Well. That was a sodden, limp, snot-soaked Kleenex of an
episode last night. Let’s get through this quickly.
For reasons that are never explained, Sara Lance—Black
Canary—is crashing with Oliver at the Queen mansion. You know what I said last
week about how Arrow has been doing a nice job with Black Canary’s
development? Turns out I was wrong. Sara spends the episode being a dreary,
teary mess. I’m disappointed both in the character and in the show. Sara was
fantastic last episode in that scene where she and Sin discussed how women
should never suffer at the hands of men. It was clear she’d been through
hell—was probably still in hell, in fact—but there was a grim, intelligent,
world-weary competence to her that compensated a lot for the way Arrow
likes to turn its ostensibly-strong female characters (Laurel, Moira, Helena
Bertinelli) into neurotic wrecks.
When I complain about the weak portrayals of women on this
show, this is what I mean: We see in flashbacks that, six years ago, Sara and
Oliver were both fun-loving, shiftless, shallow party kids. Both went through
grueling hell following the shipwreck of the Queen’s Gambit, and both
were forced to commit unsavory acts and develop ferocious fighting skills in
order to survive. As vigilantes, they’re equally skilled and competent… but in
terms of personality, Oliver is now stoic and distant, whereas Sara is fragile
and high-strung. This falls in along hackneyed gender lines, and that’s a
problem. Here’s a tip for writers looking to write fresh, believable female
characters: Never define your characters by your ideas of gender. If you
wouldn’t depict Oliver as a teary mess after his island experiences, it’s a bad
idea to depict Sara as one.
A black-garbed figure, dressed identically to Malcolm
Merlyn’s Dark Archer (come back, Malcolm! The show needs you!), breaks into the
mansion and attacks Sara and Oliver. Sara, who is a bona fide ass-kicking
badass when she’s in Black Canary mode, rips down a strip of crown molding from
the mansion wall and uses it as a weapon. Despite the combined efforts of Sara
and Oliver, the attacker escapes unscathed.
Meanwhile, Moira is still awaiting trial. Assistant District
Attorney Laurel is now sitting in second chair for the prosecution, despite her
deep and long-standing ties to the Queen family (Moira’s attorney raises the extremely
valid point that this is a clear conflict of interest; instead of worrying
about the very real possibility of a mistrial, the district attorney scoffs at
her concerns). The prosecution offers Moira a plea bargain: In lieu of the
death penalty, they’re willing to give her life in prison with the possibility
of parole. Thea and Oliver want their mom to take her chances with a trial, but
Moira wants to accept the deal: “I am not confident that I can win over a jury,
and I’m not altogether sure that I should.” Good call, Moira. You’re a
billionaire who conspired with other billionaires to kill a whole lot of poor
people. Winning the hearts of a jury might be an uphill battle.
Outside the jail, mad sparks continue to fly between
Oliver and Laurel. Sizzling chemistry, these two:
I’m sorry. That was mean. This episode has made me foul and
cranky. There’s just so much great potential with this show, and then it keeps
stumbling over the easy stuff. It’s maddening.
Oliver takes Sara to his secret lair and introduces her to
Digg and Felicity, in a weird, low-energy scene in which everyone indifferently
mumbles expository dialogue while looking bone-tired and glum. Sara explains
that their attacker, a man named Al-Owal (Navid Negahban), was targeting her,
not Oliver. For four years, she was a member of an ancient sect of deadly
warriors known as the League of Assassins. Now that she has retired from the
League, they’ve sent some of their best killers to take her down.
Oliver and Sara track Al-Owal and his henchmen to his
hideout. A big, splashy fight ensues. The fight sequences on Arrow are
always snazzy—well shot, well choreographed, fun to watch. Play to your strengths,
Arrow! More fight scenes, less ineptly-handled interpersonal drama! Overwhelmed by assassins, Oliver and Sara
are forced to retreat.
Convinced that Al-Owal will attack Sara’s family next,
Oliver heads out to protect Laurel, while Felicity tries to convince Quentin to
leave town for a few days. Quentin refuses to believe he’s in danger… until
Sara comes forward and reveals herself. He’s shocked and overwhelmed to
discover his daughter is still alive.
Meanwhile, Oliver takes Laurel out for dinner, then escorts
her back to her apartment. He’s trying to protect her from assassins, but
Laurel (understandably) mistakes his attention as an attempt to rekindle their
relationship. When she tries to kiss him, Oliver rebuffs her advances, which
sends her wallowing into a cesspool of despair: “What is so wrong with me that
everybody leaves?”
Oliver notices that Laurel’s door is ajar. When he
investigates, he discovers the assassins have left a big old knife embedded in
her wall. Instead of hustling Laurel to safety, he pockets the knife and cheerily
tells her, “All good!” before scampering off, and all of a sudden, I’m feeling
a lot more sympathetic toward Laurel’s complaints about always being abandoned.
Alone in her apartment, Laurel madly gulps down a bunch of prescription pills.
Sara takes her father to her hideout in the clock tower. Three assassins, led by Al-Owal, show up and attack. Oliver, disguised as the
Arrow, crashes through one of the clock faces and joins the fray. Quentin
manages to shoot one assassin, then Sara snaps Al-Owal’s neck before sending
the lone surviving assassin back to Ra’s al Ghul with a warning to leave her
the hell alone.
Quentin urges Sara to come back home, but she insists on
leaving to keep him and Laurel safe.
The island flashbacks this episode are all Sara-centric,
beginning with the explosion on the Queen’s Gambit that swept her out to
sea. Adrift and near death, Sara flags down a passing freighter, which is
crewed by the same men who will eventually capture Oliver. The crew members
treat her roughly and stick her in a cage below deck, until she’s rescued by
Dr. Anthony Ivo (Dylan Neal), who takes her to his private quarters.
It’s…
problematic. Arrow doesn’t always have the deftest handling of nonwhite
characters—witness the business with The Mayor and his gang of thugs last
episode—and this whole sequence, in which a young blonde white woman in skimpy
lingerie is brutalized by a cluster of savage dark-skinned foreigners before
she’s rescued by an outwardly-civilized white American, drifts into queasy
waters. Yes, yes, it’s obvious Ivo will turn out to be a dangerous villain
himself, but still: Tread very, very carefully, Arrow. When Sara,
distraught and terrified, tentatively asks Ivo about the prisoners in cages, he
coolly informs her that he needs them for his work: He’s going to save the
human race.
And then the episode ends on the freighter, with a captured
and wounded Oliver being brought before his torturer Sara, and I don’t know, Arrow,
but for maximum dramatic impact, maybe you shouldn’t end an episode exactly
the same way the previous episode ended?
There was no Roy anywhere to be seen, by the way, unless you
count the one-minute installment of “Blood Rush”, a new Bose-sponsored minisode
(“minisode” is apparently a word, go figure) that ran during a commercial
break, in which Roy tries to see Oliver at the Queen Consolidated building and
gets stonewalled by Felicity, who yammers on about: a) the awesomeness of
Bose’s headphones, and b) the hotness of Roy.
It is the best thing about this episode.
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