Arrow – S6 Ep5 – Deathstroke Returns Review

Episode 5 gets going when a sniper targets Councilwoman Pollard. Dinah manages to save her, but after Felicity and Curtis do some digging they realise that this is the work of the Vigilante who was on their case in Season 5. Oliver asks Rene to play Mayor for the day, and to deal with it while he’s off to visit an old friend. With how last weeks episode ended, it’s no surprise that the friend is Slade! Oliver agrees to help Slade find his son who is serving a life sentence in a prison in Kasnia after falling into a life of crime. Slade blames himself for being a crappy Dad – flashbacks show that he struggled to separate being a father and a killer. He only needs Oliver for his diplomacy skills, no arrows involved. After going back and forth, Felicity convinces Oliver to go as otherwise he will just regret it anyway.

Dinah is keeping watch over Pollard incase she’s attacked again, and is the first to come face to face with the Vigilante. Her sonic cry blasts him and he ends up taking his mask off. We spent ages trying to figure out who the Vigilante was, there was a part of me who thought it could have even been Roy (mostly because I just really want him to come back). However, the big reveal shocks no one more than Dinah when she sees the face of her old partner, Vincent Sobel under the mask. Let’s not forget, Dinah spent 4 years avenging the death of her partner – and they were partners in all sense of the word! It was her plight of revenge that lead her to joining Team Arrow in the first place. Understandably, she’s totally spooked by this.

Agent Watson is still lurking in the shadows and Diggle and Felicity find themselves next in line to be interrogated. The team start to crap their pants at her widening the net into investigating them all, apart from Curtis who is pissed that he hasn’t been called at all.

Slade’s mission to find his son leads him to a group called Jackal, after Oliver being lied to that he had died just days ago. After Felicity gets them info, Slade drugs Oliver and goes in search for his son alone. Slade goes completely HAM when he finds them and also realises he’s been double crossed by an old friend, Nylander. This is a great scene. Slade shows off what a great fighter he is and literally takes no prisoners. He pleas for them to release his son, and even offers to take his place. He’s told this would be a little difficult and then out walks his son, their leader!

Councilwoman Pollard makes a tv appearance to discuss the vigilante referendum and Dinah races there to protect her once again. She faces fighting alone as Agent Watson shows up, preventing the rest of the team from helping seeing as she’s now on to them. Dinah manages to stop the Vigilante from killing Pollard again and manages to convince him that they should talk just before he gets shot in the head by a policeman. He picks the bullet out and reveals that the dark matter had an affect on him too, he’s a meta! And his super power is that everything heals. She lets him go free and later goes back to her car and finds a little gift from him. This whole situation is clearly going to cause a few problems for Dinah!

Arrow – S6 Ep4 – Reversal Review

Let’s just start by saying how great this episode was! The team realise Evil Laurel is back in town and is working her way through killing a list of people in order to get their finger prints. On paper it looks like these people are boring, average Joes but after delving deeper, Curtis realises that these people all have intrinsic connections to domains on the internet.

Felicity arrives home to prepare for the second part of a date with Oliver to find Alena waiting for her. Incase you’ve forgotten, Alena lured Felicity into the hacker squad, Helix last season. It turns out that Felicity’s rebellion in freeing Cayden James from ARGUS was the wrong decision afterall, and Alena needs her help before Cayden plays out his plan to destroy the world. This episode really focused on Felicity and we really got a reminder of why she has made herself invaluable to the team. Along with Alena, she manages to get to the old Helix office and they start to try hacking into Cayden’s system. Laurel shows up and blasts them with her scream, which seems to have got a lot stronger!!! Cayden walks in, and we realise why Laurel is back and who she’s working with.

Michael Emerson is playing the role of Cayden James. Now I know he’s played different roles, but I will always associate Michael with playing Ben Linus on Lost. He was creepy, unpredictable and infuriating then and looks to be just the same on Arrow. I’m so excited to see what he gives us. Anyway, luckily Curtis is on top form this week and finds a way to track Laurel following her sonic cries. The rest of the team show up just in time to save Felicity, but Alena gets hurt in the crossfire and ends up in hospital.

The story is practically set up for the season in this episode. Cayden is on a mission to destroy the internet, or probably more believably use the internet to cause havoc around the world. I will admit that I was a bit sceptical about the writers bringing back Laurel after we all dealt with the heartbreak of loosing her in the first place, but I am loving ‘Evil Laurel’. Katie Cassidy is giving us a great performance so far, she’s making a great villain! I’m very happy that Cayden showed up on Lian Yu to save Laurel! I always love watching Laurel and Dinah fight scenes but there was some great scenes between Laurel and Diggle in this episode – especially when her sonic cry broke one of his arrows.

The team celebrate appearing to have stopped Cayden and Laurel for now, although what they have done is just play straight into their hands! Rene is ecstatic that his fantasy football team is safe for now. Reversal really was a very apt name for the episode. We saw Oliver really play a role reversal in supporting Felicity throughout, even involving him temporarily playing Overwatch.

A visit to check on Alena in hospital pays off for Felicity as she’s given the idea of trying to mass produce the chip that helped her walk again after loosing the use of her legs. She also decides on the name of her new business with Curtis …. Helix Dynamics. As the episode draws to a close Oliver gets a phone call from Slade who needs his help!!!

Arrow – S6 Ep3 – Next of Kin Review

Oliver didn’t hang around. The intro to Arrow has changed and presents Diggle as The Green Arrow. Diggle seems to be doing pretty good to start with, although even the rest of the team are struggling to get used to Oliver’s absence and having Diggle as their leader. They worry that people will start to notice that The Green Arrow isn’t actually using arrows anymore and it hasn’t escaped the attention of Agent Watson who is still lingering around.

Oliver is putting all this extra free time to good use by doing things like making William breakfast and taking lunch round to Felicity. It’s quite funny really because while he’s never confirmed to William that he is The Green Arrow, he’s never once denied it either. Oliver just brushes over each comment William makes with an awkward raised eyebrow and a quick change of subject. He tries to help William who is stressing out over a Maths test and in the end asks Felicity to tutor him. Seriously, does this woman sleep?

There’s a new villain in town, Onyx, who is leading a group of people on a gas heist in the name of revenge. Diggle goes to pieces on their first encounter with her leaving Rene to take charge and results in an explosion. They give him a hard time when they get back to the Arrow cave and it’s clear that they are all worried about the future of the team. Rene goes running to Daddy (Oliver) to tell him that Diggle isn’t up to scratch, and is going to end up putting everyone in danger. He pleads for Oliver to come back. Oliver does show up, but only to give Diggle a boost of confidence. Diggle confides in him that he just isn’t sure he’s capable of making heat of the moment, tough decisions like his predecessor did. Oliver does tell Diggle he’s worried he’s expected to much from him, mostly because he too has a family. He tells Diggle that he’s always been a driving force behind the team, who has lead them to be in the position they are now. The pep talk appears to have worked as when the team find Onyx for the second time, Diggle takes complete control and handles the situation in a way Oliver would be proud of. The team actually work very well together and I found myself beginning to wonder if we even need Oliver anymore (of course we do). Oliver has spent his week opposing an anti vigilante order. He decides to call a referendum so that the Star City public can have their say on the matter.

They celebrate afterwards and Curtis and Felicity show off their new creation – a cross bow which shoots arrows. It’s beautiful. Probably the most beautiful weapon I’ve ever seen. Diggle has a go and it looks like his aim is back! 

William gets an A in his test and as a reward for her help, Felicity is given a key to Oliver’s apartment. That’s right guys … Olicity is back on (again). The episode ends with Diggle meeting a dodgy guy to collect a case. Diggle has been injecting himself with something that stops his arm from shaking, explaining his very quick recovery. How long until Oliver finds out? Or more to the point, what’s going to go wrong – causing Oliver to find out!!!

Arrow – S6 Ep2 – Tribute Review

Let’s just cut to the chase! Holy crap … BATMAN EXISTS IN THE ARROWVERSE!!!! As Oliver arrives to work the morning after his photo was shown on the news wearing his Green Arrow costume, he is met by reporters who are expecting an explanation. He cockily walks in asking ‘anything interesting on the news last night?’ Of course, he completely denies being the Green Arrow claiming that the photo had been doctored. And then here comes a sentence that is slipped in, almost like a throwaway comment, which blows us all away … ‘they could have put Bruce Wayne’s head on that body’. This is crazy exciting and brings so many possibilities to not only Arrow, but the other DC tv shows too! Now they’ve teased us with this, they need to make it happen!!! And soon! Also on a side note @lastsonJim has a very good theory on how this is going to play out …. ask him!!!

Anyway …. Oliver is met in his office by Special Agent Watson who announces that an investigation has started into him to see if the rumours are true. The rest of the team are trying to do some damage limitation in trying to find out where the photo came from. Sometimes I worry that Curtis will end up making Felicity redundant, but we absolutely need him in this show. He has so many one liners that add comedic moments to quite a dark programme. This week he reveals to Felicity that he has a secret job as how else is he going to make any money? I was chuckling to myself as they bickered over keeping secrets and wondering how Diggle even has any money, until they remember he’s married to the leader of ARGUS.

Anatoly is back in Star City and Oliver’s meeting about a new investment is interrupted by the Markovians who take his new business partners hostage. Anatoly has come into hassle at Bratva for showing weakness in helping Oliver. He wants $20,000 from Star City.

Dinah continues to press Diggle for what’s wrong with him. Her persistence works in the end as he reveals he has degenerative nerve damage after catching shrapnel from the explosion on Lian Yu. He asks her not to say anything to Oliver. His injuries cause a problem later though as he fails to save Dinah during a fight.

Oliver is having more dramas with William. He gets beaten up at school for being the son of The Green Arrow. Oliver offers to teach him some moves but William is more concerned that his Father is going to die too, leaving him an orphan. They start to bond further over both knowing what it feels like to lose the people close to them. Can we just take a moment to appreciate William’s Flash backpack! I kinda feel like I need one for work.

As the episode comes to an end, Oliver’s name is cleared as evidence is sent to the press to show that the photo was digitally enhanced. Phew! Felicity solves Curtis’ money issues by asking him to go into business with her. Oliver calls Diggle to the Arrow cave and before Diggle gets a chance to tell Oliver about his problems, Oliver asks him to be the new Green Arrow so he can hang his hood up to fulfil his promise to William that he will never leave him. Awkward!!!!!

Arrow – S6 Ep1 – Fallout Review

And at long last we’re back! It seems like forever since that bomb went off on Lian Yu leaving us worried about the fate of Oliver’s nearest and dearest.

It’s now five months later and we see Oliver, Diggle, Rene and Curtis trying to stop some guy from setting off a missile. This chap is working with Laurel, and his time in custody after firing the missile, is cut short as she saves him and they set bombs off at Star City’s police station. William is living with Oliver but their relationship is strained. Raisa, the Nanny, reveals that William is having nightmares about ‘the bad man’. When Oliver probes William about this he finds himself nicknamed the bad man!

Now, we were told that season 5 would be the end of the flashbacks … we have flashbacks this episode! I’m assuming this is purely to show us what happened when the bombs exploded, as I for one was embracing life with no more flashbacks. Aside from my dislike of them, I actually felt the flashbacks were really confusing in this episode and at times hard to follow. It made the episode very jumpy! Anyway, in them we see that just before the bombs went off Thea and Samantha ran towards them. Oliver makes his way through the island looking for them and stumbles across Slade who takes him to Thea. Thea is unconscious but Oliver’s attention turns to Samantha who walks through the trees, and dies in his arms after making him promise to look after William. Flashbacks also show that Quentin shot Laurel and left her for dead in order to save Dinah. This is still playing on his conscience as he struggles with separating Laurel and the real Laurel.

Back to the present day and Dinah finds footage that shows Laurel breaking into the police station. This starts a bitch hunt as Team Arrow hunt her down. Their first attempt doesn’t go well and results in Rene landing himself in hospital. Diggle gets slated by Dinah for having a bad aim which leads him to become quite defensive but also obviously quite guilty for not protecting Rene. Things don’t seem right with him, and he offers to stay behind at their base while the others follow their intuition and head out to find Laurel again. Laurel is one step ahead though and shows up at Arrow HQ and catches Diggle off guard. The others show up and all is ok in the end apart from Curtis realising that Laurel has run off with one of t-spheres. Dinah is on Diggle’s case again when she realises that he didn’t shoot one bullet from his gun when they were being attacked. Something is obviously not right with him, and by the looks of it he is covering something big up.

The episode ties up with one more flashback showing Laurel being saved by a mystery man on the island, Oliver making some progress with William in arranging to watch the game together and Rene being given another hearing to get custody of his daughter. Oliver visits Thea in hospital and we can all breathe a sigh of relief as she’s not dead, just in a coma.
Right at the end Felicity phones Oliver, urging him to put the news on. Someone has released photos of Oliver unmasked in the Green Arrow costume!!! Shit! His secret is out ….

It’s great to have Arrow back! Although at times this episode was a little hard to follow, events that unfolded have changed the future of the show. Things will be very different for Oliver now due to being a full time father, and as warned by Slade at the end of the episode, there will come a time where he will need to chose between saving the city or being a father. Olicity seems pretty much back on, but still at the early stages and there’s clearly going to be a big reveal regarding Diggle at some point. I also liked having Laurel back actually, and I absolutely love watching her and Dinah fight. Quentin needs to start to man up a bit and Thea needs to wake up and be brought back into the forefront of the show.