty self and gets her to spill. Sara agrees to surrender herself to Nyssa, or so they think. Oliver is more than upset after hearing what Felicity had to save (we never actually hear her say it) and proves once again that he’s a terrible actor. And everyone of course buys it anyway.

The Arrow is concerned about what Ra’s al Ghul would do if Sara used snake venom on Nyssa, but that wasn’t Sara’s plan, she used it on herself, Nyssa is clearly upset, but soon she has someone to take it out on, she fights the Arrow, but clearly the Arrow has the edge here, he wins the fight, and saves Sara’s life. Nyssa chooses to release her after this ordeal, for some reason. Oh, and Laurel finally discovers that Sara is alive.

Oh, and this scene between Oliver and Moira is painful. He calls her a monster! And then says he made a liar out of him. Oh gee, you can’t tell Thea that Merlyn is her father… I feel so sorry for you Ollie. Remind me what you do every f*cking day! Laurel now blames Sara for everything that has gone wrong with her life (including Tommy’s death? That’s taking it a bit far)

No Island flashbacks this week, we see the story of the Lances before and immediately after the boat crash… That’s really it

Oh, and Ollie and Sara get kissing, lovely.

Rating 8/10

Episode 14 – Time of Death

We have the Clock King, and he’s controlling a number of B-list criminals to steal something made by Kord Industries. But they’re stupid and get spotted, leading to a chase which leads to them only narrowly avoiding being caught.

So, clearly Felicity feels left out about the others comparing scars.  And Sin is clearly terrible about keeping secrets, it’s a surprise she hasn’t spilled the beans about Roy yet. Also, Quintin has the hots for Dinah Sr, and wants a family dinner to reconcile, Laurel begrudgingly agrees to it. Also for a guy who’s supposed to be very good at lying, Oliver’s terrible at lying (something I’ve brought up time and again, but even the show’s starting to admit it)

The Clock King uses the skeleton key stolen from Kord industries to open a bank vault, with his easily replaceable assailants. The Arrow and Canary arrive to stop them, but the Clock King manages to put a bus and a train on a collision course, to divert the Arrow’s attention, whilst the Canary is pinned down by gunfire and unable to pursue on her own

Apparantly our Clock King has McGreggor’s syndrome (way to reference one of the worst Batman movies of all time, Arrow) and Felicity is beginning to feel a bit useless what with Sara knowing how to analyse a blood sample and use a computer (yet you were fine allowing Barry in with that same skill-set, sure he couldn’t fight like the Canary can, but neither can you) her sister needs a lung transplant, and he’s stealing the money for her.

They have an address, but I think it’s safe to say it’s a trap, he succeeds again in breaking into the Network team Arrow uses. Computers begin to spark, again, it’s not like this happens every time there’s a week in the month.

Oliver liquidates some stock or something in order to set a trap, and… does that not affect his standing in QCC, ie, handing Mrs B*tch the f*cking company. Laurel stops short of popping pills as the Lances arrive, with Oliver in tow to act as mediator between Laurel and Sara, this goes so well. And the penny drops for Quintin as Dinah Sr reveals that she has a boyfriend/love interest/whatever in her current hometown of Central City (wonder if she’ll ever bump into the Flash)

Oliver’s had enough and tries to lay the truth out on her, a much needed hard truth. Felicity has walked off to Starling National Bank to find Tockman (we find out this is the not Temple Fugit version of the Clock King) as smart plans go, this one could’ve gone better. Still he tries to blackmail them with some bullsh*t gas main (seriously, how can you turn off a gas main with a computer) and now Felicity can track him down, and knock him out. Thea offers Sara a job at the bar, which will end so well.

Laurel finally gets the message, and comes to see Sara at the Verdant, and shows up to get help (maybe, just maybe she’ll be less annoying now). Sin also plays a visit, and we discover something from the island.

A plane crashes on the Island, killing everyone on board aside from 1, who is fatally injured, but shows Sara a picture of Sin, and begs Sara to look out for her, her mother having already died, before dying himself from the injuries. But they leave a way for the team to get onto the AMAZO, parachutes

Ollie is called back to the house, and discovers that Slade Wilson is still alive, and is in his house. Dun dun dun!

Rating 8/10

The Promise

OK, this episode is mostly Island Flashbacks, but the stuff in the present is engaging, sort of as Slade Wilson gets the private tour of the Queen household whilst Oliver tries to get him killed and alerts his allies to help. Oh yeah, Roy’s part of the team now, he hasn’t shown up the last couple of episodes, and he’s yet to become a very good shot.

So, on the Island, Oliver practices his archery, and does some exercises in preparation for the siege, he eventually hits a bullseye. They decide to burn the Mirakuru in order to stop Ivo from having it, Sara warns that if Slade confronts Ivo, and he reveals the that he made Oliver choose (which he really didn’t since he pointed the gun in the direction of Sara first) that Slade might snap and become a problem… And she’s absolutely right.

And so on the freighter we meet the redshirts, I mean prisoners. And we hear that Ivo was working on the miracle cure for his wife which would’ve been fine, except we had this (or similar) with the Clock King in the last episode.

We see Oliver do in attempt number 2 what he did with ease 4 years later, and he ignites a flare, directing the attention of Ivo’s crew. Ollie is brought into the prison, because that worked so well before. Ivo gives Oliver a truth drug (sodium pentathol – see Stormbreaker, why is it only you who doesn’t know that?) and Oliver reveals that the others are heading to the engine room, but thankfully Sara devised a counter-serum to the truth potion, and they arrive from above (yeah, I’m calling bullsh*t on that perfect landing too)

Slade manages to take down the majority of Ivo’s men, whilst Sara frees the prisoners, some of whom aren’t that grateful given her involvement in their torture. And as Oliver confronts Ivo, he begins blathering, and Slade hears that Oliver chose (why does no-one choose to see what actually happened, the aimed the gun at Sara, Oliver defended her so he re-aimed the gun and shot Shado before Oliver could re-defend, none of this is Oliver’s fault) and Slade snaps.

The assault is lost, but Slade has control of the ship, and has Oliver as his captive. Sara narrowly escapes with a few  of the prisoners from the Island, including one who is a priest or something, another the Bratva Captain of course. Slade kept the mirakuru, Oliver and Sara burned an empty box, and he cuts off Ivo’s gun hand, rather than killing him.

Diggle prepares to take a shot at Slade, but is stopped by… someone. Slade tells Oliver that he’s still alive, and he will make no further attempt to kill him at any point.

Moira of course thinks that the events of tonight were about her, and tells Oliver not to pop by the house any more. And this is all part of Slade’s plan, he now has a dozen cameras inside the queen mansion, which we be used for a plot convenient ending, and otherwise for no other reason.

Rating 8.5/10

Come back next week where we cover 16-18 where Oliver becomes desperate, we see the new suicide squad. Oliver becomes tactless and Roy becomes stupid, and we get the frankly unwelcome return of the Huntress

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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.