Jessie Robertson reviews the nineteenth episode of Arrow season 7…
Arrow, unfortunately, is losing steam. It’s not just the notes out there in the ether about Arrow’s last season being season 8, and Felicity Smoak leaving the show at the end of this season. The Ninth Circle plot line feels like exactly it’s namesake; moving in one continuous loop of interest.
The major point of interest tonight was our special guest star: Ernie “Winston Zeddemore” Hudson! I remember hearing about this spot a long time ago and had kind of forgotten about it so it was a pleasant surprise to see him pop up. At this point, it can be a bit tough to swallow that Diggle has a mystery relative we had not heard of yet, but as soon as he introduces him as a “hothead” you can definitely see how that scenario would play out: his stepfather was a career military guy who was never around when he wasn’t training Diggle hardcore through his “Spartan Drills.” Another interesting bit of trivia when you hear that.
There is a whole sideplot where The Ninth Circle has stolen an important world ending piece of tech and Diggle and step dad need to retrieve but there’s no trust there; Diggle has always believed that his father died under his watch and has resented him for it but it turns out, thanks to Felicity, that wasn’t the case. It’s actually a sweet moment when Diggle comes around after learning this information and these two have great chemistry for sure.
On the other subplot this week, Felicity’s Archer program has fallen into the wrong hands (predictably.) In one of the most factually ridiculous scenes, soldiers under Hudson’s command break in through the ceiling to save her when the Ninth Circle attacks. When they have difficulties rescuing this highly valued tech, Felicity has to make the hard choice to destroy her beloved tech as it’s just too dangerous and unsafe to be out in the world. This ending scene feels like not only an easy out to introduce Archer in the future but it’s also a very bad message, in my eyes: not that Felicity Smoak is the real draw, the real talent, not her hardware, but that she is backed by millions and millions….and millions of dollars. There are a lot of people that could DO amazing things with those resources (and just as many that couldn’t) but I just didn’t like the way that was presented.
To end off, unfortunately, a thread that felt new and intriguing is petering out: the future flash forwards. The introduction of Laurel last week, something no one wanted, and now this week, J.J. being a bad guy in a strange Deathstroke worship group and will they-won’t they chemistry that’s fizzling, plus no William this week, it’s got no momentum.
Rating – 6/10: The only bright spot tonight is the relationship we see between David Ramsey and Ernie Hudson.
Jessie Robertson
