Jessie Robertson reviews the twelfth episode of Arrow season 6…
Hey Guys; so besides having a full time job, 2 children and a wife, it’s a bit hard to watch Arrow some weeks in a timely fashion; I did get a chance to this week but man, I’ve been struggling with the narrative in this weeks’ episode. It hasn’t set well with me.
Let’s get right to it; last week, we found out Vince Sobel (Vigilante) was an undercover operative inside Cayden James’ organization; his ties to Dinah, his history of being an undercover cop plus the danger of Cayden James, this storyline was showing real legs. But, in typical CW fashion, it’s over. Vince was caught, quickly, and killed this week by Cayden James, spoiling many, many weeks of inner turmoil between Vince, Dinah and James; the idea of Oliver and John having to choose between saving his life and the lives of many was an extra wrinkle that, while a moral conundrum and good for drama, felt unnecessary and bloated honestly.
Quite frankly, and Arrow (as well as other CW shows) have both proven me wrong and right before, but to spoil Dinah’s probably best storyline for the season so quickly, just feels cheap for her. They didn’t really give her much to play with going ahead on whether or not to trust him already; it only took one week, but this could have played out much longer and much better. The only good thing coming out of it was Vince’s death scene; he was, well, I’m not sure what happened to him while he died, but Laurel herself screamed into his ear until he died, which looks to fuel Dinah’s fire as a vigilante further on; it also throws more wrenches into Laurel’s journey to possibly find out more about Quentin as well.
Paul Blackthorne again knocks it out of the park with his scene with Laurel tonight; the set up of the abandoned warehouse set up with the slideshow was over the top as all hell, but the message was effective and is continuing to draw me in as a viewer, because we so desperately want Quentin to have some happiness in his life. Other than that, this episode’s meat was all about Vince’s undercover op and James spells it out that he’s been watching him the whole time closely, which I’m sure he does with all of his dirty associates.
Also, how long is Star City going to pay? That can’t continue indefinitely; after wondering who Vigilante was for a whole season, and getting an interesting left turn reveal, it feels a bit short-sighted with our conclusion.
Rating: 6/10
Jessie Robertson
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