Arrow “Spectre of the Gun” was written by Marc Guggenheim and was directed by Kristin Windell, who has a long list of credits as an editor, but this is her first directing credit. Her time in the editing room clearly stood her in good stead as this was a well-directed episode – good, clear action sequences, well-paced, and good performances. There's also that beautiful crane shot of the vigil at the end. I really liked this episode. In fact, I enjoyed the smart writing that focused on a timely and difficult topic – gun control, gun violence, and the second Amendment.
The cohesiveness of the theme of the episode filters down from the title into every aspect of the episode – the flashbacks, this time on Rene (Rick Gonzalez), the Mayor storyline, and the villain of the week. The episode managed to be thought provoking and offer pretty fair treatment to both sides of this argument – the pro-regulation side and the pro-gun side.
While the episode was pretty much self-contained, we did have a few other developments. Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) has a lead on Prometheus’ mother as a way of getting to him that she’s basically used Helix to get. Oliver (Stephen Amell) is suspicious but is giving her, her space.
Thea (Willa Holland) is back and still not on board with Susan (Carly Pope) as Oliver’s girlfriend. He still thinks she’s a good person, but Thea is clearly the better judge of character. Quentin (Paul Blackthorne) has taken Rene on as his new assistant. Chase (Josh Degarra) wants Oliver to get Susan to back off. It’s a nice nod of the head to the horror story happening in real time that Oliver is a firm proponent of free speech and a free press. Honestly Segarra continues to be under-used, but that is the lot of a recurring character. More troubling is the show’s seeming inability to give Thea anything worthwhile to do. How long before she’s the next casualty to add to Oliver’s grief bucket?
The flashbacks reveal at least some of Rene’s backstory. I’m not going to lie. I was hoping we’d finally get the story of that dishonorable discharge – I’m betting it’s going to end up not being over an actual dishonorable act. We do learn that Rene had escaped from the bad element of the Glades. His wife, Laura (Samaire Armstrong) was unable to kick her drug habit, however. In a showdown with her drug dealer (Kaiden Berge), Rene is caught without his gun. He manages to get his gun, but as the drug dealer falls to the floor dead, his gun discharges, killing Laura. Rene subsequently loses his daughter Zoe (Eliza Faria) when CPS declares his home an unsafe environment.
In the present, James Edlund (Cliff Chamberlain) goes on a shooting spree at City Hall to protest the city dropping the ball on a gun registry which he blames for his wife and daughters being killed at a mall during a shooting spree. Ultimately 7 people are killed, and Chase is shot. We meet his wife Doris (Parveen Dosanjh), and Vigilante finally makes another appearance. Oliver has been reflecting on his own use of violence – a recurring theme. He’s interrogating a suspect – hanging upside down – to get to Edlund when Vigilante shows up and mows the guy down with a high-powered rifle. It’s clear which side he’s on as far as gun violence goes.
Oliver holds a press conference and the press pushes him hard on the gun registry and his own feelings on gun regulation. Oliver lamely says it’s complicated. With the team, he muses that his first instinct has always been violence, but now he wonders if they’re just feeding into a vicious cycle. Quentin points out that the issue is bigger “than one nutjob with a bag full of guns.” Quentin also pushes Oliver hard, telling him that nobody said being Mayor was going to be easy. Disappointingly, Thea is reluctant to take up the issue because it isn’t politically expedient. Oliver isn’t backing away, however, and Quentin is clearly pleased.
Oliver enlists the help of Councilor Pollard (Laara Sadiq) to come up with a policy that everyone can live with as she killed the gun registry. He wins her over when he leaves their meeting to talk Edlund down at the hospital where he’s about to go on another killing spree. She ultimately comes on board with the legislation that Rene and Oliver craft that is a good compromise, but she tells Oliver that she’ll be wanting to extract a political price at some point in the future. Somehow, that doesn’t bode well, as Oliver really hasn’t learned to play the politics game.
At the lair, Curtis (Echo Kellum) and Rene square off on the debate. Curtis is in favor of a gun registry at a bare minimum, and Rene is the staunch second amendment proponent. It’s also a nice balance to have Quentin weigh in with Curtis as the police perspective and Dinah (Julianna Harkavy) take the police perspective on Rene’s side.
Felicity is uncomfortable with the “fighting” while she’s working, but Curtis defends that too in another very timely social commentary. Curtis points out that friendly debate is healthy. He says that maybe America is the way it is right now because polite debate has devolved into basic rudeness. He points to a general atmosphere of hate and intolerance – and it could be ripped from the headlines.
This social commentary is picked up again in Oliver’s exchange with Edlund, who says, “we’re all so angry, all the time.” Oliver agrees – we’re angry and hurting and lashing out, but violence is not the answer.
Curtis apologizes to Rene. He’s also done some digging and found where Zoe is. Rene says that CPS was right. He’s not fit to raise her, but Curtis is buying that and even has a lawyer friend who also doesn’t buy it – they’re going to get Zoe back for Rene. Personally, I was stunned to learn about the daughter. Doesn’t Rene look and act too young to have that old of a daughter?
Finally, Diggle (David Ramsey) seems to have taken Dinah under his wing. I did like their sparring scene at the beginning of the episode. All I can say is that they’d better not have Diggle start something with her – or leave Lyla for Dinah. Hopefully, just friends. Diggle convinces Dinah to move out of HIVE into her own apartment, and Dinah decides on her own to join the police force in Star City.
I loved the political commentary in this episode. It felt very well balanced and not at all preachy. What did you think of the episode? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
