Considering that a) she didn't spend any time onscreen with ninjas in the episode, and b) her line was "In case you ever need proof you met an actual ninja"...that doesn't add up to "she found a shuriken lying around and picked it up". How does a shuriken that she found prove that he met a ninja?
We didn't see her boarding of the
Waverider onscreen either. She gets around when the camera isn't on her. Mick was attacked by ninjas in the woods, and he then arrived on the scene wearing "ninja robes." Those alone were hard evidence that the ninjas were real (leading me to wonder why Mick didn't keep them as proof). Amaya could've gone out to the forest and found the body of the ninja that Mick stole the clothes from, perhaps, and taken one of his shuriken.
That line was delivered in a fashion that suggested that she was revealing something.
It was delivered in a fashion indicating that she was offering an apology for accusing him of murder. An ongoing thread throughout the past two episodes has been Amaya's scorn for Mick as a criminal, and this episode was about her coming to respect him more. The gift of the shuriken was the payoff for that arc.
That's why it was played as a significant moment. Audiences today have become so fixated on looking for plot twists and secrets that we forget to consider character development as an end in itself.
I think that if it had been meant to suggest something secret about Amaya, then Mick would've been staring at her with a puzzled or revelatory expression. Instead, he was just staring happily at the shuriken. And the camera stayed focused on him instead of her. The scene was about the emotion of the moment.
Besides, she's Vixen. She's got a magic amulet that gives her the powers of every animal on Earth. She doesn't
need to be a ninja. That's just piling too many gimmicks onto one character. Not to mention that it would be redundant where the team is concerned, because, as Sara said,
she's essentially a ninja. Sure, the episode played up the similarities between Sara and Amaya in terms of personality, but giving them too many parallels in abilities and background would be overdoing it.
Not to mention what a contrived coincidence it would be that they just randomly ended up in Tokugawa Japan on Amaya's first mission and she just happened to be a member of an ancient Japanese cult.
I did like that the episode didn't waste time in getting Amaya on board the Waverider or following her final interaction with Rex Tyler to its logical conclusion, although I do find it a bit limiting that she didn't go after ALL of the Legends and blame them as a group for Rex's death.
Well, only Mick and Sara had been introduced to her as killers. I'm not sure why she didn't suspect Sara, though. Maybe she found it more likely that a big, burly man like Mick could overpower Rex.
Another pair of characters that make a great "tag team" are Nate and Ray, although I think the writers missed out on an opportunity to play up their similarities in personality.
I thought the similarity came through clearly without the need to heavy-handedly call attention to it.
I did like their interactions with Ichiro and Masada Yamashiro, even if I missed the connection between the surname and Katana, and thought the burgeoning romance between Nate and Masada was cute.
That's Masako.
Circling back to my opening comment about the episode falling s bit flat in comparison to the first two episodes of the season, it was frustrating that we were given what was essentially a "holding pattern" episode that didn't do much, on the whole, to build on anything that had been set up by its predecessors
They have a whole season. Not every episode can or should focus directly on the main arc. There has to be room for changes of pace and sidebars, episodes that focus more on character and relationship-building than plot arcs.
and basically sidelined two of the characters just for the sake of cresting some false tension, as it makes very little sense for Stein and Jax not to tell their teammates about Future!Barry's message
They did make it clear -- twice -- that Barry implored Rip not to tell his team about his message and that Stein and Jax agreed it was best not to tell them. Maybe it's something that would probably get them killed if they knew about it, or the truth about some awful tragedy their actions caused. We won't know their reasons for keeping the secret until we know what the secret was.
and even less sense for them not to have been involved in the mission to protect the Yamashiros' village from the Shogun.
The ship was damaged and in need of repair. Jax is the engineer, so he needed to stay aboard. And Stein would've been of little use in Tokugawa Japan without Jax on hand.
It's also frustrating to see the show not give us much forward momentum in light of Arrow also delivering a disappointing episode.
It gave us plenty of momentum. It integrated Amaya into the team and established her background and relationships. It gave Nate his powers and a chance to learn how to use them. It brought about the end of the Atom suit 1.0 and opened the door for whatever will follow it. It introduced Barry's message, which will no doubt lead into some major story thread. No, it didn't maintain the same pace as previous episodes, but it shouldn't have. Sometimes you need to slow down and take the time to explore the characters and plant the seeds for future developments.
Overall, this was an ok but not very memorable episode.
