I thought it was a pretty powerful episode. I mean, compare it to the Cupid episode which was ridiculous fluff.
The conversation between Ollie and Ras was pretty deep and brought up legitimate questions. That said, Ras was clearly manipulating him. A decision is made weighing the pro's and con's of both choices. Ras helpfully pointed out the con's of being Arrow and the pro's of becoming Ras.
Ollie, for a change, returned to Starling and opened up to his friends, asking the right question: What have I accomplished? It often seems like any hero is just trying to shovel water out of the ocean. Stop one criminal and another takes its place. That is a lot like real life policing, and also a requirement of on-going storytelling.
There was a lot of self-examination going on in this ep, and it was needed. The characters have made a career of shutting each other out and keeping secrets. This episode, and the last few, started showing the consequences and started showing them becoming aware of the consequences.
Thea goes to Nyssa out of guilt; guilt comes out of a deep seated knowledge that you can't just pretend something hasn't happened. To her surprise, honesty and openness actually works.
Lance is very realistically upset that his daughter is dead, but deep down he knows that was always a strong possibility. What hurt was that people he trusted, Laurel and Arrow, lied to him for months and would have kept lying to him.
Felicity stops raging at Ollie long enough to make a simple, truthful statement, that the team had to face the question of 'why do we do this', and now Ollie has to as well; Ollie isn't special, he has to go through the same process.
We've seen several seasons of characters shutting each other out, and seen the harsh consequences of it. Now we see that THEY are seeing the consequences. This is actually a big step for the show, it is a major revision of how the writers are approaching the storytelling and interpersonal conflict. The show may be moving away, finally, of a soap-opera about a collection of drama-queens.
I'm getting worried that something happened to Akio that will be really upsetting.
When Ras put his bleeding hand in the pool I thought, because he had said it was no longer healing him, he would pull it out and it would still be cut, or only partially healed. It healed instantly and left no scar. So it seems Ras is lying about that.
The conversation between Ollie and Ras was pretty deep and brought up legitimate questions. That said, Ras was clearly manipulating him. A decision is made weighing the pro's and con's of both choices. Ras helpfully pointed out the con's of being Arrow and the pro's of becoming Ras.
Ollie, for a change, returned to Starling and opened up to his friends, asking the right question: What have I accomplished? It often seems like any hero is just trying to shovel water out of the ocean. Stop one criminal and another takes its place. That is a lot like real life policing, and also a requirement of on-going storytelling.
There was a lot of self-examination going on in this ep, and it was needed. The characters have made a career of shutting each other out and keeping secrets. This episode, and the last few, started showing the consequences and started showing them becoming aware of the consequences.
Thea goes to Nyssa out of guilt; guilt comes out of a deep seated knowledge that you can't just pretend something hasn't happened. To her surprise, honesty and openness actually works.
Lance is very realistically upset that his daughter is dead, but deep down he knows that was always a strong possibility. What hurt was that people he trusted, Laurel and Arrow, lied to him for months and would have kept lying to him.
Felicity stops raging at Ollie long enough to make a simple, truthful statement, that the team had to face the question of 'why do we do this', and now Ollie has to as well; Ollie isn't special, he has to go through the same process.
We've seen several seasons of characters shutting each other out, and seen the harsh consequences of it. Now we see that THEY are seeing the consequences. This is actually a big step for the show, it is a major revision of how the writers are approaching the storytelling and interpersonal conflict. The show may be moving away, finally, of a soap-opera about a collection of drama-queens.
I'm getting worried that something happened to Akio that will be really upsetting.
When Ras put his bleeding hand in the pool I thought, because he had said it was no longer healing him, he would pull it out and it would still be cut, or only partially healed. It healed instantly and left no scar. So it seems Ras is lying about that.
