But once Deadshot gets away, and Rasmus kindly has an anembolism to make way for the week’s real villain, things start coming together for a tight, effective final twenty minutes. After the bungling of the shootout, I wouldn’t have expected such a clear, well-choreographed climactic fight scene, especially one set in the middle of a power outage. Maybe I just like it whenever things start getting crazy at casa Queen (and Mr. Blank getting through all of Digg’s security with a Trojan mailman is pretty nuts), but Oliver laying down the parkour-fu, with lightning flashing all about, was dynamite. Another reason to like that scene: OLIVER USED A FIREPOKER TO STAB A DUDE THROUGH THE CHEST LIKE A MARSHMALLOW, which is, for the record, the kind of good crazy that makes me want to watch Arrow.
But it wasn’t just the stabby, punchy stuff that led “Home Invasion” to a near 180-degree turn around in the second half. Tommy and Oliver having a falling out over Laurel was basically the biggest “duh” develop of the season, but I’m rather impressed with how the show has chosen to approach it. The early flashback scenes try to retcon Oliver into being eternally bound to Laurel, which is a really dick thing to imply, considering his relationships with McKenna Hall and Helena, but these two were going to end up dancing around each other no matter what. The question is how long Oliver’s excuse of “it’s too dangerous to be together!” holds out. Everybody seems to realize Laurel and Ollie are meant for each other, even Tommy.
Oh, poor, poor Tommy. Here’s the thing I love: we get a shot of Tommy eavesdropping on Oliver and Laurel bonding, with plenty of menacing rain and thunder in the background, and what does he do? He goes up to Oliver, man to man, admits he can’t live with being a consolation prize of a boyfriend, then pulls the ripcord with Laurel. The transformation of Tommy Merlyn this season is perhaps even more astounding than anything that happened to Oliver on the island, as the show’s irritating comic relief has transformed into its bruised, beaten down heart. It’s still entirely possible that the season ends with Tommy going completely off the deep end, becoming a mustache-twirling rogue in the vein of his father, but for now, the understandable, and understated way in which the show has positioned Oliver and Tommy opposite each other is nicely restrained.
Two other, smaller plots got left with dangling teases this week. Roy’s become so obsessed with the vigilante that saved his life that he and Thea decide to track him down. Back on the island, Shado and Ollie have a little bonding time over archery (“I hope you’re getting closer….to teaching him how to be a better marksmen,” Slade says, without a hint of irony), but the gang winds up ambushed by Yao Fei and some goons. This is just icing on the cake, because after Digg gives his resignation from Team Arrow, you suddenly see a season’s worth of work in the kitchen laid out before you. With three episodes left, Arrow has no more time for appetizers: the main course is about to begin, and the spread I’m seeing looks like it could be mighty tasty indeed.
- Stray Thoughts
-How hard could it really have been for Yao Fei to track down Slade? He was hiding out in an abandoned plane hull in the middle of an open field. Surely one Fyres’ henchmen is a Lost fan, and at some point felt like reenacting the pilot getting devoured by the Smoke Monster in the show’s first episode.
-Am I the only one weirded out by Quentin’s “Wonder Twins” joke? I mean, that would imply that The Super Friends, which features DC’s Justice League, exists in this universe, right?
-26. The number of bodies that Ollie has put down, and the police have found…so far.
-Mr. Blank’s Pressure Point of Death was pretty silly, as was just about everything he was involved with tonight. But, as I’ve come to learn, well-cast, silly Arrow is often the best kind.