This episode of Arrow was supposed to be the story that set up the revisit/backdoor pilot for the Flash TV series. But when Flash got his own pilot free and clear of this show, the next episode had to be re-written, and the effects are felt here as the story struggles in parts. When it’s going, it’s going great and the episode is strong. But when it stumbles…
Anyway, this is the first part of a five-part season finale that will see everything get tied up. At least I hope so.
For now, here are the 6 Qs of this week’s Arrow.
1. What is it?
Arrow Season 2, Episode #219, titled ‘The Man Under The Hood.’
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; Manu Bennett as Slade Wilson; Willa Holland as Thea Queen; Susanna Thompson as Moira Queen; Paul Blackthorne as Quentin Lance; Caity Lotz as Sara; Summer Glau as Isabel Rochev; Dylan Neal as Anthony Ivo; Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon; David Nykl as Anatoly Knyazev; Danielle Panabaker as Caitlyn Snow; and Chelah Horsdal as Kate Spencer.
3. Who made it?
‘The Man Under The Hood’ was written by Andrew Kriesberg & Keto Shimizu, based off a story by Greg Berlanti and Geoff Johns. The episode was directed by Jesse Warren.
4. What is it about? (**spoilers galore**)
‘The Man Under The Hood’ opens with all Team Arrow sneaking into the Queen Consolidated Applied Sciences division, using the Skeleton Key device from Episode #214, ‘Time of Death,’ and blowing the building to smithereens, preventing Slade Wilson (Bennett) and Isabel Rochev (Glau) from using the division to replicate the Mirakuru from Wilson’s blood.
In the unsafest place in Starling City, Laurel Lance’s Apartment, Laurel (Cassidy) is starting to piece together the Ollie/Arrow reality that Slade told her about in the last episode. She goes to see Quentin (Blackthorne) at Iron Heights and point blank asks him if he knows the Arrow’s identity, for which he says no.
Deathstroke retaliates against Team Arrow by attacking the Arrow Cave, shattering Sara’s (Lotz) wrist, and throwing Diggle (Ramsey) through the glass Hood Case. Felicity (Smoak) hides, and Ollie (Amell) fights his former friend until he is beaten. When Ollie comes to, he discovers that to the only thing taken was the Skeleton Key.
Laurel rushes to the hospital to check on Sara and she begins to realize that her little sister is the Canary, further verifying what Slade told her.
At STAR labs, Deathstroke breaks in, using the Skeleton Key and is fought off by two young workers, Cisco (Valdes) and Caitlyn (Panabaker), using STAR labs technology. Deathstroke gets the upper hand and finds a device that can transfuse blood in great amounts (very conveniently, mind you).
Ollie and Felicity investigate the theft at STAR labs, and Felicity reveals that she knows the two young people and they all know Barry Allen. It’s also revealed that Barry has been visited by another woman named Iris, which stokes Felicity’s jealousy bug.
Felicity figures out that whenever Slade turns on the new device, the draw in power will alert them to his location. Ollie doesn’t want to wait. He goes to Queen Consolidated to confront Rochev (Glau), who tells him that his father loved her and they were going to run away together, but because of Thea (Holland) getting into a horse riding accident as a young girl, those plans were ruined and Rochev has been plotting revenge ever since (and I thought Slade’s reasons for revenge were terrible!) She also tells Ollie that Robert knew that Thea wasn’t his daughter.
In Iron Heights, Quentin is attacked in his cell by an old collar he arrested years before.
Laurel reaches out to the Arrow for a meet up. During the face-to-hood, she tells him she knows “things,” but then the phone rings informing her of her father’s attack. She rushes to Iron Heights.
At her father’s side, she tries to tell him the identity of the vigilante, but Quentin refuses to know, stating that the ideal is bigger than the man, and it doesn’t matter who is under the hood. Laurel understands this as well. She then blackmails Kate Spencer (Horsdal) yet again, and get’s her father released and reinstated on the job–which Spencer can do, apparently.
The power spike occurs and Team Arrow goes to the location. There Arrow finds the freed prisoners from last episode hooked up to the source, but instead of a weakened Slade, Arrow finds Roy (Haynes) hooked up to the machine. Slade and Rochev appear out of the shadows, with Slade telling the Arrow that moving Roy will kill him. Arrow does it anyway, shocking Slade that he would cross that line, and in the commotion, Diggle shoots Rochev dead. Arrow shoots Slade with a Taser arrow and then they escape, instead of killing Slade while he was down, or at least destroying the machine.
The story concludes with Ollie confronting Thea, telling her that Robert always knew that she wasn’t his kid, but he loved her anyway, and Thea doesn’t care. She still moves out of Stately Queen Manor, leaving Moira (Thompson) alone and nearly broke.
Laurel and Ollie have a moment and Laurel hugs her old friend, just because, as she realizes that her father was right, and some secrets should be kept.
The episode ends with Slade climbing off the machine, surrounded by his new army of Mirakuru-powered criminals, and a revived, Mirakuru-fused Isabel Rochev.
On the island, Anatoly (Nykl) wants to exact revenge on Ivo (Neal) for the torture that Ivo put them under, but Sara defends him. Ivo asks for mercy, revealing a nasty bout of sepsis that is killing him, and offers Sara and Ollie the information that there is a cure for Mirakuru. He gives Ollie a key to a safe in his office back on the Amazo, which contains the cure, apparently, and then Sara can’t kill him. Ollie takes the gun and shoots Ivo dead, telling Sara that once you kill a man there is no going back.
5. Any revelations, tie-ins, easter eggs, etc.? (**SPOILER!**)
Where do I start? A mention of Arthur Light, or as he’s known in DC Comics lore, Dr. Light–a rapist, maniac, and “psycho” that has played an integral part of the shaping of the old DCU for the last 10 years or so. Mentions of Dr. Harrison Wells, who is the head of STAR labs. A mention of Bludhaven, where Roy was hiding out. A mention of Iris, Barry Allen’s “…something.” In the comics, TV reporter Iris West would become Barry’s wife after decades of dating and being captured by villains, and dating, and a murder trial or two. The Flash has a deep DCU history, folks.
Lastly, the two “kids” that work at STAR labs and are apparently great friends with Barry Allen and Felicity Smoak–though we’ve never seen or heard of either of them before–are established DCU characters. Cisco Ramon is also known as the hero, Vibe, and Caitlyn Snow is the Firestorm villain, Killer Frost.
6. Will we watch next week?
This week was essentially the beginning of a five-part ending to a truly uneven season. It did well in setting everything up, but the loss of the original episode #220–which is the next episode and was supposed to be a Barry Allen/Flash-heavy backdoor pilot–could prove to be bad, as the plot was scrapped and re-written to give Allen his own true pilot for next season. Of course we will watch, but with cautious trepidation.
