Arrow - Broken Arrow - Review

 
       Arrow, “Broken Arrow,” was directed by Doug Aarniokoski. The story was by Jake Coburn and the teleplay by the team of Ben Sokolowski and Brian Ford Sullivan. The episode featured two great fight sequences and the first Arrow/Atom team up, but will be remembered as the episode in which we lost Roy Harper/Arsenal – Colton Haynes. I have to say that I find this development very disappointing. Why spend all that time integrating Arsenal into the team, giving him a name and a great suit, just to shunt him off the show now? I really felt in these last few episodes that Haynes was just coming into his own – and maybe that was the problem. There never seemed to be enough for him to do, and I can’t blame any actor for wanting more screen time. My only hope is that he will turn up again in the spin off – with a bigger part to play.

We see Roy turn himself in and Laurel (Katie Cassidy) turn up with a “Habeus Writ” (not a legal document/term – certainly not used correctly here btw) to get Oliver (Stephen Amell) released. Quentin (Paul Blackthorne) is not happy and calls Oliver on taking the coward’s way out – letting the kid take the fall for him. There’s a terrific scene between Oliver and Roy. Roy asks Oliver if he remembers what he told him when he found out he was the Arrow. Oliver does: “You told me I saved your life.” And Roy tells him, “Now I get to save yours.” But as he tells Quentin later in the episode, it’s also still about atoning for the officer’s life he took while under the effects of the mirakuru.

Oliver must struggle with not being in control and letting others help him on three fronts in the episode – two in the present and one in the past. And this is the tie in to the flashbacks. We lose another character in the flashbacks, as well. Oliver is going back into the field office with Maseo’s (Karl Yune) pass to kill Waller (Cynthia Addai-Robinson). He finds her shot and being held by General Shrieve (Marc Singer) who is clearly now the big bad. Waller says goodbye to Oliver. Waller, like Deadshot, is one of the characters that DC has clawed back for the movies, so very likely this is her last appearance even though we know she didn’t die there.

Oliver does learn that Shrieve plans to release the Alpha-Omega over Hong Kong but there’s a vaccine for him and his men. After Oliver, Maseo and Tatsu (Rila Fukushima) steal enough vaccine for themselves and Akio (Brandon Nomura) and Oliver steals a phone with Shieve’s entire plan helpfully on it, he tells them to take Akio and go. He’s going to stay and try to save the city – and the woman who has been hiding them as they didn’t get enough vaccine for her. Maseo and Tatsu insist on staying to help, with Tatsu – like Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) in the present – insisting that Oliver learn to let others help him. No doubt delegation is a quality he will need to learn as the Demon Head!

Back in Starling, there is a meta-human on the loose – Jake Simmons (played by the wonderful – and very busy – Doug Jones). Because he can’t be seen as the Arrow and Barry Allen/Flash (Grant Gustin) is busy, Felicity insists that Oliver turn to Ray (Brandon Routh). When Felicity brings Oliver to Ray, Ray’s first question is whether Oliver is ok with it. Oliver says yes – though he’s clearly not. Ray is thrilled to have a “team up” and high fives Oliver.

Ray and Felicity are adorable together. After Ray gets scans from the crime scene he is able to remove the radiation to identify Simmons. Felicity moves in to kiss him saying, “I could kiss you right now.” Stops and continues, “Awkward. Boundaries. Wording on it.” And it clearly makes Oliver uncomfortable. Oliver is quick to say he will go after Simmons, but Ray reminds him it’s a team up. Oliver insists that Simmons is a killer and Ray isn’t ready to go after him, but Ray insists it’s a science matter and that is his expertise.

In the end, Ray wins the argument. He’s adorable in his innocent excitement at the scene. There are two great moments in this scene. Felicity is nervous, prompting Oliver to ask, “Do you get this anxious when I’m in the field?” Felicity responds, “I can’t think of an answer that doesn’t’ get me in trouble,” but Diggle (David Ramsey) shakes his head no just behind her!

Ray is nervous and babbling – just like Felicity – which prompts Oliver to remark, “There’s a decent chance that you and Palmer are related.” Earning him a much deserved death glare from Felicity, to which he responds by looking slightly chagrined – with a barely perceptible eye roll.

In the end, Ray is in over his head and gets pretty badly beaten. Oliver tells him that he got beaten because he relied on his technology, not his instincts. But technology is Ray’s instincts – they have different training. As Oliver tells Ray, his bow and arrow are just tools, he himself is the weapon. Ray does learn that Simmons absorbs energy to convert into weaponized plasma. This leads to Felicity getting taken by Simmons while trying to plant a tracer at a power plant. There’s a nice moment when Oliver doubts that Felicity’s software is working and Ray says he has complete faith that isn’t the problem because it’s Felicity. He’s really winning me over to his camp… In the end, Ray has to go to Felicity’s rescue because he can get there faster in the suit. They set it up so that Ray is just a passenger, allowing Oliver to do the actual fighting.

It’s hilarious to watch Oliver shadowboxing while the suit reacts with Ray in it. Naturally, half way through the fight the neural network fails and Oliver is cut off. He is left to coach Ray through the rest of the fight, however, proving again that he can be an effective teacher. Oliver tells Ray it’s not about strength it’s about heart and he proved that when he saved Felicity by putting himself in harm’s way at the mayor’s office: “Normal people don’t do that. Heroes do that.” Ray prevails and Felicity runs to him, and Oliver turns away from the monitors, believing he’s lost her now for good.

Meanwhile, Felicity and Diggle go behind Oliver’s back to fake Roy’s death to get him out of prison and forever clear Oliver’s name. If you watch closely, the two exchange furtive glances in several scenes. However, both Felicity and Malcolm (John Barrowman) tell him that he has to face the fact that the Arrow is dead. Malcolm warns Oliver that Ra’s (Matt Nable) will start killing those close to him. Felicity tells Oliver that Ra’s has taken that from him. Oliver reminds us that he was once told that a man can’t live by two names. Oliver laments that “Right now I can’t live by either. I don’t know who I am.” Felicity assures him that she knows who he is: “You’re the man that… I believe in.” She stops herself from saying “that I love” but it’s pretty clear she was going there.

Quentin is relentless in his mission to prove that Oliver is the Arrow. While I hate losing him to the darkside, there's no denying that Blackthorne is doing a great job with Quentin as a bad guy. He rips apart the Lair under Verdant, and a nice symbol of the end of the lair is Felicity’s fern being tossed to the ground and broken. Quentin also goes to Thea’s (Willa Holland) and rips apart her apartment. We get a nice cameo from Lt Pike (Adrian Holmes) who shows up to try to talk some sense into Quentin, telling him not to let his personal vendetta destroy the career he worked so hard to save. Still, Quentin tries to drive a wedge between Thea and Oliver, telling her that Roy is going to get killed in prison. Thea does go to Oliver for reassurance that he didn’t put Roy up to it and that he’s trying to get him out, but she also believes him.

There is a wonderful final scene between Roy and Thea. And how cruel was it for them to put them back together for one episode only to rip them apart seemingly permanently. The scene in the prison was beautifully shot, and I loved how we got their voices through the phone or with the echo created from the glass. The opening shot of them facing each other through the wire is beautiful and both the visuals and sound emphasize how trapped the two are by their fates to be apart.

        Roy tells her that he didn’t want to see her because “I promised I’d never lie to you again and I didn’t want to break that promise.” But he emphasizes “Know that I’m gonna be fine.” Thea wants to know if that’s a lie, and Roy doesn’t answer. In the end, we know he was telling the truth, and he insists that they make sure Thea knows he’s not dead.

However, both Thea and Oliver are told by Quentin that Roy is dead – shived as he said he would be. This is an absolutely beautiful scene on Amell’s part. His face clearly shows Oliver’s devastation at the news. Once again, Quentin takes the opportunity to turn the knife as he says to Oliver, “I’d say I’m sorry, but I think we both know whose fault this is.”

Oliver’s grief doesn’t last long as Felicity and Diggle bring Roy to the lair to say goodbye to Oliver. It was clear that Haynes, Rickards, and Amell were feeding off their own emotions in this farewell scene. Oliver is amazed that they did all this without asking. Roy points out, “How many times have you saved one of us without asking?” Oliver worries that Roy is throwing his life away, but Roy assures him, “I’m not. I’m starting a new one.” Is this art imitating life, then – or vice versa? Felicity tells him, “I’ll miss you most of all Scarecrow” in a nice shout out to the Wizard of Oz. Fittingly, Roy drives off in a red sports car, but I wonder who will take over his suit – hopefully no one.

Felicity points out to Oliver, “I think you are so focused on the people that you love that you forget there are people who love you.” The implication, of course, is that Felicity is one of those people. There’s a nice parallel to the early scene when Felicity leaned in to kiss Ray, and the episode begins by reminding us that Ray declared his love for Felicity, and she never replied to him – not even when she could have clarified at the beginning of the episode. Ray is not stupid, and he clearly sees how much Felicity cares for Oliver.

There are two scenes which follow Roy’s departure. Ray drops off Simmons to Cisco (Carlos Valdes) to have him put in the Star Labs Prison. Ray dubs him Deathbolt, and Cisco concurs – Ray’s the only other person good with names! Between the two of them, however, they notice that Simmons was no where near Central City the night of the dark matter explosion, so there’s no explanation for why he’s a meta-human!

In the final scene, Thea has a visit from Ra’s. He tells her he’s there to motivate Oliver, and Thea says that Oliver will never become the Demon Head. I loved her calling him simply the Demon and him being a bit offended! They have another terrific fight. Really, Thea’s apartment with the perpetual fire in the fireplace is the perfect backdrop! In the end, of course, Ra’s wins and slams her through a glass table and then runs her through with his sword. He also says the following words over her: “Protect me from you punishment on the day your servants are resurrected.” I’m betting that saving her will involve taking the mantel from Ra’s and the Lazarus Pit.

One final shout out to the fight team for the magnificent work with the fight scene with Roy in the prison. I’ll miss getting to see Arsenal at work – even though I’m sure will see the stunt professionals again. There’s a great line at the end of the fight when Roy says, “That’s what I can do without the bow and arrow.” This also resonates with Oliver telling Ray that he has to be the weapon, he has to rely on his instincts. This is a way of telling us that Roy is ready to live without the bow and arrow and that he can survive now on his instincts. Haynes did terrific work on every front in his swan song as Arsenal, but I’m still not happy about his departure. I’ll admit that they totally had me believing that Roy was dead, but I was still only partially mollified by having him be alive – but still gone from the team. A show can only have so big of a body count for me. So far losing Colin Donnell, Caity Lotz and Haynes as well as Manu Bennett – to the darkside rather than death – has had a negative impact for me. It becomes harder to invest in a character if I think they are simply there to be killed off.

What did you think of the episode? Where do you think Simmons got his powers? Do you think Ray will break it off with Felicity before she breaks his heart? Will Oliver be able to save Thea? Were Diggle and Felicity right to keep Roy’s rescue a secret from Oliver? Did you enjoy the Arrow/Atom team up? Were you sad/surprised to see Roy leave? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

About the Author - Lisa Macklem

I do interviews and write articles for the site in addition to reviewing a number of shows, including Supernatural, Arrow, Agents of Shield, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Forever, Defiance, Bitten, Glee, and a few others! Highlights of this past year include covering San Diego Comic Con as press and a set visit to Bitten. When I'm not writing about television shows, I'm often writing about entertainment and media law in my capacity as a legal scholar. I also work in theatre when the opportunity arises. I'm an avid runner and rider, currently training in dressage.