How was Arrow going to top last week’s episode, arguably the best in the series so far? How about a major revelation within the first 15 minutes, some good DCU action throughout, and then ending it with another revelation about what’s really going on in the Glades. While this week kept the fire burning in this hot young season, next week looks even better! But, before I get ahead of myself, here are the 6 Qs of this week’s Arrow.
1. What is it?
Arrow Season 2, episode 204, titled ‘Crucible.’
2. Who’s in it?
Stephen Amell stars as Oliver Queen/The Vigilante; Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance; David Ramsey as John Diggle; Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak; Willa Holland as Thea Queen; Colton Haynes as Roy Harper; Paul Blackthorne as Quentin Lance; Guest stars this week include Caity Lotz as Female Vigilante/Canary; Kevin Alejandro as Sebastian Blood; Summer Glau as Isabel Rochev; Cle Bennet as The Mayor; Jimmy Jean Louis as The Captain; Bex Taylor Klaus as Sin; Dylan Bruce as D.A. Adam Donner; Audrey Marie Anderson as Lyla Michaels.
3. Who made it?
‘Crucible’ was written by Andrew Kreisberg and Wendy Mericle. The episode was directed by Eagle Egilsson.
4. What is it about? (**spoilers galore**)
This week’s episode opens with Arrow (Amell) trying to stop some well-armed gangbangers from causing havoc in the Glades, all the while, Rochev (Glau) is throwing an investors party to raise capital to try and save the struggling Queen Consolidated. Felicity (Rickards) stalls as much as she can and when Ollie finally appears, he is reprimanded by his new business partner.
Laurel (Cassidy) is also at the party and Felicity has a revelation that maybe the mysterious new female Vigilante isn’t following Ollie, but Laurel instead. This allows Ollie to set a trap for the “little bird,” and once sprung, Ollie discovers that the Canary is none other than Sara Lance (Lotz, recast from the first season), Laurel’s sister and the woman that Oliver took to sea with him and watched as she supposedly drowned. I say “supposedly,” as Ollie is not shocked that she is not at the bottom of the South China Sea, but is standing on a rooftop in Starling City, trained with skills much like Arrow himself. There is more story alluded to here.
In the Glades, a mysterious man calling himself the Mayor has taken control and he gives his people high-powered, military-grade assault rifles to take control of the disaster area that was once a part of Starling City. Oliver and Diggle begin to investigate how The Mayor is getting the weapons, and Ollie reaches out to Alderman Sebastian Blood (Alejandro) to help set up a “cash for guns” program to get the dangerous weapons off the streets, and to maybe even draw out the mysterious Mayor.
Diggle contacts his old friend at A.R.G.U.S., Lyla Michaels, who gives him information about the weapons that are being hijacked and fed into the Glades.
At the “cash for guns” rally, Roy Harper (Haynes) trades in his guns, and Thea (Holland) shows up to question him on how he got so many weapons. Sin (Taylor) is also there, and teases Roy about his secret life as the Arrow’s partner, of which Thea has no clue. The Mayor and his gang eventually arrive and Ollie saves Blood’s life, but Sin, who is also the partner of the Canary, is shot and wounded, and Harper works to help save her life–as Thea watches.
Oliver, Felicity and Diggle (Team Arrow?) figure out a way to track the gun shipments using Queen Consolidated technology, and the Mayor is forced to get a new shipment of weapons. Later that night, as The Mayor is waiting for the new shipment to arrive, the convoy is stopped by Arrow and Canary, working together as a team–even trading off weapons, which was pretty bad ass–and the Mayor’s term is officially ended.
The episode ends with Ollie and Sara having a heart to heart about their “other lives” and in another part of the city, the Mayor, now strapped to a chair, is confronted by a masked man–with the face like that of a demon–who injects him with a green serum. The serum kills the Mayor and the man pulls off the mask, revealing himself to be Sebastian–now Brother–Blood!
The big subplot this week focuses on Laurel and her drinking. She is busted driving under the influence, and Quentin (Blackthorne)–himself a recovering alcoholic–confronts her about it. As with most addicts, she refuses his help, justifying her drinking due to Tommy’s death and her trauma at the hands of the Dollmaker–and Quentin is forced to seek help from Oliver Queen to try and reach his daughter before it’s too late.
The exchange between Quentin–who HATES Oliver Queen–and Ollie, all the while thought-to-be-dead-younger-daughter Sara watches from the back, leads me to believe that Quentin knows that Ollie is the vigilante/Arrow, especially after last week’s episode, and he knows that Ollie will do what he can to help people. We shall see if I’m right on this, or if it’s bad writing/characterization on the writers. Time will tell.
On the island–or now–on the ship Amazo, Ollie is confronted by the leader/captain (Louis) of the boat, who offers him two choices: talk and die; or torture, talk, and die. Ollie tells him to go to hell, and the Captain shoots Ollie and walks away. Ollie struggles to remain conscious, and sees that the tools to save his life are sitting right outside his cell. He asks his neighbor for help, and the neighbor shows that he too was shot, as do the rest of the captured folks in the cell block. Essentially, Ollie is left to make a choice: fight and live, or quit and die. He chooses the former and performs minor surgery on himself. The Captain returns and asks Ollie once again about the mysterious graves and the equally mysterious deformed skeletons, and with a look on his face, Ollie confirms that he has seen both. The Captain, now sure that he has the “right island” then has Ollie moved to another area, where Ollie comes face-to-face with Sara Lance.
5. Any revelations, tie-ins, easter eggs, etc.? (**possible spoilers**)
The return of A.R.G.U.S.; another mention of the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator in Central City (hello, Flash!); Bethany Snow on Channel 52; Camp Kirby, which could be a nod to legendary comic book creator and artist, Jack Kirby; the Russian in the cell next to Oliver on Amazon might be Anatoli Knyazev aka KGBeast; the green stuff pumped into the arm of The Mayor might be the first appearance of Venom.
6. Will we watch next week?
Yes. Next week’s tease is that we will “witness the birth of an assassin,” and the episode is called “League of Assassins,” which should cause fans of the DCU to salivate. This should be the episode that fills in some major holes in regards to Ollie and Sara’s ordeal on the Amazo, it may explain where Slade has been since the island attack, could have some far reaching implications about a certain Demon’s Head, and we could even see the return (or proper introduction) of Deathstroke!
