Sometimes the best gift is none at all
What They Say:
After defeating Ra’s Al-Ghul, Oliver’s decided to put the vigilante life behind him and retires out in the suburbs with Felicity. However when a new threat run by Damien Darke appears, Oliver must once again take up the hood. This time, though he’s decided to take on the title of “Green Arrow” and vows to be the symbol of hope the old Arrow wasn’t, but will Oliver be able to escape the darkness of his past so easily?
The Review
Content (warning as portions of this review may contain spoilers):
Arrow goes in deep this week as we deal with the consequences of William’s kidnapping while also delivering on another crossover in the form of Vixen. To be honest I wasn’t quite looking forward to this one since the situation seemed like a pretty good excuse for the show to dive back into heavy-handed melodrama and it certainly had it’s inklings of that. For the most part, though, the show managed to subvert my expectations once again and instead managed to make said melodrama work for it while also reigning in it’s other aspects pretty well to make one of the best episodes this season’s displayed so far.
Things start off with Felicity going through physical therapy after receiving Holt’s implant, but it’s to no avail as she still hasn’t regained her ability to walk. The bad times only get worse when Darke reveals he has William and while Oliver tries to explain the situation concerning him to Felicity, it goes without saying that she doesn’t take it very well. With the situation turning hectic, Oliver is forced to reveal his identity to William’s mother Samantha and decides to enlist the help of Vixen in order to have a countermeasure for Darke’s powers. This quickly ends up backfiring, though, as Darke is still one step ahead and forces Oliver to give into his ultimatum of dropping out of the mayoral race.
As the situation escalates, Vixen quickly realizes that Darke gets his powers from a totem or an idol like she does and manages to use that knowledge to track him down. After managing to destroy the idol, the team finally defeats Darke but it’s not without consequences for Oliver. he soon realizes that it’s best for William that he stays out of his life entirely and gives him the freedom to enjoy a normal childhood. Things also don’t end well regarding his relationship with Felicity who understands his situation and why he had to lie about it but still feels he’s unable to fully share his worries with her and decides to break off the relationship just in time for her legs to be restored as she moves on(bit too overt for symbolism, but whatever gets the message across I guess).
So there’s quite a bit to this episode and a lot of it works well. I never really got around to checking out the Vixen animated series, but much like with Constantine’s introduction a few episodes back, she feels like a pretty natural fit for the Arrowverse and a pretty cool character. It’s also nice to see Darke finally knocked down a peg given his overall dominance for the majority of the season but it does leave the question of what happens now. Given he’s been shown not to be the highest man on the totem poll in regards to H.I.V.E’s hierarchy maybe we’ll see things shift towards dealing with his higher ups though even with that I’d be surprised if this was really the last we heard of Darke.
While that bit of advancement is pretty great, what works even better for the episode is Oliver dealing with his newfound responsibilities as a parent. Both Diggle and Vixen give him respectively opposite advice in that respect as one says it’s better that he sticks close while the other says that it’s probably for the best to keep William out of his life entirely since there’s too much danger attached to it. In the end, Oliver goes with the latter, which clearly isn’t an easy decision for him, and the scene where he leaves behind a video message for William explaining why he can’t be a proper dad for him is easily the most powerful one of the entire episode though also the most heartbreaking. That’s not the only bit of parental strain going on in this episode though as Thea finds out that Malcolm sold out William to Darke and is sick and tired of his manipulations. She tries to cut ties with him right then and there, but it’s clear that unlike Oliver’s relationship with his son, Malcolm wants to be as close to Thea as possible despite his toxic influence and it makes for a pretty striking contrast.
Of course, those aren’t the only major bits of drama as there’s also the whole breakup between Oliver and Felicity. Given how telegraphed it was in this situation I was expecting a lot of over the top melodrama attached to it, but it’s handled pretty decently. Oliver’s side of the story is at least taken into account since he was put in a pretty compromising position, but Felicity has a point in stating that Oliver still isn’t really capable of leaning on someone else with his problems, and given this week’s events have put him in his lowest position yet, he certainly has a lot more to work through now. If there’s one thing that really drags this week it would be the flashbacks since all we really get is a partial revelation of Reiter’s plans which somehow involves the spirits of the undead and it doesn’t really mesh well with the material going on in the rest of the episode. Aside from that though, it’s a stellar episode and with events having taken a pretty sharp turn on multiple fronts, it’s anyone’s guess how Oliver will pick himself back up.
In Summary:
Arrow knocks it out of the park this week as the team goes on a rescue mission to save William from Darke’s clutches. Vixen’s debut in the show is a strong one and helps in finally crippling Darke, which should make the events of the next few episodes pretty interesting. Even better though is Oliver working through the issue of how involved he should be in William’s life, and while he does ultimately choose to stay away for his own good, it’s not an easy decision to make. Between that, dropping out of the mayoral race and Felicity breaking up with him, Oliver’s hit his lowest point in a while and in a season that’s about him becoming a brighter character, he still has a lot of things to work through to get there.
Grade: A
