Woo Boy … OK, lets finish the first season of Arrow off shall we? As mentioned in my previous posts, I’m aiming to get the first season done this month and will then try to get all caught up prior to the launch of the new season in the fall. If you’ve not seen the show or read my previous updates, I’d urge you to start there first as not only would you not understand who the characters are, you’d also not understand their motivations and reasons for their actions … of course, I’m also guessing though that if you’d not seen the previous episodes, you’d probably not be reading this post either! 🙂
The Huntress Returns
If you recall from the previous post, the Huntress wanted to kill her father whom she blamed for killing her fiance … while Oliver tried to rehabilitate her and get her to understand that murder wasn’t the way to redemption, she was unwilling to listen. When Helena learns that her father is planning on striking a deal with the Feds though, she realizes she needs to do something now, or he will be able to get away scott-free as with the witness protection program in place, she’ll have a very hard time tracking him down.
Realizing that she’ll be unable to remove him from F.B.I custody by herself, Helena demands that Oliver help her. When he initially refuses, she retaliates by kidnapping Tommy but is captured by the police who’ve set a trap for her. Oliver manages to break her out to protect his secret, but when he demands that she leave Starling City, she refuses and instead grabs Felicity who’s able to tell her where her father is being held. Oliver manages to track her down in time and stops her killing her father, but in the scuffle, Officer McKenna (Oliver’s love interest at the time) is shot. In the hospital, McKenna reveals to Oliver that she plans to move to Coast City for her rehab, effectively ending their relationship. Meanwhile, Tommy struggles with his knowledge of Oliver’s secret, which in turn affects his relationship with Laurel.
While Helena’s father is on the “list” this episode didn’t really serve to drive the underlying story forward too much and while the action was fast and furious it was more of a filler than anything else again.
Salvation
OK this one is definitely a doozy and makes up in a very significant manner for the filler episodes we’ve seen previously. While the primary part of the episode is about another vigilante calling themselves the Savior, the underlying story arc advances significantly and really helps to move the story forward.
The Savior believes that he’s “helping” the citizens of Starling City and more specifically The Glades which is a very poor part of the city by targeting those individuals that take advantage of the weak. His first target is a slum lord that he coerces into confessing his crimes on a live broadcast. He follows this up by targeting the District Attorney and while Oliver attempts to stop him, he’s unable to catch him. Felicity however realizes that he’s actually using an abandonded subway car and subway line to travel the underbelly of the city so when he next grabs Roy (Oliver’s sisters “friend”) he’s able to track him down and stop him.
Travelling in and through the Glades however Oliver realizes that this is actually the target of the secret organization, and while he doesn’t yet know what they’re planning on doing, he does know where!
Malcolm meanwhile has reached out to the Triad who have been surprisingly accommodating in providing information on who tried to assassinate him. Moira realizing that Malcolm would quickly come for her and her family throws Frank Chen at Malcolm as the actual conspirator and Malcolm in his archer attire removes Frank from the board.
On the island meanwhile, Oliver and Slade manage to rescue Yao Fei’s daugher from Fyers.
Unfinished Business
A bit of filler wrapping up some loose ends here as we don’t really get any further into the whole conspiracy and end up only rehashing old villains and stories. However in a nutshell, Vertigo is back – this time in a new form and when it reappears on the streets, Oliver determines that the Count must be behind it. Breaking into the psychiatric hospital where the Count is being kept, Oliver finds that he seems to have lost his mind from the drug overdose that he received months previously from Oliver and guesses that someone else must be behind the drugs reappearance. When it is reported that the Count has escaped from prison however Oliver suspects that the Count was faking it the whole time and sets out to hunt him down.
Felicity however does some analysis of the new drug and discovers that there are some new chemicals present that have changed the formulation. When she relays her findings to Oliver, he realizes that the Count’s psychiatrist is actually behind the resurgence of the drug and he was only using the Count as an unwitting patsy and dupe. Oliver manages to stop the doctor and save the Count – unfortunately the Count really has lost his mind and was unaware of anything that was going on!
Home Invasion
Another action packed but filler episode here that doesn’t really advance the underlying story too much. It seems (for obvious reasons) that whenever Laurel involves Oliver and the Vigilante in one of her cases there is only a peripheral tie in if any to the overall conspiracy & while I like her as a character, I regret spending time on these episodes as they don’t really do anything for me! Anyways, long story short, Laurel is representing the Moore family that were bilked out of their life savings by a corrupt businessman. When a hit is put out on the family, the only survivor is the couple’s young son, who is unfortunately a witness to the crime.
Laurel decides to take the boy home so that she can keep him safe, but the assassin knowing that he’s been identified decides to hunt him down there. Oliver steps in and helps to rescue to Laurel and the boy and when Tommy who now knows Oliver’s secret identity declares that the safest place for Laurel and the boy is Oliver’s house, Laurel takes him there. Once again however the assassin attempts to kill the boy but this time, Oliver is able to kill him before he can get to Laurel and the boy. Unfortunately while Oliver might have done the right thing in saving the boy, he’s betrayed Diggle as he did not help him in his search for Deadshot which is what he promised to do. Diggle decides to leave Oliver as he accuses him of always choosing Laurel over anything else (which I have to agree with!).
During a flashback to the island, Shado teaches Oliver to shoot a bow but before his skills can be used as their cover, Yao Fei brings Fyers’ men to their hideout to capture them all.
The Undertaking
Walter’s back!!! Yay!!!
Ooops, sorry for letting the cat out of the bag, but this is a good one that ties up quite a few open loose ends and brings things together in a very tight, neat and organized fashion … you absolutely must watch this one as it answers lots of different questions.
In a bit of a comedic twist, Felicity finds details of a money transfer that ties back to Walter’s kidnapping … unfortunately when Oliver confronts the individual responsible, he claims that Walter was killed. When Oliver informs his family of this detail, Moira immediately confronts Malcolm. Malcolm shows her that Walter is still alive, but by doing so, he makes it clear to Oliver that he is the mastermind of the whole organization & he has Felicity hack his phone to determine Walter’s location.
Oliver then breaks into the facility where Walter is being held and in a very awesome fight sequence, manages to free him and return him to the family.
We also learn that Robert Queen while initially in agreement with Malcolm’s plans for the Glades, ends up disagreeing with what he intends to do. Malcolm ever the man of action decides that continued conversation on this topic is not the solution, but rather it would be better to kill Robert so he has a bomb planted in the Queen’s Gambit just before Oliver and Robert set off.
Darkness on the Edge of Town
You can tell we’re getting to the end of the season now as the secrets and revelations are coming at us fast and furious! Malcolm as the other archer goes to Unidac Industries and ties up the loose ends remaining there – namely killing the scientists responsible for building his device. Oliver is unable to stop this but confronts Malcolm as the Vigilante himself, but is once again defeated by him. This time Malcolm learns Oliver’s secret and in typical villain fashion expounds on his reasons for doing what he is doing.
Walter realizing that Moira was involved in his abduction and possibly in the death of Robert also, issues her with divorce papers and Tommy witnesses Oliver and Laurel “making up” prior to Oliver’s battle against Malcolm.
In a flashback, Fyers reveals that he plans to cripple the Chinese economy by blowing up aircraft going into China. Fyers then murders Yao Fei (gasp!!!) after forcing him to take credit for the attacks via video recording. That was seriously unexpected!!
Sacrifice
Wow … definitely not the end that I envisioned as basically our hero fails! Very, very unexpected and quite poignant.
In a nutshell Oliver manages to escape from the chains that Malcolm had left him in & after speaking to his mom about the Undertaking she holds a press conference to let the whole city know what’s about to happen. Detective Lance with the help of Felicity manages to find and defuse one of the weapons targeting the Glades but after Oliver finds and defeats Malcolm he learns that there is still another one which he proceeds to set off in the process demolishing the East side of the Glades.
Tommy meanwhile has learned that his father is the other archer and also what his plans are for the city. Rushing to save Laurel who is trapped in her office at CNRI, he arrives in time to rescue her, but in the process is caught and crushed by falling debris before Oliver can save him.
So to end this season, we have Yao Fei dead, Tommy dead and it looks like Malcolm is dead also! While Deadshot came back from the dead, I fear that we might not be as fortunate with some of the others. 🙁
Overall a really good first season … it was engaging and the storytelling and action sequences were excellent. I’d like there to be less filler episodes but I know all shows have them so I can’t complain too much. Even the fillers had some good action! Really looking forward to Season 2 and beyond.