With The Flash being so on point lately, it can be easy to diminish Arrow, especially as the first few episodes of this season seemed to be a bit of a step backwards from last season. However, one trick arrow, and I’m as over the moon as I could be. As always, be warned that spoilers follow.
1. The Rise of Arsenal
While this episode was, ostensibly, more about Laurel and Ted Grant, but this episode is really about Roy finally doing something other than smolder in the corner. Colton Haynes does the best work of his career in this episode, turning in a nuanced performance by showing his palpable guilt at his crimes, both imagined and true. This episode also gives him a nickname, Arsenal, and shows Ollie’s undying loyalty towards his team. Without the improved acting from Haynes, the audience would have clearly turned on Ollie for harboring Sara’s (not really) killer, but instead he garners the support of the audience all the way.
2. Ted Grant and the past vigilantes of Starling
The way Ted, and his past, was handled in a really satisfying way. By making him a past vigilante, it does puts a few things in play: it establishes that Starling is a city that has always been in need of some additional help, and makes Ollie’s cause seem less desperate and weird. It also means that the show has more of a lived in feel and history behind it than the New 52 does, and it gives plenty of space for other heroes to pop up.
When he was first introduced – especially since they talked about a protege – I thought they were going to go all Justice Society on us, but that was unfounded. If the first metahumans were truly caused by the particle accelerator at S.T.A.R. Labs, then that would probably preclude a lot of the JSAers, but I suppose you could still have aliens and whatnot. In the context of this show, the door for something having happened in the past is left wide open, but the stretch to get there is still relatively sizable. And that’s a pretty good place for the show to leave itself.
3. Best Hong Kong flashback thus far
I don’t think that the flashbacks on this show are its strongest suit, but Hong Kong has been falling really short this year. This was the first time that those scenes felt important to the main story, and it was incredibly inessential in the long run. But the way it was put together was really smartly done, and humanized just about everyone involved to a degree that it wasn’t a total drag on the show’s pacing.
4. It’s stupid Cupid
For a hero that is so simple, people sure like to screw up Green Arrow sometimes, and Cupid is one of those examples. Sure, the character is ok in a vacuum, but she’s not one of my favorites. Having been created by executive producer Andrew Kreisberg, I should’ve seen this coming, and didn’t. I blame myself. Hopefully the character works decently well, and manages to not be the cliche-fest I fear it will be.
Also, shouldn’t they have held the character off until Valentine’s Day? That just seems to be the smart way to do things.
5.BOXING GLOVE ARROW
This. All day and all night.
