WARNING…Spoilers ahead.
Finally, after too long of wait Arrow has finally returned to TV. I hope you guys watched it because I’m about to spoil the crap out of it. If you have yet to see it, turn away now.
After the tragedy of losing the Glades and his best friend Tommy in the same episode Oliver finds it necessary to get out of town. The crusade he thought he was taking up proved to be a bust and it’s something Oliver has having a hard time living with. So what does Oliver do? Head back to the place where it all started, the island. However Diggle and Felicity just can’t let their friend go because some crazy stuff is going down in Starling City. After bringing Oliver back home we get introduced to the bad guys for the hour, The Hoods, a gang of wannabe vigilantes who took Arrow’s crusade of justified murder a bit too far. These guys start killing everybody right up to the mayor.
Oliver realizes this is the reason why his friends came after him, and he wants no part of it. That is until the gang starts to target Oliver and his family has people that need to go. It was pretty ironic to see the Hoods bust in on Oliver and use his “You have failed this city” line and I was sure we were going to see a lot of butt kicking. It turns out though that Oliver is apprehensive to do so after the loss of Tommy. Only one thing can change that, these guys kidnap his sister Thea. This gets Oliver to once again don the hood and bow to get his sister back.
Wow, what an episode! Our patience in waiting for the show to return was paid off in spades here. This had to be without a doubt my favorite episode so far. The action was superb, his team being fully committed (ahem, Felicity) to Oliver was great to see, and we got a few cool easter eggs like a mention of a science experiment taking place in Central City (Flash, I’m looking at you.). The scene where Oliver comes to some hard realizations about his previous activities was done so perfectly. Oliver never saw himself as a hero. He was a man seeking vengeance in his father’s name. His crusade that he had taken up proved to be shallow in the end, and so was The Hood. Oliver wants to be a hero now. He wants to do real good for the people of Starling City beyond his father’s list. This was a great way for Oliver’s true hero’s journey to begin, and I’m glad it took a whole season of build to get here, it made it that much sweeter. Anyone who has read my past reviews knows one of my biggest gripes was his name. The Hood, the Vigilante, they both sounded so pedestrian. With Oliver taking up a new path of not killing and truly trying to be a hero, it seemed a name change was in order, and though we didn’t get it officially, his playing with the arrow at the end gave me goosebumps.
There was also the introduction of Black Canary at the end, and what a great scene it was. I loved how it was in connection with Roy’s obsession with crime fighting and I hope this is a plot device used to bring Canary, Roy and Arrow all together onto the same team. There was also another new edition to the cast in the form of Summer Glau, playing a businesswoman out to take control of the Queen Empire. Personally I love Glau. Though I never watched Firefly, I became a huge fan after watching her in the Sarah Connor Chronicles where she played a hot as hell Terminator. I loved her sense of cold charm on that show and have been a fan since. That being said, I’ve also dubbed her the black widow of TV because every show she is on gets cancelled. Some deserved it (The Cape) and others never got a fair shot (Firefly, Terminator TSCC), but I hope we can avoid more of the same here.
Overall Arrow is back with a vengeance and I couldn’t be more excited about another series this fall except the Walking Dead. Do not miss out on what is promising to be one of the best seasons of superhero TV ever.
5 out of 5 nerds
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