To read our other Arrow episode reviews please go here.
- Airdate: 2/5/2014
- Director: Wendey Stanzler (Arrow, Glee, Pretty Little Liars, The Vampire Diaries, 90210)
- Writer: Jake Coburn (Arrow, Gossip Girl, Dirty Sexy Money)
Last week, Arrow sent Laurel further down the river of despair while initiating Roy into Team Arrow and reminiscing about that one time back on the island when Slade almost blew Ivo’s ship up with a rocket launcher. Although it had moments meant to warm many a Roy Harper fans yearning heart, the resulting episode was a big ole mess, an example of how poorly Arrow hangs together when their plot holes are too large to ignore. What about this week?
Let’s break it down:
THE RECAP
The (Not So) Great Lance Family Reunion –
That shady dude from Verdant last week is from the League of Assassins, and he poisoned Laurel’s drinks to ensure an apparent overdose. Why? Because Nyssa al Guhl and Sara were lesbian lovers, and hurting Laurel was a good way to lure Sara back to Starling City. Also, the League of Assassins never lets anyone leave (except Malcolm Merlyn), but it’s mostly because Nyssa wants her girlfriend back.
Alas, Sara’s heart now belongs to Oliver, and though Sara offers herself up as a sacrifice to spare her loved ones Nyssa declines to kill her, opting instead to kidnap Sara’s mom for a kind of hostage exchange. However, Sara is dead serious about not wanting to return to the League. As soon as her mom is freed during their hostage exchange, Sara crumbles to the ground, having poisoned herself in the hopes her death would save her loved ones. Luckily, Arrow has an anti-venom to save Sara, and Nyssa releases Sara of her bond to the League, presumably because Sara stopped Oliver from killing her. This grand Lance family reunion ends quickly after a drunken Laurel blames Sara for everything that has gone wrong, and throws her out of her apartment…and right into the arms of Oliver at the Arrow Cave for some sweet, sweet love making since Oliver also had some family-induced stress to work off…
Felicity Breaks Oliver’s Heart…Kind Of –
Through monitoring of Moira’s secret bank account from last season, Felicity notices a money transfer involving a doctor, and deduces that Moira is paying off a doctor to keep quiet about Thea being Malcolm Merlyn’s daughter. Felicity brings this information to Moira, who responds by throwing down the “I’ve seen the way you look at Oliver” gauntlet in undeterred queen bee fashion. What ever will Ms. Smoak do? If she tells Oliver he’ll hate her forever and ever and ever. Screw that. Felicity tells Oliver right before he’s to give a speech at a press conference announcing Moira’s run for mayor. In a kind of awesome scene, Oliver stumbles his way through his speech (“You don’t know my mother like I do”) before really sticking the landing, seeming like the doting son. Turns out he’s anything but since he later tells Moira she’s dead to him even though he’ll keep up mother-son appearances in public and around Thea.
Meanwhile, On the Island… –
Actually, they took mercy on us this week by sparing us the island flashbacks. Instead, we got flashbacks to a weekend from 6 years ago when Sara returned home from college to hang out with Laurel and her parents. She’s also there to secretly see Oliver, and through text messages we see she’s having doubts about continuing (or beginning) their affair. A contentious chat with Laurel erases those doubts quite nicely. Later, we jump ahead to see the moment Laurel first discovered the Queen’s Gambit had crashed, and then when Moira had the unfortunate task of informing Laurel and her father Sara was also on the ship.
THE REVIEW
It all started so similar to “Tremors” in that we again had cold open establishing the villain of the week (Nyssa) as a bad-ass in very comic book fashion. Why on Earth would Nyssa, an heir to the throne of a terrorist organization, actually attempt to enter Starling City through such legal, mundane channels as the Starling City International Airport? Mostly because the show wanted to economize its screen time by having her easily beat up a bunch of guys (airport security) in less than 20 seconds. How could she really just walk through the rest of the airport after that without having been caught on camera, made Starling City public enemy #1, etc.? You just have to go with it. That’s just the type of thing Arrow does now. In fact my insta-reaction to the entirety if “Heir to the Demon” was to exclaim, “That was some crazy shit right there!”
Some of the plot elements had been spoiled in the trailers meaning Sara and Nyssa’s prior lesbian relationship was no surprise nor should it have been given the very Frank Miller bisexual Catwoman from Batman: Year One version of Sara with Sin earlier this season. It’s the other, less salacious story elements that caught me off guard.
Laurel
Laurel had taken comfort earlier in the thought of Sara being alive via her “hallucination” thus making her ultimate rejection of Sara at the end a tad jarring. However, they used the flashbacks to better establish Laurel and Sara’s sibling rivalry over Oliver, previously hinted at by Sara in island flashbacks, as a way of better framing Laurel’s reaction. In Sara’s absence Laurel could romanticize their relationship and long for her return. Having Sara actually there shatters the fantasy, revealing unresolved hostilities. It’s not just that Sara ran off with Laurel’s boyfriend, and that her “death” effectively ended their parents’ marriage. It’s that Sara was alive this whole time without telling them, and that upon her return whatever psychological damage she caused to her family in the past was enhanced with actual physical damage (personally, I was stunned Dinah survived the episode).
Laurel’s not wrong, and this is an unexpectedly different direction after they heavily implied earlier this season that it would be Oliver and not Sara the Lances would hate once they heard her story and realized Oliver lied to them last year. That still might end up happening once everyone calms down long enough to actually gets some details out of Sara.
However, did they really need Laurel to be downing alcohol while making her anti-Sara declaration? Did they have to go full-on diva with it and have Laurel appear to throw her glass at the departing Sara? Can they please just stop now, seriously, stop what they are doing with Laurel? Yes, her reaction here actually does make sense, and is consistent with how she blamed her problems on Arrow earlier this season. However, as the person in the dark on all the secrets the audience already knows must Laurel continue to be placed in the least endearing story lines?
Felicity, Moira, Oliver
How surreal was it seeing Felicity having a tete-a-tete with Moira at Queen Manor? It initially felt entirely wrong, like the type of story line Felicity has no business being inserted into. However, it was a somewhat logical extension of Felicity’s partnership with Walter last season even though I must have missed how Felicity still does not trust Moira (and that Walter and Moira were so stupid that they kept the same secret bank account from last season). Plus, who else on this show would be able to figure out Moira’s secret on their own? It was a way of advancing that stale story line while also revealing Felicity has a nightmare of a mother and absentee father. This explains her clear daddy issue-influenced devotion to helping save Walter last season, and apparent abandonment issues wherein she fears she could lose Oliver just like she lost her father.
What of Oliver’s ultimate rejection of his mother? Like Laurel with Sara, Oliver is basically correct about Moira and her secrets. However, if everything last season with the Glades was okay for Oliver because Moira did it to protect her family from Malcolm then why is the same exact explanation insufficient for Oliver now? It is supposed to be Moira’s lies have finally become too much for him, but in this case isn’t she still just protecting her family from Malcolm? The way she won her trial earlier this season was used to hint at Oliver forming doubts about her, and this is the proverbial last straw, I suppose. However, his reaction seemed a tad extreme albeit well-acted by both parties.
Oliver & Sara
Oliver and Sara make sense as a romantic pairing, even without her showing off her own rock hard abs ala Oliver in the Arrow Cave. More so than a single other character on the show, even Huntress, Sara can understand what Oliver has been through. Essentially, she’s Huntress 2.0. which likely means they aren’t designed for the long-term. Even then, putting them together at the end of this episode felt slightly rushed even if at that very moment they understood what the other was going through with their family. It seemed like a hook-up which more happened because they needed something big to happen before leaving the air for the rest of the month due to the Olympics. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if the pop song (“Silhouette” by Active Child ft. Ellie Goulding) underscoring the scene hadn’t so clumsily telegraphed the conclusion, a CW-show convention done far better elsewhere and in prior episodes of Arrow. It felt like we were missing part of the story where maybe future island flashbacks will reveal a romantic re-union between the two thus explaining why Oliver this week was suddenly so passionate about Sara, echoing her own father in arguing how he needs her and can’t bear losing her again.
The League of Assassins
In a sense, they used Nyssa al Guhl as a “psycho ex-girlfriend” for Sara the way they regrettably did with Huntress for Oliver last season. It was a way to put a human face and emotion to The League, with Katrina Law making for an excellent Nyssa. However, the League was always just a tool to keep Sara away for a while, and this temporary reprieve from Nyssa removes that restriction while maybe kicking the League down the road as a villain on the horizon.
THE BOTTOM LINE
“Heir to the Demon” was effectively Arrow‘s second mid-season finale, turning things up to 11 to keep us talking for the rest of the month as they make way for the Olympics. Your enjoyment likely rests with how cool you are with the episode’s conclusions (Laurel rejecting Sara, Oliver rejecting his mom, etc.), and whether or not you bought some of the things this episode had these characters do. Plus, we are still stuck with a spiraling Laurel, and a campaign for Moira so logically flawed the show keeps having to convince us (this week via a news reporter) that it’s not so crazy after all. However, that speech from Oliver at Moira’s press conference was killer, and those action scenes against Nyssa were fantastic.
THE NOTES
1. Comic Book 101: Nyssa al Guhl (aka Nyssa Raatko)
- First Appearance: 2003
Nyssa began her life as a love child born out of Ra’s relationship with a Russian woman in the 1800s. Once older, Nyssa tracks down her father, who initiates her into the League, appointing her as his right-hand woman. However, like half-sister Talia she becomes disenchanted with Ra’s, goes off on her own, lives an impossibly long time thanks to the revitalizing powers of Lazarus pits, suffers considerable personal loss, all before plotting to kill Ra’s for having ignored her pleas for help during WWII. She succeeds, but joins Talia in embracing Ra’s world domination philosophies and becoming the new co-heads of The League of Assassins. You can read more about her history and eventual death at DC Wikia.
2. Do you think Diggle returns home ever day to his ex-wife/current girlfriend and the two just crack up as he tells her about all the crazy shit Oliver’s been up to? “His ex-girlfriend’s dead sister with whom he was having an affair is back! And now they’re together! While poor Felicity pines for him and makes visits to see coma boy in Central City…” Unfortunately, whenever Diggle’s gal would ask him, “So, then, what did you do?” his reply lately would have to be, “I mostly stood around, flexed my muscles, and occasionally reminded Oliver of how crazy everything was.”
3. Someone once gleefully joked Arrow clearly wants a ship for every possible couple on the show as well as all possible permutations of love triangles. They weren’t wrong.
4. How exactly will the Lances hear about Sara’s time on the island (if she tells them) and not ultimately put it together that if her experiences made her into a badass ninja then clearly Oliver must be Arrow?
5. Is it actually well-known that Moira’s affair with Malcolm Merlyn occurred one year before Thea’s birth? If so, how on Earth is Felicity the first one to figure this out?
What did you think of the episode? Hate it? Love it? Let us know in the comments section.
All of the pictures used in the above review, unless otherwise noted, came from CWTV.com © 2014 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Second Opinions
- Arrow: Heir to the Demon. Grade=A- (avclub.com)
- Arrow – Heir to the Demon (soipondered.wordpress.com)
We Minored in Film 
Thanks for an interesting review.
I have a few thoughts as I was reading it.
Nyssa may have started out looking like an ordinary Villain of the Week, but she became so much more. I like the kick-ass balletic fighting, and I liked that at the end she grew as a person and agreed to let Sara free of the LoA.
While I appreciated Sara’s flashback hairstyle, I wonder how her bangs could have grown in so quickly as she didn’t have them on the boat with Oliver.
I have no idea where they are going with Laurel now. In the flashbacks on the island and now in the Lance family home, it looks like Laurel really didn’t love Oliver in a mature way (nor he her) but he was part of the plan for her life. Move in with Oliver, go to law school, get engaged, get married. I’m surprised that Quentin was so okay with Laurel moving in with Oliver because not only was he a playboy (slept with at least 10 women, as Laurel knew), but neither of them had a job or really enough maturity to live together. It seems like Laurel still doesn’t get it, and she’s still blaming other people for what goes wrong in her life (Sara disappearing for 6 years, the Arrow for Tommy’s death).
Felicity was so over-matched in her scene with Moira. (But it was such fun to watch Susannah Thompson this episode.)
Moira said her affair with Malcolm was only the one time. Since everyone has said that Thea is Robert’s child, under ordinary circumstances, why would anyone suspect otherwise? It was the payment to her doctor from the super-secret account that tipped Felicity off. (Stupid of Walter to use that account, why didn’t Moira just sell some jewelry?)
I don’t think Oliver is super-passionate about Sara. She’s a friend and he feels a sense of responsibility for what happened to her because he was the one who took her onto the boat. The ending seemed like comfort sex for them both, especially as Sara had just said she loves Nyssa. Maybe we’ll get the answer to whether Felicity sees herself as part of a romantic trial when we see her reaction to them being together. She thought Oliver deserved better than Isabel; Sara is.
I hope that Felicity’s missing father turns out to be one of the good guys because there is a sad lack of older good guys on this show, but if he turns out to be a villain, I really hope he’s played by Chris Heyerdahl (Druitt on Sanctuary).
I’m with you – I’d really rather not have Felicity’s big twist turn out to be that her father is going to be one of season 3’s big bad guys or something. As for Heyerdahl, I can’t lie – I had to IMDB him as I have sadly yet to see Sanctuary. Turns out I’ve seen Heyerdahl on Supernatural where he was a rather memorable bad-guy in the mid-era of the show. So, it’s hard for me to look back on him playing hell’s lead torturer on Supernatural, and then imagine him as Felicity’s dad, although I see a bit of physical resemblance. Either way, Heyerdahl is Canadian, and has worked on various shows that film in Canada, just like Arrow does. So, there’s that.
I probably undersold Nyssa and Katrina Law in my review. She was functionally a villain of the week, easily the best one of those they’ve had in 2014, but she was pretty clearly an important new character whom we’ll see again. I particularly loved the moment at the beginning of her fight scene with Oliver where Law jumped back-down onto a table to collect her bow and jumped straight back to the floor with bow and arrow drawn and aimed, all in one fluid motion. That was impressive.
I probably gave away my “stereotypical guy who doesn’t pay enough attention to hair” status by not noticing Sara’s bangs in the flashback. You’re absolute right about them, though, and I’ve now seen several other people point that out.
I agree about how they presented Laurel in the flashbacks. They made it seem more like Oliver was but just another box to check off in the expected trajectory of her idealized life. I guess you could argue she was simply very focused, the type of girlfriend who has a relationship mapped out well beyond anything the boyfriend’s ever considered, but that didn’t seem to be the tone of her voice. I found it jarring because it’s not at all how I pictured Laurel and Oliver pre-island.
As for Felicity/Moira, Felicity says that Moira testified in her trail she had an affair with Malcolm 1 year before Thea was born. That’s not actually true. In “State Vs. Queen,” Moira actually says it was just “one time and happened a long time ago.” That’s really what I was trying to get at because I didn’t recall that Moira had been that specific during her trial. It’s only in responding to your comment that I re-checked “State Vs. Queen” to see what Moira actually said. My point was basically that if Moira had actually made a point in clarifying that her affair occurred 1 year before Thea was born wouldn’t there have been some reporter out there who found that extra detail suspicious and started looking into it, not trusting that Moira was telling the total truth.
I think Sara/Oliver was definitely a comfort sex situation. It just seemed like they made a point this episode to have Oliver seem extra attached to Sara, even before Nyssa showed up to put Sara into peril. It felt slightly ratcheted up from how he treated her the last time she was around. To this point, Felicity has been completely cool with Sara, with no sense of any kind of territorial jealousy. I’ve liked that. I agree it’ll be interesting to see how Felicity reacts to Sara being back, that is Oliver and Sara even let anyone know that at the very least they might have become friends with benefits.
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“Katrina Law making for an excellent Nyssa” – Though her accent was a little distracting at times, I enjoyed her character a lot. I didn’t see the previews so I was surprised of her relationship with Sara. She may have functioned as an adversary of the week, but she didn’t feel like a throwaway villain – I hope to see her return, maybe even in flashbacks.
“Laurel rejecting Sara, Oliver rejecting his mom” – While watching the episode, I liked how spiteful Laurel became towards Sara – I know I must be in the minority. When Sara poisoned herself I would have been so upset if she died. As for Oliver, I thought his “we’re done speech” was an extreme reaction considering everything that Moira was involved with before, but like you said it’s the final straw.
We got a brief taste of Moira vs Blood and I liked their chemistry. It’s funny how Blood is so confident and slick when he’s on his own but in scenes with Slade, he’s not.
Nyssa–I think there’s a slight Klaus/Rebekah/Elijah from Vampire Diaries/Originals quality to the accent Law used as Nyssa. There, the idea is those characters have been alive for thousands of years so they’ve adapted different traits from various accents, although Klaus and Rebekah are effectively British. Nyssa’s comic book counterpart lived for centuries throughout Europe and Gotham City meaning the producers and Law didn’t have a good read on what she’d sound like. So, they told THR they felt a certain degree of freedom with their interpretation, thus the hint of a British accent for her while also sounding like someone who’s lived all over the place.
I don’t know how surprised I would have been about the Sara/Nyssa union had the trailer not given it away. However, the Sara/Sin friendship was similar enough to Jen (Juno Temple)/Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises (or Batman: Year One) I had already figured Sara was probably bisexual.
Completely agree about Katrina Law’s performance as Nyssa. Can’t wait to see her again.
Oliver/Moira – The producers say that although Moira is not helping plan any earthquake devices again she remains effectively unchanged from last season. She’s still making deals in restaurants, keeping secrets, manipulating her loved ones (and Felicity). She hasn’t been fundamentally altered by ordeal in prison/court, and Oliver’s rejection of her is part of the next step in her evolution, whatever that will be. When they said that, it made Oliver rejecting Moira sound a lot better. However, I don’t know – as I did in my review, I can rationalize it, and the producers make it sound great. I get it; I just don’t know that I buy Oliver reacting in such an extreme way based upon how they’ve written his relationship with his mom this season.
There was so much going on this episode I didn’t even get around to mentioning Moira’s scene with Blood. However, I’m with you – it was great as is Sebastian’s public face versus cowering presence when around Slade.
First of all, i got my wish – Sara and Oliver 🙂 They somehow feel naturally to me, probably because of their similar journeys and suffering. It still was kinda rushed but i don’t mind. And finally there is a canon – GA and BC so i guess they covered that.
I am really not sure, like most of us, where are they going with Laurel. Is she becoming next BC or a villain? I said this many times i like the actress so much, but the character grrr… Maybe they are making her evil. She is such a good actress and they’re wasting her talent so far…
And finally, Felicity’s back-story, yay 🙂 Monster mom and mystery dad. That explains a lot of things she said and did (looking for Walter, investigating, hates mysteries…). I understood that they were pushing her story to next season, so i suppose her dad will be a major bad guy. Also for the record, i don’t think Felicity should be with Oliver, she is just too good for him.
I’ve expected a Sara and Oliver pairing from practically the moment she showed up, based on the way they had Caity Lotz playing her scenes with Oliver. I just didn’t expect it to happen like this or so soon. I’ll admit I had a slight, “Not like this,” reaction to it since they were rushing things here. However, just because they hooked up doesn’t necessarily mean they’re together now. They could just be friends with benefits, or a one-time thing that confused both of them.
With Laurel, they are having her react a tad selfishly but ultimately far more rationally than her parents. It’s the “It’s great you’re alive and everything, but where the hell have you been? Our lives fell apart, and you mean to tell me that at least for the past couple of years you could have told us you were alive but didn’t?” line of thought. Add on top of that everything with Oliver, and now Laurel being poisoned and their mother almost dying as direct result of Sara’s actions and I can get why Laurel would react like that. It’s just hard to watch Laurel again being used almost like an antagonist, starting with Arrow earlier and then up against Moira in court and now opposing Sara, giving drunken voice in this case to arguments the show doesn’t seem to fully care about since they seem to want us to really like Sara. I guess they could be making her a villain whose sees herself as the hero of the story, but I think it’s still just all part of their plan to tear her down on the path to eventually replacing Sara as BC.
The hint of Felicity’s back story does explain quite a bit, and I was surprised to hear as much as we did since they had said they were pushing that back until later. I’m with you in assuming the big twist will reveal her deadbeat dad to be one of season 3’s big bads or something. As for Felicity/Oliver, poor Felicity’s only present alternative (Barry Allen) is getting his own show, where he’ll have his own comic-book based love interest. It’s unlikely they’d have Felicity and Barry keeping a long-term, cross-show relationship. So, for her and love interests it’s pretty much if not Oliver then who else is there, at this point.
You know I’m shocked and, really, saddened to consistently hear people say Laurel has the “least endearing storyline” just because she’s dealing with things on an emotional level. Meanwhile, the people with the most endearing storylines are liars and murderers?
I thought the episode was pretty great until they screwed up all the good feelings with the ending. Sara tells Laurel if she wants to blame someone, blame her. So when Laurel does blame her, Sara does exactly what she did six years ago and runs to jump into Oliver’s pants just to spite Laurel. She didn’t even attempt to apologize to Laurel but, oh, Laurel’s a witch for not immediately jumping for joy when she finds out her sister has been playing dead for six years.
Oliver: Give her some time.
Sara: I gave her six years.
No, you idiot. You didn’t even give her six seconds!
At any rate, Kelly, I know these episode reviews are mostly about the episodes themselves but how do you feel about them pretty much trashing a good deal of what has been stated/has happened in season one and even in season two just for the sake of trashing the potential Laurel/Oliver relationship?
So Oliver was lying all those times he said it was the thought of Laurel that got him through the island. “I’ll never leave you” turns into “get her a cab.” Him telling Laurel he couldn’t tell her he didn’t love her because it wouldn’t be true. Moira telling Laurel she liked the person Oliver was when he was with Laurel. Oliver telling Laurel she made him a better man. Even Sara saying he was always about Laurel in the episode where they finally met up.
All of that’s out the window all the sudden and they’re assassinating the character of everyone for the sake of putting Oliver/Laurel to rest when they’d been pretty damn clear that anything besides a friendship for them would be a mistake anyway. But apparently even a friendship is out of the question because with a friend like Oliver, who needs enemies?
You know, i recently discovered this show so i remember those things from s1 you mentioned. You are right, but it never seemed like some epic love to me or to anyone i spoke to. Maybe the actors didn’t connect, plus the writers really buried them. They lost me at the beginning when i saw that he cheated on her with his sister and then Laurel and Tommy of all people. They made such a drama and such a mess that for me all those things Moira and everyone said seemed so forced and unnatural. What i said about Felicity, goes for Laurel too. Laurel deserves someone better. Oliver deserves Sara. They match. For now, we’ll see what happens in s3.
I don’t care if it seemed like an epic love to anyone. The point is, they set up a story line. A story line they were sticking to at least until the point where Sara said to Oliver when she showed up back in town, “I guess some things never change. You and her, always and forever.”
Now, all the sudden, apparently Oliver really loved Sara all along and is willing to trash even his friendship with Laurel? No one should be okay with this, not because they like or dislike Laurel, but because it means the writers can now hand-wave, ret con and trash anything they want instead of actually telling a consistent, honest story.
It’s up for debate if Oliver is really supposed to have loved Sara all along. After all, nothing in those flashbacks with Sara’s text messages actually alter what we previously knew about their affair, which was that Oliver was simply self-sabotaging after things with Laurel got too serious. We are getting more of Sara’s point of view, who was motivated by her deep-seeded sibling rivalry with Laurel. Plus, a prior flashback established that Sara had a crush on Oliver before he was even with Laurel. That could be seen as retconning, building up Sara/Oliver by tearing down Laurel/Oliver. However, it could also simply be us finally getting the point of view of the third party of that Sara/Laurel/Oliver triangle.
Sara and Oliver could simply be a temporary thing, ala Oliver and Isabel or Oliver and Shado on the island. At some point this season Oliver is going to find out that Laurel was right the whole time about Sebastian, and they could use that to undo some of the damage between those characters. However, if Laurel finds out Sara and Oliver have so much as contemplated a one-night stand that’s going to be a whole world of more drama for those three, especially since Oliver rejected Laurel’s drunken advances earlier this season.
Basically, I’m kind of with you, and I get what you’re saying. However, I’m just not completely to the point where I think they’ve completely trashed the great Oliver/Laurel romance from last season in favor of some new everlasting love between Oliver and Sara. It is on the serious backburner, though, somewhat a casualty of the producers’ decision this season to make pretty much any female of a certain age a potential love interest for Oliver – thus Sara, Isabel, and the Olicity pandering.
Pretty much everything they did last season built Laurel up as the love of Oliver’s life. Heck, Laurel is the initial reason Huntress breaks up with him. I found the Oliver/Laurel pairing so inevitable it inspired me to write this (https://weminoredinfilm.com/2013/05/15/the-burden-of-canon-can-we-talk-about-arrows-laurel-oliver-problem/) last year. This year has been one retcon of season 1 after another, and you just have to go with it because when this show is clicking, like during Oliver’s fight scene with Nyssa, it’s impossibly entertaining. However, that doesn’t mean I’m cool with it. If I was writing season 2 both Sara and Malcolm Merlyn would have stayed dead, there would be no superpowers at all, Felicity would have her own geeky love interest not earmarked for his own show, Oliver/Laurel would be working through their guilt over Tommy, and they would have remembered that their template is Christopher Nolan, not Smallville. But I also never would have brought in Barry Allen nor ever thought to include villains like Dollmaker, Isabel Rochev, and full-on Deathstroke.
The show still does kind of remember that Oliver cares about Laurel, the only non-family member to visit her in the hospital. She’s definitely not a priority for him, though. Some of this is just a functional shift in this show after they wrote Tommy out. Without him and Oliver’s running of Verdant, they removed what had been their most organic method of initiating Oliver/Laurel scenes last season. Now, with Oliver at Queen Consolidated, and the producers attempting to keep all stories centered around Oliver in some way they’ve struggled with using Laurel, especially after bringing back Sara and ramping up the Olicity pandering from episodes 5-10. So, they’ve made her an antagonist on multiple occasions.
From the very beginning I’ve had a tough time actually buying Laurel’s spiral into depression and self-abuse. I get that they want Tommy’s death to have consequences, and Laurel has considerable guilt attached to his death. However, because Laurel had gone through so much trauma with Oliver/Sara “dying” and her parents divorcing, yet still managed to become the strong, self-assured woman of the first season I never ever envisioned her spiraling out of control. In general, a lot of what they’ve done with Laurel (and several other characters) this season has been a continual game of the audience, “Wow, I thought I knew that character better than that,” to which the show says, “Well, you didn’t, because now they’re doing/saying this thing you’d absolutely never expect.” So, while I understand Laurel’s reaction to Sara I’ve just grown tired with what they have done with her since the season premiere.
As for Sara, to be fair she does actually apologize to Laurel, who responds by tossing a glass at her. I will be curious if they ever specify at which point Sara actually became capable of calling home to verify she was alive, e.g., could she have done that from Ivo’s ship?
Heir to the Demon – the betrayal continues.
There are so many things I like about this episode and so many things I don’t like. Let’s start with what I did like.
Firstly I want to declare that I just love the director of this episode Wendey Stanzler, she did a superb job this episode, regardless of what I think of certain elements of the script and the direction it appears to be taking.
Who could not love Nyssa, she is one mean badass woman who has a take no prisoner approach. Her fight scenes were amazing, however how cool the airport scene was, I agree with you Kelly I don’t see an assassin like Nyssa taking normal transport methods, I just assumed they would have a private jet or something, or at least arrive by stealth.
Sorry just one side issue, a thing that always gets me is that they’ve made this version of Oliver Queen a far better fighter than his comic book character. Green Arrow is the guy who does not neat tricks with Arrows, yet they keep making him in this series as this brilliant fighter, and in reality it is Black Canary (Dinah Laurel Lance) who is the world famous fighter. I’d prefer him to be a lesser fighter than they have made out, and rely more on his bow and arrow. Gripe over!
Now for what I don’t like.
I found pairing Felicity up against Moira just felt flat, honestly Susanna was way too strong for Emily, as she appeared very wooden in contrast. I also felt it highly unusual for Felicity to take the approach she took in uncovering Moira’s secret. I am sure there are better ways to reveal that secret, with similar drama, to me it just felt like more Olicity fanservice.
Sara proves yet again to me that she really hasn’t matured in so many ways. Sara expects that Laurel should have gotten over the hurt in the six years that passed, yet she hasn’t matured emotionally in all that time. Sara acts just like she was 6 years ago, she is selfish, with an attitude that I’ll get back at you ‘Laurel’ by betraying you yet again.
I’ve know I’ve stated my distaste for the Sara Lance storyline in order to tell the beginning of the Black Canary story, and this is just another case in point. For anyone who believes the whole Laurel stole you away from me story shared by Sara on the island then you should take a look at this link I’ve post below. Here you’ll find the true nature of Sara Lance, she has a history of trying to steal other people’s boyfriends as you will see from this comic book story from the show (which they use to show some of the backstory of some of the characters, in this case Laurel). You’ll also see Laurel’s purpose in life and how she is a better fighter than Sara.
While I find this season trying to keep Oliver and Laurel apart, I believe they are doing this to push Laurel into that deep, lonely dark place so she can transform into her alter ego – the Black Canary. To do this, they have made Oliver looking at Laurel in a different light, and part of it is the Sara’s story about Laurel, and her accusations against Sebastian Blood. I think we will get to see a more honest discussion between Oliver and Laurel in the next episode, where we will see that Emmy worthy scene. So I think seeing Oliver and Sara together will push Laurel off the cliff and she will try to end her life, but Oliver will finally see the depths of her despair and they will clear some of the air around them.
The Laurel flashback scenes we saw only confirmed to me that Laurel truly loved Oliver, she saw her life with him, it continues the same story we saw in the season 1 scenes. Sara didn’t like the idea of Laurel settling down with Oliver and she did what she could to destroy their relationship. Of course, Oliver was not innocent in all this, he played his part. But if Sara was so concerned for Laurel, then why did she say to her mother in the season 1 episode that she was in love with Oliver and had to follow her heart. Sara wanted to simply take Laurel’s perfectly planned life away from her, and we saw in this episode she has succeeded. They say when people experience trauma they shut down, simply so they can function, which is what Laurel had to do. However, all it does is postpone the inevitable, so Laurel is finally experiencing the raw emotion of that betrayal, which of course will be shoved in her face yet again. It’s a sad story for everyone involved.
My predictions for Sara and Oliver, well it doesn’t look bright. I think we will see Slade sinking the Amazo in ep2.15 The Promise, and both Sara and Oliver will think each other died in the resulting explosions/sinking. We know that Sara had no idea of what happened to Slade, as she asks about him in the episode 2.04 The Crucible. And I suggest that Slade thought similarly. So I think when he realises that Sara survived and is back in Starling City, and with Oliver – that is going to make him extremely angry. He will feel even more vindicated to seek revenge for Shado. So I suggest that Sara will fall victim against Slade’s war on Oliver Queen.
In terms of Sara and Oliver being suited to one another well I disagree, I don’t see that Oliver and Sara are very much alike. I think Oliver and Sara in a relationship bring out the worst in one another, they show their self-absorbed sides. They don’t care who they hurt as we will get another glimpse of in the next episode. For me Sara never gave Laurel the opportunity to get used to the idea of her being alive. Oliver told her that Laurel eventually forgave him for his part in the betrayal. While Sara never tries to apologise and seek forgiveness from Laurel, no I don’t see a passing sorry as you leave the apartment a sincere attempt. According to Sara, Laurel had six years to get over what happened and forgive her, but Laurel had buried her hate and grief for so long that she wasn’t able to move on with her feelings towards Sara. Plus, add the lies and the fact their lives had been placed in danger, but still Sara said nothing. Also, why does Sara not apply the same logic to herself, as she had six years to think about what she would say if the situation ever occurred. The reason she didn’t, is because Sara is an extremely self-absorbed person, she was unable to set aside her feelings for no longer than 30minutes before she was knocking on Oliver’s door looking to hook-up. Sara was showing spite and again betrayed her sister.
So where does it leave us, well Laurel is continuing her decline as moves towards her attitude changing so she is mentally ready at least to become a vigilante – as the Black Canary. Oliver and Sara will be playing happy couple ignorant of how others around them are feeling. But it will all start to come to a head from episode 2.18. Of course, we can expect Laurel and Sara to be reunited in episode 2.17 Birds of Prey.
This episode was very messy and times disappointing, but I’ve almost come to expect it from Arrow. Anything else I suppose I would be kidding myself.