Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Arrow 3x22 "This Is Your Sword" (Lessons Hard Taught)


"This Is Your Sword"
Original Airdate: May 6, 2015

I've never been trained to fight, professionally, which -- I'm sure -- probably surprises you all greatly. I've taken dance lessons before. I've played every sport imaginable (tennis, basketball, softball, cheerleading, soccer). I've learned archery and horseback riding. But I've never learned how to use a sword. I'm not sure, quite honestly, that I would even be able to effectively wield one on my own because I've heard that they're heavier and more cumbersome than you would anticipate.

Here's what I do know about swords, though: I know that they are offensive weapons. And I know that a shield is a defensive weapon. That much I do know. Swords and shields are used a lot, symbolically, in literature. In the Bible, they're part of the spiritual armor of God ("the sword of the Spirit" and the "shield of faith"). In Harry Potter, the Sword of Gryffindor was a goblin-made sword used to destroy Horcruxes. In The Chronicles of Narnia, Peter is gifted a sword and shield by Father Christmas which he uses in a battle against the White Witch. Out of all the weapons in history, the sword and the shield are probably the most common to be paired together. One is used to fight; the other is used to defend and protect. On Arrow, the writers choose to name the penultimate episode of each season after a Bruce Springsteen song ("Darkness on the Edge of Town," "Streets of Fire") and this year, our penultimate episode is titled "This Is Your Sword."

A lot happens in this episode and a lot has happened in the past few episodes. Do you have emotional whiplash yet? I feel like I might. And by "might" I mean "definitely do." Before we dive into the content of the episode, let's briefly discuss why "This Is Your Sword" was chosen as the title for this particular episode, shall we? In Bruce Springsteen's song, here are some of the lyrics:

This sword of our fathers with lessons hard taught,
This shield strong and sturdy from battles well fought
This is your sword, this is your shield
This is the power of love revealed
Carry them with you wherever you go
And give all the love that you have in your soul

Okay, so being the major word nerd that I am, we have to realize that the repeated "this" can technically fall into one of four different parts of speech -- an adjective, an adverb, a definite article, and a pronoun. In the case of the song lyric used for Arrow's episode title, we're examining the word "this" as a pronoun. It is used to replace a particular thing or things as indicated in the first two lines of the stanza above. If you're confused, let's make this a little easier and re-word the song's stanza above to make a bit more sense, replacing the the word "this" with the things that the pronoun is identifying:

Lessons hard taught are your sword, battles well fought are your shield
These are the power of love revealed
Carry lessons and battles with you wherever you go
And give all the love that you have in your soul

Lessons, battles, and love are the focus of that stanza. They're what are meant to be carried with you wherever we go -- those things we learned and the things we fought. That is how the power of love is revealed, really. In "This Is Your Sword," (the episode, not the song) we focus a lot on the battles, but the deeper focus of this episode -- and this season -- is on the sword: the lessons hard taught.

Or, as this episode indicates, the ones still not learned.

Dear Arrow writers:


Before we move any further, let's get a few things out of the way:

1) I didn't like this episode. At all. It's the first Arrow episode all season where I've been legitimately and totally confused -- where everything has felt like one giant swirling mess of crap with no real way of escaping. I'm cool with episodes of television in which people double-cross each other and there are charades (please watch Community's "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" for the perfect way to handle such episodes). What I don't like, as an audience member or an intelligent writer, is feeling like nothing the characters do in the episode is meaningful or furthering their development. Stakes and surprises are only stakes and surprises if we feel invested in them. So locking our characters up in a cell and having them apparently poisoned infuriates me because I KNOW THEY ARE NOT DEAD. THEY'RE THE ENTIRE CAST. You can't "poison" the characters and expect me to believe they're all dead or at least that they're all in danger when in the promo for the finale, they're fine and dandy and back in Staling City.

1b) I think this episode needed to air back-to-back with the finale. It doesn't serve well as a standalone, not when we're extremely confused as to whether or characters are good or bad (is Malcolm pretending to double-cross? Jen had a great theory that he got an audience with Ra's so he could switch the vials of Alpha-Omega virus since, you know, Magician and all). Just my thought.

2) I don't like that this is the first episode all year where I've felt a connection to exactly zero of the major characters. Even Felicity Smoak -- the woman I love so dearly -- fell flat to me this episode. Everyone felt stiff, cold, angry, and not at all like themselves. It's understandable, given the circumstances and those preceding this episode, that the team would have trust issues. But something just felt entirely off about all of them.

3) I cannot see how the writers will get themselves out of the corner they've backed into. I know it's possible (New Girl's fourth season just concluded with an incredible display of growth for Schmidt, a character nearly everyone loathed in season three) because other shows have done it, but Arrow seems more and more these days prone to smashing through walls rather than writing themselves out of corners. I'll talk more about him in a bit, but this season has been problematic for Oliver as a character. And the show did SUCH a great job of redeeming him recently and rekindling his humanity, toning down his selfishness, allowing him to let other people in and let Team Arrow help HIM that... well, "This Is Your Sword" feels rather like we were stabbed through the chest and kicked off that snowy mountain. When the audience cannot relate to your main character, there's a problem. When your main character becomes your main villain... well, that could be interesting. However, when your main character becomes the character a majority of your fandom hates? That's an actual, real, huge problem. I just feel like this season was progressing toward something really interesting and then the writers careened a really hard left, drove us off a cliff, and now we're in a free fall, waiting to see how mangled we are when we land and if any of us can actually walk away from the accident unscathed. Oliver's arc could have been really great toward the end, but it just feels like the story grew legs and ran away from the writers and as they're trying desperately to catch it, it just keeps unraveling like a spool of yarn and they keep darting to try and grasp at the loose ends.

... My metaphors got away from me, clearly, which is partially due to the wine I drank and partially due to my frustration.

4) We'll talk about Nyssa. But NYSSA.

Let's get to it, then:

Oliver Queen/Al Sah-Him/The Arrow

Oliver has had to learn a lot of things the hard way. He's constantly being forged through fire -- through pain and mistakes, through being deceived, through being kicked off a cliff, from being betrayed and turned against. Nothing about Oliver's journey to The Arrow was easy. He made difficult decisions. He had to wade through darkness after darkness in order to become a hero. He had to allow others into his life and his crusade in order to remember his humanity. And even when he remembered, he had to keep remembering. And remembering again. And again.

"Lessons hard taught" are the things that we use as offensive weapons. We take what we know and the things we have learned and we use them to combat our enemies, even when our enemies are ourselves. Our minds are powerful things and so are our memories. A pastor I admired once said that when others are grieving, we have the luxury of walking away from them, remembering their pain for a moment, but then forgetting about it the next. It's not because we're terrible and awful people but because we're not them -- we don't have to carry around the same pain that they do because we don't have to remember it day after day. We can forget. Memories and lessons that we learn the right way or the hard way are personal. They stay with us. They either strengthen us or cripple us but we can use them, constantly, to fight. We can remember who we were in order to combat the people who try to tear us down. We can use those lessons to fight and remember the battles that we have won -- our tiny or our large victories -- as our shields to protect us.

Or, in the case of Oliver Queen, we can forget ALL of the lessons we've learned the hard way and continue to make mistakes. This is Oliver's sword in "This Is Your Sword": the lessons he should have learned but continues to ignore. Oliver should have learned, at this point in his journey, who he can trust and who he cannot trust. You would think that after all the time they've spent together, all the ways they've stood beside and protected one another, Oliver would know that the two people he can inherently trust are John Diggle and Felicity Smoak. But see, Oliver's problem this entire season of Arrow has been his inability to relinquish control and allow other people into his life and into his plans. That is what drove Felicity away, remember? She couldn't trust that Oliver had changed; she couldn't be the woman he loved because his love was tainted.

Oliver is always so consumed with saving everyone else, that he's literally become his own villain because of it. He's so concerned with saving Thea's soul that he sacrifices his own. And he pretends to be under the mind control of the League in order to dismantle it from the inside. He trusts Malcolm Merlyn to help him do that because... well, why DOES Oliver trust Malcolm? Someone give me a really compelling example because I'm literally coming up empty. Malcolm has proven time and time again to be the Peter Pettigrew of Arrow, ready to sell his information to the highest bidder. Unsurprisingly in this episode, he tells Ra's that Oliver has been faking the brainwashing the entire time.

(I'm still not sure if this is Malcolm pretending to betray Oliver in order to trick Ra's because the plot in "This Is Your Sword" is so convoluted that I'm still confused as to whether or not Malcolm is faking or Katana knows anything or WHAT EVEN IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING.)


This entire season has been about Oliver's struggle with his identity. And now? Now I'm actually kind of afraid that Oliver has hit the point of no return. When Dig confronts him and Oliver drops the facade of Al Sah-Him long enough to ask how everyone was doing, Dig is furious. He crossed a line, abducting Lyla in front of baby Sara. He crossed a line and it's not friendship that will be altered forever -- it's trust. It's loyalty. Dig isn't so childish that he wants to rip back the "best man card" from Oliver. He's genuinely enraged because Oliver... Oliver turned into someone he didn't even know, facade or plan aside. The Oliver Queen who stood beside him at his wedding would have never -- NEVER --  laid a hand on Lyla, no matter what it was for.

There are some lines you can't uncross. And for Dig, this is one of them. Oliver has gotten himself into this situation -- into an arranged marriage with Nyssa, into the role as Ra's, into throwing his friends in prison and pretending to poison them -- because he refused to let anyone make any decision on their own. I thought we had grown from that. I thought the few episodes before "Nanda Parbat" had taught us that Oliver saw how much he needed to let other people in. Because when Oliver lets other people in, there is light. There is hope. There is humanity. There is pain, too, because pain is a part of the HUMAN condition (emphasis there). When Oliver tries to eradicate pain, eradicate self-sacrifice from anyone but himself, he causes destruction. He really and truly does.

If Oliver had let Team Arrow in on his plan, he wouldn't have had to work with Malcolm Merlyn. He wouldn't have been double-crossed by him (so we assume now, unless Malcolm's plan was to make Ra's think that he double-crossed Oliver. Ouch, my head) and maybe the team wouldn't be fractured. After years of trusting Dig and Felicity with his life, you'd think he would trust them with his escape plan. But much like Jeff Winger took years to learn how much he needed the study group, so Oliver apparently has to learn his lessons the hard way.


Team Arrow Version 7.0

(I counted all the different iterations of Team Arrow we have had from the original trio until now and I seriously came up with seven. I could be wrong, but I'm sticking with it.)

So, Team Arrow isn't doing too well after their encounter last week with Al Sah-Him. Diggle is carrying a lot of anger within him for what Oliver did to Lyla (understandably so), and he is lashing out at any chance he gets. EVERYONE is mad. Felicity is mad. Laurel is mad. Dig is mad. And they're mad because they lost someone and they lost them tragically and quickly and they've been replaced with a person who looks exactly like Oliver but who is nothing like the man they all cared for. They don't trust him. They don't trust anyone. And, actually, they're barely trusting each other these days.


Laurel and Felicity spat. Dig yells at Felicity. Felicity snaps at Malcolm. No one seems to have noticed that Thea ran off (though I guess Felicity kind of gave her permission to after last episode -- still, someone should check up on almost-dead-but-not-quite girl every now and then, right?). The reason that Dig flies to Nanda Parbat and the reason Laurel accompanies him is because they want to protect their city. Starling is their very first priority. The reason that Felicity refuses to go, initially? Because she cannot bear to be in a place of utter death and despair where -- the last time she was there -- it was filled with love. The reason that she becomes convinced to go back to the place where her Oliver died and a new Oliver was born is because Tatsu talks to her. The woman says that she wishes she could go back and fight for Maseo while she still could. She didn't. And she wishes someone would have been there to tell her what she's telling Felicity.

It's a nice moment -- one of the few in this episode: actually EVERYTHING with Tatsu/Katana was stellar -- and Felicity heeds the advice, boarding the jet to Nanda Parbat. She's the only one doing this for Oliver -- for the Oliver she once knew -- because she's the only one who holds onto the tiniest of hopes that the man she loves is still somewhere to be found. Dig, as I noted in the above section, cares naught for Oliver Queen. That man is dead to him. Whoever stands before him in Nanda Parbat, even if he claims he is faking brainwashing, is no Oliver. The man who stands before them all is a monster, even if he IS acting. I think the most heartbreaking thing to me out of all of this -- out of the entire Oliver-betrays-his-team-for-the-sake-of-saving-someone is that I desperately believed Oliver would have learned his lesson and so did the team, too. They believed in him. They TRUSTED him. When he told them to just follow him a little bit further, they did. When he told them again in this episode, they did. However reluctantly, Dig and Laurel followed Oliver because they believed he would help them save the city. Because they believe they still knew him.

But what happens when everything you know about a person is thrown into question? What happens when your leader becomes your greatest enemy? What happens, in Felicity's case, when the man you love turns his back on you and leaves you to rot and die (again -- this might all be a ruse but who knows) in a jail cell? How do you come back from that kind of breach of trust? CAN you?

Is there hope for Oliver/Felicity? It seems bleak in "This Is Your Sword," honestly, from where we sit. From where the writers sit, twiddling their thumbs, it may look different. Felicity Smoak has abandonment issues. No one knows this better than Oliver, really. She makes him promise that he'll come back to her. She tells him about her father and he promises she'll never lose him. That makes the end of this season even more painful to watch because Oliver knows all of this and yet still pushes Felicity away in the worst possible way in order to presumably keep her safe. Isn't there a way that superheroes can keep the ones they love safe without, you know, lying to them and breaking their trust? Guess not. I still love Oliver/Felicity. I do. And I think that slowly, their relationship can be repaired, just like the relationships with the other characters can. But it's not going to be easy. And it won't be pretty. And it won't be quick. It's going to take a while. The only question then, is if Team Arrow will even be willing to wait around for Oliver -- the one they loved, the one they believed in, the hero they all wanted -- to come back to them.

In the mean time, Team Arrow remained fractured for most of the episode. But as they "died," they all came together once more in order to express how much they cared and how grateful they were for each other. So that was nice, at least.

Al Sah-Him/Nyssa (+ Ra's)


So Al Sah-Him and Nyssa got married, officially. I hope no one else got them a crockpot. I totally call dibs on gifting them with one. Let's start with the positives: 1) Nyssa al Ghul is a woman who will not be silenced or forced to do anything against her will if she can help it. When she swiped a knife at the dinner table, I presumed she was going to try to kill her father with it. Why she didn't is actually a bit befuddling to me, since I figured he was her main target. ANYWAY, on the day of the wedding, Nyssa tries to kill Al Sah-Him, but his reflexes are too quick for hers. Whoops. At least she fought valiantly. 2) Nyssa is amazing. Did I mention that yet? She stands up to her father, who tells her at the dinner table that she will bear an heir and will have no say in the matter like her mother had no say in bearing her. Anyone else feeling uncomfortable? "Blurred Lines" just started playing in the background.

Ra's, as I have mentioned before, is a calm and collected villain. He's not dominated by chaos, like Slade was. That's why Slade was able to be taken down, if you recall. He was so wrapped up in his plan and his villain-y monologue that he couldn't see the real danger -- Felicity with the cure -- in front of him and was stabbed in the beck with it as a result. No, Ra's is calculated. Ra's is calm. Ra's always is thinking two steps ahead, which makes him dangerous. He knew that the team would come looking for the Alpha-Omega virus and so he hid a decoy in the plane. He knows Nyssa and knows that she will disobey him. Essentially, Ra's sees himself as God. He really does. He talks about "his will" being done and how nothing will stop that from happening. Nyssa sasses her father and as a result, gets threatened. If she doesn't wed Al Sah-Him and if she dares to try and cross him, he will make sure that she endures the pain of a thousand deaths. Not, really, for anything specifically. Just simply because she dares to defy HIS will. Talk about a controlling and abusive parent-child relationship. Yikes.

Ra's talks to Nyssa about her mother and Nyssa has neither time nor patience to deal with her father's injustices. The true injustice, though, is that this all had to happen to Nyssa -- a wonderful, fractured, tragic, powerful character. She was used as a plot device in "This Is Your Sword" and the marriage (which apparently both went through with, by the way) was a way to... well, I'm still not sure what the real point of this wedding was, to be honest. All I know is that I'm upset Nyssa al Ghul, the daughter of the Demon, was forced into marrying a man -- and not just any man, the ex-boyfriend of her beloved -- for the sake of furthering some shoddy plot.


Basically... yeah. I'm not exactly sure what the endgame is here with the writers. Did Oliver really have to marry Nyssa in order for this entire plan to work? Did he? Did Nyssa have to be reduced to some emotionally manipulated and tortured woman for the sake of a plot? Did she?

At the end of "This Is Your Sword," I was left with this unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach. It's not the kind of feeling where you're desperately clinging to the edge of your seat wondering how, exactly, your characters will manage to get out of this one. It's not a feeling of exhilaration, where you're ready to take one final bow with them. It's not even a feeling of dread, necessarily. I'm not entirely angry, but I'm not entirely happy. I'm not excited and I'm not really worried because in order to be worried, you have to have a theory of what might happen. I'm bewildered. I'm befuddled. Remember how last week in the comments, I noted that I felt like I was five steps ahead of the characters, waiting for them to catch up? That the reason Arrow has felt off in the last few episodes has been because we've been privy to knowledge that some characters know, but many others do not?

I feel the exact opposite of that now. I feel like my characters -- my beloved Team Arrow -- are in the dark and that I'm twenty steps behind even them. I feel like I'm not entirely sure Oliver Queen is even someone I like, trust, admire, or believe in anymore. I feel like Malcolm is either the world's best liar, or the world's greatest ally. I feel like Dig and Felicity and Laurel might be right to just give up. I feel like everything I thought I knew before was blown up on that plane Ray barreled through over Nanda Parbat.

In summary?


Observations & favorite moments:
  • MVP this week is Rila Fukushima who did an AMAZING job portraying Tatsu/Katana in this episode. She was absolutely stellar, especially in the most emotional moments in the hour (her holding Akio and breaking down as she told Maseo he died; her holding Maseo as he died and setting him free from his earthly prison while singing to him). She did an amazing job at balancing the warrior within Katana with the humanity of Tatsu. I actually whimpered when she began to sing to Maseo and hold him in her arms. A lovely performance in the midst of the chaos, truly.
  • In Hong Kong flashbacks this week, Akio dies and Oliver/Tatsu/Maseo are tricked into believing that there's a cure to the Alpha-Omega virus. Oh and they're captured because apparently that was all a set-up anyway? I don't know. Someone tell me if that's right.
  • "I still have 40 minutes on an elliptical in my near-future." So do I, Felicity. So do I.
  • Angry John Diggle is not the kind of Diggle you want to mess with at all. David Ramsey got scary there for a moment.
  • The B-plot this episode (if you want to call it that) was that Thea went to visit Roy, who's still bouncing from job to job and place to place so he doesn't eventually get discovered for who he truly is. Thea wants to join him -- to be on the run with him forever. But Roy leaves Thea in the middle of the night in order to bounce to another town. He tells her that Oliver sacrificed his life so that she could have an abundant life, not one on the run. He tells her to keep his jacket because she always looked better in red than he did anyway. And I think this is as good of an indicator as ever that Thea will be picking up a hood next season, right?
  • "You have this little cloud that keeps following you around." Okay Ray, that was cute.
  • 99.9% sure Ray signs over Palmer Technologies to Felicity. BOSS FELICITY NEXT YEAR? YES PLEASE.
  • "The League is not my prison. From my prison, there is no escape."
  • "I'm sorry, I forgot the flag."
  • "And no offense -- none of you are particularly good actors." I'm sure Barrowman got a kick out of delivering that line.
  • "We never met her. ... Right?"
  • "He's a mass murderer whose lied to us so many times that it should be a drinking game."
  • "You love him, still. If you believe that... you must fight for him."
  • "You think they rent horses here?" God bless Felicity Meghan Smoak.
  • "You know I wouldn't have done the same thing for you." "I know."
  • Malcolm protected Felicity a lot in this episode. I was a fan of it, I cannot lie. Also, Felicity adorably thought she killed someone (or at least knocked them out) with her tablet. She did not.
  • Ray was in this episode and he wasn't insufferable! Maybe it's because the episode itself was, for me. Or maybe he's just grown on me.
  • "You should see the other guy."
  • "YOU are getting married? Guess there really is a kettle for every pot."
  • Barry Allen shows up in the promos, thank goodness.
Well, there you have it, folks. I... well, I need you guys to find some good stuff about this episode that I can really love. Is this all just one giant ruse in order to trick Ra's and take down the League? And who is REALLY in on it? And what in the world is actually happening? Hit up the comments below with your thoughts as we careen toward the finale. Until then. :)

29 comments:

  1. I agree with the majority of what you said. i, still processing, but the "cliffhanger" was so weird since as you said, we KNOW they all survive and that they're the cast. what was the point of all of that? who is betraying or double crossing whom? we got a few clues oliver was in his right mind last week, but we needed a more explicit clue (than the ones listed in my review last week) or a sign that another character was working with him. when the episodes are played out across weeks, it weakens any immediate turns that play out over episodes rather than minutes. i only care about what this means for thea (doubt she can come in with the last minute save in NP), so I def think she's gonna hood up next season which will be great. the vague ideas I have about next season mean awesome things, and I just want to be there rather than here, which sucks. im still processing so ill look for good things on my second rewatch (which isn't happening tonight) and maybe we'll bounce over to NOC to discuss them should I find them, oh wait: DIGGLE AND FELICITY HOLDING EACH OTHER AS THEY "DIED" IS BEAUTIFUL. "I'm glad to have known you." probably my fave moment aside from felicity and the tablet.

    Also, we know next week is crossovers on both shows, but how is Oliver helping Barry if he's with the league and his friends are dead? i thought they'd fixed the episode gap (they're off sync) with the writing (since theyre clearly not syncing them properly episode wise) but i guess not.... looks like next week's flash should come AFTER next week's Arrow and not before it. Why is this last third of the season such a mess in so many ways?? =(

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    1. OH CONNIE. WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS EPISODE? I keep making metaphors and analogies but it's seriously like a runaway train from my vantage point.

      when the episodes are played out across weeks, it weakens any immediate turns that play out over episodes rather than minutes.

      This is a very good point and why I think this episode needed to be aired as a two-hour finale with "My Name Is Oliver Queen." Too much of it all doesn't make any sense when it's a standalone episode. It lends itself to frustration or confusion or anger because we know this all works itself out -- it has to -- but it feels very fractured and pointless airing it a week before the finale. Also, how messed up are the timelines for The Flash/Arrow? Has someone asked Marc which order this all was supposed to air in? We know the previous crossover episode was out of order so it stands to reason this one would too.

      i thought they'd fixed the episode gap (they're off sync) with the writing (since theyre clearly not syncing them properly episode wise) but i guess not.... looks like next week's flash should come AFTER next week's Arrow and not before it. Why is this last third of the season such a mess in so many ways?

      Also, I have a problem with this. Not everyone who watches Arrow watches The flash and vice versa. IF Oliver flew to see Caitlin or Barry in Central City to help him find a way to knock everyone out/a cure for the virus, that's pretty big stuff to leave out of our main canon and shove into a crossover. I have NO idea if that's even true but it's being speculated that Oliver probably went to them for help in "Rogue Air."

      I mainly just left this episode thinking: "I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT JUST HAPPENED AND NOT IN THE GOOD WAY."

      (But yes, that Dig/Felicity scene was absolutely wonderful. I love their bond and relationship and how he'll protect her above all else. He promised to always keep her safe and he's apologizing for breaking that promise, my big teddy bear.)

      Welcome back to the comments, Connie! ;)

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  2. I actually didn't have much of a problem with this episode because similar to last year when it looked really bad in 2.22 and even in 2.23, there was so much we weren't aware of that was eventually revealed. I will say I agree this episode would have worked better as a part of a 2 hour season finale though. It would answer some of these dangling questions that seem so unusual and out of left field. In my opinion, through all his "faking", Oliver has had a plan and I wondered when we saw Malcolm rat him out to Ra's if we'd see him do something drastic to prove his "loyalty" to Ra's. Turns out I was close - but I think we saw a "fake" bioweapon being used. CW messed up the timeline for Arrow and the Flash with their scheduling so there are some plot holes and spoilers we now know for both shows. I fully believe Oliver went to Barry and had them make an antidote for the bioweapon or something that LOOKED like the bioweapon - a fake - and that's what was used on Team Arrow. I'd even go so far as to say it's possible Oliver and Nyssa have both been planning how to approach this together. They both hate the idea so playing that off would be easy. In no realm do I think they or anyone EVER would see a League wedding as "valid" or legally binding so I'm not to concerned about it. Evil Ra's does evil things. As Marc stated on twitter, it's not about a political statement - we're meant to be offended by it and upset but it's the character.

    I think there's a lot that will be made clear VERY quickly in 3.23 so I'm holding back any confusion or complaints for the time being. Remaining hopeful. I want to see the finale before I come to a conclusion and based on the season finale - look at it with respect to the whole season. I think we'll wind up seeing a TIRED Oliver after this. Wanting his humanity and ONLY his humanity. He won't want Al Sah-Him. He won't want the Arrow. He'll hang it up for the time being. Just BE Oliver Queen. Barry told him he can do a lot of good just as Oliver. It'd be a nice full circle move from the season premiere when he chose the Arrow. Growth and NEEDED time to just BE Oliver after everything. Find that balance, THEN become the GREEN Arrow.

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    1. I will say I agree this episode would have worked better as a part of a 2 hour season finale though. It would answer some of these dangling questions that seem so unusual and out of left field.

      Having time to mull it over, I think that's one of my biggest issues. Nothing really seems to FIT together at this point, you know? The dangling questions, you're right, are so far out in left field that I just don't know how we're going to neatly tie this up before the end of the season. And if we're not going to neatly tie it up, I'm really worried as to what next season will bring. This year has been SO dark that we really need some hope at the end of it.

      I'd even go so far as to say it's possible Oliver and Nyssa have both been planning how to approach this together.

      Okay, so here's my thing and what makes me so mad: I don't think Nyssa is in on it. She looks genuinely surprised, genuinely angry, and she actually tried to kill Oliver. I think she's not in on it which is upsetting because OLIVER SHOULD HAVE LET HER IN ON IT ALL. He can trust her more than Malcolm and it baffles me because if his goal in all of this was to dismantle the League from the inside... what, exactly, did he think was going to happen to Nyssa when he did? Furthermore, this seems like a HUGE extreme for both of them to go through -- getting married -- if they're both in on the ruse together.

      My other problem then is if the wedding IS a ruse and they ARE both in on it (or even if they're not both in on it and it's not a legally binding marriage to begin with and Oliver ends this season single anyway because it was just a League ceremony), WHAT WAS THE POINT OF HAVING THEM GET MARRIED THEN APART FROM SHOCK VALUE? (Nothing. There's literally no point to them getting married either way, IMO. And not from a character perspective, either: from a writing perspective it seems REALLY dumb. That's the only thing they could come up with?)

      I think there's a lot that will be made clear VERY quickly in 3.23 so I'm holding back any confusion or complaints for the time being. Remaining hopeful. I want to see the finale before I come to a conclusion and based on the season finale - look at it with respect to the whole season.

      It's so hard to do that when we have to take these episodes as standalone ones in part of a larger arc mainly because I don't know what the end goal here really is anymore. If the goal is to save Oliver's soul, is his soul really saved? Can it be by the end of this season? Aren't we now in a worse place than when we began in "The Calm" in terms of Oliver and his development?

      I do think you're absolutely right -- Oliver is just going to be TIRED by the end of the season. It's kind of sad that our hero has become so weary and broken down and beaten down that there's not much left of himself in there anymore.

      Thanks so much for your comments, Lindsey! They really made me think about this episode more and what's to come. :)

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  3. You…very accurately captured everything I'm feeling about this episode. The writers have really written themselves into a corner and there's no well composed and thought out narrative way to get themselves out of it.

    At this point plan or no, I don't really care to know how Oliver redeems himself for his actions. I guess I'm feeling like Diggle. Even if Oliver had an amazing plan along, the level of trust he betrayed to get there doesn't inspire me to keep watching, because I no longer have any faith in Oliver's ability to become the hero he was on the path to becoming.

    He crossed too many lines, lines that I don't think he can come back from.

    Nyssa, poor Nyssa. Her storyline frustrates me on so many levels. So, so many. But what upsets me most, is that of all the controversial things that have happened to her, it could be less nausea inducing if I felt the writers had the guts to outright address in the story line, what they've done to her. Not only is she a woman being forced into marriage, and I'm assuming her father is consenting to her rape in order to conceive these heirs he so desperately wants, but we're forced to watch the only gay character on the show be forced into not only a marriage, but a heterosexual marriage.

    Where was Oliver's plan while Nyssa was being destroyed? What's his end game with this?

    When Nyssa swiped the knife, I honestly thought her plan was to kill herself.

    What really, and I mean REALLY puts me on the verge of being DONE with Arrow, is that all this misery was brought about simply because Oliver wouldn't initially turn Malcolm over to the league when they wanted to punish him for the Undertaking.

    It's maddening, Malcolm very rightfully deserves to pay for that terrorist attack, and for so much more. Was protecting Malcolm worth everything that followed?

    Thanks for taking the time to review!

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    1. Norell, thanks so much for your comments, first of all!

      At this point plan or no, I don't really care to know how Oliver redeems himself for his actions. I guess I'm feeling like Diggle. Even if Oliver had an amazing plan along, the level of trust he betrayed to get there doesn't inspire me to keep watching, because I no longer have any faith in Oliver's ability to become the hero he was on the path to becoming.

      As I just said above to Lindsey, it makes me positive that the Oliver we see at the end of the season is worse off than the one we saw in "The Calm." At least that Oliver started to try and open up and yeah, he was cowardly and pushed Felicity away. But THIS OLIVER IS DOING THE SAME THING BUT TO A LARGER AND WORSE EXTENT. I just don't get how he couldn't tell the Team about any of this. I know that if Malcolm is pretending to double-cross them (which it seems like he is from the promos), it makes sense Oliver would need his help. But... does he really think so little of the people who SAVED HIS LIFE TIME AND TIME AGAIN to not tell them what the plan is? Couldn't he have delivered some sort of signal to Lyla during her kidnapping that it was really still him and he needed to do this to save face? I mean, still wouldn't have excused, you know, KIDNAPPING but it would have given the team hints.

      The problem now is that the team doesn't care if this was all a ruse or not -- all they know is the feeling of betrayal that they're carrying with them. And that feeling -- those emotions -- are far more powerful than any ruse could ever be.

      Was protecting Malcolm worth everything that followed?

      That's the real question of the season, isn't it? Oliver made a no-kill vow. He promised to protect lives, not destroy them. But in the process of trying to protect one person -- a murderer who was responsible for the death of his own son and Oliver's best friend along with countless others -- Oliver doomed his soul, his sister, and so many others to an entire year of pain and suffering. Is the death of one person on your conscience greater than the blackening of your soul because you refused to make him pay for his crimes? I don't know if Oliver is right or wrong in letting Malcolm live but I do know that it was never just about HIM -- Oliver -- which is the problem. Oliver thinks of himself as the protector and in the process this year, he's managed to hurt a lot of people because he can't let other people help him.

      Thanks so much for your comments!

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  4. I hear you. I feel the same way. Somewhat underwhelmed and confused about the point of it all. I think its hard to get beyond the fact that he trusted Malcolm in the first place over Diggle and Felicity, the very guy who is the cause of all this in the first place. I think that one is hard to explain away. And the writers could so easily have gone somewhere else with the Nyssa wedding story. So many ways to add angst minus the whole archaic arranged marriage arc, especially since she is a lesbian. I kind of understand fracturing the Diggle/Oliver friendship. You can't have 6 seasons of an angst-free bromance. Not sure bringing his wife and child into it was the best way. Its always harder to get behind a story when a child's safety is compromised. And the end, what was that? So pointless. Thats the whole team, we know they are not going to die, they showed them up and about 2 minutes later. And if he threw the vial in there, does that mean Ras no longer wants to destroy Starling? That was a quick change of plans. If Oliver had a chance to switch out the vial, then Starling City is no longer in danger, things could have been done differently with the team working together. And Ray, why would he give her the company, so random. And BC why does she have to scream? Its just an electronic device. Sara didnt scream. It just looks silly. Just a lot of holes.
    There were a few good moments. The Katana/Maseo scene was beautifully done. They were outstanding. And I have to say I'm glad the the Hong Kong flashbacks are over (I hope). Diggle and Felicity being there for each other in the end was beautiful. At least they didn't compromise that friendship!

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    1. And the writers could so easily have gone somewhere else with the Nyssa wedding story. So many ways to add angst minus the whole archaic arranged marriage arc, especially since she is a lesbian.

      Man, SO MANY OTHER WAYS WE COULD HAVE HAD THIS STORY PLAY OUT. I'm so mad that even if Nyssa is on this, the "wedding" served absolutely no point to the story whatsoever. NO POINT. NONE. ZERO.

      Diggle and Felicity being there for each other in the end was beautiful. At least they didn't compromise that friendship!

      GOD BLESS THOSE TWO IS ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT.

      And Ray, why would he give her the company, so random.

      Good question. Since Ray seems to be headed to the spin-off (and as he talked with Cisco the last time we saw him, potentially Coast City), I think he just knew that Starling wasn't where he belonged anymore. A goodbye gift to Felicity? A "you've earned it"? No idea, but if this means Felicity will be the boss of season four, I'm game.

      Thanks for your comments, Sarah!

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  5. I spoke in the last episode about the Arrow being an individual unto himself a living entity the Venom to Oliver's Spiderman. Even though Oliver said he faked being brainwashed as Al Sah-Him but not as the Arrow because the Arrow is in control Oliver sacrificed his soul and let the Arrow win.It also explains why he worked and trusted Malcolm because Malcolm and the Arrow are very similar they work well together. As for the plan according to the Recap on TV tropes and the Episode Malcolm believed he wouldn't become the next Ra's for years but unfortunately the plans got pushed up so now their forced to play fast and loose in order to stop Starling from dying. I`m going to explain through my own view what is going on here.

    The Arrow has one mission save Starling. Like Batman he will do anything, anything to protect the city and while Batman has not killed he has done shady things in his history for protection. The Arrow basically went undercover and is willing to end friendships push away Felicity and trust liars and killers to protect Thea and Starling. Oliver Queen showed that when the chips are down Oliver will protect his city, by any mean necessary just like Malcolm Merlyn..kindred spirits. Oliver Queen learned his lesson and loves Felicity he just threw all that away, why? To defeat Ra's and to protect his sister and his city and also to deal with the guilt he has just like Merlyn and just like Batman. So the end point? Oliver Queen has let guilt and paranoia win and lets the Arrow do what needs to be done to save lives even if everyone must hate him for it.

    That being said, this episode was not that great. I didn't like that Oliver Queen was not brainwashed or did not go full dark side of the force. I understand Oliver Queen's actions but its quite sad we didn't get to see this plan earlier or the stages being set. Unlike in Season 2 where the shady things Oliver did happened within an episode of each other. Season 3 is a mess if they wanted to do the shady undercover stuff they should have done it much earlier in the season this plot should have started post "The Climb" with Maseo and Malcolm meeting and teaming up in the cabin, Oliver could have been dead and disguise himself in the league then. We could still get with Diggle conflict and everyone else hating Oliver but then nobody would have been tripping over themselves in the writing room. Young Justice season 2 did this plot line with Aqualad and did it well and unlike Arrow your getting a season four while YJ got canceled. The best part of this episode was Ray Palmer knocking down that jet..THE ATOM LIVES! That and the story around Maseo and Tatsu made Hong Kong worth it because of that excellent pay off.

    Okay I think I explained everything clearly. About Oliver and the Arrow and this plan and how this episode was really a meh. As I said plot came in way too late for this show and not well executed, which if you think about it is kind of like the Hong Kong flashbacks huh. I kind of hope Season 4 Arrow goes international and forms the Outsiders and maybe just drops Oliver Queen for good and Felicity dies from the Alpha/Omega virus. That would suck because we would loose Felicity but considering what I said about Oliver earlier it would be most fitting. Oliver sacrificed everything to save the city and he looses Felicity forever which then pushes him to hunt down HIVE with Diggle and his new Outsiders. While Thea (Speedy) and the Black Canary defend Starling City. It would be a bittersweet ending to season 3 but it would allow Arrow to expand out or maybe Diggle doesn't join Oliver and goes with the Suicide Squad and ARGUS permanently and is assigned to lead the squad to hunt down Oliver and his Outsiders while also discovering the details of what happened to Andy.

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    1. The Arrow basically went undercover and is willing to end friendships push away Felicity and trust liars and killers to protect Thea and Starling. Oliver Queen showed that when the chips are down Oliver will protect his city, by any mean necessary just like Malcolm Merlyn..kindred spirits.

      That part kind of kills me because if Oliver and Malcolm are similar in the methods they use to "protect" the cities they love and people they care about, we're going to have some serious problems given how Malcolm turned out. I think that we have to look at this through a superhero lens, sure, but more through the lens of humanity since that's what this season is all about. In a superhero world, The Arrow is right. In our world, Oliver Queen is a PERSON, not a superhero. And I think the problem for Dig and Felicity and the team and the viewers is that this season seemed to be steering us away from the superhero part of him and toward the human part of him. If they're trying to do that, this entire episode (and last week's) truly undermine what they're selling. There's no humanity left in Oliver Queen even though he's faking it if he's willing to kidnap Lyla to protect the ruse. Where is the line? Where does it stop? How far WILL Oliver go, then, to protect a ruse or play-act in the League?

      Would he kill? (He did.) Would he lie? (He did.) Would he kidnap? (He did.) So if he's willing to do all of those things, what ISN'T he willing to do? And that's Dig's point -- it doesn't matter that he's not brainwashed; what matters is that the trust they once had -- the person Dig thought he knew -- is completely gone.

      That was OLIVER QUEEN who abducted Lyla. Not The Arrow. Not Al Sah-Him. OLIVER.

      As I said plot came in way too late for this show and not well executed, which if you think about it is kind of like the Hong Kong flashbacks huh.

      Agree wholeheartedly. The writers really jammed a LOT into a very tight space and now it's uncomfortable and frustrating. This plot of being brainwashed and the League came far too late in the season.

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  6. By the way I do not advocate Felicity should die its just that because of all this drama..I do not think Olicity is viable and I think they should stay separated after this. Besides if Felicity gets control over Palmer Technologies she could be the Oracle to Black Canary and Speedy..CW's Birds of Prey anyone? Maybe just make Oliver thinks she's dead and he can still do the Outsiders stuff and Diggle hunting him down with the Squad...man Season 4 sounds amazing (I doubt this will happen but it sounds fun)

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    1. Besides if Felicity gets control over Palmer Technologies she could be the Oracle to Black Canary and Speedy.

      Marc has already said before that Felicity is not going to become Oracle. She's just Felicity.

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  7. Hi Jenn,

    I followed your advice and decided to comment on your Arrow reviews ;)

    As always, you somehow expressed exactly how I felt after watching the episode. I’m really angry at Oliver!!! (although the confirmation that he’s been faking it helped a litte). I’m so confussed as to where the writers are heading to... I really hope the make it up to us in the finale. Otherwise, I’m gonna be really PISSED, playing-with-marc-guggenheim’s-voodoo-doll-pissed!!! Everything is so messed up right now that the only thing I’m excited for the season finale is to know that the Hong Kong flashbacks will finally be over!! Not cool...

    "Also, we know next week is crossovers on both shows, but how is Oliver helping Barry if he's with the league and his friends are dead? i thought they'd fixed the episode gap (they're off sync) with the writing (since theyre clearly not syncing them properly episode wise) but i guess not.... looks like next week's flash should come AFTER next week's Arrow and not before it. Why is this last third of the season such a mess in so many ways?? =("
    Connie, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I THOUGHT when I saw Oliver dressed as Al Sah-Him in The Flash promo???!!! How are they going to do that??!! It doesn’t make any sense after the end of last night’s episode :(

    Another note on the Arrow/Flash crossovers that I’d like to add: I know that they need to do that because they share showrunners, producers, and network, etc but am I the only one who finds this crossovers too contrived?

    "I fully believe Oliver went to Barry and had them make an antidote for the bioweapon or something that LOOKED like the bioweapon - a fake - and that's what was used on Team Arrow."
    Thank you Lindsey for throwing some light on what may be going on...! That seems a reasonable explanation to me.

    "I think we'll wind up seeing a TIRED Oliver after this. Wanting his humanity and ONLY his humanity. He won't want Al Sah-Him. He won't want the Arrow. He'll hang it up for the time being. Just BE Oliver Queen. Barry told him he can do a lot of good just as Oliver. It'd be a nice full circle move from the season premiere when he chose the Arrow. Growth and NEEDED time to just BE Oliver after everything. Find that balance, THEN become the GREEN Arrow."
    TOTALLY AGREE Lindsey! The main reason I’ve been sticking to this (messy) second half of Season 3 is because I knew he would choose to be Oliver Queen eventually. Even if this is his final destination, it’s been really hard to watch... :( and these last 2 episodes didn’t help AT ALL...

    "I kind of hope Season 4 Arrow goes international and forms the Outsiders and maybe just drops Oliver Queen for good and Felicity dies from the Alpha/Omega virus."
    Donavan, you killed me here!!! if Felicity dies I’M SO OVER WITH THIS SHOW!!!! I really hope you’re wrong...

    Thanks again Jenn for sharing your wonderful reviews with us!

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    1. HI ANNA! YOU CAME OVER TO THE ARROW COMMENTS, YAYYYYYY!!!

      I’m so confussed as to where the writers are heading to... I really hope the make it up to us in the finale.

      Agreed, though at this point I'm not sure how this is all going to work itself out in the 40ish minutes that Arrow has allotted for the finale.

      NO WORRIES EVERYONE, FELICITY IS NOT DYING. Multiple times, the writers and Marc have said that she's not going anywhere. They know that she's the heart of the show and the team. She's not going to be killed off. She's got a company to run in season four, after all!

      Thanks for reading, Anna, and for joining us! :)

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  8. Well, I wanted to skip through most of that episode. And I don't have much else to say about it, I know, shocker. I had little smiles (like all of you) at some moments: Felicity using her tablet as a weapon only to see the arrow later, Ray was charming and funny for once without being over the top (Is this about Oliver? It's about Oliver.), Felicity/Malcolm interaction etc. (PS her threat to reveal he is alive and his location to all the world should totally be something that they do. She could really make him suffer. Way back we were supposed to believe Oliver let him go because there was no prison that could hold him. Felicity's cyber threat to him seems like something they should have done a LONG time ago.)

    I thought the stuff between Tatsu and Maseo was well done but it left me feeling mostly angry and frustrated. I think Maseo really wanted to die (being alive was his prison) and watching him force his wife to kill him was really painful. I'm left with a completely tragic story. Maseo was so damaged by what happened to his child that he abandoned his wife to deal with her grief by herself. He gave a bioweapon to a monster in order to trade his agency and identity and thus his pain away. He's spent the last four or five years in the League killing people for R'as. He had a little attempt to help Oliver escape the League but in the end he gave in completely to Sarab and forced his wife to fight him and watch him die in her arms too. That really sucks. And I know we're going to have to watch them in Hong Kong flashbacks next week to show how they finally escape or deal with Shreve. sigh. I'm depressed.

    The stuff between Thea and Roy was okay (and I'm glad he stressed what she could become outside of her father and Oliver and even him) but I couldn't really invest my attention in that because I was so distracted by what the writers were going to do with Team Arrow and that whole mess.

    I think (like you and Connie and others have mentioned) it feels like they are writing for a film, as if everything is coming at us as one continuous experience. But viewers of the broadcasts are not experiencing it like a film. The writers and actors etc might feel the flow like they are working on a film but for the viewers we are given each piece a week or weeks apart. We experience trailers shown by the network to give a little tease of next week. A film can have a big risk of the entire team dying because there doesn't really have to be a sequel (even though it might feel like they are practically required in the industry today) but in show which we know has been picked up and a trailer which shows us everyone alive next week, the same tactic really doesn't feel absorbing. It just felt cruel to watch the creepy marriage intercut with all of Oliver's team believing they are dying. (That priestess lady talking about them being forever bonded by their inescapable love was stomach churning.)

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    1. BECCA. We went from the amazing New Girl finale to... well, whatever THAT episode of Arrow was. Eesh. Talk about whiplash.

      Ray was charming and funny for once without being over the top.

      Arrow is doing so many things late in the game and it's not helping them at all. Bringing in a fun, friendly Ray (especially recently with the Ray/Oliver dynamic) is great. WHERE WAS THIS GUY ALL SEASON? I ACTUALLY LIKE HIM.

      I'm 100000% here for Malcolm/Felicity one-sided friendship, especially because I'm fairly certain now that he's fake double-crossed the team and not really double-crossed them. (I could be proven wrong, but still.) The fact that he's the one actively protecting Felicity this episode (shooting the guy when Felicity thought her tablet saved her; shielding her from the falling debris; tossing her equipment in the promo for next week, etc.) makes me happy. I think Malcolm admires Felicity and respects her and she loathes him which makes for SUCH a great dynamic, seriously.

      I'm left with a completely tragic story.

      Ugh, it was seriously heartbreaking, the end of the Maseo/Tatsu story. He was totally about to kill her, too, which I think upsets me more than anything else because HE CLEARLY REMEMBERS HIS OTHER LIFE. I know that the death of a child can drive you into some pretty dark places, but Maseo's was just SO dark for someone who was such a hero throughout most of the series. What a sad, hopeless way to end. I suppose the comfort is that he's at peace now with Akio but... like, did we really have to go down like that?

      The stuff between Thea and Roy was okay (and I'm glad he stressed what she could become outside of her father and Oliver and even him) but I couldn't really invest my attention in that because I was so distracted by what the writers were going to do with Team Arrow and that whole mess.

      It was a nice break from the angst, only to end with MORE angst. Poor Thea. Everyone just keeps leaving her and not letting her make her own decisions. *heavy sigh* She and Iris just need to become supervillains.

      I think (like you and Connie and others have mentioned) it feels like they are writing for a film, as if everything is coming at us as one continuous experience. But viewers of the broadcasts are not experiencing it like a film.

      YUP EXACTLY THIS. I'm not watching it as a film. I need to be able to watch these episode as standalone pieces of an arc and as such, they're just. not. working. As one giant episode, maybe, but the way things are being broken and shoved into the episodes really doesn't lend itself to television but to the big screen.

      It just felt cruel to watch the creepy marriage intercut with all of Oliver's team believing they are dying. (That priestess lady talking about them being forever bonded by their inescapable love was stomach churning.)

      Was it just me or was that the worst wedding speech ever? Your love is basically holding you captive forever.

      OKAY, HOW ABOUT NOPE?

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    2. I know it's not fair to compare but other series doing such a great job and leaving me on such a high is making harder to watch Arrow for sure. (And the Flash episodes just feel so tight and well done too.) Maybe I'll go re-watch that New Girl finale ;)

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  9. Now, I can only think of two reasons for Oliver to work with Malcolm instead of his team. One, he needed to know about the whole ascension process which presumably Malcolm knows a little about (although when he would have learned about it I can't imagine) and any and all customs and tactics of the League. Two, he wants to team up with someone who will betray him. He knows that Malcolm will always choose himself whereas he knows his team will always defend each other and maybe that was important? I'm grasping at straws here.

    I think I'm just sad because they seem to still be trying to teach Oliver that he needs his team, he needs help sometimes and didn't he already learn that??! I was slowly buying into his transformation from a vigilante to a leader but the last few eps have shown him going solo and being anything but a leader of a closely knit team.

    Oh, and I think the network purposefully moved Arrow and the Flash out of sync with each other. They wanted Oliver in the next Flash ep and they didn't want that episode to air before this week's Arrow episode. Does that make sense? Because I'm trying to figure out a reason for it.

    Okay, so I had a little bit to say ;) But I think I'm just going to go back to watch my Bollywood movies (which I've been immersed in for the last few weeks). I can invest in their colourful, crazy, musical reality more just now. It will be a relief.

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    1. Now, I can only think of two reasons for Oliver to work with Malcolm instead of his team. One, he needed to know about the whole ascension process which presumably Malcolm knows a little about (although when he would have learned about it I can't imagine) and any and all customs and tactics of the League. Two, he wants to team up with someone who will betray him. He knows that Malcolm will always choose himself whereas he knows his team will always defend each other and maybe that was important? I'm grasping at straws here.

      I mean, that's TRUE. Ra's would believe that Malcolm would double cross Oliver if it meant saving himself. So that means Oliver wanted them to get thrown into the prison, have them knocked out, and then escape -- together because they need Malcolm. But maybe they also need to isolate Katana for their plan to work? Because now she's in another cell. If he didn't do that, I guess then he figured Ra's would have them all really executed? So he planted a fake virus to not blow his cover in front of Ra's and also make sure Malcolm was back in the jail cell with them to tell them the rest of the plan?

      I mean, it makes a sense in a VERY CONVOLUTED WAY. BECAUSE THIS PLOT HINGES ON A LOT OF THINGS OUT OF THE TEAM'S CONTROL AND OLIVER'S CONTROL. It seems like at every point it could have easily imploded. And they're clearly expediting whatever plan Malcolm and Oliver had decided originally. I have no idea what's happening. No earthly idea.

      I think I'm just sad because they seem to still be trying to teach Oliver that he needs his team, he needs help sometimes and didn't he already learn that??! I was slowly buying into his transformation from a vigilante to a leader but the last few eps have shown him going solo and being anything but a leader of a closely knit team.

      Amen, sister friend. Amen.

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  10. Oh, one last thing. I think that Oliver helping Barry in his problem next week will somehow link up to Barry helping Oliver's team after that. I don't know how they are going to get Oliver to Central City but I feel that something is going to be important about us watching Oliver on the Flash working with Barry the night before we watch Barry come to Nanda Parbat.

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    1. My problem is that initially the shows were set up to be independent of each other. I know people who don't watch The Flash but who watch Arrow, so if they reveal something important in this week's Flash, it'll be lost on the people who watch Arrow (unless they summarize it in the intro, but that's kind of crappy). If the shows wanted to be dependent on each other from the beginning, I wish they would have made it clear that it's HIGHLY RECOMMENDED you watch both. I'm still mad though that if they do reveal something important, it won't be in OUR universe. AND IT'LL JUST MEAN ANOTHER TEAM KNEW MORE ABOUT OLIVER'S PLAN BESIDE HIS OWN.

      *flips a cube*

      ANYWAY, thank you for your comments my dear friend Becca! I love hearing them, as you know. :)

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    2. I am always against one franchise or work relying on the audience's knowledge of another piece of work in order to understand what is going on (unless they are clearly a series or set). And great point about anybody else other than Dig and Felicity (who have been at his side for so long) knowing more about this horrible plan... sigh

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    3. Hi Jen

      This was an unbelievably strange episode.

      I'm in a state of two minds right now about Oliver. On the one hand I'm wondering what the writers are doing concerning his "identity" arc. We had a wonderful 4 episode mini story from 16-19 where Oliver learned lessons about letting others in on his decisions, allowing others to make their own choices, sitting back and allowing others to help him be a vigilante and finally learning how to give up control to his partners in certain situations and not just being self sacrificing. Wonderful, fabulous, great mini arc.

      And now we're right back to excluding partners and family from decisions and choosing villains as allies.

      On the other hand I'm so glad that Oliver FINALLY HAS A PLAN. I've been intensely frustrated this entire season with Oliver making decisions, stupid decisions that to worsen situations. Letting Merlyn go in ep 4, taking Merlyn's word that Ra's is unreasonable concerning Thea and then dialing him, working with Merlyn after he rose from the dead. Utterly nonsensical, ridiculous, plot-moves-forward decisions that have made Oliver very unlikable. But finally, regardless of lying to his team, things are happening. He's using his stupid decisions, working with Merlyn to get something going.

      I feel like this "identity" theme should have gone very differently because they certainly set up Oliver allowing others in in episodes 16-19. But they've dropped that arc entirely.

      I'm very interested to see the team's reactions to Oliver approaching them.

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    4. Hi there Lanche! First off, thank you for your comments. :)

      On the one hand I'm wondering what the writers are doing concerning his "identity" arc. We had a wonderful 4 episode mini story from 16-19 where Oliver learned lessons about letting others in on his decisions, allowing others to make their own choices, sitting back and allowing others to help him be a vigilante and finally learning how to give up control to his partners in certain situations and not just being self sacrificing. Wonderful, fabulous, great mini arc.

      And now we're right back to excluding partners and family from decisions and choosing villains as allies.


      See, that's the part I'm really hung up on. I just started to really love Oliver Queen again. He wasn't shutting people out. He was letting them in, letting them HELP HIM. He realized that he couldn't do it all on his own. He realized he needed to rely on the team. HE REALIZED THAT WHEN THEY FAKED ROY'S DEATH WITHOUT TELLING HIM AND SAVED BOTH ROY'S LIFE AND HIS OWN. So why in the world are we going to end the identity arc with him keeping the team out of the loop AGAIN?

      On the other hand I'm so glad that Oliver FINALLY HAS A PLAN.

      I mean, I'm definitely glad too. It seems like -- from my vantage point, right now -- the plan is super convoluted. BUT I am definitely glad that he's not just winging this. (From what we know at least.)

      He's using his stupid decisions, working with Merlyn to get something going.

      THIS. This a million times.

      Thanks so much for the comment and for reading!

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  11. Hello Jennifer!

    After Olicity happened in NP I decided not to expect much of an Arrow episode just in case…. I just watch the promo after the episode and that´s it. I don´t read spoilers, I don´t watch sneak peeks, nothing, and it´s working, this wasn´t a very good episode, I was expecting half of the things that happened (Oliver faking everything, Maseo dying, Ray giving the direction of the company to Felicity, although I thought it would be a wedding involved,…) but I enjoyed the enjoyable parts.

    Ray gets 5 observations and favorite moments?? I never thought this could happen…. ;) He´s growing on you! Now that he goes away…. I don´t know if I will actually like him in his show…. I think too much of his awkwardness (with him being the main character) will be tiring…..
    Roy and Thea´s scenes were soooooooo lovely!! So so so lovely!! Why didn´t they do something like that with Olicity?? (“so…. That happened!” ….. really? Ugh!)
    When Ra told Oliver that Maseo was the one bringing the virus my face went white... but when I saw oliver´s face… come on! Keep the charade going a little bit more!!

    You are totally right about Ra´s telling Nyssa she has to carry Oliver´s child… And then he tells her that her mother was divine because she gave him Nyssa who is someone really cherished to him… and 3 seconds later she can die of a thousand deaths? What??

    Diggle…. Scary Diggle… so scary!

    I don´t know where this season is going….. it´s been kind of adrift for me… with no clear path….. Let´s hope the ending is as good as last year. Because they are not dead….. I don´t see Oliver doing that ever…. And Malcolm… I don´t know what to expect from him anymore… something tells me he´s doing this for the team… but who can be sure with someone like him? (the other option is Oliver knowing Barry goes back in time and planning that too….. but too risky right?)

    Only one episode left…… for me the time between episodes is eternal…. But now, the whole season was too fast! I want more!!

    See you next week and then count me in for The Flash reviews (I have to watch it over again…. Great! :) ).


    Bri

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    1. Hi Bri and welcome back! :D

      Either because of how poorly this episode was constructed or how much I'm warming up to Ray in this context, yes, I actually did think he was one of the only truly enjoyable parts of "This Is Your Sword," haha.

      You're right that Roy and Thea's scenes were lovely. It was nice to see her HAPPY for once again. And then just as quickly as she had her happiness, Roy left her because she deserved a better life than what he could give her. :(

      Diggle…. Scary Diggle… so scary!

      David Ramsey was REALLY SCARY in that scene. I don't like angry Diggle. Angry Diggle is scary Diggle.

      I don´t know where this season is going….. it´s been kind of adrift for me… with no clear path…..

      Adrift is a very good word for how I feel at the moment! I'm hopeful the finale will somehow surprise me and really impress me. But it's hard for me to believe that the writers can pull everything off that they need to in 42 minutes.

      This season DID feel like it went by rather fast, didn't it? Even with all the hiatuses we had.

      See you next week and then count me in for The Flash reviews (I have to watch it over again…. Great! :) ).

      YAY! See you next week and then around here this summer. :D

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  12. Hi Jennifer Marie

    I agree with you on a lot of your points for this episode, I don't know what they are going to do next week and it would have been nice for it to be a 2 part finale as while watching I was thinking 'there is not much time left, where's the big plan, turnaround?' and it never came.

    Tatsu was brilliant in the final moments with Maseo although it was incredibly sad to see that he could not overcome what the LoA had done to him.

    Ray was probably my favourite character this episode, he brought the appropriate amount of lightness to otherwise dreary proceedings. I liked Nyssa as well, she came across defiant yet dignified and I liked her constant battle with her father.

    The bit with Felicity thinking she had knocked the LoA member with her tablet was cute, although I did not like that she appeared to be unarmed (the tablet doesn't count lol). I know that she had Team Arrow with her but still, I would have liked some more thought to that as all the while I was thinking 'you're so exposed!'

    I thought the episode was ok, but the writers really need to pull it out of the bag next week. I'm still optimistic for a happy ending as Team Arrow desperately deserve a break:)

    There has been a lot of crazy stuff this season, and I really hope that next season they have less of the shock-value kind of stuff and really progress the stories in a more consistent and considered manner.

    Sitara x

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    1. Hello, faithful commenter Sitara! Thanks so much for your comments, as always. I truly appreciate hearing your thoughts. :)

      I agree with you on a lot of your points for this episode, I don't know what they are going to do next week and it would have been nice for it to be a 2 part finale as while watching I was thinking 'there is not much time left, where's the big plan, turnaround?' and it never came.

      I agree wholeheartedly. I also think if they had aired this as a two-part finale, I would have been okay with the whole team "dying" because that would be the end of act two and like, a minute later, we could see them "waking up." Now waiting an entire week when we KNOW they're all okay seems just... pointless, really.

      Ray was probably my favourite character this episode, he brought the appropriate amount of lightness to otherwise dreary proceedings. I liked Nyssa as well, she came across defiant yet dignified and I liked her constant battle with her father.

      Yes you are exactly correct! Ray was some much needed levity in this episode because holy crap was it DARK. I loved his comment to Ra's about there being a pot/kettle for everyone, lol. Also you are right on the nose with Nyssa -- "defiant yet dignified" is such an amazing and wonderful phrase to describe her this episode. I love the way Katrina Law played her, too, literally holding her head high in every scene.

      The bit with Felicity thinking she had knocked the LoA member with her tablet was cute, although I did not like that she appeared to be unarmed (the tablet doesn't count lol). I know that she had Team Arrow with her but still, I would have liked some more thought to that as all the while I was thinking 'you're so exposed!'

      I agree, but at the same time, girl doesn't really know how to shoot a gun. I'm glad Malcolm was protecting her and Dig had her back when she was running. They all formed a circle around her when they arrived which was awesome because yeah, she's the only one who can't really defend herself properly.

      There has been a lot of crazy stuff this season, and I really hope that next season they have less of the shock-value kind of stuff and really progress the stories in a more consistent and considered manner.

      Can I give you a standing ovation for this? I'm gonna. *standing ovation* Seriously this is what I want. ALL OF THIS.

      Thanks so much for your comments this week, Sitara! :)

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  13. Nyssa will play a big part helping Oliver to destroy Ras and to do that She must be very angry about him. That could only been possible If Ras did something really terrible to her. Riped way all the respect that she has about him. Until now Nyssa was loyal to the League and to her father. Forcing her to marry someone she despises gives motivations to break up with all this. I assumed this from the answer that Marc's gave on his page.

    About Oliver: I felt the same way that you did. I was disappointed and frustrated like I was betrayed by him. I putted my hopes that he would grown at the end of this season by let everyone in but now I really have doubts. I will watch the last episode with a little bit of discredit but I will be there for it. Hopping for a little bit of a sunrise. We all need that now!

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