ARROW “Brothers and Sisters” Review

Arrow — “Brothers & Sisters” — Pictured (L-R): Liam Hall as Kane Wolfman and Kirk Acevedo as Ricardo Diaz — Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW

ARROW “BROTHERS AND SISTERS” REVIEW

BY JUSTIN CARTER

This week’s Arrow is not especially great, in part because it largely places its focus on the Diaz/Dante storyline. Thus far, this story arc has been moving at a glacial pace, particularly in respect to to Dante. However, we get to finally meet him this week. And the reaction? Meh.

Arrow has to walk a fine line with its villains. Because its corner of the Arrowverse isn’t regularly home to time travelers and aliens, it can’t delve into the supernatural or odd as consistently as its distinguished family members. Damien Dahrk was perhaps the most out there they’ve gotten when it comes to their own series, while the other villains have been different shades of street level deranged maniac. But at the very least most of them had something special that to avoid being interchangeable. Merlyn had the charm of John Barrowman, Slade had personal history with Oliver and so on.

Dante is … none of those, just a guy who funds terrorist acts and has a propensity for knives. That he’s showing up this late in the season and will likely fill our Big Bad slot, should Diaz actually be dead, is not exactly an interesting proposition. He’s said to be dangerous, but how dangerous could he be really? That remains to be seen, and he seems to exist in part so we can establish that ARGUS is going to screw up Star City to the state we see it become in the future.

For an episode called “Brothers and Sisters,” there’s not really a lot of that to go around. That Emiko is afforded so little interiority in a story about her is “justified,” in this instance, with the revelation that she’s been working for Dante. Even so, it’s weird that I can say I have a better grasp on future William or Mia than I do Emiko at this point. And while on some level that’s to be expected, given the heritage that William and Mia have, I wish the show was willing to also explore Emiko for more than a few minutes.

Additional Notes

• Regarding who lit Diaz on fire, the likeliest suspects are Oliver and Laurel. I think a case could be made that it was one of the Longbow Hunters, given his surprise at whoever showed up to see him.
• I still don’t get why Rene chooses to wear his old hockey jersey instead of actual body armor.
• Next week’s episode is called “Training Day,” which means I expect someone to say how King Kong ain’t got shit on them.