Arrow S02E21 – Review

By: Holly Harold (story)

The Story: Beware the men in masks.

The Review: I actually watched this episode of Arrow the night it came out, and had an outline of a review ready to go yesterday, but due to circumstances beyond my control (i.e., desperately trying to finish a multitude of assignments at the last minute after putting them off for a week or two), I didn’t get around to writing the thing until evening. By then, it was time for my showing of Amazing Spider-Man 2 and of course, movies have priority over TV episodes. You know how it is.

Watching and reviewing ASM2 did have an interesting effect on my evaluation of “City of Blood,” though. Specifically, I suddenly became a lot more sensitive about the sketchier bits of plotting in this episode. Dinah’s illicit investigation into Blood’s records seems more questionable now than it did the first time around. I’m just saying it’s a good thing that tech specialist she and her dad persuade into assisting didn’t have too rigid a moral compass (at first hesitant about hacking the newly elected mayor, he gives in: “Hell, this is a dead end job, anyway.”). And thank goodness Blood for some reason keeps a timestamp at the bottom of his press release drafts, just so you know that he was forewarned of Moira’s death. Dinah and Quentin might have had to do some actual research, otherwise.

Though the answers very nearly fall into Dinah’s lap, at least she’s involved in the story, even before she finally acts on her knowledge of Ollie’s secret and confronts him in his base. There follows a lot of high-strung dialogue (“…I know you. I know you like I know my own name,” says Dinah, who had no inkling of the truth about Ollie until Slade told her), but at least it shakes Ollie out of his suicidal funk by making him realize, as Dinah succinctly puts it, “What’s happening is bigger than you and Slade.”

What you don’t understand is how Ollie fails to realize that up until she says it. The idea that he can just hand himself over to Slade and everything will be okay seems inherently faulty, given all that Slade has said and done thus far. Ollie correctly recites Slade’s last words after killing Moira last episode: “There is still one person who has to die before this can end.” While I still don’t believe Slade means Ollie in that line, something does seem off about his calculation. What happened to not killing Ollie until after “he has lost everyone and everything he values[?]” Even at this low point, there are a lot of people still rooting for Ollie, so Slade doesn’t seem even half-finished with his work just yet.

Moira may be dead as an indirect result of Ollie’s choices, but even that hasn’t driven the Queen siblings completely apart, which in itself should tell Slade that his plan to destroy Ollie has a ways to go. Besides that, Quentin is still freely working; Dinah knowing Ollie’s secret has drawn her closer to him than ever; and Felicity, Diggle, Roy, and Sara are all still alive and kicking.* My only guess is that Slade has either failed to closely monitor the actual effect of his actions on Ollie’s various relationships, or he’s simply underestimated their resilience, or both. Any way you cut it, this is a deeply disappointing oversight from the master tactician, unless he’s thinking the invasion of Blood’s army will do the trick for him.

While the integrity of the episode is somewhat fragile, it does hit all the right points with the appropriate feeling. By now, all the actors have grown into their roles and various dynamics enough to make any interaction convincing, even in the throes of some intensely melodramatic plotting. They’re the ones that keep the episode grounded enough with emotional reality for you to accept the more fantastic material rising to a crest within the series. With Starling City under attack by an army of mini-Deathstrokes, Arrow is in deep superhero territory, which is exactly where you want it to be.

Conclusion: The show is gearing up for its biggest leap yet, although it takes a few stumbles in the plotting to get there.

Grade: B-

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: * True, Roy’s comatose, but a timely call from Cisco just as Blood’s army attacks signals an impending cure for that little hurdle. I’d be more worried about Sara, whom Slade has as much reason and more to resent. It wouldn’t surprise me if she’s the “one person” he was referring to last week.

– Felicity Line of the Week. Freaking over the advanced tech in A.R.G.U.S. HQ: “[T]hat computer’s running an XK15 processor…that’s not even supposed to exist yet.” Pause. “I want one.” Add to that her plea to an A.R.G.U.S. employee to touch her computer equipment, and Felicity has pretty much sealed her fate as geek icon.

– Happy to see Walter around, offering his stepfatherly support. Wish we could see more of him.