Arrow Season 3 Episode 21 - Al Sah-him Review

Arrow Season 3 Episode 21 – Al Sah-him Review

So many twists, so little time.

 

Episode 21 followed Team Arrow as they try to contend with Oliver being gone after joining the league. Meanwhile Oliver returns to Starling in order to eliminate the one threat to his reign, Nyssa.

 

I really enjoyed this episode. Episodes with a lot of Nyssa are always good and this one was no exception. She’s a great character, one who’s not really in the show enough for my liking. It’s interesting to see a complex character who for her whole life has only known one thing is suddenly thrust into a new situation. She is badass but also interesting as we see her struggle between doing the right thing fear of Ra’s and her right as heir to the Demon. It’s strange that daughter of the Demon would be so honourable. Also I must say that the scene with the milkshakes with Laurel was really funny.

 

Speaking of Laurel she has truly won me over. I prefer her like this, she seems happier and more upbeat which means when things get serious we care more about what happens to her. While it is strange to think she has become the voice of reason I like that she has become string and loyal. This is the sort of character I expected Black Canary to be. Furthermore I really enjoy her friendship with Nyssa, it builds on Nyssa’s humanity as well as adds to Laurels character, both as the Canary and the person under the mask. I do also appreciate being shown how Laurel has suddenly become so good in a fight.

 

Al Sah-him is menacing. Stephen Amell did a great job with the subtleties of showing very slight glimpses of Oliver Queen behind the mask of Al Sah-him. I also enjoyed watching Oliver in full flow this episode with the fight scene. We haven’t really seen that for a while on Arrow and it was great to see him fighting. The fight with Diggle was my favourite, we all knew there was no way Diggle could possibly win but at the same time seeing these two guys who are practically brothers fighting to the death was very powerful. One other thing was just a little thing in the opening, My Name Was Oliver Queen. That set the tone perfectly.

 

Arrow does a great job with its powerful scenes and this episode was no exception. For me the best in the episode was the one when Diggle and Felicity confronted Laurel and Nyssa over freeing Lyla. It’s very rare we see Diggle lose it but he slammed her into that wall with such a rage. I love that Diggle is being bought back to the forefront towards the end of the series, he’s such a strong and all around great character as we all know. He’s like the glue that holds both the team and really the whole show together and when for that brief moment I thought he was dead my heart sank. Plus how funny was it when he told Felicity no costume? Maybe I’m just easily pleased but that cracked me up.

 

Thea is an interesting character for sure, she went from whiney to awesome back to sort of whiney and now is awesome again. She was really enjoyable in this episode, I love the determined and almost aggressive Thea. It’s like Malcom said, she’s a warrior and there is some real fight in there. I really liked her moment when she shot the arrow at Oliver and I thought it was great when she talked to Malcom who by the way makes every scene he’s in infinitely better. This is the Thea I want to see in season 4 when she will likely be more of a focus. Strong sure but the cracks are still there and she’s certainly hurting and not as hardened as some of the others.

 

While I thought Thea was great I do want to address something and that’s the so called negative side effects of the Lazarus pit. It’ll probably be more of a focus next season but so far she’s been different for about 30 minutes and I was really hoping to see some conflict and problems come from a supposedly warped mind. The writers did this well with the Mirakuru plot and I thought they were doing something similar here. They probably will, it just seems like something to mention.

 

In these reviews I always have my time to moan about how the flashbacks aren’t very good but this time I won’t simply moan about the flashbacks. I’ll say Katana is really cool … and now moan. They just don’t work as well as last season, they feel kind of disjointed and they barely relate to the main plot. I will be really disappointed if the whole point of the flashbacks was to introduce the virus and kill Akio. I won’t go on too long, the flashbacks just take me out of the really interesting present day plot.

 

Now to talk about the big twists. I hear wedding bells. The look on Oliver and Nyssa’s faces said it all, I was NOT expecting that. It’ll be interesting to see where this is going, obviously they’re not going to get married but it does pose quite the conundrum. Also Ra’s wanting to kill everyone in Starling City is an interesting development. Very reminiscent of Batman Begins, it seems likely this will be the thing that is too far for Oliver and bring him back to himself. Finally Oliver was perfectly willing to kill not only Nyssa but Diggle too. Without Thea he would have stabbed Diggle through the chest. This for me was a big moment and perhaps the moment team Arrow lost faith in him. It was like watching another character, one who would kill his brother.

 

I really enjoyed this episode, not only for its good character development and powerful scenes but it had some great action and set up the rest of the season for a fantastic climax. Can’t wait for next week!