ARROW Review: “Docket No. 11-19-41-73”

Arrow — “Docket No. 11-19-41-73” Pictured (L-R): Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak, Teryl Rothery as Jean Loring and Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow — Photo: Dean Buscher/The CW

ARROW REVIEW: “DOCKET NO. 11-19-41-73”

BY JUSTIN CARTER

After spending most of the season looming over the actions of the primary cast, it’s time for the Chekov’s Gun that is Oliver’s secret to finally fire. It’s presented as an “all hands on deck” situation, one where New Team Arrow has opted to put their differences aside and show support for Oliver. The Queen family must stay strong, and someone has to come through with the sudden save. Those elements are there, but disappointingly, they’re there in spirit more than anything.

It doesn’t help that the promo for this week ruined what would have been the best part of the episode. Namely, the return of Colin Donnell as Tommy Merlyn by way of Wil Traval’s Christopher Chance. (Strangely, the show treats it as a secret that Diggle goes to rescue Chance in the opening when he’s the only way that Merlyn could show back up in the show.) It’s quite nice to see Donnell back as Tommy; he’s still got the swagger and charm of the character from season one and it has to be fun for him to get to be an archer, even briefly, when last season was full of conspiracies that he was Prometheus until Chase was revealed.

With the Merlyn return already known for the last week, it just becomes a matter of when he’ll show up, effectively neutering the courtroom proceedings. Of course Oliver doesn’t decide to out himself and use his heroics to appeal to the jury; of course Diaz brings in Rene’s daughter Zoe during his testimony as a silent show of force, and Dinah’s history as an undercover cop gets brought up. The show has frankly done courtroom scenes more suspensefully in previous seasons — specifically during Moira’s trial in season two — making events perfunctory until Donnell can show up and chew the scenery.

The only other thing of real substance that happens in the courtroom is that Laurel takes the stand and doesn’t out Oliver as the Green Arrow, despite Diaz’s ordering her to, but then was that really surprising? She’s already shown in the last two weeks that she’s ready to ditch him, so it figures that she would do so in the most dramatic way possible. Since she started partnering up with him, I’ve been wondering why she’d be afraid to just up and kill him, and the answer is that he’s got a device that can neutralize her Canary Cry. An alright way to end the episode, but which would have worked better if we had known about earlier, because as is it just robs Laurel of a last ditch attempt to take her life back.

Ultimately, “Docket” serves as a way to mend the bridge between the two Teams Arrow by way of Oliver and Rene. Now that Curtis is back to talking to Felicity and Diggle has apologized to Rene, this was the only relationship left to fix. With Diaz declaring all out war on Oliver next week, it’s clear that everyone will be coming together to finally put this uneven season to rest.

Additional Notes

• Over the week, it was revealed that Paul Blackthorne wouldn’t be returning for season 7, so that means he’ll likely bite the bullet next week or the finale.
• The docket case for Oliver’s trial, 11-19-41-73, is a clever reference to the date Green Arrow first debuted in the 73rd issue of More Fun Comics.
• Raisa officially confirms that she knows Oliver is the Green Arrow, meaning she is the smartest maid ever.
• I love that Chance just gives a mask to a different member of the Queen family each time he shows up, and I hope that continues if and when he returns next time.