For only being the 11th episode of the season, it felt like the plot of ‘Arrow’ really flew forward in ‘We Fall.’ I’m a little nervous that the show might have jumped too far forward as I don’t know if they can keep up that kind of momentum for another 11 or 12 episodes without hitting the brakes at one point, and that would feel really odd. Secrets were let out, alliances formed, and it felt like the big bad, Cayden James, has already hit his end game. Still, it was a great episode, and I hope that I’m wrong and they still have a lot of cool stuff planned for the rest of the season.
As alluded to before, the main story of this week was Cayden James attacking the city through a massive cyber hack adn turning the city’s electronic infrastructure against its citizens, ending with people getting electrocuted (by things like elevator panels), cars taking control and driving Councilmen into horrible wrecks, subway tracks misaligning and almost leading to wrecks, airplanes crashing, etc. It’s a lot, and Oliver and company are noticeably freaking out (except for Team Arrow Jr., who are so proud of having set up their new HQ they don’t even realize what is going on until Felicity calls them to share intel. Way to stay on top of things guys.) The two teams begrudgingly decide to work together to fight Cayden on this one, and Team Dart (cause Team Arrow Jr. or Team Arrow 2 sounds stupid, and they are like a mini-Team Arrow, and darts are like small arrows) has a leg up because they are sent a message from Vigilante with intel on a target. Vigilante, through Curtis, reveals that he is actually working undercover with James to try to bring him down. Dinah doesn’t believe it and is angry that Rene and Curtis are willing to give Vince a chance but eventually realizes the benefit of having an inside man in James’s crew and agrees to work with him.
Meanwhile, Oliver is working double-time as mayor to calm down the city, as Police-Chief Pike was one of the first victims killed (a double-blow as he was also a good friend of Quentin Lance). Lance has to step in to help run the SCPD in his friend’s absence (cause apparently there are no other qualified officers?). They decide to set up analog safe zones patrolled by the SCPD for citizens to take shelter in but find few citizens willing to leave the relative safety of their homes. Cayden James himself visits Oliver and threatens to kill more people unless he gets $10 million every night at 11pm, knowing that it will hurt Oliver and the city. Caring little for the money, James explains this was all happening because 1 year ago to the day, Oliver killed his son with a stray arrow while fighting an enemy. While dealing with this, the Quiver Crew realizes, thanks to some intel from Team Dart, who just stopped an attack in the subway line (thanks to a bad-ass move by Dinah using her sonic scream to stop a train), that James is cutting off all the means of getting in an out of the city, the last one being a traffic tunnel which Oliver’s son is currently trapped in while on the way to a field trip. Oliver suits up after giving Diggle an upgraded Spartan costume (which Dig is slightly disappointed at thinking with his arm better he would get to wear the Green Arrow hood again) and they save William, who now knows that his dad is still the Green Arrow and is unhappy about it. Thea reports to Oliver that the safe zones are still empty, while Felicity and Oliver discuss the fact that James’s threat makes no sense as 1 year ago Oliver was out of town recruiting Dinah. Doing some research, Felicity discovers that someone mailed “evidence” to James last year turning him against Oliver, and she decides she will try to find out who it was.
Oliver holds a press conference, informing the public that Cayden James was behind the attacks and that anything connected to the internet was now a threat, encouraging them to head to the safe zones where he promised their safety. He also tells James that the city has survived worse and will survive him. Meanwhile, Vigilante warns Team Dart that James plans on attacking one of the safe zones, and Team Dart shares the intel with Team Arrow. They all meet up just in time to intercept James’s goons and stop the attack before any civilians got hurt with Vigilante actively fighting on their side and even saving Rene’s life, which Dinah witnesses. From HQ, Felicity has a good talk with William about why she loves Oliver and has come to accept him as a superhero despite the hardships and the doubts. While watching his dad fight on the remote camera from Spartan’s helmet, William comes to appreciate how “bad-ass” his dad is and how much the city needs him. The fight ends, Oliver thanks Team Dart but they head off as things are still gruff between the two teams, and the day is saved, for the moment, but Star City is still in chaos.
The episode aftermath has Dinah meet up with Vincent to thank him for the intel and saving Rene’s life, while Felicity, Oliver, and William have a talk at home about Oliver’s nightlife and what that means for the family. William says he understands why Oliver does it, gives his blessing (more or less), and says that if anything happens now, at least he knows he has Felicity, which comforts and breaks Oliver’s heart a little. Same with Felicity, who has had a rough episode because she also learned that she was partly responsible for helping James’ plan by her hacking work earlier this season, plus she was not able to get any more information about who sent the evidence to James about Oliver “killing” his son, though she did learn it came from Corto Maltese. Lastly, Oliver heads into the office where Thea is waiting for him, and very reluctantly, he tells her to send Cayden James the first payment of $10 million, knowing he cannot keep it up forever, but also aware that he needs to do something to prevent more deaths in the city.
BOW-STRING THEORIES:
- I get that Vince used to be an undercover cop, but working undercover with Cayden James seems a bit too subtle for the Vigilante. He seems more the type to just bust in and start shooting all the bad-guys, so I still think it is a long con he and James came up with to mess with Team Dart, especially since Vince told James last episode he knew exactly how to get back in with Dinah and “push her buttons.”
- Is Oliver still under investigation? Or is that plot-line being dropped?
- If it was last season shouldn’t the obvious culprit for who turned James against Oliver be Prometheus? One last way to screw with Oliver from beyond the grave? Of course it could also have been Malcom Merlyn, but since they redeemed him before his death, it doesn’t seem likely. Maybe this is all set-up for the return of Roy, maybe Roy was in town while Oliver was not, and ROY killed James’s son by accident.
- How does Star City have millions and millions of dollars that Oliver can send so easily to Cayden James? Shouldn’t that need someone else’s approval besides him and Thea? Doesn’t this seem like an impeachable offense?
I actually kind of liked how they handled the William business. it seemed a bit more well thought-out and adult than how ‘Arrow’ has done these things in the past, and having Felicity and Oliver be married really paid off in this case, as she really is his step-mom and can look after the kid if something happens to Oliver. Plus William has Thea, so he has family. I am curious about the whole, “who sent the package” mystery, but we’ve been burned by these things before, so it better be a good pay-off and not something silly like some character we’ve never heard of/don’t care about, because they’ve done that way too often in the past. Here’s hoping they can keep this up next week!
