A night of confessions and the return of Count Vertigo (Peter Stormare) makes for an alternately thrilling and frustrating episode of Arrow.
Let’s bitch it out…
I’m a little time poor today, so we’re going to do this as a series of bullets rather than a full review. On the plus side, more opportunities for you to contribute your two cents in the comments!
- Thea (Willa Holland) finally learns the truth: It happens early in the episode and she takes it remarkably well, praising Oliver’s (Stephen Amell) job helping people. Unfortunately her about face on her father Malcolm’s (John Barrowman) role in the deception occurs far too quickly and doesn’t feel earned.
- Roy (Colton Haynes) to the rescue: Neither does Roy’s defense of Thea to Oliver. Last week he was advocating for a partnership with Malcolm and suddenly this week he doesn’t want it because Thea should make her own decisions? Too much back and forth.
- Chase (Austin Butler) is dunso: I’m super excited that DJ Chase came back, bedded down with Thea and promptly revealed his League associations if only because it ended with his impromptu suicide. Good riddance to a bad character.
- Laurel’s (Katie Cassidy) assertiveness: I didn’t think I’d be praising Laurel so much, but when she stands up to Oliver for his self-righteous “You’re not a hero” BS, I may have uttered an Hallelujah. Kudos also to Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) for reiterating that things have changed since Oliver’s “death”. I guess this is the change of direction that Arrow‘s creative team was teasing following the three episode arc.
- Lance’s (Paul Blackthorne) loss: For a moment I thought that the writers were going to defer telling Lance that Sara (Caity Lotz) was dead again and I got really pissy. Then Laurel breaks down, confesses and they collapse into each other. Genuinely affecting and quite well done.
- Vertigo returns: Peter Stormare’s return is more about Laurel confronting her demons that anything else, even if he does appear to be having a lot of fun in the role. At least he’s more interesting here than any of his Blacklist appearances as Berlin.
- Flashback dullness: Honestly I’m just done with the flashbacks. I find them dull, frequently distracting and just plain unnecessary. Should we “ohh” and “ahhh” at the reveal that Waller (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) took Ollie and Maseo (Karl Yune) to Starling before Oliver returned officially? I just can’t muster any enthusiasm for this.
That’s it for me. What are your thoughts on ‘Canaries’? Sound off below.
Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8pm EST on The CW