Arrow: Identity

I'm so behind. Furthermore, these reviews are going to be completely disconcerting to anyone who's watching the current season of Arrow. But I'll slowly but surely catch up, and you may be able to find some degree of amusement in my total ignorance of what's going on in season three (seriously, if you want to comment – don't spoil it!)

Two episodes in and we're still setting up the trajectory of season two, and I like how they've modified Oliver's opening narration to reflect this. It caught me by surprise that all this time he's been saying "I must become something else" it's been referring to a work-in process, not a simple transformation. But he's got an entire reputation to rebuild, and this episode wasn't making it easy for him.

For what feels like the first time, we really see Oliver struggle with his need to be both the CEO of Queen Consolidated and a more user-friendly dispenser of vigilante justice. I suspect that it's in attempting to find a balance between these two personas is where the crux of season will lie, for whether he's Arrow or Oliver, someone is pissed off at him.

Felicity is (rightfully, though somewhat over-the-top-edly) annoyed that he's trying to make her his Girl Friday and in doing so insulting her qualifications as an IT specialist. Sebastian Blood seems (so far) rather indifferent to the vigilante, but speaks out vehemently against Oliver Queen in public: first in front of the Glades Memorial Hospital, and then at a fundraising event that he was meant to be hosting.

Then there's Roy, who reveres the vigilante but immediately reverts to sullen silence whenever Oliver is around, and Laurel, who sticks up for Oliver in Sebastian Blood's presence, but has come to hate the vigilante for his failure to save Tommy's life.

Oliver Queen sucks!

You don't even know how much he sucks.

He doesn't suck as much as the vigilante!

Hey, stop giving the vigilante a hard time!

Only if you lay off Oliver!

That duality between Oliver's two identities creates an interesting pivot upon which the episode turns, especially since two other characters (Roy and Diggle) have had to give up – or at least deceive, which is the same thing in the long run – someone they love in order to establish their commitment to the vigilante's cause. You can't help but feel that this is a natural consequence of the lifestyles they've chosen – it happened to Oliver, and it's happening to them. You can't be two people at the same time, and sooner or later you've got to commit to only one.

As such, Diggle's comment to Oliver in the elevator: "it weirds me out to no end the way you refer to yourself in the third person like that", may be played for laughs, but it has a poignant undercurrent when you consider what it means that Oliver can subconsciously distance himself from his own self like that.

So as interested as I am to see Arrow "hire" Roy as an intelligence gatherer (I seriously love this subplot; it's involved and it's meaty without completely taking over the focus of the show – how subplots should be done), there's going to be major consequences when Thea finds out what he's been up to. And it would appear that Diggle has already paid the price for involving himself in Oliver's crusade, for he and Carly have called it quits. Honestly though, hooking up with your sister-in-law was just plain weird, so it's probably just as well things worked out this way.

Meanwhile, China White and the Triads are back, stealing medicine bound for the Glades Memorial Hospital even though there have got to be more lucrative targets, and far more easier ways to get around this. It's a fairly perfunctory plot, though one that demonstrates just how much work Oliver has cut out for him when it comes to figuring out who and what he wants to be.

As Oliver he's trying to atone for his family's mistakes since Starling City considers him the enemy of the people, as the Hood he's still the number one target of the police force, and is stymied a little by his inability to take a life. He's never been more like Robin Hood in regards to his outlaw status, yet at the same time he has none of the approval rating among the population that Robin always enjoyed. According to China White: "if you're a criminal, you're not a hero", but Oliver seems to be on the first step to equilibrium when he tells her that it doesn't matter what people think of him, only that the job gets done.

Miscellaneous Observations:

Was this our first Laurel/Roy scene? I'm pretty sure this is the first time they've interacted.

I'm almost certain that Sebastian Blood was a villain on the animated Teen Titans, so I anticipate his evil plotting any day now. It's a pity though, as he currently makes for a decent antagonist that seems genuinely interested in the plight of the Glades.

Which means that it makes little sense that Verdant is still up and running. It's in the Glades, it's owned by Oliver Queen, it's filled with rich teenagers taking a walk on the wild side – and it hasn't been burnt to the ground yet? Yeah, no.

Back on Love Triangle Island (oh how I hate having to type those words) Oliver, Shado and Slade cope with the aftermath of Oliver killing a man, and discover a cave full of dead Japanese soldiers who appear to have been there since WWII. I'm sure all this is going somewhere, but I currently find it difficult to care.

That tooth necklace (or whatever it is) has got to be one of the fakest looking props I've ever seen.

See? Fake.

It's a wonder that Laurel hasn't caught on to the Hood's true identity from his speech patterns alone. Oliver always pauses before his adverbs. "I would ... gladly exchange my life for his!"

I have no idea how this thought popped into my head, but given the current climate of Starling City, it would be great to see someone like the Truth Terrorist from The Tunnel make an appearance. Not for an episode, but for a mini-arc perhaps, just to high light the gap between rich and poor and the injustices that the population face. Hmm, plot bunny...