Arrow Season 3 Episode 17 - Suicidal Tendencies Review

Arrow Season 3 Episode 17 - Suicidal Tendencies Review

Another episode of Arrow comes and another cliff hanger leaves us all impatiently for next week’s episode.

 

Suicidal tendencies was, shocker, a suicide squad episode following the newly wed Mr and Mrs Diggle along with just who you’d want on your honeymoon to rescue a U.S Senator in Kaznia, Deadshot and Cupid. Starling City meanwhile was host to a battle between the conflicting Arrow and Atom.

 

My favourite part of the episode was the flashbacks. The flashbacks that don’t involve Oliver are always great strangely and this one was no exception. Floyd Lawton has always been interesting. While at first you really try not to like him at first as he killed Diggle’s brother you cannot help but sympathise with him. He seems remorseless at first but the more of him we saw the more sympathetic he comes across. There are more layers to him than we first thought and he is interesting if nothing else. This episode showed us he does have morality and he does mean well but he’s so messed up in the head from what he’s had to done. It made his heroic sacrifice all the more meaningful and I was genuinely sad. I hope he comes back some day but I can’t see it happening as if nothing else the film’s already cast him.

 

The suicide squad episodes are always enjoyable and this was no exception. I was kind of disappointed that Bronze Tiger didn’t come back but as a replacement Cupid was brilliant. I really liked her, she was crazy but at times kind of endearing for it. Plus some of her lines really made me laugh, especially her moments with Deadshot. On top of this the chemistry between Dig and Lyla is very likeable and believable. I like how the act like real people in a real relationship. They’re not just lovey dovey all the time, but even the dryer moments between them show the audience that they do genuinely care for each other and they are likeable as a result. Lyla doesn’t turn up that often but she’s always enjoyable when she does, she’s a good strong character and the suicide squad is a great little distraction from the main show. I would absolutely love a spin off show about task force X but with the movie being made his seems highly unlikely to ever happen.

 

My favourite scene back in Starling City was the fight scene between the Arrow and Atom. It played out just how I think it should have, the Atom does have more tech and thus is technically more powerful but the show often refers to Oliver’s experience as a key factor and ultimately after Roy was quickly overpowered Oliver triumphed through his own cunning. The interactions between Oliver and Ray was also very believable, Oliver is obviously not pleased about what he’s doing but has to accept it in order to come out of the situation peacefully. You do sense his uneasiness however with the situation and it does seem likely they’ll continue to clash without being fully at each other’s throats like they were here. It is apparent how different their views on the world and crime fighting is.

 

Ray Palmer is a likeable character and I do enjoy his chemistry with Felicity. It is a refreshing change of pace for Arrow to have an upbeat almost Flash like character and he is enjoyable to watch, even in the scenes by himself. His suit was also pretty cool and the abilities were exciting and pretty badass. He is a bit too similar to Iron Man and there’s something about his helmet that I don’t like but he is enjoyable and interesting to watch.

 

He does however sum up the biggest issue with the show and that is that it is getting a little too big. Its cast of characters while all intriguing and fun to watch in their own right does at times feel a little bloated. It’s not that any of them are uninteresting, the issue is character are often side lined for whole episodes. This episode for example had no Thea or Merlin, two characters who are very interesting and important of late. Roy in this episode while having a few funny lines (Especially the one about Ray’s suit being awesome) but let’s face it there was very little reason for him to be there other than he kind of had to be. Back when there was a smaller cast of characters and we got a lot of time with Oliver, Diggle and Felicity it almost felt more personal and more tightly focused.

 

This is almost a credit to the show as they’ve made so many characters I’ve become invested in and maybe I should congratulate the show for making me want more and I will get used to the increasing size of the show but for now it can be a little irritating. The final scene of the episode was superb and it does a great job of setting up next episode where Quentin is likely to go nuts trying to catch the Arrow. It was a very well done scene with the contrast of emotion, as well as then high intensity change as the mayor was killed by Maseo’s arrow.

 

Overall however I thought this was a solid episode. It had its good action, it was quite dramatic but in a good way. I do think they overplayed the romance triangle between Oliver, Ray and Felicity a tad at times but not enough to make it feel obnoxious or ruin the episode. It was dramatic but also slightly more light hearted I though than usual and it did make a nice change of pace. The flashbacks were superb and even the wedding was enjoyable to watch, when it’s so dark and bleak a lot of the time it is very enjoyable when the characters have a really happy moment like in this episode. So yeah, a good episode and I’m definitely hooked and can’t wait for next week.