My name isn’t Oliver or Emiko Queen, it’s Mike, and here are my thoughts on Arrow‘s “Emerald Archer,” as the series celebrated 150 episodes This week, Team Arrow finds themselves trailed by a documentary team and someone in very, very, expensive hockey pads.
1. Emerald Archer: The Hood and the Rise of Vigilantism
When it was announced that Arrow 150th episode would take the form of a pseudo-documentary narrated by Kelsey Grammar, I was intrigued. The previous anniversary episode, during the “Invasion” event, was very comic book-esque in how it brought everyone back, a pseudo-documentary is an entirely different kind of reflection. The pseudo-documentary lens creates an immediate level of reflexivity that at first appeared beyond Arrow capabilities. The only show in the DCWverse I’d expect to pull off a documentary style episode would be Legends since their core conceit is anything is possible. However, the documentary approach, and reflection it brings, was to the shows benefit as it continues to wrestle with the role vigilantism plays in the series.
Through the use of “historical” interviews by the director, named in a nod to CW head Mark Pedowitz, Arrow gets to recognize various characters we haven’t seen a good while. From the departed Quentin Lance, to the disappeared Sin, and even a time traveler. They even bring up some footage and quotes from Diggle that haven’t aged the best. All of them try and contend with the vigilantism used by Team Arrow.
In the future, Blackstar calls “Emerald Archer” pro-vigilante garbage*. In the present, the use of the pseudo-documentary approach captures the correct amount of tension and conflict by those involved, voiced most effectively by Papa Lance at the top of the episode. Arrow can never fully condemn itself, otherwise there wouldn’t be a show, but things don’t have to be so black and white either. What “Emerald Archer” succeeds best at is a renewal of the series quest to simply do better and improve. That is a tad cheesey, but it’s the kind of sincere emotional note that worked well for the series in the past.
*The episode notably doesn’t contend with the whole Ollie has dropped more bodies than Jason Voorhees aspect of the series. Which to a degree makes sense, Ollie’s murderous intent has always been a sin that is played more intimate and personal than acknowledged in the show after season 1.
2. Documentary Technical
Glen Winter directed this episode, and overall did a fine job. However, I wish the episode was able to be a full documentary and lean into the tensions Team Arrow felt as they were being followed. It would’ve been a nice way to change how the normal plot developments are metered out. With how other threads in this episode play out, it’s understandable why they chose to jump between lenses, but it would’ve been cool if Arrow did the full “Pillows and Blankets.”
Cutting between documentary footage and traditional footage for the action sequences was a bit jarring, only going with one would’ve been a better call. With James Bamfords use of handheld cameras, watching shaky footage of fight scenes makes a lot of sense.
3. I think I might feel just a bit bad for (Young) William …
Overall I have not been a fan of Jake Moore aka Young William. His acting is stiff, although with what the character’s been through that is a choice that is playing better. Young William has rarely been a character and more a physical manifestation of the fabled familial domesticity that like Ollie longs. He just wasn’t much of a character.
Old William, played by Ben Lewis, is instantly more interesting since he is given something to do in the flashforwards. He is on a quest to deal with his families vigilante legacy and maybe save Star City in the process.
In the flashforwards, Old William mentioned how his parents abandoned him. In “Emerald Archer” he returns home, which at first seems like a contradiction but he could also mean emotionally. Arrow finally gives Young William the faintest of dimension by focusing on the young kid attempting to deal with all the crap he has been through in the past 18 months. All the while hiding the fact he was expelled from unnamed boarding school. This thread isn’t some sort of major revelation but it finally treats the character like he is one instead of something on a pedestal for Ollie to feel bad about.
Continued belowMoore’s acting still leaves a bit to be desired in a scene with Eliza Faria as Young Zoe, but that’s more due to Faria playing the whole thing saccharine in a way Arrow just isn’t.
4. Chimera
Another week another good villain of the week, this time in the form of Chimera. This version doesn’t appear to be a riff on either pre-New 52 and New 52 versions of the character, one of whom was a member of the New Blood and the other an alien in “Teen Titans.”
As with last week, episode scribes Marc Guggenheim & Emilio Ortega Aldrich purposefully don’t put the audience into a narrative space with the antagonist and let the character take on the projections of everyone else and how that fits into the episodes overall thematics. That distance turns this “anti-vigilante-vigilante” into a bit of a Jason Voorhees figure, an antagonist who isn’t really seen for a majority of the episode and haunts the team slowly taking them out. When Ollie and Diggle find his lair, they discover a trophy room full of old masks (one of several echoes to Legends of Tomorrow,) which furthers the serial killer vibe. The production team even gets him to kind of look like Jason with his fully body armor and Wild Dog 2.0 hockey mask. At worst, the character is a good example of the costume department using what they had on hand to make something interesting.
The distance the episode creates from Chimera lets the show assume and present him as one way, only to twist on it at the end. Chimera is clearly deranged, but he’s also a “fan.” It’s left unsaid if he killed Rory Regan and the Huntress, but it seems he just wanted their masks. Arrow has consistently dealt with people taking inspiration from his actions and wreaking havoc, but none of them have done so clearly under the label of fandom. In such a reflective episode that final twist/recognition on the shows audience landed well.
5. Flashforward, to the Star City of 2046?
Going in I was curious to see how the flashforwards would be treated in “Emerald Archer.” The season has set a nice pattern, but the style of “Emerald Archer” wouldn’t make jumping around as easy. As it turns out we actually get a very nice match cut from Ollie’s final statements to the documentary team in the blown out bunker to Katherine McNamara’s Blackstar watching the doc in the not so good future. She uses it to discover the old Team Arrow bunker, with a bit of help. She calls her companion “Connor” and he is played by none other than Joseph David-Jones.
Joseph David-Jones played Connor Hawke aka John Diggle Jr. in Legends of Tomorrow S01E06 “Star City 2046” (one of the better episodes in the overall inconsistent first season.) In that Legends episode, the team find themselves stranded in a Star City where they never came back to the present and stuff went south, Grant Wilson appeared and cut off Ollie’s arm, it was a real mess. The inclusion of David-Jones points towards the flashforwards being in some sort of Star City 2046 mold – since technically he shouldn’t exist in future after Barry went and Flashpointed thing. Those changes also mixed with Future William’s talk about how Ollie and Felicity abandoned him point towards this really is some alt future. Though in Future William’s defense he could be speaking more emotionally since he has both been through a lot and they are not the best parents.
Still what could Blackstar want with the old Team Arrow bunker? She isn’t exactly a “fan” like Chimera.
