I was pleasantly surprised with tonight’s episode. The pacing was good and the content of the episode was important to the overall theme of this season.

I mean, what can you really say about this season’s Quentin and Laurel storyline that hasn’t already been said? It’s odd and played out. Now, if we were seeing hints or clues that maybe there were two Laurels—one good and one bad—or something like that, I think I’d be more inclined to care. I just didn’t get the angle of her following him. Is it the good Laurel and she’s trying to figure things out?

To be honest, I thought the abandoned art building setup where Quentin leads her in then hits her with the old videos and photos was just too cheesy. I think the cooler, and more sinister, thing to do with their story would be to have her just be evil Laurel and torment Quentin by acting like his daughter, then laugh about it with Cayden—some real manipulative bad guy stuff, you know? At this point, I don’t even know what’s going on because her character is so muddled. They want you to think she’s good, but then she brutally kills Vince?

Speaking of which…I enjoyed learning about Vince and Dinah’s backstory, even though it was told through the classic Arrow motif of flashbacks. It was interesting to see that they were both working undercover as infiltrators. I liked that it led right up to the moment we were first introduced to Dinah—nice touch.

Vigilante is a cool character and I really don’t think that’s the end of him. Sure, the dude took a beating with an elongated sonic scream straight to the dome, but if history tells us anything, it seems like he was killed a number of times and always comes back. Don’t forget last season’s bullet straight to the head?

One of the little things I appreciated in tonight’s episode was Ollie confronting Vince and telling him straight up that he doesn’t trust him. This is another good example of Ollie’s battlefield smarts and what makes him a good leader when it comes to keeping the team safe. He was absolutely right in his thought process. How do we know that Vince isn’t pulling a double-swerve? Everyone just bought into him saying he wanted to help. Ollie was the only skeptical one—which is a good thing. When dealing with these high-stress and potentially deadly situations, wouldn’t you rather have someone who is going to have your safety in mind, rather than just buy a story hook-line-and-sinker that could potentially hurt you? Credit to Vince, though, he came through and got the info from Cayden’s computer—paying a serious price for it, too.

While on the subject of team stuff, I still have to chuckle a bit at Dinah, Rene and Curtis. Playing the reluctant card all the time. Tonight proved that if they would have put their egos aside and worked together, instead of sending three people to help Vince, they could have gotten the bomb instead and potentially put an end to Cayden and his crew.

Of course, I can’t talk about tonight’s episode without discussing what is potentially the biggest breakthrough of the season…that being the information recovered from Cayden’s computer.

Not only an awesome breakthrough, but it’s a fantastic twist!   

The cynic in me thought it wasn’t going to be anything when Felicity said they had recovered some interesting things in Cayden’s files. I assumed it was just some goofy, half-baked twist. But when I saw the security footage of Cayden’s son being struck with the arrow and realizing, along with Ollie, that it was an elaborate fake out, I was instantly intrigued. I love that it’s looking like whoever framed Ollie for the murder of Cayden’s son is most likely the same person who leaked the image of Ollie as the Green Arrow.

Jaw-dropping stuff.

This is big time news. It puts the season down a whole new path—one in which I think it needed. It feels like a breath of fresh air has been blown into the show, as we’re now asking ourselves who this mystery man or woman is that seems to be pulling the strings behind the scenes to not only mess with Ollie’s life, but Cayden’s as well. Why?

It also has me wondering something else…if there truly is a mystery person doing all this, what happens to Cayden if Ollie is able to convince him he’s been set up? His whole motive would be gone. He couldn’t possibly turn good after all he’s done. Maybe he’d help Ollie try and find this new threat?

Lots to think about, folks…

Until next time!
Matt
 

Matt Ross covers Arrow as a part of the #DCTV Couch Club. Catch new episodes of Arrow Thursdays at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. CST) on The CW.