Wow. This episode of Arrow was the perfect set up for what is to come in the next few weeks as well as the rest of Season 2. The training stuff between Roy and Arrow proved to be much better than I hoped, and the new developments involving Moira, Laurel, and even Amanda Waller just prove that the writers have a plan and are executing that plan with success week in and week out. This was a Deathstroke-less episode and still managed to have some bad-ass moments thanks to Michael Jai White’s Bronze Tiger. I hope that we see more of him in the future.
1. What is it?
Arrow Season 2, episode #212, titled ‘Tremors.’
2. Who’s in it?
Stephen Amell stars as Oliver Queen/Arrow; Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance; 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; and Manu Bennett as Slade Wilson. Guest stars this week include Caity Lotz as Sara; Michael Jai White as Ben Turner/Bronze Tiger; Colin Salmon as Walter; Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Amanda Waller; Nicholas Lea as Mark Francis; Annie Ilonzeh as Joanna De La Vega; and James Kidnie as Milo Armitage.
3. Who made it?
Tremors was written by Marc Guggenheim and Drew Z. Greenberg. The episode was directed by Guy Bee.
4. What is it about? (**spoilers galore**)
Tremors opens with a man being processed into Iron Heights Prison. He ends up in the same cell as Ben Turner (White), also known as the mercenary Bronze Tiger. The man strangely starts talking; admitting that his family would be taken care of, gives Turner a time and an address, and then proceeds to painfully extract the components of Bronze Tiger’s claws from various points in his body. When the guard comes by to find the convict dead, he opens the cell, only to be mauled by the Tiger, who then escapes.
Arrow (Amell) and Roy (Haynes) are training, and Roy is working on the oh-so-fun water slapping technique. Of course, Roy wants to do more, but Arrow refuses. When Diggle (Ramsey) questions Ollie’s motivations with training Roy, Ollie tells his team more about the island and Slade Wilson.
Bronze Tiger keeps his end of the bargain for his breakout, and meets up with Milo Armitage (Kidnie) who hires him to find a mysterious object. The Tiger agrees–for $10 million dollars.
Arrow and Roy are now training with dummies when Ollie gets a call from Felicity (Rickards) that there is a break-in in progress at the Merlyn estate. Arrow decides to take Roy as they go investigate. At the estate, they come across Tiger and his men, and Arrow realizes that they are stealing a prototype of the earthquake machine. As he and Tiger fight, Roy takes on the driver and when Tiger subdues Arrow enough to escape in the truck with the device, the Emerald Archer can’t pursue as Roy is beating the driver to death.
Back at the training grounds, Arrow tells Roy that he isn’t ready which angers the short-fused sidekick-in-training even more.
Roy confronts Thea (Holland) and demands that she leave with her mother and her brother, fearing that she will be killed if the earthquake device is turned on. When Thea refuses, Roy grabs her arm and hurts her, and he finally realizes that he is a little out of control.
Diggle once again tells Ollie that Roy is a lost cause, and Ollie refuses to fail Roy like he failed Slade on the island. Ollie sees this as redemption, and he knows all too well what will happen to Roy if he can’t get him under control.
Felicity is able to track down the money trail and Bronze Tiger’s involvement, and it all leads back to Markovia, a country in Europe ruled by the Markovs. She finds out that there is a shipment leaving Starling City bound for Markovia and Arrow and Roy go investigate, only to confront Tiger, Armitage and their goons. Armitage arms the device and encloses it in a military grade storage container. Our hero is unable to get the container open with arrows and he needs Roy’s help, who is once again beating a man–this time Bronze Tiger–to within an inch of his life. An enraged Roy won’t stop, so Arrow pulls the hood down and reveals himself. He tells Roy that he needs his help or that Thea will die. Roy snaps out of it and punches a hole into the container in time for Ollie to blow it up with an exploding arrow from the inside.
Ollie and Roy come to an understanding, and Ollie now has a key to help Roy control his unfettered rage: Thea. He introduces Roy to Team Arrow® and the next phase of his training begins.
Meanwhile, now back at Iron Heights, Ben Turner is visited by ARGUS leader, Amanda Waller, who offers him a deal to trade his services for early release. He says he’ll join her new unit, and she replies with, “Actually, it’s more of a squad.”
The subplots this week have Walter (Salmon) and Mark Francis (Nicholas Lea) trying to convince Moira (Thompson) to run for mayor opposite Sebastian Blood. She refuses, unsure that anyone would vote for the person that tried to destroy half of the city, but then Thea tells her that she’d vote for her (which, you would think, is a given since they are blood) and the elder Queen decides that “Moira for Mayor” has a nice ring to it.
In “what will Laurel Lance consume this week?” we see that she is desperately trying to find a job while keeping a brave face on for family and friends. But alone, she is a mess. Quentin (Blackthorne) tries to make amends for turning his back on her and offers to take her to dinner (please, feed her something, Katie Cassidy has become a skeletal rail). As they go to the restaurant, Quentin pulls the curtain back to reveal that he was actually taking her to an AA meeting, for which she refuses and stumbles alone into the darkness to presumably NOT eat.
Later, she has an interview with her old friend Joanna De La Vega (Ilonzeh) from their days working the free law clinic in the Glades, and De La Vega informs Laurel that she can’t hire her because Laurel is currently under investigation for possible disbarment. This sends Laurel deeper into her spiral. Her story ends with her staggering home drunk and collapsing onto her living room floor. In her alcohol fueled haze, she sees her sister Sara (Lotz) appear alive and in her apartment. Oh, and the answer to the opening question is Martinis; lots of olive-filled martinis.
On the Island, Sara and Ollie are still trying to track down Slade (Bennett). They go back to the cave where they first found the Mirakuru, and Ollie finds formulas etched on the cave wall. He deduces that Slade intends to use Fyers’ rocket launcher to sink the Amazo. He and Sara race to find Slade before he can launch and Ollie confronts his old friend, only to get a gun to his head. He’s able to talk Slade down by invoking Shado’s memory (a trick he would later use with Roy) and Slade admits that he is out of control. Ollie and Sara promise to help him.
5. Any revelations, tie-ins, easter eggs, etc.? (**SPOILER!**)
Plenty. A mention of Markovia, which is the DC Comics nation that is ruled by the Markov family. The Markovs in the books are brother and sister royalty that are also known as the heroes Geo-Force and Terra. Terra, or Tara Markov, is a known associate of Deathstroke and a one-time member of the Teen Titans. Interestingly enough, Brion Markov–the hero Geo-Force–was also the scientist that created the earthquake device at the end of season one and was subsequently killed by Malcolm Merlyn. Is a major retcon in order here?
Milo Armitage is a character from the comic books, as he was a minor villain during Chuck Dixon’s Green Arrow run in the late ’90s.
Diggle uses the term “Secret Society,” which is a DC Comics team, and of course, the hint of Amanda Waller’s “Squad” means that the Suicide Squad is one member closer to being assembled. The current Suicide Squad in the DC Comics has Harley Quinn as a member. Let that sink in for a bit…
6. Will we watch next week?
Yes. The previews for next week featured an al Ghul, and she even pronounced her father’s name correctly. The Sara/Canary storyline is being revisited, this time with Laurel in the mix, and with Arrow busy training Speedy–err–Roy, the old adage of biting off more than you can chew will soon prove to be true. Add to the fact that Blood and Deathstroke are waiting in the shadows to strike, and Malcolm Merlyn is still alive and can never be trusted, things are just going to get crazier for our favorite Archer. And of course sweeps starts next week, so you can expect a roller coaster ride for the remainder of February as the producers whip out the big guns. Strap in, it’s going to be bumpy!
