Arrow, Season 4, Episode 3: Restoration
When you have a cheap and relatively reliable way to bring someone back from the dead, you really need to find a reason that it doesn't get used for every single character who died previously in the story, or how this way to bring someone back from the dead doesn't get used to everyone who died afterwards, thus making any sense of tension in the story moot as anyone who can die will just get revived. Arrow -- with it's relatively high bodycount -- has been skirting this issue by not having the Lazarus Pit actually resurrect the dead as it does in the comics. It only prolongs Ra's Al Ghul's life. It only brought Thea back from a near-death coma.
The comics, likewise, skirted this issue depending on who's writing it. Sometimes there's a cooldown (for lack of a better term) on when the Lazarus Pit can be used. Each Lazarus Pit can be only used one per person. The madness that comes with the Lazarus Pit may be permanent depending on the person that used it. Stuff like that.
And with Arrow finally treating the long-lasting side effects of Thea's near-death experience as a plot point, added with Laurel's insane plan to bring Sara back... Laurel's plan basically hinges on 'go to Nanda Parbat, nag really hard until Nyssa gives in'. And, well, basically no one there really thinks it's a good idea. Malcolm and Nyssa both consider it an abomination. Thea doesn't want Sara to have this weird aggressive bloodlust that she has. So, uh, of course, Arrow reverts back to season three form and have the catch-all be-all explanation of "Malcolm has a plan that totally needs this to happen" and the newly-minted Demon's Head allows them to dip Sara in. Because he wants to give Sara redemption by having her fight her killer or something that will in turn help Thea deal with her own bloodlust who how what now?
Also, I know she's blinded by love (or, well, grief, as Nyssa points out) but Laurel, dammit, three episodes in and you're reverting back to 'insist on making stupid decisions despite everyone who knows better telling you otherwise' form? Seriously? Honestly Laurel why do you make it so hard to like you?
Granted we all know Sara Lance will return and be revived for Legends of Tomorrow, which is definitely welcome even if it doesn't make sense how Malcolm just changes his point of view like that. So while she's insane and it seems that the Pit, like, brought back nothing but animalistic rage (the whole 'body's brought back but not the soul' deal), we all know Sara will return to her senses quite soon, though having it play out a bit longer would definitely be better, storytelling wise, if only to see how Nyssa and Laurel will react to it.
Also, before anyone has a chance, to, like, revive every else who has died in the show (I'm honestly surprised Malcolm hasn't tried to bring Tommy back yet) Nyssa goes ahead and destroys it with... something that turns the Lazarus Pit into a pink cotton candy fluff maker thing. Sorry, making fun of the FX was mean. But still, good job, Nyssa! You allowed the show writers to bring back a plot relevant and IMO previously under-utilized character, yet closed the way for any cheap resurrections.
The stuff with Malcolm and Thea are a bit better, even if both of them are dumbasses who went along with Laurel's plan. Which is cool that Sara's back and undoubtedly going to regain her sanity, but it really felt dumb, in-universe. Apparently the Lazarus Pit has the added effect of having a live-pay-for-live policy, and forces Thea to seek out and kll the one who 'killed' her... which doesn't do her much good since, y'know, Ra's Al Ghul is no longer among the living. Malcolm's solution? Lie to her about some weird mystic sage, then send two mooks into her room, forcing Thea to revert to instinct and accidentally kill them... thus sating her bloodlust.
It's a dick move on Malcolm's part, though no doubt he's doing it with the best of intentions. Thea's, like, a vampire or some shit now, and with all the mysticism coming in (hello, John Constantine, and another show I undoubtedly need to catch up on) this series it's sort of appropriate, I guess?
Again, I'm grateful they blew the Lazarus Pit option out of the water. Yay for that.
Meanwhile, Oliver, John and Felicity reform what Felicity calls 'Original Team Arrow', and it's nice to see the original dynamic. Of course, this is thankfully used to resolve some of the outstanding problems that Oliver and Diggle have, and Felicity absolutely exploding at them is brilliant. Am a big fan to see the old interactions, and how they've grown over three seasons, have became. We see some nice callbacks to the original season, the good points that made Arrow stick around despite its grimdark trying-to-hard-to-be-realistic attitude on the superhero genre. Some references to stuff like the Dodger (man, remember that idiot?) and whatnot. We have Felicity pulling off something similar to how Oliver treated her on Holt, we have your standard Oliver/Diggle disagreement being solved and them having grudging respect and being bash brothers again...
And we have sort of tied up the loose end of a plot thread from all the way back in seas one, which is Diggle's brother's killer. Sort of. The woman who hired Deadshot, Mina Fayad, shows up in town with a metahuman in tow, and Diggle and Oliver go after the former and latter respectively. And get their ass whooped. And then they work together and... well, bring down the metahuman, because Damien Darhk just killed Fayad for failing him. He seems to like to do it a lot.
Darhk also apparently reports to a higher board within HIVE (the traditional leaders from the comics, I bet) so, yeah, HIVE is going to be a far bigger threat. Who knows, maybe Darhk is just the mid-season antagonist. He shows more of his mystical Force powers, levitating one of Double Down's cards and throwing it around here and there to kill Fayad.
Also, Mr. Terrific... isn't Michael Holt, but rather, Curtis Holt. Which I'm told is an alias used by Michael Holt in the comics so whatever. I may or may not alternate between the two in my reviews. He's cool in this episode, and has struck up some funny chemistry with Felicity, who is a far worse liar than Oliver ever was. And the scenes between the two were comedy gold, from Felicity trying very hard (and failing) to use random poker terminology and bluff her way through Holt's questions, to the conversation about secret elevators and Felicity trying to machinegun her way and battle Double Down.
We get hints of things to come, with Holt developing contact lenses with HD screens... and T-Spheres. Man, considering the sheer amount of teasing that CW usually does for embracing their comic-book superhero persona, Holt is certainly making quick progress on that! Just repair those spheres and make them able to float and scan rooms and deliver data to you at high speed and you're golden. Fair Play and all that shit, man.
Also, we get Felicity's iPhone going fritzy and being all Digimon and shit, shooting a screen full of weird Matrix codes (does Felicity honestly think it's normal?) and eventually spelling out her name. Yeah, Ray Palmer's definitely messing around there, asking for help or some shit.
Double Dare, this episode's villain of the week, is a tattooed man who can rip out the playing cards tattooed onto his skin and throw them all Gambit-style. He's a rather minor Flash villain that I actually know about, a shittier version of the Tattooed Man (who is also a different minor villain, but can turn all tattooes into life, not just cards). We get some cool gibberish about how the playing cards are equal parts tattoo ink and human tissue, we get some really cool scenes of Double Down throwing the cards around, and it's interesting that he's basically a killer for hire and not working for HIVE.
Darhk may be all super-mysterious about his goals and shit, while going around killing his own subordinates and hiring people like Anarky and Double Dare, but really Double Down's quite impressive in this episode. I'm mildly surprised he managed to go off to Iron Heights without Damien Darhk pulling a Darth Vader and killing three minions this episode. Who wants to bet that if there's a big villain breakout episode in The Flash, Double Dare will show up without explanation to people who hasn't watched arrow, the same way Deathbolt did last season? Mmm? Do better, crossover episode people!
Also for whatever reason one of the HIVE ghosts has a clear shot at Diggle' head but doesn't take it. Why? Why is Diggle important?
Flashback has slogged back into uninteresting territory. Oliver makes a friend with one of the slaves. Torture. Military people. Minefields. Is every problem in the flashback going to be solved with a minefield?
Overall, the strong parts of this episode were really strong. It's a great episode, but early Arrow episodes have always been strong. Buildups have always been strong. It's the payoffs that don't usually deliver. And with this episode two of Arrow's greatest weaknesses come forth: flashback sequences that no one gives a shit about, and people going along with stupid decisions because Laurel insists on taking them and/or Malcolm Merlyn has some big grandiose plan. Props on getting rid of the Lazarus Pit, though, and hopefully Sara's resurrection is at least handled... decently.
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