TV REVIEW: Arrow’s Mid Season Finale is “Damn Entertaining Hour of TV”

By Justin Carter

As Luke Skywalker knows, family is a double-edged sword. On one hand, you grow up with them, and if you’re lucky, their teachings and experiences will mold you into a good person. On the other, it can mean you see their imperfections up close, and while some you’re all too happy to point out, other imperfections you’ll attempt to turn a blind to for the sake of preserving the peace.

Oliver Queen knows this better than anyone. He watched his father kill himself and took up the his crusade to save Starling City in an effort to honor the man who raised him. Both of his parents were huge contributors to Malcolm Merlyn’s Undertaking, most of all his mother. He was so desperate to believe that his Moira had nothing to do with Merlyn’s plans that even her shooting him didn’t raise any suspicions.

Family ends up being a recurring theme in this mid season finale. Aside from Nyssa’s father Ra’s and Malcolm Merlyn himself, there’s also the return of Alex Kingston as Laurel’s mother, just in time for the holidays. With the guilt of Sara’s death weighing down on her further, Laurel lets her mother in on the secret. I haven’t seen her in Doctor Who, but she absolutely nails a mother’s grief in this episode. She guesses Sara’s death in a startling amount of time, and nothing will ever make that okay. The show has made sure to use her at least twice a season, and each time she has nailed her moments. When she tells Laurel to make those responsible for her daughter’s death pay, she absolutely means it. I’m still banking on Laurel kicking some ass down the line, and when she learns that Thea was responsible, that will be a fight to watch.

The itself revelation isn’t entirely surprising–some people guessed it an episode or two after Thea’s return from Corto Maltese, but the surprise here is how she is revealed as the killer. A mind altering drug that thrives in Corto Maltese is given to the younger Queen child courtesy of Malcolm and leaves her susceptible to anything he suggests. With Thea being Sara’s killer and using her DNA to match Oliver’s, he’d have no choice but to demand a trial by combat and face off with Ra’s, killing the Demon and removing the blood debts of Thea and Merlyn. The only kicker? He has 48 hours to “confess,” or Nyssa’s right-hand man will kill 50 Starling citizens.

In a surprising move, Nyssa’s lieutenant Sarab is none other than Maseo, Oliver’s current unwilling ally in the China flashbacks. Something happened to his family–Oliver doesn’t go into details, but more than likely his family is dead or has completely cut him from their lives–and he arrived at Nanda Parbat around the same time as Sara. Maseo knows Oliver well enough to see that he’s lying about killing Sara and begs with him to come clean. Their relationship in the flashbacks hasn’t been fully established in the same way that Ollie and Slade’s was over the last two years, but there does feel like genuine emotion on Karl Yune’s end when he pleads with Oliver to not fight Ra’s.

Matt Nable returns as the Demon’s Head after a short scene earlier in the season. Most of his time is spent with his back to others, covered in a fur coat and sporting some fancy rings. This may be an unfair comparison, but unless things change in later episodes, he won’t be outshining Liam Neeson anytime soon. Part of this is due to the fact he doesn’t entirely look intimidating or threatening. When he and Oliver fight, he looks more like a high school baseball coach than the leader of a deadly group of assassins. Despite it being said that he’s a very skilled fighter with years of knowledge under his belt, it isn’t really established here. In fact, it was surprising that he managed to land multiple hits on Oliver at all, much less stab him.

Noted, that really is a fairly minor complaint when I get down to it, and there is a lot to like about the midseason finale of Arrow. If you’re a diehard comic book fan, you’ll see some significant leaps forward with Ray and his A.T.O.M. suit; if you’re a shipper, you’ll be pleased to see Oliver finally tell Felicity he loves her. And if you’re neither, it’s still one damn entertaining hour of television.

Additional Notes

• Ray: “I’m going to save this city, and I want you to help me.” Felicity: “Why does this keep happening to me?” So is it too early to ask for an Arrow/Atom team-up episode, or…
• “I was 11 years old when I killed my first man.” Thank God Ra’s doesn’t have any grandchildren in this world, or their bedtime stories would be traumatizing.
• The Oliver/Ra’s fight has them both shirtless, even on top of a cold mountain. Say what you will about the CW, they’re determined to hit that “shirtless man” quota at least four times a season. And Oliver does a little pec flex while Ra’s talks.
• Can someone teach Oliver that the Arrow can enter buildings besides busting through glass?
• Ra’s: “I have replaced evil with death.” No…no, you’re still evil, Ra’s.
• Explain to me how Nyssa’s accent is posh British, but Ra’s sound like he’s straddling the line between Australian and Irish.
• I think it was a mistake for the preview for the next episode to show someone, I assume Maseo, saving Oliver as he bleeds out. Not that anyone was fully expecting Oliver to die, just that it would’ve helped build the mystery of how he survived getting impaled and kicked down the mountain.
• People in Starling and Central City really do have the worst Christmases ever. I mean, really.

Arrow returns January 21. I shall see you all then.