Arrow Season 3 Episode 19 - Broken Arrow Review

Arrow Season 3 Episode 19 – Broken Arrow Review

Oh man the feels.

 

Broken Arrow followed the aftermath of Roy falsely confessing as the Arrow. We see his experiences in prison and follow Oliver team up with Ray to take down a Meta Human known as Death Bolt.

 

So wow they poured emotion into that episode and it worked incredibly well. I’ll naturally start with Roy and I have to say how much I’ll miss him on the show. He went from a kind of annoying guy in earlier seasons to the guy who ultimately stepped up to save Oliver. I don’t mention acting performances often but big props to Colton Haynes for this performance.  These were some really powerful scenes, the one with Thea in particular was gut wrenching. His fight scene was also great and you could really feel his intentions and understand what he was going through. It seems like he is finally at peace with himself. The evolution of his character is extraordinary and I’ll really miss having him around. It was a fantastic way to send him off. The bromance was strong in this episode.

 

Speaking of bromance I really should mention how great the Oliver Queen character is. I don’t often, I think we all take it for granted but this is one interesting character. You really feel his conflict and inner turmoil and you can see how everything begins to weigh on him. It’s almost like everything is closing in on him, limiting his options and he’s great. It’s like Felicity said, he’s given up everything to be the Arrow. His interactions with Ray were also a lot of fun, it makes an interesting contrast. His seasoned and stoic tone compared the hopeful and optimistic Ray Palmer is a joy to watch.

 

Ray Palmer is a lot of fun, I’m glad he’ll be in the spin off, I’d love to see him be more focussed on. So many of his lines are funny but he’s not just a big joke, he is determined and heroic. I like how he took on Death Bolt, first time he got wrecked but second time even without Oliver he stepped up like any good hero should. It was like another step taken to becoming a hero. There was a problem however which I‘ll get to later.

 

While there wasn’t much to Death Bolt in this episode, he wasn’t really the focus. Ra’s al Ghul however steals every scene he’s in. He has such a presence and such authority. I love how he has everything planned out and he’s so methodical as well as being a total badass. His fight with Thea was so well done. It really got across how powerful he is and he’s losing a fight to no one. He’s incredibly menacing and yet incredibly calm and dignified with it as shown at the end.

 

There were other positive aspects, Captain Lance was enjoyable, his bitterness and determination as well as his obviously not thinking clearly made him really get to the characters. Diggle is Diggle, no more needs to be said and I liked how Felicity wasn’t too much of a downer and her scenes with Ray are a lot of fun to watch. Now however I’m going to talk massive spoilers. We knew someone was meant to die. I thought it was going to be Roy and I have done for a long while. I was feeling very justified along with distraught as he was stabbed in the prison. That scene took such a great character and made him look so powerless to avoid his fate, it was great. The switch u and seeing him alive was such a massive relief and at the same time done so cleverly I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted it too happen. It was a great twist and after a touching scene when each member of team Arrow says goodbye to him in a completely fitting way we got another even bigger WTF moment. Thea’s death at the hand of Ra’s al Ghul made my jaw drop about 50 feet. After a very well done fight scene I was thinking maybe he was just messing with her or maybe he’s take her hostage. I was absolutely gobsmacked when he killed her.  This was a great twist as you would think it would open many doors for the end of the series. It seems almost certain she’ll go in the Lazarus pit and be resurrected but will it send her insane. She doesn’t know Roy is still alive after all. It also seems to open a way for Oliver to take Ra’s al Ghul’s place and they can do so much with this it really excites me to see what happens.

 

Negatives time. I enjoy Ray Palmer a lot but let’s face it, he does not suit the tone of Arrow at all. Some of his lines made me laugh a lot and it was hilarious seeing him high five Oliver but sometimes the changes in tone can be a little too jarring. It’s necessary to have lighter moments but sometimes he take things a little too un-seriously for what’s going on. This isn’t a big complaint however as I did enjoy his presence and he does make a nice contrast to Oliver’s brooding. I almost like him for similar reasons I like the Flash TV show. He’s light hearted in comparison to Arrow but still has his serious moments and doesn’t go as far as to be camp and silly. It is worth mention however that for me at least the shifts can be a little too jarring, at least for me.

 

The other issue is the flashbacks. This was an odd one as while a lot happened it still felt very slow and even a little dull. The flashbacks in previous series were constantly intense as well as building on Oliver’s character to give us a better understanding of him in present day. Now however they don’t really seem to be going anywhere. Even when it does reach the climax I don’t see it really wowing us. Hopefully I’m wrong but the build up at least has not been very interesting at all and now it looks like they’re cutting out Amanda Waller, the best part of the Hong Kong flashbacks. I should mention that I liked seeing her in a weaker state, she’s always been powerful and I enjoy seeing such powerful characters with such presence at their weakest, similar to when we saw Malcom Merlin’s fear of Ra’s al Ghul.

 

Next week’s episode is called The Fallen and will likely see Oliver and the gang head to Nanda Parbat to use the Lazarus pit on Thea. It looks promising and I can’t wait to see how Thea reacts after coming back to life.

 

Broken Arrow was a fantastic episode and one I heavily enjoyed. It did a good job of really setting up where the rest of the season will go and did a fantastic job of setting a character on his way who I think we’ve all really grown fond of. A great episode and a great finale to who has become a great character.

 

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.