Arrow Season 3 Episode 12 - Uprising Review

Arrow Season 3 Episode 12 - Uprising Review

The moment we all were waiting for has happened. Oliver Queen is back in Starling City and the Arrow can once again be in the show called Arrow.

 

In this episode team Arrow take the fight to Brick to liberate the Glades. We follow Malcom Merlin in the aftermath of his wife’s murder in the flashbacks and Oliver Queen returns to Starling.        

 

While the previous episodes were still good this does feel like a bit of a return to form. The last two really highlighted how important Stephen Amell is to the show. Strangely this episode wasn’t exactly filled with Oliver Queen either, but we did get to focus on Malcom Merlin who is interesting in his own right.

 

So what was good about episode 12? Morale dilemma seemed to be the theme of the episode and it was interesting to see different characters on the same side have different points of view. But the standout here was Merlin who we see a different side to. After the whole manipulating Thea into killing Sara I thought he was far past forgiveness and while I still think he has ulterior motives in all this we do see he’s not just a killer. It’s strange to think so after watching season 1 but he genuinely does think he’s not an out and out villain. He clearly does care about his daughter.

 

The flashbacks were a nice change of pace from Honk Kong. It gives background to why Merlin does what he does. We see he was a good person at one point and he does believe he is doing the right thing. He’s not that different from Oliver himself, the main difference being he believes any means will justify the ends. It puts the undertaking into much better context. Not only this but they showed him at his lowest point and to what drove him to joining the league of assassins. His outlook on life darkness greatly. While we don’t agree with his methods we can at least understand the reason behind his actions.

 

My favourite scene was when team Arrow were discussing whether to take up Merlin’s offer. It was like you as the audience were there trying to decide whether to accepts Merlin’s help. I’m glad that Diggle got the deciding vote in the whole thing. It highlights his importance and with all the new characters being introduced I’d hate to see him side-lined. It will be interesting to see if there’s any internal rifts within team Arrow over Merlin.

 

It’ll be a shame that we probably won’t see Brick for a while. While it did confuse me how he just tanks bullets and arrows like they’re nothing he did prove to be a perfect foil for a team Arrow with no Oliver Queen. He induced chaos at a time where the team was in disarray and I really liked Vinnie Jones in the role. He stole a lot of his scenes and was all around a good villain.

 

While I liked the mass brawl scene I preferred seeing Malcom Merlin take on Brick. Really it was more him struggling with himself since as powerful as Brick was he was no match for a fully trained member of the league of assassins. It was good to see the Ted Grant/ Wildcat character and particularly Cyn back. I was so relieved that someone finally noticed that the Black Canary running around is not Sara.

 

On the other hand however I do find it funny how everyone can figure out who Arsenal is but not the Arrow himself. Roy used to go around in a red hoody and want to help the Arrow so who thought that a slightly different red hoody with a bow was a good disguise.

 

There were problems with the episode. My main issue is they don’t really seem to know what to do with the Lances. Captain Lance hasn’t really got much of a reason to be there although Cyn pointing out to him that the Canary not being Sara does seem like it will give him more purpose. For now however he’s kind of just there because he has to be. Speaking of which lets talk about Laurel. I don’t dislike her per say, certainly not as much as a lot of other people, it’s just that she’s kind of getting in the way at the moment. I get the Comic books say she has to become Black Canary but I think it was rushed. The show does show that she is nowhere near the level of the other characters, Arrow has always done a good job of giving different characters different fighting styles depending on their background, but Laurel is again only there because she has to be.

 

The next episode is called Canaries so hopefully it will improve on her a nit and I hope it does but right now she doesn’t make much sense. I don’t understand why she wants to be a vigilante in the first place. Sara was killed, indirectly by Merlin so why did she want to accept his offer. Come to think of it he’s also the reason Tommy is dead so Laurel seems like the character who should hate Merlin the most, or at least to the same extent as Felicity does. The other thing is how come no one recognises she isn’t Sara? She’s a different build, her face even with the mask is different, her voice is different, even the costume is different with all its buckles. She doesn’t even use a staff, instead opting for what looks like a piece of lead pipe. But the main issue is she just isn’t as well developed as the other members of Team Arrow. Hopefully we’ll see another side of her soon.

 

Finally there’s Oliver Queen travelling back to Starling City. This was a very minor point of the episode so it’s difficult to know what to say although it did remind me a lot of Batman Begins. I’m just glad he’s back, we all knew he wouldn’t die so it’s good they didn’t try to make us think so. I am looking forward to see him training with Merlin, let’s all hope for an epic training montage.

 

Next week we have an episode called Canaries, which is set to feature the Count. Hopefully this will be the making of Laurel as the Canary but this week’s episode was an excellent one and truly an uprising.