Arrow Review: “The Man Under The Hood” (Season 2, Episode 19)

There’s a nice little cameo from two future Flash characters this week, Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) and Cisco Roman (Carlos Valdes), the future Killer Frost and Vibe, respectively. They’re two employees at S.T.A.R. Labs who get attacked by Slade and do a pretty good job of holding him off just long enough to escape. Their roles are ultimately inconsequential to the overarching story, but it’s a nice touch that helps solidify the shared continuity that both shows will have when Flash debuts in the fall.

Though Slade failed in killing Snow and Roman, he did succeed in stealing a “bio-infuser” from S.T.A.R. Labs, which ultimately helps him perform a blood transfusion on Roy that gives the Mirakuru to his army of convicts. Later on, Felicity is able to track the energy signature that the device leaves, allowing Oliver to infiltrate the facility in hopes of stopping it.

The fact that Roy is hooked up to the machine, instead of Slade as they had predicted, was a great little twist, and helped raise the stakes for the episode’s final confrontation. Slade and Isabel show up, but Oliver shockingly gets the upper hand once the firefight ensues. Slade is visibly surprised when Oliver destroys the blood machine, and even more surprised when he’s hit in the chest with two electric trick arrows.

It was great to see Oliver hold his own against Slade and manage to free Roy, especially after the embarrassing raid in the Arrow Cave at the beginning of the episode. Diggle puts a few bullets in Isabel (who doesn’t stay dead long, thanks to some Slade-given Mirakuru), and I was surprised to see that they didn’t try to do the same to Slade while he was down. The whole point here is to kill him, right? Do they really have too much chivalry to hit a man while he’s down?

The island flashbacks thankfully factored into the larger narrative this time around, after a few weeks of stories that felt more obligatory than necessary. As it turns out, Ivo once developed a cure for Mirakuru, and offers Sara and Oliver the information in exchange for his own death. I found it a bit unbelievable that Oliver and Sara never mentioned this before, especially after how worried they were once Roy got injected with the serum. But, I get that it acts as a suitable MacGuffin for the last few episodes, and Oliver’s confession about why he didn’t mention it before helped soften my disbelief. He’s embarrassed that he chose to try and kill Slade instead of cure him, and while I’m keen to agree with him, it’s nice to see him accept the guilt for his mistakes and move forward.

All in all, “The Man Under The Hood” was a solid episode that helped set the stage for what’s to come. There’s been a lot of that this season, but at this point, the shifting pieces and revelations all feel natural and serve to influence the larger character stories, which I appreciate. I like that while we got a few fun action sequences, the majority of the episode focused on Laurel and Thea, and how they are dealing with their newfound knowledge about those around them.

This was an important week for Oliver’s personal relationships, and besides some awkwardly handled and, ultimately, inconsequential Flash tie-ins, we’ve been treated to another well balanced chapter in Arrow that helps further propel the show’s ever-building momentum.