This week on Arrow: Helena Bertinelli, the Huntress, makes her debut and Merlyn experiences some first world problems. Spoilers ahead!
1.) Ollie is such a jerk.
In this week’s episode, Ollie’s mom gets mowed down by a mysterious gunman… or woman… or Huntress. It’s the Huntress. Anyway, Ollie’s first reaction isn’t to automatically run to help his however-years old mother from her gunshot wound, but to run after the shooter. Sure he may be a dark soul looking for vengeance, as the recap before each episode reminds us, but you’d think he could at least help the lady with the gunshot wound. Later on, having tracked down the shooter to someone going after the Bertinelli crime family, Ollie is propositioned by Dig to try going after the whole Bertilli crime family and not just the shooter. Ollie laughs in his face and then punches some people, because that’s what he does. I get that he’s still going after the people in the book, but it’d be nice to have a little justice.
2.) Why all the focus on Merlyn?
I get that Merlyn is supposed to be a main character, but I really don’t understand the focus on him, especially in this episode. He’s dating Ollie’s ex and it’s sweet. That’s a nice plot but it doesn’t need to take up half the episode. It’d be even more enjoyable if that obnoxious soft rock that sounds all the same and only plays on CW shows wasn’t playing during every scene with Laurel. Also, Merlyn’s idea of romance isn’t even that sweet. He says he wishes he could see Laurel again for the first time, like how he wishes he could watch his favorite movie again for the first time. Cute. I always compare my feelings for my date to my feelings for Space Jam. The best scene in this whole episode, however, comes when Merlyn complains to his dad about his trustfund running out to which his dad takes off his mask, reveals himself as John Barrowman, and gives a sassy speech which is summarized with “No!” followed by a snapping of the fingers in a z-formation.
3.) The Huntress
What a drama queen. That’s not to say that Helena Tortellini doesn’t have real issues, her dad killed her fiance, but she says that she went through as much torture as Ollie who watched his dad die and was stuck on an island with Deathstroke for five years. Of course, I may not be able to relate to being in love with someone and being unable to go on without them; my girlfriends all leave me after the Space Jam line, though I would definitely go on a murderous revenge spree for that movie. I’d also like to point out that Helena Linguini has never trained to kill people before, but is able to break out of handcuffs. I always love it when characters who have no training whatsoever take place alongside heroes who spent years in isolated training like Green Arrow or Batman. It’s why the next Dark Knight movie is going to be Joseph Gordon-Levitt dying after realizing he has no idea what he’s doing in the first five minutes, and 2 more hours of Gary Oldman frowning.
4.) Ollie is so bad at concealing his identity.
There’s a part in the episode where Ollie is fighting Helena Penne and some mob goons that were sent after her. He finds out that she is the Not-Huntress and, after she runs away, he takes off his hood to show the camera his disbelief and facepaint. I don’t think they established that everyone in that restaurant was unconscious. There was still two stereotypical Italian owners standing in the corner. Hopefully Ollie didn’t knock them unconscious off-screen. He probably knocked them unconscious off-screen.
5.) Oh hey look, a pretty sweet moment.
At the end of the episode, Ollie and Helena Rigatoni, their secret identities revealed to each other, make out while CW Rock plays and the credits cut in. I’ve never been much of a “shipper”, I prefer steamboats to naval ships, but the relationship played out between Ollie and Helena actually came across as pretty neat. They both come from traumatic backgrounds and so it makes much more sense for Ollie to be interested in her than Laurel. Also, it’ll be very interesting to see where this goes since he says that her mission of vengeance is completely different from his mission of… justice? Maybe if she killed people with arrows and not bullets she would be on the right side of the law.
6/10 – Some moments were sweet, but, hoo boy, is this episode kind of rough.
Next week: A gang war breaks out as China White breaks out and I already forgot who she is while typing this sentence.
