Arrow Season 3 Episode 18 - Public Enemies Review

Arrow Season 3 Episode 18 - Public Enemies Review

Well that’s what I’m talking about.

 

Public enemy was primarily about Captain Lances Manhunt for the Arrow as he goes mad in his pursuit in his grief for his daughter. Meanwhile Ray Palmer is hit with an arrow from Maseo disguised as the Arrow and needs lifesaving surgery to save his life.

 

If you couldn’t already tell by my opening line I really enjoyed this episode. Not that Arrow hasn’t been good, it has but it hasn’t quite lived up to the brilliant climax to season 2 with Deathstroke. This episode however felt to me at least just as good as last season.

 

The overall atmosphere of this episode was great. With the Police closing in you could feel the tension and how desperate the situation got for Oliver. Especially while he was cornered in Diggle’s apartment Oliver was like a cornered rat with little chance of survival. It was great seeing the tide of power turn.

 

It seems obvious to say but I enjoyed Captain Lance in this episode. Laurel at one point commented on how he was going mad and in a way this really came across. He is obviously enraged and incredibly determined to get his man. He is an enjoyable character, I like seeing his conflict between doing the right thing and keeping everything within the law. He is feeling very betrayed by everyone he thought cared about him. He is still mourning the loss of his daughter and its eating him up inside and while he obviously isn’t thinking straight his  situation is so tragic that you can sort of understand why he’s doing what he is, especially considering he saw someone who looks a lot like the Arrow fire an arrow into the Mayor. On top of this his seen in the prison truck with Oliver was great, it was like seeing Oliver’s greatest fears and regrets manifest in front of him.

 

I loved the chase scene with team Arrow escaping the police. The battle against the assassins was cool, Ra’s al Ghul was great, appearing as calm and in control as ever. The escape from the police was intense and I thought it was very fitting how each team Arrow member escaped.

 

Roy having to shoot police officers was a great way to resurface the guilt he was feeling over the cop he killed in his Mirakuru induced rage. It set up the guilt he was racked with later on and his sacrifice in place of Oliver. Of all the characters it makes most sense he would get himself arrested to protect Oliver, not just to protect Oliver but he thinks he deserves to be locked up.

 

Laurel being cornered by her Father while expected was a sad situation to watch. Laurel wants to re connect with her Father, he is hell bent on bringing the Arrow to justice. As she says, he is in all kinds of pain and I liked that Nyssa came to her aid. I’ve mentioned before how I really like Nyssa and the budding friendship between her and Laurel. It makes sense and with all the craziness and difficulty of being a vigilantly it seems likely that Laurel would be pleased to have a friend who wasn’t lying about Sara.

 

Finally Oliver’s escaped proved one thing. You can always rely of Diggle. In all seriousness when it all got serious I was glad to see Diggle come to the rescue. Similarly I liked they hid in his apartment. It shows how reliable he is and the trust you can always confide in him. I also liked how Oliver was said to be the origin of all the people in masks. With all the spin offs and the Flash show (Which is awesome by the way) it’s good to know that he is almost like the Batman of the DC television universe. He may not have super powers but he’s the big player and the main man in it all.

 

Slightly different to the tone of everything else but Ray and Felicity’s scenes in the hospital were very enjoyable. Slightly lighter in tone yes but Ray’s attitude to being in hospital and facing death was a lot of fun to watch. He made me chuckle multiple times and his chemistry with Felicity is bubbly and fun to watch. It’s good that he is very different to Oliver, he’s new to all this and his positive outlook reflects that.

 

Finally I really like Felicty’s mum. She is such a fun character, she’s funny but at the same time she has heart and you can see she genuinely cares about her daughter and tries to do what’s best for her. I also like how she clearly isn’t meant to be as bright as Felicity (Who is) but you have similar reactions to her that Felicity does, as in wait what? Or a massive face palm. The best example was “At least you have a boyfriend”. She is trying to help and trying to make her daughter feel better and in a way I’m sure her strange comments helped Felicity cope as she knew she has her support but it was still a really odd thing to say and I found it really funny. Hopefully she’ll still be in the show next episode.

 

The flashbacks were okay. I’m glad Katana’s back, she’s great and I enjoy the scenes with Oliver and Akio, it’s an endearing older brother type relationship and I am starting to care about the kid and I want him to be okay. They are setting up for something bad to happen and I will be sad if he is harmed in some way. However while I like the character interactions I’m not so keen on where the flashbacks are going. Last season they held real purpose with the history of Slade and setting up the plot in the present, in Hong Kong they’ve just been on the run for a while. I think they are setting something up which is going to be big but for now it does feel just like that, set up. I did like Shado’s sister though and I enjoyed her reaction to the news of her family’s death.

 

The other negative I have is a bit of a nit-pick but worth mentioning. I didn’t like Felicity’s reaction to Ray saying he loved her. Yes nit-picky and I sound like a girl watching a chic flick but I don’t see what the point of going through all the fun scenes was if she’s just going to awkwardly scuttle off. I mean damn it women is nothing good enough for you! All joking aside it did seem a little odd, she just saved his life, you’d think they’d be even closer now than before and last week she wanted to be his partner though his ATOM stuff or whatever it was.

 

Next episode will likely see what happens to Roy in prison. Supposedly someone is supposed to die and it seems like it will either be Roy or Quentin. It’s sad because both these characters are great but I still think Roy is more likely. Either way I loved this episode and cannot wait for next week.