Arrow - S3E19 - Broken Arrow
Previously on Arrow, ‘Public Enemy’
This week’s villain of the week is an off-brand Cyclops, without the good looks but with the ability to control his power without the aid of terrible sunglasses, which I say is a pretty good trade off (should I not be mixing my comic brands?)
The real bad guy this episode, however, has to be Detective Lance, who is not thrilled to end his Oliver Queen witch-hunt with Roy turning himself in. Oliver is also pretty unhappy with this development, and tries to confess to being the Arrow. Laurel shows up just in time to stop this idiotic move and gets Oliver released.
Ray tries to backpedal from last episode’s love confession, telling Felicity that it was really more of a “love with a lower case L”. Poor man really has no chance there.
Detective Lance gets a warrant and breaks his way into the secret base below Verdant. Why is it that he is best at police work when he’s getting in the way? Luckily, as usual, Felicity is way ahead of all the men in her life (Diggle being the exception, naturally) and has wiped their prints from the base, leaving only Roy’s behind.
The gang go to Ray for help dealing with their metahuman problem, which leads to the world’s most awkward high five between Oliver and Ray, tied for most awkward moment with an aborted kiss between Felicity and Ray. Basically it’s as awkward as all the other times Ray and Oliver have shared a room. Ray goes to fight the metahuman, but barely gets out of there in one piece after discovering that the guy absorbs energy. What are the odds?
Oliver tells Ray that he needs to trust himself, not just rely on the suit. It’s not bad advice for Ray, but I think everyone would have been a little bit better off this season if Oliver had done a little less trusting himself, and a little more literally anything else.
Roy’s fellow prisoners seem intent on breaking his chiseled little face, but it turns out that Roy is, in fact, a pretty good fighter with or without his arrows.
When Oliver hears Ray’s been attacked, he tries to run off and do something rash, but Diggle tells him not to. God, everything would be so much better if Diggle was in charge. Or Felicity. Really anyone not Oliver right now. Felicity talks him down as usual.
She heads over to a power station to figure out where the metahuman is sucking his power from, only to run into him there. This, of course, makes it necessary for Ray and Oliver to team up to control the suit. Oliver’s brawn and Ray’s brains, Felicity’s dream.
Ray gets stabbed by a guard in prison, and gets pronounced dead. Everyone was very sad for a minute,but thankfully it was all an elaborate ruse. Boy, the plans do go a lit better when they keep Oliver out of the loop, don’t they? They really should have told Thea though. Has the girl not lost enough? There was literally no reason not to tell her ahead of time.
Roy heads off into the great unknown, in a very conspicuous car, after a nice sendoff from the original team Arrow (and an uncomfortable Ray in the background who seems to have come to the realization that Olicity is endgame). It all would have been a lot sadder if I weren’t so furious about Roy not saying goodbye to Thea, or TELLING HER THAT HE WAS ALIVE!
Hey, on the subject of Thea, Ra’s Al Ghul turns up at her apartment and kills her to give Oliver motivation. Hey writers, how about we stop using the female characters as motivation and instead use them as you know, characters in their own right? Just a thought. She’d better be getting Lazarused very soon. They can do two-for-the-price-of-one and bring Sara along, just in time for the spinoff.
Notes:
Ray and Cisco make a great pair, but now I can’t stop wondering how they feed the metahumans in STAR Labs.
I have long since stopped caring about what’s happening in the flashbacks, which is a real shame because Tatsu and Maseo are the best. Can they go to the spinoff too?
Quote of the week would have to be a tie between Felicity’s answer to Oliver asking if she gets as anxious when he’s out in the field as when it’s Ray: ”I can’t think of an answer to that question that doesn’t get me in trouble.”
Or Oliver’s reaction to Ray’s babbling: “There’s a decent chance that you and Palmer are related.”
