Let's start with the storylines I didn't love, one of which was Oliver in prison. I don't understand what was happening here for multiple reasons. First of all, since when do prisons torture their inmates and through psychiatrists at that? The man claimed that he was there to make sure that Oliver wouldn't be dangerous in level 2 but it seemed more like he was interested in breaking Oliver and unless this guy is the Demon or working for Diaz, why would he care? Straight up it was so nonsensical that I was waiting for the reveal until the episode ended. He literally attempted to torture Oliver through not only solitary confinement but through lack of food, water and even electrical pulses. Let's pretend for a second that he was trying to do good, why in the hell would he care to rehabilitate Oliver cause it's not like Oliver's up for parol so convincing him that he shouldn't be a vigilante seems pointless if he's just going back to jail.
My other problem with this storyline was more on a meta scale. Not only am I annoyed that we're going to try another arc where Oliver gives up the Green Arrow hood which we seem to do practically every season, but it makes no sense cause of course Oliver is going to be a vigilante again otherwise this wouldn't be Arrow! The only way I'd be okay with what happened here is if Oliver was either pretending to go along with what that man wanted so that he'd get to level 2 or if this was a way to parol Oliver cause I'm already a little over prison.
The other storyline that I didn't love was the Dinah/Rene one which seemed to be a repeat of the same thing we went through in episode 1 of this season. Dinah is still all no vigilantes and Rene is like yes vigilantes and when this storyline was shown in the first episode I was on Dinah's side cause everything she was saying made sense. They couldn't be seen being for vigilantes or being vigilantes or their FBI immunity would go through. In this episode though Dinah was like buckling down on this but in a more extreme manner in that she was not only basically ignoring criminals just to catch the new Green Arrow but she also arrested Rene for trying to help him. It would be a lot more believable if we didn't know that she was a vigilante at some point. I did like Diggle basically asking her why she was so adamant and I did like that she gave a bit of a better reason in that working in the shadows leads to heartbreak and though I disagree, this is very much in line with Dinah's character in that she will choose something to blame for her loss.
It was also a little weird that she ended the episode being like maybe sometimes we need vigilantes to work with the cops and I'm super confused cause that's pretty much what the show has been doing for like 6 seasons and it's pretty much against everything Dinah has been saying. At the same time if this storyline is a set up for the show to basically make vigilantes work for the police like a special vigilante squad, I would take back all my complaints cause again this feels like the only way that Oliver can get out of prison and be the Green Arrow again if everyone knows who he is.
Now let's talk the storylines I was into this week and start with Felicity and Black Siren. I loved this team up so much cause these two characters are so different which leads to a fun dynamic. I never thought that Felicity would reach out to Black Siren but it makes sense in hindsight cause who else would be so hyper-focused on catching Diaz like Felicity wants than her since they both have lost everything cause of him. I loved that Black Siren was the one to talk Felicity off the ledge cause I really wouldn't have been down for Felicity truly going dark and torturing someone and it was a great speech Black Siren gave that paralleled Felicity. I loved that they ended up with a solid plan but I feel like they're definitely going to need backup. Maybe ARGUS or the SCPD or even the new Green Arrow? I also liked the parallel of Felicity wanting to torture the Silencer and Rene warning her how it breaks a person to Oliver being tortured in prison which I've been noticing that the writing likes to do this season and makes me smile cause it makes Oliver and Felicity feel like a team even when they're apart.
The final storyline this season was the flashforwards and I know I said last week that I didn't miss them but that was before the show decided to do the thing I love and that's see characters I love in the future. I still have doubts about where this is going cause I don't love knowing that everyone I love ends up in a terrible place unless somehow things end up changing in the future but that's not usually an Arrow thing to do. If this was Flash or Legends, I'd be so much more down but I'm worried about the Arrow writers writing themselves into a corner. That said, it was fun seeing William and Roy go to Smoak Tech (this show needs to stop teasing us and give us this already!!) and meeting future Dinah and Zoe as the new Black Canary. It's really interesting that the reason Star City is a mess is cause the Glades rose up and walled off the city but it was super weird that neither William or Roy knew which okay I could wave off Roy if he was living on Lian Yu for long enough but even if William lived in another city, this seems like something that would be well known. It was also weird that Zoe was like Rene would never be here for this and that's seems out of character for him especially if his daughter and best friend were still here! I did like the reveal that Felicity died cause it makes me feel better about William running around telling Roy that his parents abandoned him (cause I still don't see a world in which either Oliver or Felicity would abandon him unless they died or were captured or in prison) but it does lead to the question of who's programming the coordinates in that case. Future Curtis maybe? Or a child of Oliver and Felicity? Or maybe even grown up JJ?
Okay the promo for next week seems to live up to my theory about that weird psychiatrist dude not being on the up and up. He's definitely the Demon but my question is do we think that this is the last episode that Oliver will spend in prison? We know the midseason finale should be episode 6 and then the crossover is episode 7 so he has to be out by episode 7 but I can see the show letting him out at the end of episode 5 or the top of episode 6 so we can see an episode of Oliver readjusting to the world before going off to fight again.
No Flash this week so I'll see you all Friday for my weekly drama reviews!
xoxo Allie
No comments:
Post a Comment