So many reveals, so much character and some fascinating true origin moments.
What They Say:
Three Ghosts – Oliver is drugged and left for dead after a fight with Cyrus Gold. Felicity and Barry grow closer while Brother Blood captures Roy.
Content:
While there are those that didn’t care for the actor portraying Barry Allen in the previous episode, I found the show as a whole to be spot on with what it produced and the way the character was handled. Gustin definitely wasn’t high on my list but you can see how they’re going to segue into his own show (potentially) with something a bit lighter than what we get on Arrow while still being firmly connected in the same universe. The episode moved quickly and added a lot of layers to things while showing us where it could all be going as well. Like past episodes, there’s so many stories weaving about that it can be easy to be distracted by one and pay less attention to the other, but they all come full circle in some way and it’s worth paying attention to them all. Adding Barry Allen to the mix heightened the game a good deal and made for an episode that has me hoping we’ll see a long and continued expansion of DC characters in this kind of grounded form with the potential to become something more. They’ve brought in so much in the first season and a half so far that it’s mindboggling when you really look at it.
Bringing Barry firmly into the inner circle at the end of the previous episode was definitely a fun move since it forces him to save Oliver, something that’s a bit beyond his normal work. He handles the initial shock of the situation pretty well as we see how his calm and operational side kicks in but you can still see the other side of him there, the nervous and hopeful nature and some of the idolization as well since he’s a bit of a fanboy of the vigilante for previously stated reasons. Oliver’s quick revival isn’t a surprise since they they don’t want to spend the episode with him fighting for his life, but the fight he has with Felicity over revealing his identity to Barry is definitely good to see because there are a few layers to how he revealed himself to them. But Barry is the type that has a lot to offer and you can see the grudging way that Oliver is dealing with it since he still has the larger threat to face.
While Oliver is coping with a lot, including the fallout of finding out Roy is in Thea’s room bleeding out a bit from the arrow he put in him, he’s also seeing things since the injection Barry gave him. And that means he’s seeing Shado around the mansion and it’s bringing back all sorts of memories from the island, which definitely has some great bits that brings us closer to the truth of how it all shook out. Seeing Oliver being forced to make a choice between Shado and Sarah with who will live and who will die? It certainly makes Ivo more of the bad guy and it leaves you knowing that he has to come up with a way out of this that saves both. But with the hallucinations of Shado in the present, it gives you the feeling that she may not survive this adventure in general, even if she does survive this particular encounter. Of course, his hallucinations are spreading as we even see Slade in Starling City, which is kind of surreal after all this time.
Not surprisingly with this being the mid-season finale, there’s a lot going on here. Some more exploration of what’s going on with the guy who supposedly overdosed comes up and that eventually has Oliver turning part of that over to Quentin to investigate. And that puts him in the path of some of the super soldiers that are being brought out as we get another of the mystery men in the Deathstroke mask attacking them when they hit a place where they think things are going down based on some actual forensic evidence. It’s a pretty solid moment but it’s overshadowed heavily by the fight that Oliver gets into with himself. It’s one where his hallucinations definitely strike out in a big way as Slade calls him out on everything he’s done and the “two” go at it with a good bit of devastation around them in the “arrow cave” and all. It’s a good way of showing the depth of how off Oliver is at this point and just how much of his past he’s tried to bury and ignore but can’t any longer.
Roy’s subplot as he does his own investigating into Max’s death ends u leading him to a pretty dangerous place where Brother Blood manages to get a hold on him and actually seems like he injects him with the serum, which does a pretty nasty take on Roy as he’s bleeding out of his eyes. Oliver’s had a bad run of luck when it comes to Roy as it seems like it’s another late arrival to get him, but it’s one that goes so badly that he actually starts to hallucinate about Tommy. It all goes back to what Diggle said about how people who go through things like they do have to deal with the ghosts of the past in their own way. With Shado and Slade persisting in goading him, it’s the way his mind brings up Tommy to try and right things in his head that helps him move beyond what he’s been stuck in and to realize that he wasn’t truly responsible for Tommy’s death. And that’ll force him to do everything in his power to save Roy, which you know he’ll do.
Some of the final moments of the episode are, of course, fantastic. With the reveal of who is orchestrating things from the top (at the moment), as we see that Slade has come to the city with one less eye and is intent on destroying Oliver’s life, you get that great moment where it all comes together. So much has been seeded for so long now early on in the first season where you knew that these two would end up becoming foes that to finally get to that point – both in the past and the present – is utterly fulfilling. It’s a beautiful sequence in the present as we see how calmly he intends to destroy Oliver and all those that follow him. But it’s also a heartrending and intense moment in the past as we see Slade revive and reveal the kinds of heightened strength and abilities he has now that will make him so utterly dangerous. I’ve long loved this character in comic form and seeing how Manu Bennett has brought him to life has pleased me far more than I would have expected.
In Summary:
Arrow hits the mid season finale pretty well here, though I’ll admit that Barry’s role is a lot more reduced than I would have expected. They did utilize him well and set things up for what’s happening there well enough and it all launches in the final minute in a way that really leaves you wanting a whole lot more. It’s surprising how much origin they really put in here, but you can see why they’re going to give him his own pilot instead, but at least it truly connects the two characters and the surreal elements of Barry’s origin into Olivers world. Though Barry is obviously a big highlight for many people, myself included, it’s the Slade material that really made it truly exciting for me as we see what he’s up to. But in the end, it’s those final two minutes or so we as we see the birth of two real heroes as Oliver dons his mask and Barry is about to begin his journey. Exciting stuff.
Grade: A-
