A heavy focus on the past, that cements many other issues in the present.
What They Say:
The Return – Malcolm places Oliver and Thea in a dangerous situation; a flashback reveals a time when Oliver and MAseo returned to Starling City.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With a number of different ways it could have gone, I really appreciated that Thea being brought into things in the third season with her brother here went as it did. Her view of what he was doing is the way that can be hard to think about with it, but it’s the right way in the end since he was doing his best to help others and protect her, even in his own way when he was the vigilante that was killing people. But now we have this odd new alliance between the two of them with Malcolm that has them going off to the island to help her train, leaving Starling City in the hands of the others, something that Oliver could never really envision happening considering the way he views himself as the one to carry the full weight of the burden. A lot continues to happen in the show and while I completely get the problems people are having with this season, I’m thoroughly enjoying it overall.
With Laurel having strengthened up and we’ve seen Thea getting things underway over the course of this season, having her on the island is fun as Oliver works to get a sense with her training. Oliver himself has a kind of different kind of alive feeling about him now that he’s back, a place that he’s been a few times since he first left, but it has a meaning for him that really works to drive him. Thea’s questions towards him are decent about how some of the things are filling in the blanks for her about him, but it also touches on a few other areas, such as how we saw the tease in the previous episode about how Oliver came back to Starling City several years ago in quiet before his bigger and more public return. With Waller having sent him and Maseo there to go after Peter Kang, the two have a simple enough mission to go after in regards to the Omega, but putting Ollie in Starling City is asking for a whole lot of trouble in general.
Amusingly, the plan involves Oliver going into Queen Consolidated itself in order to deal with it, which is asking for even more trouble. But before they can get to that, they get a look at Thea walking out of the building in her schoolgirl outfit. Which even Maseo takes a second look at… It gets interesting as they start following her from there, where she visits Oliver and her fathers grave and to make a deal with a “friend” of hers, only to have it interrupted by Tommy, which is great to see once again. It’s an interesting diversion ahead of the trip into the building that night, which has Oliver getting the data they need but also his discovering of the list – and something for Thea as well. It also gives us a look at Felicity before everything happened with his return, as she has some fun talking to herself and just being all manner of adorable when you get down to it.
As events unfold and we see Tommy’s party play out and the danger there, we get to the point where Oliver realizes just how much of a bomb his death dropped on all those he knew and he’s feeling incredibly responsible for it and is trying to figure out how to do something about it, such as going public and getting the company to protect him since he has no interest in China White and the bioweapon she’s developing with the Omega. It provides the expected break between him and Maseo, and also seeds a bit of how Oliver knew about the defunct steel factory that eventually becomes his base. A lot of interesting little foundation building going on here. Having a firefight there as Maseo crashes the auction, with Oliver arriving in the nick of time, makes for a decent return to their partnership as Oliver now feels a bit more focused with his own mission starting to take ship after watching his father’s video.
On the present day side of the island adventure, Oliver does have some decent conversation with Thea about things, but he also makes a trip to go and see Slade as there’s a need he has for him. Unfortunately, Slade has escaped after killing one of the ARGUS guards that was watching him and now there’s a different threat out there, potentially on the island still or out in the world at large, both of which are hugely frightening ideas for Oliver to confront. Amusingly, it turns out that Malcolm is the one that let Slade out, something he did after Oliver went off to face Ra’s al Ghul, because he was looking for another pawn to put on the board in defense of his own life. Malcolm’s definitely an amusing play in many ways and this just reinforces it with the way he looks at things. But now it’s set his daughter in a heap of trouble since Slade appears out of the darkness and takes them both down pretty quickly with the element of surprise – and a whole lot of built up anger and aggression as well, to be sure.
With the pair trapped in the cell, there’s some decent dialogue between the two as Oliver continues to hold his secrets, things he doesn’t want to tell Thea, but she’s going to allow that to go on for only so long. Playing that against his protecting her in the past at Tommy’s party is definitely an interesting parallel to unfold since she was just looking for escape then but is now looking for a different kind of escape, but backed up with some skill and ability of her own. So seeing them work together in the present to escape is definitely brief but fun, even if it again delays a much needed conversation about many topics. One of which does go to the reveal of how Thea is responsible for Sara’s death, a conversation that I knew would happen this season but suspected it’d be closer to the end. Yet again, Arrow does things at a faster than normal pace, and for the better since they have so much they want to do in general.
It does all wrap up quickly, since it comes down to the idea that Malcolm orchestrated all of this in order to get Thea to prove to herself that she’s a killer, something that they both need to be in order to deal with Ra’s al Ghul in the future. It works as you’d expect as we’re not losing Deathstroke anytime soon, but there’s enough threat from Slade’s loss to really make the whole situation dark and nerve wracking overall.
On the present day, there are a few things going on. Following events from the previous where Laurel revealed the truth about Sara to their father, it’s no surprise that Quentin has gone to drinking and skipping work, which cuts to Laurel easily enough, especially since Quentin has his own sharp words to use along the way. While we see a few instances of Laurel and Quentin in the flashbacks that helps to show some of what’s going on there, which is certainly interesting, but this material serves as the bookends to things. Quentin has gone down the dark path for the moment but it’s the time where, in contrast to the past, it’s Laurel’s turn to try and help him back to where he needs to be. This will be a relationship that will take some time to repair to be sure.
In Summary:
Arrow does this every now and then where the vast majority of the episode is a flashback piece. It’s definitely strong here as we get a range of locations and events going on from the past that helps to show how various events brought things together with a secret trip to Starling City. But we also get some really good time in the present with what Oliver and Thea have to cope with on the island, which involves bringing Slade back to play for an episode to my utter delight. It’s not a standout piece, but enough to remind that there is a threat there that can’t be ignored. A lot of details come up throughout this that pushes some interesting dynamic changes between Thea and Oliver and that’s the big part of rme. We do at least get a couple of nods for Diggle and Felicity while Quentin and Laurel have some solid time at the bookends with a useful scene in between to bind it all together. The show continues to be strong and fun for me and this episode hit lots of sweet spots.
Grade: B+
