ARROW TV REVIEW: Stupid Cupid, Olicity Takes a Blow & More

By Justin Carter

Oliver Queen isn’t all that good with the ladies. Of the six women he’s been romantically involved with on the show–Laurel, Huntress, Shado, Sara, Isabel and Felicity–three of them are dead, Laurel is coming back from an emotional breakdown and addiction, Isabel’s in jail, and his and Felicity’s relationship ended just as it was taking off, due to no one’s fault but his own. Not helping is Ray Palmer, who isn’t just cleaning up the city in a way that he couldn’t, but also has Felicity as his VP and using his charm and money to buy her things he thinks she wants. Like Batman, Oliver just can’t seem to connect with women who aren’t associated with his second job, and everything about this episode gives the impression that it was intended as one seriously demented Valentine’s Day installment.

 In short, Oliver’s romantic life is in shambles, and the appearance of a copycat archer with heart eyes set on him is just the icing on the cake. Six months ago during Slade’s Mirakuru soldier siege, he saved a former cop by the name of Carrie Cutter, in a nice callback to a random act of heroism from season two. Since then, Carrie has trained herself with a bow and has grown obsessed with the Arrow, going so far as to capture a mob informant just so she could meet Oliver face to face. Things get even worse when she uses one of her contacts to locate Oliver’s hideout and waits for him there while Thea is in the building and there are club goers dancing it up.

More than anything, Cupid’s role in the plot overall is meant to help Oliver realize that his decision to break things off with Felicity was a bad one. He tells Cupid that he can’t be with anyone, despite wanting to, just as Felicity is listening in. It’s only after Diggle talks some sense into him that he realizes he needs to sack up and tell Felicity how he really feels, at which point he walks in on Felicity and Ray Palmer kissing. The SS Olicity takes another blow during this scene, though I will give Palmer credit due for apologizing and saying that he meant to keep their whole dinner strictly casual.

My problem with love triangles in TV shows is that eventually, one character comes out looking like a complete dick to the fans when they don’t really deserve it. In this case, fans are shitting on Ray Palmer for ruining their ship; I’ll admit that some of Palmer’s actions are excessive bordering on outright creepy and that Brandon Routh does a fine job seeing that they never reach their threshold, but Oliver’s been given a good amount of chances to take this relationship into his own hands. Felicity’s said that she’s in love with him something like five times, and he either didn’t pick up on it or didn’t act upon it. At the end of the second episode of this season, he told Diggle he didn’t want to die “down here”, presumably meaning that he doesn’t want to die with his life just solely being consumed by the Arrow. With Felicity, he had that chance but retreated into the Arrow persona at the first sign of things going wrong, and that’s more damning than anything Palmer could do.

Don’t get me wrong, this is another solid episode of Arrow. But the show and Oliver need to make up their mind about wanting him and Felicity to be a thing. Either have them both accept that they can’t be together, or just give them their happy ending as a crime-fighting couple. Because they can only stretch it out for so long.

Additional notes:

• Felicity walks in on Ray working with what else, the salmon ladder. I honestly think this season would benefit from Oliver and Ray just having a salmon ladder competition.

• “Couture is not platonic.”

• Ray gets access to Nevada mines, where the dwarf star matter for his A.T.O.M. exosuit is. I can’t wait to see him don his costume on the show.

• Oliver probably could use a therapist or two, to be honest. Him and Roy.

• December 3 is Flash vs. Arrow. I am incredibly stoked for this.