TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Arrow Season 7 Episode 3: Crossing Lines

After a couple of strong starts, I honestly feel that “Crossing Lines” was a bit of a step back for the seventh season. Not because certain beats were bad per se, but it took a while to get a buildup going for some of them, and one was in very familiar territory.

Let’s start with the best aspect, shall we? Oliver’s prison story is one of the best parts of Arrow Season 7 so far and it’s because it’s all new territory for the show. Barry’s time in prison was interesting, sure, but it was never like this. This is much more compelling, much more brutal, and Ollie is starting to revert back to Season 1 Ollie in order to get to this character called the “Demon”. Hopefully, it’s someone from his past, or someone who has strong DC Comics ties, because the only other “demon” we know of in Arrow mythology is Ra’s, and he dead…we think…

Moving on, I will admit that Felicity’s desperation to get Diaz leading to her going to Agent Watson was compelling. And getting her on board for a makeshift Team Arrow in order to get Diaz and the Longbow Hunters was good. The fight a the CDC was fun, especially the one-on-one fights that even showed off Rene picking up some new tricks like his suddenly good knife skills.

The twist that they had somehow gotten Silencer was nicely played, it was hinted at first, but then, not completely obvious until the end. And it shows the depths that Felicity is willing to go that she was up for costing Watson her job. But hopefully, it gets even more compelling in the next episode.

Meanwhile, Lyla made her Season 7 debut in great fashion (“I’m his mom”), and having her and John go on a mission together was great. Until…we find out that Lyla went behind John’s back to do something, and he wasn’t happy with it, so he called her out about it, which led to them fighting…does that sound familiar? Because it’s happened before. Granted, this is a small twist on things, because Lyla is researching something that could lead to ARGUS being dirty…but the whole “why wouldn’t you tell me?” aspect has been done to death in this show. I really hope that this doesn’t pop up again.

Ironically, there were no flashbacks, which may actually be a good thing, as it will allow them to grow the story without having it interfere with the others.

In the end, “Crossing Lines” made good use of certain storylines, and fight sequences. But it needs to get back on stronger footing, and soon.