Arrow 2.17 "Birds of Prey" Review: Girls Just Want to Have Fun

    Arrow, “Birds of Prey,” was written by the team of Mark Bemesderfer and AC Bradley and directed by John Behring. Behring’s direction is by now familiar to fans of the show. Bemesderfer and Bradley don’t even have entries on IMDb and a google search of their names yielded no results – are these pen names or new writers breaking out of the Arrow Writers’ Room? Whoever they are, a big thank you for an episode that focuses on a number of the women.

     A quick word about the title of the episode. Birds of Prey in the DC universe is a group of female superheroes lead by Black Canary and Oracle. Oracle is the evolution of Batgirl after she is paralyzed. Oracle performs her superhero deeds from her wheelchair, providing mad computer skills to the team - sound like anyone else we know?

    The episode itself is another finely crafted story that explores a few themes on multiple levels, thereby adding depth to the story. Oliver (Stephen Amell) is faced with the possibility that he’s just not a very good mentor when the Huntress/Helena Bertinelli (Jessica De Gouw) returns and Roy (Colton Haynes) proves to be hard to control. I have to confess that De Gouw’s performances in the past have left me less than impressed, but she delivers a truly fantastic performance in this episode, particularly in her last scene with Oliver.

    We also see the concept of who is good and who is bad explored. Sara (Caity Lotz) fights with the instincts to kill that she honed with the League of Assassins. Quentin (Paul Blackthorne) chastises her for not showing restraint when she tosses the guy who shot Quentin out a window, but she maintains that is her showing restraint. When Laurel (Katie Cassidy) asks the Black Canary if she is one of the good guys, Sara tellingly responds, “No, but I’m friends with them.” By the end of the episode, however, Oliver tells her that she did good. Sara responds with “That’s what heroes do, right?” She is starting to embrace that role.

    Sara’s instincts to kill cause some friction between Sara and Oliver. She accuses him of using “baby” arrows and not protecting her family the way he does his own. She points out that Oliver was ok with Diggle (David Ramsey) taking the kill shot with Slade. Oliver tells her that he can’t kill Helena because he feels responsible for making her what she is; he failed her and created her. Sara points out that he had a hand in making Slade what he is too.

    Oliver promises to keep Laurel safe, but fails to do so. He tells Sara to stay out of it. When Sara asks Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) and Diggle what she should do, Felicity, who has no love for Helena, tells her “I think if the Huntress shows up, you should totally kick her ass!” Rickards also gets the other best line in the episode when she remarks to Diggle that it’s getting hard to know who knows whose secret identity. I love how the whole team is coming together. Ramsey has very little to do in this episode except react to other characters, but he does a brilliant job of it. In this scene, he just nods and smirks – which is perfect. When Roy is watching Thea (Willa Holland) from the lair late in the episode, he simply squeezes his shoulder in support.

    This episode marks a real turning point for Laurel. Cassidy delivers her best performance to date in this episode. We see that she is attending sobriety meetings twice a day and is 30 days sober. She is still very vulnerable, as her tearful confession at the meeting opening the episode shows. However, the Laurel of old is also starting to emerge. She goes to see Donner (Dylan Bruce) when he calls and absolves him for his part in her recent descent – forgiving and making atonement is part of the sobriety process. However, she is so desperate to get back to work, she doesn’t see the way he is using her.

    She is once again dashed to the depths of despair when she realizes that Donner has played her, that she’s “expendable decoration.” She is about to take a drink when Sara – as the Black Canary – stops her. This is a fantastic scene from both actors. Laurel confesses that she wanted to show that she was as strong as her sister who’s been through so much. Black Canary tells her to show her how strong she is by putting the bottle down, and Laurel does.

    Of course, this encourages Laurel to continue being strong and to dig in her heels and refuse to leave until they help the hostages taken by Helena escape. Oliver wants Sara to get out with Laurel. Sara asks him if he’s afraid of what the Huntress will do or what she will do. Oliver tells her she’s not a killer – but of course, we all remember that she was a member of the League of Assassins. She tells Oliver that she is what she has to be.

    The flashbacks in this episode also deal with bartering for a trade in human flesh. Sara is forced to tie up Hendrick (Artine Brown) with Anatoli’s (David Nykl) help to exchange him for Oliver. We see the origin of one of Oliver’s tattoos as Slade (Manu Bennett) punished him by tattooing the same image as Shado’s tattoo on Oliver’s same shoulder blade. Slade explains that in Roman times it was common for criminals to be marked according to their crime so others would recognize what they had done and so that the criminal would be reminded of his wrong doing for the rest of his life. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was a shout out to Bennett’s stint on Spartacus.

    Sara engages the Huntress twice. I found the second sequence a lot more satisfying than the first due to too many cuts and close ups in the first sequence. I’m going to keep complaining until all the fight sequences are shot so that I can really see and enjoy them!

    In the first instance, in a nice parallel to the opening scene, Sara is thrown out the window. In the second encounter, the Huntress reminds Sara that she threw her out that window. Sara replies that she’d been holding back – the implication is obvious. Sara hadn’t been trying to kill the Huntress the first time, but she would this time. In another parallel, Laurel comes upon Sara as she is about to kill the Huntress. Laurel echoes Oliver in saying you’re not a killer. Sara responds, “you don’t know me. Not really.” Laurel implores her to “show me” what you really are, and Sara releases the Huntress.

    Helena gets into Laurel’s head a bit while she has her hostage. Laurel tries to talk to Helena, reminding her of the double date they’d gone on. She tries to draw on common ground, mentioning Helena’s dead fiancé. Helena sneers at her and asks if Tommy dumped her. Laurel does give Helena pause when she tells her that Tommy is dead too. She then confesses that she became a drunk and wouldn’t let any of her friends or family help. She tells Helena that she doesn’t have to kill her father. Helena tells Laurel that she does have to do it. She tells her “Once you let the darkness inside, it never comes out.” This is chilling on a number of levels as we’ve seen all of our characters go dark at some point due to the circumstances they’ve found themselves in. But the greatest difference is that Helena is alone, it’s her family that has betrayed her. Laurel still has her family and so does Sara.

    In the final scene with Laurel we see her use blackmail to get her job back. Kate (Chelah Horsdal) expresses surprise – and seeming admiration – that Laurel has that dark streak. Laurel responds by quoting Helena – Once you let the darkness in, it never comes out. It may not come out, but it seems clear that you need to fight it – to do better as Oliver has been trying to do all season. This may be foreshadowing of Laurel turning very dark, or it may simply be an indication that she, like Sara, is going to do what she has to do to re-claim her life.

    Oliver goes to see Helena and De Gouw really impressed me in this scene – she delivers a fantastic performance. She confesses that she thought she’d feel different and that Oliver had been right all along. Oliver confesses that he’d been wrong too because he’d thought he could help her and he didn’t. He realizes that he couldn’t stop her from being a killer when he was one himself. She asks him what he is now, and he says he’s trying to do better. Helena remarks that her father and Michael are now together while ironically she’s still alone. Oliver tries to assure her that she’s not alone.

    Roy is forced to display another kind of strength in this episode. When Roy is unable to control himself when they go after Helena, Oliver calls him Speedy for the first time. According to Oliver he was simply making a reference to Thea, who is the one we’ve seen having that nickname. Roy doesn’t seem to recognize that it’s her nickname, however, so it makes me wonder if Oliver really got to Roy because of Thea or whether Roy wasn’t lying when he said that Oliver just hadn’t given him enough time to back away. Regardless, Oliver asks Roy to stay away from Thea for her own safety. This, of course, leaves a huge hole in their security measures, and Oliver foolishly lets her walk home alone after he finds her crying in the club because she caught Roy with “some slut.” The episode ends with Slade offering Thea a ride.

    Oliver’s discussion with Thea is heartbreaking as she declares that he’s the only one she can trust because he’s the only one who tells her the truth who doesn’t lie or keep secrets. It’s clear that the truth is going to come out and Thea is going to be devastated.

    This was a great episode and featured one of the continuing themes of the series: If we all have both good and bad within us, how do we channel the bad to do good? I’m still not sure who these writers are, but they definitely produced a provocative episode. What did you think of the episode? Were you happy to see the women take center stage? Do you think Laurel and or Thea are about to go darkside? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!