Jessie Robertson reviews the thirteenth episode of Arrow season 7…
Last week, on Arrow’s 150th episode, they took a big shot from the outside and tried something new, a whole new format using the “found footage”/documentary style and it worked! It worked really well actually. There were some obvious logic flaws but for the most part, it was a very enjoyable episode that pushed the boundaries of a show that’s 7 years into it’s run. They went back to that well tonight, and again, very favorable results!
What makes this episode stick is something Arrow’s not always best at: paying things forward. Not in the kind act way, but more so in using it’s history and lore to enhance something later in the season. It happens multiple times here actually but the main crux turns into a serial killer type story. And who should be our psycho killer? The little shrew guy that Oliver only just suspected at the end of his Slabside run that he was not the nice little guy he thought he was.
We have the use of the handtyped notes, the discovery of his lair, which nearly doubled as a creepy haunted house, and the first real strike against the team: something right out of a David Fincher tale, Dinah gets her throat slashed open! Pretty damn surprising. Thank God Curtis was around, with his T-sphere tech and used a new cauterization tool he’s been working on- it’s ok if it’s convenient: it’s genre TV, people!
Then, amidst the Queen family drama of Oliver fighting with William, William calling in the big guns for backup (the grandparents) the whole family gets frozen with a neurotoxin that paralyzes it’s victims. We get a creepy, and very sad confessional for Arrow-obsessed murderer until the Queen family works together to knock him out with a glass bottle just as Team Arrow bursts in for the save.
I could do without the grandparents stuff but this show always needs William to be somewhere else beside in harm’s way constantly. And what kind of people are those grandparents? Finally, they feel the need to pull this kid? We love Oliver and Felicity but no, they are a danger to themselves and everyone else. I kinda hope we get more William-Zoe stuff as that friendship was the first solid thing he’s done since joining the show. Really liked Zoe’s training with Dinah as well.
Side stories were very strong as well and I’m really bummed we’re losing our bugga-boo Curtis! Taking a job in DC, after rejecting the very handsome ARGUS proposal, he stuck to his guns and knows, in himself, he can never stay there.
And the future….yep, everyone’s kids are involved! We find out that both Diggle and Felicity’s offspring are also looking for her, so yeah it’s a family affair.
All Around, 4 star effort from the Berlanti crew and I’m starting to looking forward to Arrow again more so than The Flash.
Rating – 8.9/10
Jessie Robertson
