From the opening shot of the Starling City skyline at night, during a thunderstorm, and a bolt of lightning flashing across the sky, I knew we were in for a good time. This was the Arrow episode I have been waiting for all season, and the wait was worth it. The show has officially left the realm of realism (well, as much as it can be) and has taken a turn to establish a greater community of superheroes and villains.
‘The Scientist,’ written by Geoff Johns, the creative architect of the DC Comics Universe for the last few years, did much to usher in this new age in a fun and exciting way. This show–and the series as a whole–is going somewhere pretty fantastic, and while I keep expecting them to some how screw it up, they keep surprising me week in and week out. If only the cinematic DCU folks were this smart with their characters.
1. What is it?
Arrow Season 2, episode #208, titled ‘The Scientist.’
2. Who’s in it?
Stephen Amell stars as Oliver Queen/Arrow; David Ramsey as John Diggle; Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak; Colton Haynes as Roy Harper; Willa Holland as Thea Queen; Susanna Thompson as Moira Queen; Paul Blackthorne as Quentin Lance; Manu Bennett as Slade Wilson; Guest stars this week include Grant Gustin as Barry Allen; Celina Jade as Shado; Caity Lotz as Sara; Dylan Neal as Professor Anthony Ivo; Kevin Alejandro as Sebastian Blood; Summer Glau as Isabel Rochev; Bex Taylor-Klaus as Sin; Keri Adams as Bethany Snow; Graham Shiels as Cyrus Gold; and John Barrowman as Malcolm Merlyn.
3. Who made it?
‘The Scientist’ was written by Geoff Johns and Andrew Kriesberg, based off a story by Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kriesberg. The episode was directed by Michael Schultz.
4. What is it about? (**spoilers galore**)
After that aforementioned flash of lightning, a mysterious–and incredibly powerful man–breaks into a Queen Consolidated facility and singlehandedly takes out two armed guards.
Now free from prison, Moira Queen (Thompson) returns to the Queen Consolidated boardroom only to find a cold Isabel (Glau) greeting her. Isabel questions Oliver (Amell) about his decision to bring his mother back into the company so soon, and then Diggle (Ramsey) shows up to inform Ollie that there was a break in the night before.
As Ollie and Digg head to the facility, a train comes to town and a lanky, bumbling kid stumbles off, late, as usual. He can’t land a cab and curses his terrible luck. The kid, a young man, really, is Barry Allen (Gustin), a crime scene investigator from Central City, in town to investigate the break-in as there is a similar unsolved case in his city. Allen informs Ollie that a centrifuge was taken and he spews some science mumbo jumbo that makes Felicity (Rickards) take notice. Officer Lance (Blackthorne) tells Felicity that she needs to reach out to their mutual friend.
Team Arrow gets to work investigating the crime and Allen keeps butting in, as Felicity has invited his help. Ollie begins to understand that Felicity may be smitten with the new, young scientist. Allen and Felicity work well together and they start piecing together the robbery.
Moira, unsure how to get back into society, allows Oliver to throw her a party. Later, Merlyn (Barrowman) visits her and tells her that she has to tell Thea (Holland) the truth as she is all he has left now that Tommy is dead, or he will.
After another heist is reported, Arrow springs to action and confronts the thief with a harrowing battle on a moving truck, which he loses.
Ollie begins to piece together that the robberies are for components needed to re-create the Japanese super soldier serum, Mirakalu, that he first dealt with on the island. This leads him to tell Team Arrow about his time on the island. Not all of it, but enough.
Felicity asks for Allen’s help with a blood sample that Ollie was able to get from the thief, and we learn that Barry is not who he says he is. He is obsessed with the murder of his mother that happened when he was 11 years old. His father was charged and is serving time, but Barry saw something that night. A tornado–a blur–in his home, with a mysterious man in the center. The tornado sent Barry 20 blocks away and his father was blamed for the murder. That crime has driven Barry to fight for justice all his life.
At the party, no one shows up, and Moira realizes that she has a long way to go to gain reacceptance in society. Isabel tells Ollie that she told him so, and Moira confronts her new co-CEO and history between the two is heavily implied.
Team Arrow figures out where the thief will strike next, and Barry Allen is reprimanded by his boss and is ordered back to Central City.
Merlyn visits Moira again demanding Thea, and Moira tells him to leave and never come back. When Merlyn threatens her, Moira informs him that she has told Ra’s Al Ghul that Merlyn is alive and in Starling City, and that The Demon’s Head isn’t too happy with him. She advises her one-time partner to run. Merlyn does, but not before telling her that “this isn’t over.”
Arrow confronts the thief, Cyrus Gold (Shiels) and they battle. The superpowered Gold–now an Acolyte of Brother Blood–easily beats the human Ollie, who is injected by two vials of a mysterious drug. Felicity and Diggle show up and save him, and Felicity cannot figure out what drug Ollie was injected with. This forces Diggle to go get Barry Allen–who happened to miss his train yet again–for help. Diggle drugs the young scientist with an arrow and when Allen regains consciousness, he finds himself in the Arrow Cave with Oliver Queen in the Arrow uniform, lying on a slab. Felicity asks Allen to save her friend.
Two subplots this week have Roy (Haynes) and Thea trying to help Sin (Taylor-Klaus) find a friend of hers that has gone missing. When his body turns up, the victim of an apparent drug overdose, Sin refuses to believe it. Roy takes a photo of the body and shows it to Arrow. The body has the bloodied tears of a failed Brother Blood (Alejandro) experiment, but also the same markings of Ivo’s (Neal) experiments on the island. Arrow tells Roy to back off and Roy refuses. Arrow then “fires” Roy, and Roy promises not to stop. Arrow then shoots Roy in the leg with an arrow to “slow him down.”
On the Island, Team Ollie realize that Slade (Bennett) is dying and Shado (Jade) and Sara (Lotz) use the mysterious arrowhead to find the Japanese submarine to try and save Slade’s life.
They find the sub and the mysterious serum, but it’s missing a component. With Slade dying anyway, they inject him, but not before the gruff mercenary tells Shado that he has feelings for her. The serum seemingly kills Slade, just as Ivo and his crew burst into the sub and re-capture the surviving members of Team Ollie.
5. Any revelations, tie-ins, easter eggs, etc.? (**SPOILER!**)
Oh boy, oh boy! Not only do we get a ton of nods towards the character of Flash, especially the jokes about him being habitually late, but also being afraid of lightning and him commenting that certain chemicals should not be stored together, but we also get some great jokes aimed at his youthful appearance. Barry Allen mentions his direct boss, Director Singh, which is straight from the comic books. Kord Industries is shown on a piece of equipment. Merlyn mentions Nanda Parbat, which alerts Moira to seek out Ra’s al Ghul, who can apparently be found with some minimal Internet searches and can be contacted via, I don’t know, his Facebook account? The man that Barry Allen alludes to as being in the center of the tornado that killed his mother is The Flash’s greatest nemesis, Eobard Thawne, or Zoom (or one of many other nicknames he has used). Regardless, lots of comic book nods–a Geoff Johns specialty–and most of it worked.
6. Will we watch next week?
Yes. ‘The Scientist’ marks that first half of a two-parter that serves as the mid-season finale. The previews for next week promise more Barry Allen, a resolution to what happened on the island on the sub, and Arrow gets an actual mask. I’m not ready for this show to go on hiatus. *sigh*
