Arrow season 3 is now a thing of the past, and it was a bit of a mixed bag: for every moment of pure Felicity goodness, we also had a slog through the Hong Kong flashbacks. The show went darker than it ever had before, killing off Sara, exiling Roy, turning Quentin Lance back to the drink, and turning Malcolm into the Demon’s Head. But it also introduced Ray Palmer, crossed over with The Flash, and ended on a far happier note than any of us could have ever anticipated.
I had debated doing a thorough review of the season, but I decided against it. One of the reasons I love the “Five Thoughts” format for the show is that it isn’t really a review; it is the start of a conversation that continues in the comments. So, in that same spirit, I’m going to highlight five of my favorite, and five of my not so favorite, moments from Season 3. Feel free to share your own high and low lights of the show in the comments.
Next week, stay tuned for “Five Things We Want to See in Arrow Season 4” post, before taking a few weeks off from Arrow chat.
As I said when he first appeared, this is not the Ray Palmer of the comics. Rumor has it, it was supposed to be Ted Kord, and not Ray Palmer, who was the billionaire scientist at the heart of this season, which makes a ton of sense. But this Ray was still an absolute joy to watch on screen: warm, handsome, kindhearted, and goofy in the best possible way. Brandon Routh is a comic adaptation veteran, having played both Superman and the vegan powered bass player Todd (from Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World), but perhaps does his best work here.
Once he actually starts shrinking down, he will really be bringing something totally different to the show but, for now, we’ll have to just bask in his charm, which is quite impressive.
It is pretty incredible how The Flash has the most stacked lineup of villains imaginable and most people can’t name two Green Arrow villains. Because of that, Arrow has become a depository for many of the more general DC villains (Deathstroke, Suicide Squad), as well as just flat our stealing the rogues of certain characters (Ra’s al Ghul, a Batman villain). They’ve also had to bust out just about every villain that had more than a three issue arc in a Green Arrow comic over the past few decades to make an appearance. That is why we had Cupid show up this season.
Half Harley Quinn, half Knives Chau (gotta keep those Scott Pilgrim riffs coming), Cupid was infatuated with the Arrow after he saved her life. So, like any groupie, she became deadly with a bow and arrow and attempted to gain his attention. The show, which can be a little cheesy at times, went full on Velveeta with Cupid, and it didn’t so much lighten the mood as totally eschew it. Amy Gumenick did her best, but the show played this character all wrong, and ultimately, Cupid’s arrow didn’t hit the mark at all.
It wasn’t the most important episode of the show’s run, nor did it contain anything particularly revelatory, but “The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak” was something of a rarity in the Arrow canon – it was a flashback that didn’t feel like a drag. Goth Felicity (or, as I coined at the time, Felicemo) is such a 180 from the Felicity that we know and love, that it allowed us to really appreciate and understand where the character came from. It showed how such a pretty, put together girl would have such hacking instincts, and it gave her such depth and nuance that it is almost hard to remember her without it.
Continued belowMost Arrow flashbacks are all about further a season long plot point arduously, at a glacial pace. This episode, instead, offered a truly fun and inspired jaunt through a character’s past. Can we get more like this next season, please?
This episode had the season’s worst flashback (Ollie goes back to Starling and kills the only dude who has ever recognized him in a hood), the season’s worst plot point (Ollie telling Thea that she killed Sara), and last season’s best villain (Deathstroke) looking super weak.
Not just because of the return to the island, but this episode felt the most like one of the weaker episodes of LOST, where the producers were stalling because they had to make 22 episodes a season, and sometimes there just wasn’t that much mythology to go around. Luckily, no other episode fell quite this low this season (although “Suicidal Tendencies,” the Suicide Squad-starring ep which had some offensive PTSD stereotypes and didn’t bother to reference either being institutionalized or just wanting a Pepsi, came close), and hopefully this sort of episode is the outlier going forward.
This finale revelation was a really fun one, and one that I never saw coming. Sure, we all thought that Merlyn had something up his sleeve, I don’t think any of us really predicted this happening, although looking back at it, it now feels inevitable. This allows Merlyn to remain a part of the show on the periphery, only to return for what will most likely be the show’s grand finale.
So, the half season ended with Ollie being “killed” by Ra’s al Ghul, and there were lots of false clues dropped by Stephen Amell and the producers that Ollie was ‘really’ dead. Well, that was all washed away in the very first episode back from hiatus, where Ollie was shown alive. Just a little bit of patience could’ve paid off big time here: imagine they do 3 episodes without a trace of Ollie, only to have him show up triumphantly at the end of the fourth episode back?
Instead, the show took the easy way out, and it suffered because of it.
Don’t get me wrong – I love this idea. I love them referencing the comics so directly, and I love Wildcat, a member of the Justice Society, being a pre-Arrow vigilante in Starling. What I don’t love is how quickly Ted Grant was killed off on the show, and how he really didn’t have much purpose, other than being a deus ex machina, answering the question “who taught Laurel such a limp-wristed right cross?”
Great Cliffhanger: Ray Goes Boom
There are many reason why we know that Ray isn’t really dead (like, the trailer for Legends of Tomorrow which, more or less, says exactly why), but the scene still was a surprising and well executed one. It will take some strictly comic book-y logic to explain, but that is a-ok by me. Ray becoming more than Phony Stark™ is one of the bits of Season 4 that I am really rooting to come to fruition. A fine tease to end the season on.
Not So Great Cliffhanger: Roy Goes Bye Bye
Unless he is migrating over to Titans on TNT, it is a shame to let Roy Harper walk out of this show so early on. Sure, Colton Haynes emotes less than a cinderblock, but Roy is such an important part of the Green Arrow mythos that it seems like a total waste to not have him around. Especially because the most famous Roy story, of him being a drug addict, is so perfectly filmable for a show on a budget. Can’t you just see Amell growling “my ward is a junkie!” at Ray Palmer?
Plus, with Harper on the show, the odds are far less that we’d have to see Thea date monsters like DJ Dip Shit ever again.
