This week’s ‘Arrow’ had some pretty good moments, but it did bother me that one character, in particular, had a pretty strong reversal from her stance last week that pretty much dominated her story this week, and I am not sure it felt entirely earned. Of course, I’m talking about Dinah and her feelings toward Vinnie, but we’ll get into that in a bit. Otherwise, the episode was pretty solid, and I like how ‘Arrow’ is continuing to build up momentum every week in the back half of this season.
Star City is still under siege, and Team Dart is now working more than ever with Team Arrow on figuring out how to stop Cayden James, especially since the only government assistance that was sent to them, an ARGUS team that tried to get into the city by waterway, was killed by James since they were stupidly still wearing hi-tech comms in a city under siege by a hacker (doesn’t ARGUS do its research?) Team Arrow tracks down Vigilante and almost captures him, only to be stopped by Mr. Terrific and Wild Dog who are forced to come clean about Vinnie being their team’s informant, which does not sit well with Oliver and company, especially since Vigilante has been a thorn in their sides for so long. Yet Dinah has COMPLETELY changed her mind on Vinnie (remember last week where she REFUSED to work with him?) and vouched entirely for the man, even kissing him when they meet up privately, and they end up sending in Vinnie to do some digital subterfuge so Felicity can hack James’ network and try to find out where the big bomb is. Meanwhile, Oliver and Thea keep on paying James to keep people safe, at this point having lost over $70 million of Star City’s money, and running out of places to get more. Vinnie plants the device to allow Felicity to hack James, and the mission is successful, but James smells a rat, and captures Vinnie, torturing him on suspicion of betrayal.
Throughout the episode, meanwhile, we get flashbacks to Dinah and Vinnie’s time in Central City being undercover cops, working together to take down a crime gang before she is uncovered and captured and she is forced to watch them execute Vinnie on the night of the STAR Labs particle accelerator explosion which gave them both their powers. It is an attempt to remind us of their history together, their skills at undercover crime work and their connection but still, it felt weird, especially after an episode of watching Dinah completely lose faith in Vinnie and be the last one to believe he was actually working undercover to bring down James. Still, it was nice to see some cameos from the police force in Central City (aka ‘The Flash’).
Back in the present, Felicity finds the current location of James’s bomb (which is always on the move) just as the team realizes that Vinnie has been caught, and they hear a recording from his comms of him screaming. Dinah cannot let him suffer like that (even though the man has a healing factor) and demands they rescue him, while Oliver pushes instead that they take out the bomb, as this might be their best chance to take it out of the equation. Of course, the two teams cannot come to an agreement, and Team Dart goes after Vinnie while Oliver and Dig go after the bomb. To no one’s surprise, both locations have a trap set-up by James once he realized what Vinnie was up to, with hostages planted near the bomb that Oliver has to leave Diggle to deal with while he tries to chase after 5 non-distinct fleeing trucks, one of which has the fleeing bomb. And of course, Oliver is stopped by even more of James’s goons (because James’s team knows how to get along), and Oliver is clearly in need of more help which he does not have.
Meanwhile, Team Dart makes it into James’s base just as Vinnie manages to free himself, and while Rene and Curtis distract the goons Dinah finds Vinnie, but their reunion is short-lived as James has planted a small bomb to knock them off course. Dinah ends up trapped under a massive steel girder while Vinnie is pinned to a wall by a steel rod, as Cayden James enters with Black Siren. He condemns Vinnie for betraying him and orders Siren to kill the man, which she does somewhat reluctantly (more on that later) using her sonic scream on his head while Dinah watches, helpless. James then leaves Dinah and escapes (why doesn’t he kill her too?) and Dinah is saved by the other members of her team. The two teams reconnect over the comms and report their failures, all of them sad to hear about the loss of Vinnie, though Diggle consoles Oliver by saying it was one life against the chance of saving the city, and he agreed with Oliver’s choice.
Also going on in the episode, Quentin Lance has noticed he is being followed by Black Siren aka Earth 2 Laurel, and he thinks she is trying to reach out to him, that they have a connection. He shares that thought with Thea, and they decide he should reach back, and he ends up leading Laurel to an abandoned warehouse where they have set up a projector with footage and photos of Earth 1 Laurel with her family, saving people as the Black Canary, etc.. Lance speaks to Laurel 2 about how he sees the same goodness in her and tries to reach her, but she freaks out and says she is not that Laurel and destroys the projector and flees, but not before Quentin swears he sees a spark of his Laurel in her eyes.
Unfortunately, by episode’s end, Thea informs Lance what Laurel 2 did to Vince, and warns there may not be much hope for her but he is not so certain. And also at the episode’s end, Oliver visits Dinah in her apartment where she is grieving, and they talk, and she informs him that she was wrong to try to take on his methods of finding justice, especially since she convinced Vinnie to do the same. She now wants real justice and swears to kill all of James’s gang… starting with Laurel.
BOW-STRING THEORIES:
- At this point it would be kind of disappointing if there was all this build-up about just WHO was trying to out Oliver as the Green Arrow and gave that evidence to Cayden James, just to find out it was last year’s villain Prometheus. But what are the other options? Deathstroke going bad? Unlikely since the producers have said they can’t use Deathstroke anymore this season. Roy going bad? Might be interesting, but does he really seem sharp enough to pull all this off? I’m drawing a blank for which of Oliver Queen’s villains is still alive and holding a grudge big enough to warrant all this without just swooping in and trying to kill him.
- Could the fact that Team Arrow is short-handed be the reason that Roy returns? Could Oliver call him up out of the reserves for help? And if he does, how would Roy make it into Star City when it is so effectively closed off at the moment?
- Could it be that we will get a Canary on Canary battle this season, with only one walking away? And if Laurel does emerge victorious, is there still a chance she could turn (somewhat) good and one day be a member of Team Arrow?
Aside from Dinah being so hot and cold about Vinnie from last episode to this one (and making her grief a little hard to buy), I did really like this episode, and I like the mounting tension between the two teams, especially as they try to work together and it becomes more and more clear that they NEED to work together, but it is not going to work if they do not find a way to make decisions they can all follow. I’m kind of looking forward to seeing Dinah go a little bit dark, but I hope they do not just make her another dark canary as I liked where they took her character and want to see her stick around. We’ll find out as the season continues. See you back here next week!
