ARROW Blasts Into Mid-Season
Episode 210 “Blast Radius”
[photos: Diyah Pera/CW]
Arrow returns with an episode that launches the show into the back half of season two. With explosions! Revelations! Tensions! And a fair amount of setup for new arcs to carry us through several episodes.
Laurel finally gets something to do besides cry.
Olicity is on the rocks?
Another villain gets his spotlight.
Brother Blood begins his campaign.
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ScreenRant posits that this is a one-off episode to get everyone back in the groove, and that it also serves as a bridge from the first nine episodes to the back ten. Possible. The main plot — Shrapnel blowing up buildings with huge explosions — seems to exist only for the writers to hang several scenes with character bits. So, while we get more of the soap opera-y goodness between our cast of do-gooders and do-somewhat-gooders, there’s not much plot.
It’s interesting, however, that Laurel seems to finally be getting some better material (although the writers either need to fully commit to the drugs and drinking, or dump it). Her background as a police officer’s daughter will finally serve her in good stead, as she starts looking into Blood’s background and his ties to Cyrus Gold. Finding Maya Resik — supposedly Blood’s aunt, but not really — Laurel starts to peel back the onion that is Sebastian Blood.
And is it me, or does Katie Cassidy’s face look a bit longer and thinner? Almost as if she’s been working out, training.. nah.
The rooftop meetings between Arrow and Lance need to stop. It’s too much of a Batman/Gordon element. They need to meet somewhere else, do something that makes it their own. Alleyway’s no good. Maybe an abandoned warehouse or storefront near the docks or the Mission district. Train yard. Something besides a roof.
This is also our first glimpse at the effects of mirakuru on Roy, as we get both the “fast healing” and “super strength” aspects in this episode — and Thea’s there to see both. Roy, of course, tries to explain it away, but Thea’s no dummy. It’s only a matter of time before she figures it out. Plus, how long before the one running the nightclub finds out about the secret lair under the nightclub? I’m surprised Thea hasn’t stumbled into it already, with the various members of Team Arrow in and out of that place without buying a drink…
Before the end of the season, we’ll have Speedy and Arsenal (or Red Arrow, but since he hasn’t taken up a bow yet…), either on their own or working with Oliver and Company. Thea, however, probably won’t be donning a mask and tights. She’s likely to be another support type like Felicity, with Roy and Oliver taking point on field ops with Diggle as backup.
And for the Oliver/Felicity shippers, a little tease but not really. It seems the writers, besides not really sure where to go with Laurel’s pills, also don’t seem to be certain if they want to take Olicity in the direction many fans want to see. Consider the fact that it’s doomed from the start, because we all know Oliver ends up with Dinah Laurel because that’s the way it is — Green Arrow and Black Canary are together, have been for decades. So anything between Oliver and Felicity would be a fling at best, or a disaster ending in Felicity’s death at worst. Unless they’re setting her up to move to Central City, but that doesn’t seem likely.
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[Official Show Site at CW] [Previous Recap: “The Scientist” & “Three Ghosts”]
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