Spoilers through Season 3 of 'Arrow' follow.
Wednesday night's episode of Arrow---"Suicidal Tendencies"---had a few big, dramatic turns and twists, and one hell of a cliff-hanger.
But before all that, yes, I'll be reviewing Arrow now, adding the show to my TV roster which already includes The Walking Dead, Vikings, and Game of Thrones. I'm hoping to add The Flash to that list, and I'm looking at other shows, including Salem, The Americans, and more.
I've devoured the first two-and-three-quarter seasons of Arrow pretty quickly, so much of it is still fresh in my mind.
I'm still upset that the show killed off Sara Lance earlier this season. Sara was a far more interesting character than her sister, Laurel, and frankly I don't see that changing any time soon...or ever.
I'm also annoyed that Quentin Lance has swung back against the Arrow after finding out Laurel kept her death from him. I understand why he's upset, but the full 180 degree turn against the vigilante is silly and feels forced. I'd have preferred to see a more complicated, less-trusting, but still cooperative relationship between Team Arrow and Lance. Then again, I feel that a lot of relationships in this show are a little forced, which is a shame since the characters themselves are (mostly) terrific.
We're reminded some of that tonight with the love triangle that is Ray Palmer (The Atom), Felicity Smoak, and Oliver Queen. Oliver is just ridiculous when it comes to women and relationships. His entire reason for not being with Felicity is utterly absurd.
I mean, here's a guy who is okay having Felicity be on Team Arrow, risk her life every day, even put her directly into the hands of Slade Wilson, but he can't be with her because it's too dangerous? Because she deserves a normal life? If Oliver really thinks Felicity deserves a normal life, he'd stop working vigilante missions with her.
Oliver not wanting Laurel to go out and fight on the streets is much more rational. She's way out of her depth. I don't blame her for wanting to train and learn to fight---after all, Starling City is almost as dangerous as Gotham City---but her impatience at getting out there is irritating. Even still, Oliver grudgingly allows her to come along and botch things up---but he's too worried about Felicity to take her on a date? I don't get it. And now she's with another super hero billionaire who will be in just as much danger, presumably. It's all such a waste.
Of course, part of this is the fact that I really like Felicity and thought long before any romance blossomed between her and Oliver that the two ought to get together. Enough with the Lance sisters already! So all of this has been grating on me this season. Oliver needs to stop thinking he can protect all the women in his life by either lying to them or snubbing them or treating them like children. All he's done is put them in more danger, driven Thea into Malcolm's grasp, and so forth.
Speaking of which, I've grown increasingly fond of Malcolm Merlyn. He's a terrific villain, full of conviction and self-awareness. As evil and maniacal as Slade Wilson was last season, I like Merlyn's brand of villainy better. I like it better than Ra's al Ghul's League of Assassins villainy, too.
Of course, Merlyn is partly to blame for the League even being an issue this season, and I'm not a fan of how that's gone down. As I mentioned, the killing of Sara Lance seemed wildly out of place given her late arrival to the show and the revelation that she was still alive. The whole Merlyn made Thea do it subplot is a bit messy and throws a wrench in some otherwise-interesting directions the show could have gone. For instance, having Thea train with Merlyn for a long time and become a truly skilled badass. Or not having this forced hate thing between Captain Lance and his daughter and the Arrow.
There could have been other ways to get to the last couple episodes, with Ra's al Ghul offering Oliver Queen immortality as the next Demon's Head, an offer that doesn't seem all that bad given Queen's bad luck at saving the city.
In any case, tonight we have essentially three stories going on at once. We have the love triangle with Palmer, Queen, and Smoake, and Palmer's discovery of the Arrow's identity. We have the Suicide Squad's confrontation with the terrorists and the corrupt Seantor Cray. And we have the ongoing attempts by Ra's al Ghul to screw up the Arrow's reputation in Starling City by murdering not just criminals but, by the end of the episode, at least attempting to kill the mayor---and possibly Felicity. Stupid cliff-hangers.
I'm glad Palmer found out Oliver's secret, and I'm also glad their conflict was resolved quickly. We have enough ongoing, drawn-out character conflicts. It's nice to see a little bit of brutal honesty make short work of a misunderstanding for once. I'm still not sure what to think of the Atom. Oliver sure took him down easily.
The Suicide Squad sub-plot was a little weird. We go from Diggle and Lyla's second wedding (which is cute) to them being whisked off by A.R.G.U.S. again.
We got backstory for Deadshot right before he saved the rest of the team by sacrificing himself. It was a "sympathy for the devil" moment for that character, who we discover lost his wife and daughter to a custody suit after returning from war with PTSD and waving a gun at his wife. His remorse takes the shape of saving Diggle and Lyla, urging them to return to their daughter.
I guess it was a nice moment, except that for all we know Deadshot is still alive. Nobody is every for-sure-and-for-real dead on this show. I keep waiting for Tommy Merlyn or Sara Lance to return to life.
We'll see if Senator Cray is only being used in this episode to once again paint just how awful and ridiculous A.R.G.U.S. is, or whether he comes back as a recurring villain. So far he seems a bit under-whelming as far as badguys go but who knows? Cupid, the creepy stalker chick, is now a member of the Squad also, though she seems underqualified.
(On a side-note, the real uber-villain in all of this seems like A.R.G.U.S. itself and the despicable Amanda Waller who seems to think that using reluctant or coerced employees is going to be more effective than just training her own willing special ops people. The power of the organization---omniscient, powerful and unaccountable enough to destroy Starling City last season if need be---is a little bit over-the-top. It goes way beyond clandestine, and makes the League of Assassins look like a bunch of LARPers.)
Finally, the conflict with Ra's al Ghul and Oliver Queen is the real kettle of boiling water for season 3. I'm a little disappointed, to be honest. The Undertaking was by far the most mysterious and interesting conflict so far and that was way back in season 1. Season 2 had a pretty great conflict set up between Slade and Oliver, especially since they had a history of friendship.
But Ra's al Ghul is someone I was hoping would be saved for later. I liked his and Oliver's fight a while back, and the way that propelled the drama, but now that he's offered Oliver a job, it feels like maybe he should be a tiny bit more patient. Instead he's gone straight for the jugular. I guess we'll see how things shake out.
The end of the episode, with Maseo apparently loosing an arrow at Felicity (who, along with everyone else, doesn't bother ducking for some reason!) is a pretty great cliff-hanger to end on, though I think it's safe to say that Felicity survives. The question is how this impacts her relationships with the men in her life. Oliver has to wake up to the fact that he's not protecting her by simply not dating her at some point.
All told a pretty strong episode, though bogged down by some of the silly relationship drama that plagues the show. I'm plenty hooked to this super hero outing still, and have basically trained myself to just roll my eyes at the silly drama and enjoy the show for what it does best---great characters and great action.
What are your thoughts? Shout out in the comments or on Twitter or Facebook.
Next week, it looks like the conflict between the Arrow and Captain Lance will come to out-and-out war. Will Lance learn his true identity? Will he stop acting like a big jerk?
