Arrow: The Brave and the Bold

It’s significant that this episode’s “Previously on” montage includes a clip of Ollie telling Barry regretfully, “You can inspire people in a way I never could.” While Ollie’s probably right, he shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking he can’t inspire people at all. Barry’s proof of that; despite the differences in their methods and attitudes, it’s Ollie who gave Barry the idea of using his powers to fight crime and bring hope to his city. Ollie’s a different kind of hero than Barry, but he’s still a hero and it’s time he accepted that for himself.

After everything Ollie’s experienced and done, his desire to be better means he does have a light inside, as Barry puts so cloyingly. As Ollie hardens himself to torture in the Hong Kong flashbacks, further outlining his path towards the ruthless vigilante of season one, it’s worth keeping in mind that Waller herself says torture is a skill to be practiced. By the end of the episode, Ollie’s already begun to accept this dark talent, but being capable, even good, at torture doesn’t make him inherently inhumane.

Anyway, this episode goes out of its way to guilt Ollie about his methods, all to force a confessional scene in which Barry has an opportunity to teach Ollie a thing or two about heroism. The truly bolder course would’ve been to force Barry to acknowledge that it’s only his powers that allow him to hold onto black-and-white values. Twice in the episode, he knocks out and ties up every goon on the scene before Ollie even arrives, and his superspeed is the only reason why Digger Harkness (a.k.a. Captain Boomerang) doesn’t succeed in killing hundreds of innocents. Barry can avoid extreme measures because as the Flash, he has far more time and options available to him.

But for non-metas dealing with terrorists and mass murderers—people who, as Waller forces Ollie to concede, can’t be reasoned with—sometimes extreme measures are needed. Maybe that’s why Cisco and Caitlin, who don’t share Barry’s powers, come closest to understanding what Ollie and Co. are working against. They don’t go so far as to condone Ollie’s methods, but they’re clearly shaken after Harkness tracks them down, invades the Arrow Cave,* and plunges a boomerang deep into Lila’s collar. Thus far, their adventures in superheroism have been equal parts scary and fun (“We give the bad guys codenames.”); what they see with Team Arrow is, without the Flash, it’s just scary.

Ultimately, the episode skims over these issues in favor of geeking out over another superhero team-up. As with Team Arrow’s appearance in The Flash, Arrow remains true to its usual tone and practices during the episode, although the presence of Barry, Caitlin, and Cisco makes it noticeably frothier (Roy, in particular, actually manages to show something like personality as a foil for Cisco’s jokes).** Perhaps because he’s dealing with the Flash on top of the Arrow, Harkness comes across as one of the show’s more formidable enemies, despite some decidedly cheap boomerang jokes that you still can’t believe the show went for: “After all, what goes around, comes around.” Even the flashbacks have that highly coveted relevance they so rarely do.

Still, even though this episode manages its guests well and promises their return, it’s for the best these team-ups aren’t going to be a regular occurrence. The Flash too easily upsets the balance of power in Starling City, rendering all the rest of its protectors redundant and worse, reminding us how limited they really are (if not for Barry, they’d be screwed dealing with Harkness’ bombs). Sure, Ollie saves Barry’s back at least once, but it’s played off lightly, an exception to the general rule that Barry can handle nearly all of Ollie’s opponents in his sleep.

Some Musings:

* Yeah, how exactly does the show plan to address the fact that Harkness not only knows where Ollie lives, but who he lives there with, i.e., Felicity? I suspect the show will choose not to address it at all.

** Roy would be impressionable (read: dense) enough to go along with Cisco in calling Ollie’s base the Arrow Cave.

– Who on Earth would call them “kaboom boomerangs” instead of “kaboomerangs,” which is clearly the superior term?

– And the award for Greatest Reaction to Someone Getting Struck by Lightning Ever goes to Quentin Lance: “Huh. Ow.”