by Chelsea Dee Doyle, Editor-At-Large

It’s annoying that there are aspects about this episode I very much like, but it sort of requires me to not be annoyed about how bad this part of the season has been. Or about how completely unreasonable and OOC characters have been acting. If you told me there would be an episode where Oliver was forced to go public and it was his choice, I would love that. I find that part of this very interesting. If you told me Roy would then give himself up to save his teacher and adopted brother figure, I would be even more pleased, because their relationship is one of the best parts of the show. Roy’s really been given a back seat lately to everything that’s going on, and it worries me this means he’s on a martyr course now. Maybe he’ll be dead soon enough. I hope not, because Roy and Thea are the two characters who have come the farthest, and in the best ways. They are not those angry or shallow teenagers anymore; they’ve grown up and they’ve established really poignant relationships with each other and other people. One of my absolute favorite moments of this season so far was in the Wildcat episode, when Roy told Oliver not to abandon him, and he simply said ‘never.’ And you believed it, because Team Arrow is a family. I wish we got even more time with them all re-establishing their relationships since Oliver came back. There are so many ways his death and return could have been handled better, but the show burned through all that good will. Oh well.

Previously on Arrow, Ra’s al Ghul offered Oliver the chance to be his heir. Oliver said nope, so now he’s trying to destroy the Arrow’s image by killing people. Last week he had Oliver’s former friend Maseo murder the mayor, and then take a shot at Felicity, who barely survives this week thanks to quick work from her dunce boyfriend Ray. If only the arrow took care of his character, ah well. I tried to zone out of most of his story this episode because I still find him unbearable, especially since everyone’s just seemed to forgot that last episode he electrocuted Roy and planned on arresting all of them. Ha ha okay fine. He gets shot with an arrow and almost dies, and Felicity takes a risk by giving him these nano bots that would go in and deal with a blood clot. Her mother shows up for support, and encourages her to do it, and they again reference the fact Felicity’s father is probably a supervillain. Ray lives and tells Felicity he loves her, and wow that seems a little fast, but I don’t doubt it either, because she’s awesome, and Ray does seem like the kind of person who puts his heart into things quickly. It’s a quality I don’t hate; he does seem sincere, even if it’s sincerely dumb at times. She of course can’t say it back because she’s in love with Oliver, which her mother helpfully points out. But Felicity isn’t sure what to do in this case, because of everything else happening in the episode. Is anyone enjoying this love triangle? No one? That’s what I thought.

What’s happening is that Quentin meets with Ra’s al Ghul, and he’s told that Oliver is the Arrow. See, Quentin’s gone right off the OOC wagon where now he’s horrendously annoying. It’s like he’s lost all common sense and/or forgotten much of his character plot the past few seasons. I understand he’s upset about Sara, and they’re trying to pass it off as grief, but yeah, no. He supported the vigilante, he knew how many lives he saved, it’s ridiculous to keep putting all the faults of the city on Oliver. Sara made her choices and she wouldn’t appreciate what her father was doing now in her name. Clearly if the head of the assassins is on your side/helping you, Quentin, you’ve hit a low point. There’s no way he can logically believe Oliver killed the mayor. He’s just on a vengeance kick. Yikes. They decide to hunt down all of them, and that leads to a pretty fantastic chase scene. I’m shocked he didn’t immediately go after Diggle though. Oliver hides there temporarily, and I’m like, it’s no secret Dig is his security. He would be one of the first people you should check out. Whatever. Oliver decides to hand himself over to Quentin because he feels like Ra’s has given him no other options.

The thing to remember too is that some of the things they talk about here, Oliver is guilty of. None of the kills recently, mind you, but he was a murderer before when he first got to the city. Except Quentin like conveniently forgot about that when it worked for him, so zip sympathy. The flashbacks are per usual are completely pointless, where Oliver meets Shado’s twin sister (SERIOUSLY IS THIS A SOAP OPERA?) when he has Maseo and Tatsu’s kid. He reunites with his friends and tells her that her family is dead. I am so disappointed in the flashbacks this season, they’ve really been boring, and I thought that would be nearly impossible to do on Arrow. Oliver gets arrested in exchange for Quentin not arresting the others, but they stage a rescue. Or at least Roy does, when he hands himself over and confesses to being the Arrow instead. He mentioned earlier that Oliver saved his life, and this seems to be him doing it back. But even if Roy did go to jail for it, what is Oliver going to do, never put on the bow again? Eventually he will and he’ll be at square one again with them hunting him down. It’s a nice sentiment, Roy, but long term not helpful. I think this season will likely end with Oliver taking Ra’s offer, and I’m wondering now why. To save Roy? Will someone die and he needs the Lazarus Pit? I feel like the Lazarus Pit is a good option here, a good reason for Oliver to go to the dark side. I guess we’ll see, but my enthusiasm is waning.

I do like Oliver turning himself in, I’d be interested to see where that is headed, or if they’ll find a way to fix it. I hope not, because I think there’s a wealth of stories this could open into, if they wanted it to. I’d like to explore more Team Arrow’s affection for each other, like the friendship with Roy and Oliver. The chase was fun. All of those aspects I liked, but Ray’s storyline was boring, Quentin has been holding the Idiot Ball for weeks, and my patience is thin. Come back, Arrow that I loved! I know you’re in there somewhere.

Rating:
ComicsOnline gives Arrow Season 3 Episode 18 3 out of 5 Dramatic Chase Scenes

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