Arrow “Second Chances” was written by the team of Speed Weed and Sarah Tarkoff and was directed by Mark Bunting. This is Bunting’s first time in the Director’s chair, but he’s been and assistant director on the show since the beginning. He does a great job with the fights, but the show seems to have become a bit complacent about how to shoot the exposition scenes. The cast brought their A game for him though.
I particularly liked how the theme of the title was woven throughout the episode. Once again, the Russian flashbacks played an integral role in the present storyline, but also began to tie the flashbacks into the very beginning of the series. I’ll admit that I’m having a very hard time warming up to Juliana Harkavy as Tina aka Dinah Drake as the newest incarnation of Black Canary. Did we really need another petulant team member? Did we need a female version of Oliver’s (Stephen Amell) story?
The episode begins with Tina’s evolution into a meta. She was an undercover cop being held and tortured by Sonus (Steve Bacic) in Central City when the Particle Accelerator blows – right in the middle of her screaming over the killing of her partner and lover. So naturally, she actually has the canary scream. Her real name is no accident either as the original Black Canary in the comic universe was Dinah Drake.
In the present, Oliver is going through “resumes” looking for the new Black Canary, and no one is good enough for him. Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) sends Oliver to Hub City with Curtis (Echo Kellum) and Rene (Rick Gonzalez) to at least check out Tina. They ask her to join the team, and she turns them down flat as she’s too focused on exacting her revenge.
We got some hilarious scenes in Big Belly Burger as Rene disgusts the other two over what he’s willing to eat! I did love Oliver calling Captain Singh (Patrick Sabongui) for information and the Flash “making an appearance” – or at least a red blur! – to still a post it note on the Captain’s computer assuring him that “He’s Legit”!
In the flashbacks, Talia al Ghul (Lexa Doig) tells Oliver she’s come to rescue him – and she knows all about him. She reveals that she was Yao Fei’s teacher! When Oliver says she’s not old enough, she tells him it’s a family secret – nice nod to the Lazarus Pit! Oliver insists that he has to keep his word about Kovar. Talia says she’ll help, but then he has to listen to her.
Talia keeps her word. When she goes into the fight with just her bow, she explains that it takes patience and discipline to use such a weapon. I loved the fight with Oliver as it was very clear that it was Amell doing the stunts.
Somewhat surprisingly, Talia wants Olive to take up his father’s book and go after the Kovar’s in his own hometown. She tells him that he’s running. She promises that she can help him back because she’s been there. She tells him that she knows he thinks he’s a monster. She tells him that there is a monster in him but he just needs to give it an identity. When the monster becomes something else, he will be free to be Oliver Queen. She promises to help him become ready.
In the present, Oliver makes essentially the same speech to Tina. But she’s not ready and continues to resist. Rene and Curtis are working together, and it’s surprisingly Rene who thoughtfully muses that their team is all about second chances. Even Oliver learned to channel his vendetta into something more positive.
When they find Sonus, it turns out that he is also a meta. Sonus’ power works in the opposite way as Tina’s, so that her power becomes a liability with him. Oliver reveals himself to her to convince her to let them help. He promises that they’ll simply leave afterwards.
I loved this climactic fight scene. Rene and his guns are hilarious. Curtis proves again that he’s an asset as a technology specialist by coming up with a dampener for Sonus’ power. But of course, the crowning glory of this fight is Oliver attaching himself to the helicopter and the subsequent wire work. Of course, the super-stupid part of this fight is Oliver trying to stop Tina from killing Sonus – you’re better than this – after he just shot down a helicopter, killing the people in it!
Naturally, Tina isn’t satisfied – or made whole – by her revenge. She really didn’t get any satisfaction out of it. She comes to Mayor Queen and admits that she doesn’t feel the liberation she thought she would. She agrees to Oliver’s offer to join the team.
While all this action is going on in Hub City, Felicity is busy trying to get dirt on Walker to get Diggle (David Ramsey) out of jail. She’s very much enjoying flexing her hacking-muscles. However, she’s taken aback when she gets a message on the darknet for Ghost Fox Goddess from Kojo Sledgehammer (Kacey Rohl).
Felicity agrees to meet Kojo – with Rory (Joe Dinicol) as back up. Kojo reveals that she became a hacktivist because of Felicity and was disappointed when it seemed that Felicty had given in to the establishment and gone corporate. Felicity is clearly enjoying being fangirled – and tries to explain that she didn’t go corporate… exactly – but naturally can’t really reveal her subversive, night-time activities.
Kojo reveals that she was excited to see Felicity on the darknet – and clearly hopes she’ll see more of her. In the meantime, she gives Felicity a usb from her hacktivist group who are called Helix. It’s all the information that Felicity needs to save Diggle – and he is out of jail by the end of the episode. When Felicity opens the usb, she does find a lot more than just the evidence to free Diggle. Kojo wants to inspire Felicity to be the hacktivist she used to be! It’s another second chance in this episode!
I really liked that they’re giving Felicity a strong storyline and that they are letting characters play to their strengths – Curtis as the tech-guy and Felicity as the hacktivist we know she can be. Something that I noticed in choosing photos to use in this review, however, is that while Arrow shoots some of the best fight scenes on television, they have a standard set up for every scene involving a conversation. You get coverage of actor 1 and then coverage of actor 2. You rarely get a shot of anything else. It’s not just this episode. I feel that the show may be getting into a rut in how they shoot the exposition scenes and that’s a dangerous rut to be in as those scenes can be boring enough to begin with. The Big Belly scenes were a better use of camera angles. What did you think of the episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
