What They Say:
Darkness On The Edge Of Town – Malcolm tries to end his dealings with Dr. Brion Markov and his team; Moira and Oliver receive a number of unwelcome visitors; Laurel makes a decision.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With Walter having been freed in the previous episode, we had a pretty good change in what’s going on there as they alters the family dynamic once again. But the show also started to work mor eof the background plot that’s going on with what Malcolm is working towards when it comes to Starling City as we had some interesting flashback sequences that dealt more with him and his group rather than the usual bits of Oliver on the island, though I missed having that. Now, with the item Malcolm had made ready for him, he’s cleaning up some loose ends by taking down the scientist behind it (which can set up some interesting future storylines of its own) and allowing the Dark Archer to show himself once more.
While the show does deal heavily in the present, we do get some good flashback material tot he island here where it brings us back to how Oliver and Slade along with Shado ended up getting drawn back in since Yao-Fe has turned them in. It has Oliver realizing more betrayals in what’s going on than he expected, but we also learn that Fyres was set to pretty much bomb the whole forest in order to take them out at this point. So Yao-Fe managed to do something that would help them more than anything, but it’s a hard thing to see. Now that they’re back with Fyres, they’re able to start seeing more of what he has in store and it’s pretty deadly.
With those events coming together more, and Yao-Fe’s position within it made more clear even though he doesn’t want to be a part of it, the danger starts to increase now that Fyres is getting what he wants.
Oliver’s quest for answers in the present when it comes to what happened to Walter has him questioning his mother a bit roughly since he knows she’s more involved in this than she’s revealed. And that push comes at the wrong time as the two of them get taken down by the Dark Archer and whisked away for some serious questioning in order to see what she knows, as Malcolm is intent on finding out the truth of who is behind the hit on him. Or at least, that’s the impression that Oliver wants given as it’s a big ploy to extract information from Moira in a way that makes her feel little real guilt in doing so. Bringing Diggle into it shows a different side to him in a way since he goes the distance here, but there’s also just the fun that you know he’s having in smacking around Oliver for awhile, even if it is for a good cause overall.
With the focus now on finding the device that the Merlyn group has created and that the Dark Archer is cleaning up the loose ends about, that has Felicity trying to break into the mainframe but finding it impossible to do so. That leaves Oliver in the mindset of just doing whatever is needed and that means breaking into the twenty-fifth floor of the corporate headquarters in order to get her the access she needs. It’s a bit of a simple-elaborate plan that’s doesn’t exactly make sense in a way, such as how Diggle got a job there so quickly. It does have some good moments though, including yet another silly couple of bits about how Felicity really is into Oliver in some ways and finding little nods to it coming out in the most awkward of ways. The two certainly make a pair while doing this job and it builds onto what’s come before in the season quite nicely.
The episode works through a lot of smaller plots along the way, such as how Laurel and Oliver are orbiting each other a bit more and Oliver tries to push Tommy back to where he needs to be. There’s also some clearer fun about how Roy is trying to find the Archer so that he can get trained by him to protect the people that are important to him as well. But there’s also some things that deals with what’s going on with the problems going on between Moira and Walter, which is pushing their relationship in an unwelcome direction. But with so many lies and deceptions going on that Moira is dealing with, it’s not a surprise that things would sour here eventually.
In Summary:
Arrow has a good deal of movement going on in this episode as it progresses towards the finale next week and there are some big moments along the way. The island arc hits a note of change once again, something it’s needed to do for a bit, and we see more of how the Dark Archer is working when it comes to cleaning up his loose ends. The relationship side of the show gets some decent play, but it’s still not a primary focus in a lot of ways which definitely helps to avoid things being too overblown. The action is a bit minimal here but it caps off with a big scene at the end that really is great and puts a twist on things that changes what Malcolm will do going forward when it comes to the problems that plague him. The show may have its goofy moments and some quirks here and there, but by and large it entertains greatly and has some engaging storylines that have run throughout the entire season.
Grade: B+
