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Astronomer
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Post by Astronomer »

The Promise:
Another 'meh' episode. Most of the stuff on the island was predictable, since we basically knew it was going to happen. Some interesting stuff with Slade and Oliver. I wonder who the preacher is? Also, some interesting tension building. Did anyone else hate that moment when Sarah said: "He's going to kill Oliver and his whole family!" That just felt way cheesy to me.
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The Promise:


Of course Ivo’s obsession with the Mirakuru is because he wants it to cure someone, such a cliché. But then again, what else would it be?

I hope getting recaptured was part of the plan, it’s too early to be messing things up.

Terrible bad guy speech. He was going to kill one or the other so yeah maybe Oliver technically ‘aimed the gun’ at Shado, but if he hadn’t he would have ‘aimed the gun’ at Sara. Either way one of them would have been shot, so you can’t try to mess with his head by saying he’s to blame when there was no other possible outcome.
(A minute later:)
Oh okay, I guess that was all just for Slade to overhear. That work then.

So that’s how it went down. Pretty much as expected. I didn’t figure Slade would take over the ship and hold Oliver though, I thought it would sink right away. So still not sure what exactly is going to happen. Sara’s back on the island now, with the escaped prisoners so we have some new faces, but she doesn’t stay there we know she goes off somehow sometime. Oliver is trapped on the ship, but he doesn’t stay there we know he gets back to the island somehow, minus Slade, and stays there until he’s rescued. Oh yeah, and whatever ends up happening we know he thinks Sara dies, so she can’t just go off from here, something has to happen to her first. But then, how and why does she end up going off alone without Oliver realizing she’s not dead? Because for the death part right now I’m thinking something like Slade and Oliver go back to the island because he wants to kill Sara as his making Oliver suffer and there’s maybe an explosion or something like that that appears to kill both Slade and Sara. That would explain why he thought they both died. But it doesn’t explain where they both go off to next, because why would they just leave without finding Oliver first, Sara to show him she’s not dead and Slade to kill him. For that matter, how and why does Slade go off after Oliver thinks he’s dead, however that happens? Maybe they don’t go back to the island, maybe Oliver and Slade fight on the ship and then it sinks and Oliver thought he died there. That still doesn’t explain why Slade would just slip away though without finishing his revenge. I’m very curious to see where this is going.

-- 11 Apr 2014 10:58 am --
Astronomer wrote:Did anyone else hate that moment when Sarah said: "He's going to kill Oliver and his whole family!" That just felt way cheesy to me.
Oh my gosh, that was so bad. I think the purpose was to show that Sarah understands what’s going on here, which is good, but they could have made that point in a much better way.
Last edited by bookworm on Fri Jul 11, 2014 3:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Astronomer »

bookworm wrote:The Promise:

So that’s how it went down. Pretty much as expected.
And that wraps up pretty much how I felt about the episode.
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Post by bookworm »

Suicide Squad:


Cool, Diggle flashbacks.

Hey, Harley Quinn.

Not a single island flashback, but from context clues in the present we now know the details we've just been guessing at for a while. Oliver will eventually kill Slade, which we pretty much knew for sure by now even though it hadn't been fully confirmed, but it is now, and now we know that it is indeed Slade that will appear to kill Sarah. The circumstances remain to be seen, but at least we know the situation.

I liked this episode a lot, even though it had somewhat the same feel as Keep You Enemies Closer of dropping an out of city completely stand alone mission in the middle of what's happening in the main storyline. Only half the episode was like that though, Oliver was still dealing with Slade. But in a way that made it weirder, because it seemed unlike Diggle to agree to go do this and leave Oliver and Felicity on their own right after they learned they were in the most serious danger they ever have been. What if Slade had made his move while he was gone? I don't feel like he would have taken that chance.
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Post by Astronomer »

Suicide Squad:
Now this was a good episode. Cool gadgets, quick pace, kind of predictable but I didn't mind that so much. Cool stuff going on with Oliver. I have a feeling he's going to regress in his character arc. I wonder if he'll end up back on the island at the end of the season? Some more good stuff between Laurel and Sarah. I hope the season keeps angling up after some of the more mediocre episodes in the middle.
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Post by bookworm »

Birds of Prey:


Aha, I've been waiting for Helena to come back.

Laurel's back at work, that should be good for her. As long as it's a real development and not just a one time thing for purposes of this episode just because they want her prosecuting this guy so she gets involved with Helena.

If everyone knows who The Huntress is, why does she still wear the mask?

Yeah, the whole thing was just a show to lure Helena out; Laurel isn't really rehired is she?

Wait, what is Laurel going on about here? Because she was used for this trap, she thinks she isn't ready to go back to work? She did nothing wrong here, and nothing that happened has anything to do with her ability to work. She could take a regular case and do fine; the problem here wasn't her returning to court it was just the particular person she was prosecuting.

Woah, really tough situation for Roy. He knows he shouldn't be with Thea right now, so he did that because it was the only way to force a breakup, it's all because he really does care for her. Fortunately she realizes he just did it to push her away, so hopefully if and when its alright to get back together they can work it out.

Here we go, Slade's making his move!
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Post by Astronomer »

Deathstroke:
Now we have set up for Thea, set up for Roschev, and set up for Roy. Good episode, as far as I can remember. I did not see the Roschev twist coming.
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Post by IrishTiger »

I finally watched the first two episodes of Arrow this evening....what an intriguing show! I love the setting and the main character's action plan. I'll let you know what I think of the first season as I continue through it.
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Post by bookworm »

Deathstroke:


Oh yeah, Laurel isn't suspicious of Blood anymore. That's not good.

Hmm, is this kidnapping part of Slade's plan for revenge on Oliver, or part of his plan to help Blood win the election? Because it seems like a publicity stunt, with Blood suspending his campaign to help find her. It probably serves both I guess.

Of course Slade has a cover story, that would have been too easy. I hope this doesn't make Lance hesitant to continue working with The Arrow though, they were just making a good team.

Slade is just going to let her go now? This was just to 'make a point'? I don't get it; she'll confirm he was the one that took her. If this wasn't the end game, just setting up something, why did he do it out of disguise?
I bet he's going to do the classic ‘You're free to go, but if you do…’ so she won't leave just yet though.
(A second later:)
I knew it. Is this how Thea finally finds out about Oliver?

I hope this begins to reconcile the rift between Oliver and his mom, I still don't understand why it's there.

Oh boy, there goes Roy again. They just cannot make progress there. I hope it works out somehow eventually.

Gosh, I knew Isabelle was going to cross Oliver here, but I didn't know it was a part of Slade's plan. He really did cover all his bases.

What in the world is going on here? All that with Thea was just to distract Oliver so Slade could free those prisoners? I repeat then, why did he let her see his identity?

Oh, Slade told her that secret. Good misdirection. Why though? Apparently to mess things up between her and Oliver, but I don't know what that has to do with the grand scheme.

Roy is leaving the city? What? I get leaving the group, but leaving everything? I thought his whole issue was wanting to protect Thea the right way; how is not being there part of that?

What the heck? Lance is being arrested now? Thea didn't tell anyone ‘Yeah, it was Slade Wilson’?

Okay, some good insight on Slade's plot here. It's not just all about revenge, that's just half. The other half is making a super army, which is why he needed control of Oliver's company, to develop more mirakuru.

Just wait now. Thea did identify Slade and the police now want to arrest him. Then what are they going after Lance for? Just because he's working with the vigilantes? I mean, yeah technically wrong, but really they're not bad guys. He was able to come to see that, but apparently not enough other people were. I wonder how this will be resolved.

Hmm, Laurel is the one that finds out who Oliver is then. This will be interesting.
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Post by Whitty Whit »

I just now started watching this show; I didn't think it would be any good, just a lame playboy-turned-hero show. I'm actually pretty enthralled by it. It's good, and I've watched only the first 2 episodes of Season 1. Hopefully I can watch all of Seasons 1 & 2 before the 3rd comes out.
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Post by bookworm »

The Man Under the Hood:


Now that's an opening! Hopefully that buys them some time against Slade's plan because they'll need it to figure out what to do. He's always a step ahead of them.

I expect Laurel to find out Sarah is Canary eventually, but is this really how she's going to do it? ‘Oliver has scars and he's The Arrow; Sarah has scars so she must be The Arrow's sidekick’? That's silly.

Obviously now that he can't use Queen Consolidated’s facility Slade will go to STAR Labs, right? It's about time to bring Barry back in. If he's out of the hospital by now.

Well that was pretty lucky. Slade was going to have to wait until the Queen's Lab could replicate the mirakuru before he could make his army, but because they foiled that he went to STAR which has a device that allows bypassing that process because he can just transfer the stuff already in his blood right into his men. So they didn't buy any time at all, they actually cut the time they have to make a plan.

Wow, that all turned out way better than I ever expected. I thought Laurel would tell Lance about Oliver and then he'd have to decide whether to tell who The Arrow is so they'd let him out, or maybe Laurel would tell to get him out. But for them to both work it out in their own way, and for Lance to be released anyway without anyone being told, that's great. And the conversation was such a great moment, when Lance was saying to imagine what it must be like for The Arrow to do what he does, while he didn't know who he is so it was meaningful enough to him, but even more so for her because she does know. She can really think about what it must be like, and I bet this helps work out so many things for her.
It's weird though, Lance knows Sarah is Canary but Laurel doesn't, and now she knows Oliver is The Arrow but he doesn't. I wonder if either of them will ever get the other half.

Slade got Roy, didn't see that coming. Found him too late though, he made his army.

Hopefully Isabelle's appointment to CEO had a clause that if she died it reverts back to Oliver. That would be way too convenient, but he has to get the company back somehow.
(Later:)
Oh, well if Slade can just bring her back to life it doesn't matter I guess.
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Post by Astronomer »

Yep. Of course Isabella has to become superpowered. Otherwise there cannot be a big showdown later in the season.
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Post by bookworm »

Seeing Red:


And Roy just gets up and leaves. Did they not think that would happen for some reason?

Gosh, Roy has gone full mirikuru monster. They better be able to make that cure, there's no reasoning with him any more. Not that that approach seemed to have any real effect anyway. Didn't work with Slade.

Oliver called him Speedy again. It's to try to reach through to the real Roy, but is it also an origin? Is Roy actually going to be the hero Speedy as a borrowed nickname, and not Thea as the original? If they're able to snap him out of this and he comes back to the team?

What? Moira knows Oliver is The Arrow? She's known all season? That's crazy.

Hmm, Blood's not going to like that change of heart about dropping out of the election.

Continuity error: Oliver shot all three knockout arrows into Roy's chest, but when they picked him up one was in his leg.

What in the heck was that?! This is not at all where I expected the story to go.
How could they kill Moira now. This was the worst possible time to do it; there are still really important things the kids need to know that only she could have told them and now can't, such as, oh, Merlin is still alive for one, as she was about to reveal. I guess they want to keep that a surprise so his inevitable return catches them off guard, but this was a major choice.

I envisioned the limo scene continuing where it was headed, everyone coming clean. With the revelation that Moira knew about Oliver it couldn't be long until they let Thea in as well, especially since she has suspicions now because of the Roy situation. It would have changed the entire family dynamic and they would all finally understand what was going on with Slade and they would figure out what to do about it. There was such potential shaping up for moving the series forward.

But instead, a series of events that are beyond explanation. There is no way to make sense of these choices, other than blatant shock value.

The conversation is interrupted before any actual family progress is made, and none is allowed to ever be made now because Moira ends up dead. There's no reasonable explanation for why Slade acted out just now, or in this way. You could say ‘Well it's because he's crazy and unpredictable’ but no, he is crazy, but in a meticulous way, not a random one. He's had everything plotted down to the detail and timed down to the minute. There's a reason to everything. Except this bizarre event dropped out of nowhere that destroys any story options that were available up to this point.

I mean this completely changes everything; the entire show needs to be redirected now. The writers had better be able to work with that. I want to have faith in them since they've been so good thus far, but it's really hard after this because I really don't see a good way to go from here.
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Post by Astronomer »

Agreed. Moira's death was shocking. However, she was really the only character that could be killed of as her character arc was basically resolved. And we'll just have to wait until later to find out about Merlin.
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Post by bookworm »

I agree that if they had to kill someone she was the best choice, but my point is they didn’t have to. They clearly thought they did for some reason, but it was really a bad time for it.
-- 20 Aug 2014 01:13 pm --

City of Blood:


Wow, this is a disaster. Thea is going to turn against Oliver now because she blames him for everything Slade is doing since he didn't tell them about him. Which is a really tough situation, because he didn't know all this would happen, he thought Slade was dead, but she doesn't know that. And even so, it is in a twisted way Oliver's fault, though not really because Slade is crazy, but she has just enough of a valid point for this to get really ugly. I have a bad feeling about this. We've seen some heart wrenching relationship crumblings before, but the show looks to be going to a whole new level of bleakness with the recent events.

This is interesting. Thea now knows about Slade and Oliver on the island, at least that something major happened if not the details, yet she's still unaware Oliver is The Arrow. I had always assumed once you knew one you knew the other, since it's really one story. Will she ever find/figure out?

Good, Laurel is back on Blood now.

Is Thea really going to leave or is this just something for the episode?

Oliver knows Laurel knows now, that's good.

I don't think Oliver should have told Blood he was The Arrow. I guess he'll keep the secret because it's a ‘if you tell I tell’ thing, but still it seemed really unnecessary and unusual after he's been so hesitant to tell anyone else unless there was a definite need to.

They couldn't win when it was all four of them against just Slade, how do they think they can take on the whole army now, especially minus Black Canary?
(A minute later:)
Oh, they don't. They're just going to blow up the tunnel and burry them all at once. I'm sure that will work out.

Yeah, saw that one coming a mile away. Laurel comes along despite being told not to so she can show up just in time to save Oliver and thus make it seem like she did the right thing by not listening.

Uh, if Oliver has these nifty bomb arrows that instantly drop these guys, why didn't he use one on this dude instead of getting into a fistfight he knew he couldn't win?
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Post by Astronomer »

I'm not sure that Moira's death is unnecessary. I think that for the character growth the writers wish to take, Oliver must be more independent. Also, killing Moira sets up Thea's change and it allows us to see how truly, truly evil Slade is. I agree, her death is awful and not absolutely necessary, but I can comprehend why they killed her off in order to take the path the deemed best.
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Post by bookworm »

Streets of Fire:


Black Arrow is back. That was unexpected.

It's about time Lance got repromoted.

Sarah's back, where did she go to anyway? Laurel knows who she is now, I knew she would.

Is Blood really surprised Slade is turning on him? Oliver told him it would happen.

Oh, it's just The Canary, is it? This show needs to drop all colors from names apparently. ‘What characters do we have?’ ‘Green Arrow is the main one.’ ‘Drop the color, just say 'The' Arrow.’ ‘And his sidekick is Black Canary.’ ‘Drop the color on that too, The Canary is better.’ Whatever.

Great, Slade intercepted the cure. Now what?

Oh come on, they're trying to redeem Blood now? We're supposed to believe all along he truly thought he was helping the city and only now realizes he's made a mistake and is helping Oliver because he wants to fix it? That doesn't make sense at all. Blood knew the army was going to cause destruction, he said it himself, but then he goes off on Slade about all the innocent people? The only thing I can figure is that maybe they weren't supposed to kill anyone, just cause a bunch of mayhem to allow the city to rally in a rise from the ashes thing or whatever it was he was going for to make the city ‘better for getting through it.’ But if that's all his plan was, why did he need a super army? A regular army would have been fine, but making supermen was always a crucial part of his agenda. And all this speculation aside he still killed his mom, so you can't give him the ‘he meant well but was just misguided’ pass, he's definitely not a good guy.

Well we're finally done with him. And that points out a reason his ‘when this is over’ speech was ridiculous, even more than the one Oliver noted of ‘You really think you'll still be mayor?’ The more immediate thought should have been ‘You really think you'll still be alive?’ You can't cross Slade like that and think ‘Now I just wait till this blows over.’

Cliffhanger fail. There's no way Merlin isn't wearing body armor.
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Post by Astronomer »

You're right, the cliffhanger doesn't really hold up on reflection. It works as an initial jolt, but when you think about it there's not really that much to worry about (unless it was a head shot, but that's unlikely).
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Post by IrishTiger »

I cried at the end of season 1.

And my library doesn't have season 2...same with Netflix. *dies*
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Post by Shennifer »

Just started watching this show after meaning to for a while. Thought the pilot was good, can't wait to see the rest
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