What better way to get your anti-government views across than bombing all sorts of places in the city – and sticking it to the man by not charging sales tax.
What They Say:
Blast Radius – Arrow tries to stop a man from setting off a bomb at a rally but gets trapped in the process; Thea witnesses Roy’s superstrength and demands answers.
Content:
The midseason finale in the previous episode brought out a lot of information and moved Oliver forward nicely with the character. He grew a bit, we saw more of his past that shaped him on the island and we saw how Slade has survived and bided his time while utilizing others such as Brother Blood to achieve his goals. It was a great episode with what it covered there, but it also did some great stuff in working through part of Barry Allen’s origin and actually giving us the classic origin itself, which was surprising to see since I wasn’t sure they’d go for it in quite that way. But in the end, it’s all about Oliver and now that he’s looking to get away from the name of the Hood and has added an actual mask to his look, he’s turning the tide on who he is with himself, which will also help with others later on.
Moving forward five weeks in time, things have certainly changed a bit, though it’s still pretty focused. Barry’s in a coma in Central City after the accident, which is tied to the accelerator that went awry in its experiment there, and Felicity is off spending time with him while he copes with his state. Oliver is intent on finding Brother Blood, though only knowing him as a man in a skull mask, and has spent the time shaking down the various criminals he can get his hands on for information. He’s hugely determined since he knows what kind of stuff he’s peddling out there and how dangerous it is with the people that have been impacted by it. Which ties nicely to the flashback that deals with the fallout from Shado’s death and how Slade used his powered up strength level to eliminate those that Ivo was with. It’s all a good reminder of what came before and topping it off before moving on again with events in the present.
The show plays with the little moments nicely here as we see how Laurel has started to investigate Blood himself and is coming up with some interesting ties for him that may need some explaining. Especially to the Langford Institute which was burned down suspiciously some time ago. Oliver and Blood the politician are getting along quite well now considering recent events and the cleaning up of issues between them that has fundraisers a part of things now as well, which lets Oliver start to rehabilitate the family name a bit more in this circle. While this plays out, we get the story of the week that involves a pretty angry man who has started to do some bombings around the city, which is causing a lot of angst and pressure among the populace in general but also for Oliver since it’s a pretty good sized threat. The man behind it isn’t explored much at first, but they give him the classic angry anti-government type with a full on manifesto that’s a few hundred pages long.
One of the more interesting subplots that will definitely grow as time goes on involves Roy, who got his own injection bit in the previous episode that puts him on a similar path to Slade, though obviously not the same since Slade’s training is a whole other thing, never mind his background. But introducing the changes in a slow but steady way for Roy definitely should work nicely to expand his character and mess with his relationship with Thea as well since it’s just one more thing he needs to hide from her. That takes a bit more center stage in the final act since he ends up going with Thea and Moira to the rally that happens and we see how he’s got a bit of strength to him and his healing has definitely upped. His adjustment to the serum is definitely going to screw with him and it’s not going to be all good.
The first half does some decent stuff with the bomber, who we do learn is named Mark Scheffer, aka Shrapnel in the comics, and he’s nicely played by Sean Maher of Firefly fame. A lot of the show is just about the chase to find and stop him from setting off more bombs since they’re really dangerous and professional jobs and he’s doing pretty well at covering his tracks. That’s not exactly a bad thing but it doesn’t let Shrapnel really make a place here for himself as a character and instead becomes more of a superficial opponent. Which isn’t too bad since it’s just passing the time as other story events are playing out, but we really need to start getting more time spent with the villains across the series. We get the larger ones and they have their themes to be sure such as those like Blood and obviously Slade, but I’d like to see a little more for the smaller villains. I am amused that they made a light tie to The Movement with Shrapnel though.
The climax side of the show wants to work around a rally for Blood – that Blood organizes in order to show that Starling City won’t live in fear of course – and it has Shrapnel setting a way to blow it all up and make his statement. That puts plenty of pressure on a lot of people and you kind of get annoyed with Blood for his manner in all of this since he puts so many people at risk. But it does make for a good outdoor action sequence in a city-hall like area and it even allows Oliver to get out on his motorcycle a bit which is fun to see. It has some decent build-up to it and tension, but it’s also a bit anti-climactic overall. That unfortunately undercuts the episode as a whole since the main threat was dealt with so easily after he’s caught by wanting to be close to his event, which at least makes sense.
In Summary:
Though the story of the week here is one that I didn’t find all that much attraction to it, the episode as a whole is one that works very well in being a transitional piece. Advancing the story several weeks and giving it a chance to not be so much so quickly helps to ease the pressure of the pacing and it gives us a chance to see some changes in the characters while also making some of the building tension between some of them all the more realistic. I love the little moments in regards to Barry, and how Oliver is still growing and changing because of how Felicity is caught up in it all, and the additional nods on the island definitely help. We also get a few nudges along the way with Laurel investigating Blood, which provides some good nods towards Cyrus Gold that I’m glad to see, and Roy’s changes are starting to progress as well which will help keep his story moving along until it ties back to Oliver in a more personal way. It’s not a bad episode but they didn’t utilize their villain of the week well.
Grade: B-
