TV Retrospective: Arrow season 2 episodes 16-18 review

It's time for another retrospective on Arrow

Last we left our heroes, Slade Wilson was revealed to be alive, let's see what happens next

Episode 16 – Suicide Squad

Slade's revelation has clearly got Oliver worried, he calls the bratva, and basically does his best to ensure he can never use their contacts again, by refusing to offer anything in return, and basically telling them to do it by force.

Diggle has been keeping an eye on Felicity, but Felicity assures him that he couldn’t stop Slade anyway, Diggle then gets an alert from a former partner, Lyla. And Amanda Waller has a mission that requires the pair of them. A drug lord has his hands on a chemical weapon, and she needs Diggle to use his connection to the guy (saved his life whilst on tour, explained in more detail in the flashbacks) to get a team in, a team consisting of several villains, including Deadshot.

In typical Task force X fashion, Waller has their heads rigged with explosives (of course), and Shrapnel finds that out the hard way. This disgusts Diggle. Oh, and Deadshot now also is doing what he does for his daughter, what is it with everyone doing this for their relatives?

Diggle saves the guy’s life again, and gets an invite to the his humanitarian benefit, he sneaks in with Lyla, whilst Deadshot also manages to sneak in. Turns out the chemical weapon is a lot bigger than they’d anticipated it would be. But Waller knew this (of course, she wouldn’t be the prize b*tch we know and love if she didn’t) and uses Deadshot as a tracker to strike the place, not caring if she killed everyone in the building in the process. Diggle gets everyone out including Deadshot, but as it’s his bomb that’s the target, the drone comes after them, but Lyla removes the bomb just in time.

Waller isn’t happy that the mission didn’t go covertly, and is planning on re-implanting their bombs so they’re irremovable.

The Bratva manages to find the bank account, Felcitiy traces it, but it’s a set up. The Bratva captain is dead, and clips of Shado are playing, which got from… where the f*ck did he get these? Oliver is finally ready to admit that he’s terrified.

No Island flashbacks this week, just Diggle saving the lives of a drug lord, but at the cost of a bunch of kids. Oliver now takes his issues to the highest level, ARGUS, Amanda reveals she’s been tracking a mercenary called Deathstroke with similar traits to Slade. (Which begs the question why he went to the Bratva first, Waller is much better equipped to find this guy then some underground schmuck, not to mention she’s far less easy to kill)

Rating 8/10

Episode 17 - Birds of Prey

The Huntress is back! Yay…

But before that we get the Arrow and the Canary team up to protect Quintin and defeat Hugo Mannheim, possibly a reference to Bruno ‘Ugly’ Mannheim who has ties to Darkseid in the comics. Turns out one of the assailants is Frank Bartinellli, surprise!

Oh, Roy’s in this team, I keep forgetting with how they leave him out at every opportunity. Laurel is at meeting, her second of the day, but she gets a surprise call from Donner, wanting her to prosecute Frank Bertinelli, or so she thinks.

They find the Huntress, and Oliver volunteers to get back in the field, but it’s a diversion as she finds another way back into field. When Roy is shot through the hand he begins to lose control again, leading to Oliver making the stupidest mistake he could’ve possibly made to handle this, whilst understandable, given his love for his sister, keeping Roy away from the one thing that calms him down all-but guarantees he’ll be full blown psychotic within a few weeks.

Ah, and of course the entire trail is a set up, but sadly, Huntress has men inside the building as well, and they begin to take hostages. The Huntress wants Frank, or she’ll start killing hostages. The Canary helps Laurel out of a scrap. Laurel realises she was just an accessory to make the trap look realistic. But Laurel won’t leave until the other hostages are safe, despite the Canary’s force that honestly should leave little doubt as to who she is.

Roy sees himself hurt a guy at the Verdant (something that I’ve only seen once, just then, way to hammer in this point) and decides the smartest way to break up with Thea is to be as unconvincing as possible. It’s a wonder anyone has a secret identity on this show. When that doesn’t work, Roy decides the best course of action is to be caught kissing another woman (would it be improper to call her a whore, seeing as she agreed to this?)

Helena and Sara engages, and Sara loses?! Really?! So now Helena has a new deal. Her father for Laurel. Quintin, the Canary and Huntress meet, but the police Captain, who seems to have a completely unjustified thing for masks begins shooting up the place, and Frank is caught in the crossfire. Well, here’s to never seeing the Huntress or her stupid vendetta ever again.

But at least Oliver gets the chance to acknowledge something the audience had been thinking from day 1, it was a hypocritical act to try and teach her not to kill when he himself was a killer. Laurel blackmails the DA to get her job back.

On the Island, Slade requires an engineer to fix the AMAZO and elects to give Oliver in return. This moral quandary is sort of overshadowed by the way everyone had already made up their mind

And we get the oh so ironic speech from Thea about how Oliver is the only one who doesn’t keep secrets ha ha ha. And of course, without Thea to balance him, Roy is deadlier than ever. And Thea is no safer either as she gets in a car with Slade.

An idiot is born every minute and gentlemen, and this was 42 minutes of proof, but enjoyable none-the-less

Rating 7/10

Episode 18 - Deathstroke

We’re 41 episodes in now, do we still need reminding that his name is Oliver Queen.

So it’s time for Slade to make his moves, his first step: kidnapping Thea.

And it’s time to address a problem that’s been there for a while, Oliver’s almost non-existent life at Queen Consolidated. Also, just stop with all these obvious hints to your secret identity, I don’t think there’s a person in the world who could listen to all of your hints and not work it out.

So, it’s time for a live debate, but it’s interrupted by the revelation that Thea Queen had been kidnapped. He appoints Isabelle as a temporary CEO of Queen Consolidated (because it’s a very good idea to give the one person who has power in the company more power, Oliver you idiot, and I certain there’s no chance in hell this will bite you in the ass later)

They confront Slade, who surrenders all too easily, but he’s not stupid, he knows the detectives have no evidence against him, he can even provide a bullsh*t alibi. Better yet, this would not look good for Lance, and Moira is also blissfully unaware that Slade is anything other than a gentleman.

Oliver confronts Slade, but it’s a case of bad timing, as just when Slade is about to reveal, the detective releases him. You’d think he’d call ARGUS, the guys that actually have him on the bleedin’ radar!

And so begins the ever destined to fail chase, as duplicated tracker signals send everyone off track.  Slade returns to Thea and releases her, but promises if she stays a tad longer, she’ll know her brother’s secret.

Roy is… rather understandably angry about the whole thing. I said before Oliver’s attempt to break them up was stupid, and I reiterate that point in light of this episode.

Time for a heart-to-heart with Moira and Oliver, and then Roy storms off. Isabelle has used her powers to seize control of the company. She is working for Slade (which makes me wonder why they had sex) he interrogates her and she reveals where Thea is, or rather where Thea was. Oliver takes out a bunch of henchmen, but Thea is long gone.

Slade meanwhile takes out a bus filled with prisoners for his new Mirakuru campaign. Thea has been released, but she now knows that Malcolm Merlyn is her father (and she believes him, for some reason) and she blames Oliver for this for some reason. Roy leaves the city, and Quintin is arrested.

After some messages of comradery, Slade pays Laurel a visit and reveals to her that Oliver is the Arrow (and like Thea, she acts as though she believes him, although unlike Thea, she’ll try and verify it first)

On the Island, Slade is not only very good, able to sense an explosive trap, by smell but exceptionally crazy.

Rating 8/10

Join us in 2 weeks where we see Cisco and Caitlin before they became a part of team Flash, Roy returns, there’s another death in the family, and Laurel makes a choice about what to do with her new-found knowledge

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