Jessie Robertson reviews the twenty-first episode of Arrow season 7…
Let’s get right into it this week: the main philosophical issue that has been a sticking point since season 2 rears it’s head again this week, but in a different way. After Emiko blew up the abandoned building the team was in, Oliver became trapped under a cement block (not really: a piece of rebar blocked his way out). During this time, he sees Tommy (best friend who died very similarly in season 1). This makes a lot of sense as Oliver isn’t the most forthcoming person, or even introspective. It totally clicks for him to imagine his friend in this manner to wrestle with the issues he has going through his head. For one, as this Tommy persona states, they both had sisters they didn’t know about. Oliver’s entire time during the episode is him trying to escape a room he can’t get out of while debating with Tommy about the best way to handle Emiko and issues of both of their parents rear their ugly heads.
It’s a very good conversation and I think it really says something that at this point, season 7, when Tommy reasons with Oliver about what choice to make, he remarks that Oliver is a good person deep down; there is no reference to the demon that lives within him as there was just 2 seasons ago when he struggled with these same issues. I was upset at the swerve here though: I legitimately thought he had escaped and the whole fight with Emiko was happening. Another cheap Arrow death: the team this time killed but it was all a frightening dream scenario Oliver had cooked up to show the consequences of what just killing Emiko would bring. Stephen Amell’s read of “I miss you every day, Tommy,” was quite good though.
As for the rest of the crew, they didn’t get as much screen time but it was well used. I like how Rene legit said “everything we worked for this year is gone,” in reference to SCPD knowing about Roy’s murders and the team’s lying to cover it up. I felt like Juliana Harkavay (Black Canary) was subtly very good here but I think we could have pulled more. She’s definitely a second tier character on the show but the law and being a policewoman is her identity and I like how she was more than prepared to sacrifice Roy (for his own actions) to prevent herself from losing that. Only when she saw him in action and how far he was willing to go to be a hero did she go back on that decision in a nice scene.
Felicity and Elena find themselves in the crosshairs of SCPD but only for a moment: Felicity, in her own right, is a hero, there’s no doubt at this point and she proves it once again by escaping their grasps with a modified Canary cry rigged into her own apartment. Both women have chemistry in that fast talking comedic way and we get a lot of it but Felicity pulls in the serious at a second’s notice very well here. I don’t think she has much chemistry with Emiko and we’ll see where that scene leads as it felt fairly pointless.
Finally, we wrap up with our future timeline and I’ll say it again, the only person I have any interest in here is William. He’s clearly not the fighting hero but he has his uses and proves them once again. When future Felicity tried to talk her way out of the way they treated him as a child, I liked how he saw right through it and I think it is a nice self-admonishment of the writers of the show and how William, as a character, was treated in the last few seasons.
Rating: 8/10: All in all, a well crafted episode where several characters hit upon realizations that will lead them wiser into the finale: The jury’s still out on Emiko as a main season long villain as her performances in the last few episodes of have been a bit one note.
Jessie Robertson
