Well, shit. Spoilers ahead.
1. The Demon’s Head
Let’s get the obvious out of the way right now: Matt Nable is no Liam Neeson. Perhaps if that wasn’t a point of reference, he would feel like a better fit. I mean, he wasn’t terrible, but he certainly wasn’t what I think most fans were hoping that Ra’s would be. Despite his somewhat lacking performance, everything else with Ra’s al Ghul (aside from them going Ra’s instead of Raysh, pronunciation wise) worked, more or less. It was nice to see the Hong Kong story tie into the main story, all of Ollie’s actions felt very natural to the character, and the League has an internal logic on this show that it sometimes lacks in the comics.
Let me also say this about the final battle: the show has managed to do two things so well that it was truly a crapshoot as to who was going to win that sword fight: it has made Ollie to be a man capable of almost impossible feats, and it has made Ra’s out to be unbeatable. Taken together, those things lead to a final encounter that seemed, in the moment, able to go either way, even if the result was so painfully obvious from the start: there’s no way, at this time, that Ollie could have won.
2. A.T.O.M.
This week we also got a strong amount of Ray Palmer, with a really nice exploration of both his past and his future. Giving him a tragic woman in his life humanizes him considerably, and now we have a practical backstory for why he wants to get the A.T.O.M. suit rigged up. Brandon Routh continues to impress – his scene in Verdant was a little over the top, but it felt exactly like how the character would react. That is something this show has done really well – it might create a character that feels sloppy or overblown, but then it gives that character sloppy or overblown intentions and reactions, and then the character works. He brings us to…
3. Felicity’s Love Triangle
This is truly the Sophie’s Choice of 2014: Ollie or Ray? Ray has the money, the sincerity, and the smile. Ollie has the drive, the marksman skills, and the abs. Both want to help people; both can rock a double salmon ladder. Ollie is building a family from friends because his real one is gone, whereas Ray is amassing talent and research to not just make him feel better, but to actually fix the city. Ollie wants to fix the city, too, but that is more through weeding out the bad rather than planting the good.
What is so frustrating about this triangle is this: the show isn’t dumb, and the show likes to have its cake and eat it, too, when it comes to referencing DC characters and books and, more importantly, putting people “in the end” where they belong, continuity wise. We’ve already met Jean Loring, Mrs. Ray Palmer in the comics, and she’s an older lady. Not to say that she couldn’t be a cougar, or that Ray doesn’t like his women like a fine wine, but the age difference seems to indicate that this isn’t going to be the romance it often was in the comics (before she, you know, got psycho). Ditto, we know that Ollie and Laurel are probably going to wind up together and, although this is happening on its sister show, that Barry and Iris are meant to be together. Poor Felicity – come over here and let me comfort you.
4. Mama Lance
One of my least favorite tropes in storytelling is the “parent’s intuition” business. Sure, parents and their kids have special bonds – as a parent, I can testify to this. That said, Mama Lance essentially feels a “disturbance in the force” and knows that Sara is gone. That’s just lazy storytelling – and it is built upon more lazy storytelling, as Laurel has been a bit of a great liar lately, especially about Sara. Then, all of a sudden, she becomes Tommy Flanagan and can’t help but show all of her cards instantly. Also, can’t Laurel come up with at least some story to tell Thea, other than the truth about Sara? “Yeah, Thea, she’s gone a lot of the time, and I miss her, and this is an old habit that is hard to break.”
Continued below5. Where Do We Go From Here?
So we all just watched this episode, and we know how it ends: Ollie with a sword through his chest, falling off of a cliff. The easy thing for the show to do (if it wasn’t a DC property) would be for it to have Diggle and co. nearby to save him – but I really don’t think that’s the case. But the answer, when we are consulting the source material, because much more clear: someone’s going to put Ollie into a Lazarus Pit. He will come out alive, but changed, and the second half of the season will be about Team Arrow rehabilitating him. This will give Diggle and Roy something to do, it will cause a power vacuum in the city that Black Canary can fill, and it will prepare Ollie for the season’s climactic battle where he will, once and for all, defeat Ra’s. In fact, perhaps this will even take a page from “Futures End” and leave Laurel as the head of the League at the end of the season.
The only thing I know for sure is that this show has improved so much in two and half seasons that it is almost unbelievable. Go back some time and watch episode 7 or 8 from season one – the show is dull, the acting stiff, and the superheroics hard to come by. Compare that to this hour, which had great action, real drama, world building, and some shirtless swordfighting, aka a perfect hour of television. I still think The Flash is producing a more enjoyable hour of television right now, but it is neck and neck.
