Thursday, October 31, 2013

Review: Arrow 2x04 "Crucible"


Original Air date: Oct. 30, 2013

Well that had a twist ending I actually didn't see coming.

Oliver wants to stop the crazy amount of guns coming into the city.  We’re talking like really deadly military grade weaponry that are being supplied by some guy calling himself The Mayor.  You see since the quake all these new aspiring crime lords have been coming out of the woodwork.  Oliver hosts a Cash for Guns event to try and clean up the Glades as Oliver Queen.  Which turns bad as the Mayor shows up and demonstrates his personal inventory of hardware.


Also picking up where we left off last week on the Island, Oliver finds himself on a ship.  There are many other prisoners.  Their captives have been searching for a grave site for years on several different islands and they've finally found the right one.  As a test of strength each prisoner is shot and then left to mend themselves.

And in a surprise (was anyone really surprised?) twist we learn that Black Canary is actually Sara Lance. Oliver sets a trap for her after Felicity figures out she’s not stalking Oliver but Laurel. Thinking Oliver was grateful for the info, not so much that Felicity c--kblocked him in order to share it. Sara didn't die aboard the Queen’s Gambit after all.  A lot happened in those five years Oliver was on the island and none of it was good.  So Oliver lied even though he knew she survived the initial shipwreck.  He’d seen her a year later in a much harsher setting and thought it would hurt her family too much to know any more than that .

We really got to see a new side of Oliver this episode.  I don’t recall ever seeing him so shaken and vulnerable (besides Island flashbacks that is) and honestly it was good.  It was beyond difficult for him to come face to face with someone he thought he’d killed (or at least held himself responsible for her death… but I’m thinking he tried to kill her too).  Between him keeping Sara’s secret, wanting to tell her family/her tell her family, and Laurel’s recent downward spiral he had a lot on his plate this episode.  Two different Lance sisters he was at a loss on how to help.

Oliver and the gang figure out that the Mayor is about to get his hands on SUPER-AWESOME- GRENADE-LAUNCHING guns.  Oliver enlists Sara for help and together they stop the Mayor in badass style.  At least for one more night Sterling City is safe.  Or is it? The second big reveal of the night is that Alderman Blood isn't exactly who he pretends to be.  With a name like Blood is anyone really surprised though?  He’s building an army of super soldiers to take control of the city.  That shall be a formidable challenge for the Arrow, don’t you think?

Favorite bits of the episode?

  • “Who taught you to shave?” I just adore Oliver and Felicity moments, okay?
  • Oliver and Isabel Rochev’s back and forth.  Mostly because I just really love Summer Glau. Sorry. Not Sorry.
  • Oliver almost crying anytime he came to terms with Sara not being dead or what had happened in his Island years. 
  • Sara and Sin.  They’re a great team and I look forward to finding out more about them.  They could be a show of themselves and I would so watch that.  I imagine it'd be something similar to Birds of Prey (you can add that to the Shows I still Miss list).  
  • Oliver’s “Really? Now you’re just asking for it dumbass” face when the Mayor insulted Sara.


In conclusion: Beware of ear buds when your crime fighting boss is late to his own investment party.  Diggle and Felicity need to work on their definitions of “good news.” 


Even though this episode revealed somethings it also left us with even more questions on what happened in those five years and about Sara (and Slade. She asked about Slade) and Ra’s Al Ghul (mentioned last week if you recall), and how things between Oliver and Sara really are.

I wish it was next week already. 

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