Week 2 of “Oliver is Missing,” and the gang attempts to move on without him, with mixed results. Be warned, spoilers await you.
1. Protection
This episode is all about who can – and cannot – protect you. Quentin couldn’t protect Sara, and now she’s gone. Ray couldn’t protect Anna, but can protect Felicity. Roy can attempt to protect Laurel in battle, but there may still be casualties. Merlyn tries to protect Thea, but Thea believes she can protect herself.
What all of this boils down to is that, more or less, everyone is on their own, until they choose not to be – but that choice doesn’t imply safety. After all, Sara is still dead, that Alderman was still executed, and nothing is going to bring Anna back.
2. Bumbling Laurel
I was very happy to see the show treating Laurel like the amateur she is – when she tried to land upright on a van, the show wisely had her fall on her ass. Sure, she had some boxing lessons and knows the city well, due to her job, but she’s about as much of a vigilante as Roy is a character capable of showing more than one emotion.
This episode actually did a lot to get her closer to being the Black Canary – we saw her using her staff, we find out her legal name is Dinah Laurel Lance, and we see her inch closer to being a successful crime fighter. Realistically, no matter how long it took Arrow to make Laurel a legitimate threat, it would feel too soon, but at least they are giving us some benefit of the doubt here.
3. The Merlyns are, essentially, Mustafa from Austin Powers
“We must leave!”
“No, daddy”
“We must leave!”
“No, daddy”
“We must leave!”
“No. daddy”
“Oh, ok. No big deal.”
In other Thea news, it appears that DJ Dip Shit isn’t just a weird love interest, but also some sort of League of Assassins spy. Ok?
4. No Need for Nanda Parbat stuff
If the show wanted to really milk Oliver’s “death” for all that it’s worth, it should have never showed us Nanda Parbat until Oliver is really back. All that the current method does is remind us how much better the show is when all the characters are interacting together. Sure, it is interesting to see the relationship between Oliver, Tatsu, and Maseo, but all of this could have been in one dedicated episode, either leading up to Oliver’s return, or as a flashback after his return.
Essentially, all this does is show that Maseo really cares for Oliver, which we already sort of knew, and that he’s in bad shape, which we definitely knew.
5. Depressed Felicity sounds like Dr. Armond
But I still adore her.