My brother recently got engaged and, let me tell you, if his wedding is anything like Diggle’s, I’ll be pretty bummed. Except if Felicity is there.
1. A Very Special Episode
I get it, Arrow: when there is a substantial portion of your show that has a military or paramilitary background, it is prudent to incorporate real life issues, such as PTSD, into the lives of your characters. In fact, I applaud the show for bringing that very serious element into the series.
However, the show did so in about the least graceful way possible. By choosing Deadshot (Floyd Lawton) as the sufferer of PTSD, the show undercuts its own purpose; instead of showing the struggles of a normal person, it takes what, on the surface, appears to be a normal dude and uses PTSD as a shortcut to supervillany. We see a grateful Floyd come home after the war, a stranger to his daughter and, just one flashback later, he’s pulling a gun on his wife and screaming in the child’s face. He isn’t so much suffering from PTSD, as experiencing a full on heel turn.
Sure, the episode humanized Floyd, especially in the final moments, but it does so by going so far over the top that it doesn’t really address the issue at hand. All it does is give the show another (supposedly) dead character with a tragic backstory.
2. Suicide Yawn
DC, both in comics and on the screen, seems to think that the idea of the Suicide Squad is enough to justify its existence but, I’m sorry to say, that’s just not the case. Deadshot is an A-list Squadder, sure, but Cupid? C’mon – to hype up the return of the Squad, and to only give us Deadshot and Cupid is borderline dishonest. Diggle and Lyla don’t count, either – the whole idea is that they are ‘reformed’ villains, so give us some reformed villains!
3. Of Course Ray Palmer is a Minister
At this point, what isn’t Ray Palmer? He’s a super buff dude who is a genius and a millionaire and a charming motherfucker and a good boyfriend and a minister. I understand that, in order for the fans to allow Felicity out of Ollie’s arms, they needed to build Palmer up into an almost mythical good guy, but it really makes ordinary dudes like me look bad.
Palmer went through about three months of character growth in 60 minutes tonight, going from millionaire industrialist to police spokesman (?) to flying spy to Arrow hunter to Arrow believer. I know that fans, like me, want to eventually see the Atom and the Arrow team up, but by rushing this, it makes the show seem like a spinoff factory, rather than a show that is really invested in building up a character.
Luckily, by having Felicity as Palmer’s main squeeze, it allows us to like, and accept, him more easily, letting his quick growth appear less rushed than it really is. Speaking of Felicty…
4. It One Hair on Felicity’s Head is Hurt, I Revolt
Look, Maseo, I get it – you’re part of the League of Assassins. Your intentions are right there in the title of your organization. But that changes nothing about how fucking devastated I will be if the show kills Felicity. If that happens, somehow Barry Allen has to cross over and rip through the timeline again to bring her back. Mark my words, CW.
5. Very Little Arrowing
This episode had a lot of Suicide Squad, a lot of Palmer, a lot of the Lances, a ton of the Diggles, and very little Arrow/Ollie. In the past, that has been part of the show’s charm; it could let Ollie sit in the backseat for an episode or two without real incident, but tonight it felt lopsided. There wasn’t any part of it that felt particularly bereft of Ollie, but the show seems to feel that building up everyone else has to come at the expense of Ollie’s development. Sure, lots of things keep happening to him, but aside from him learning to be a graceful ex to Felicity, how has Ollie grown or changed at all this season?
For this show to keep up with The Flash, it needs to keep revealing depths to its characters – and if Ollie is done unfolding, then the show is in worse shape than I thought.
