Arrow, Season 4, Episode 13: Sins of the Father
It's a pretty great episode. I didn't quite like how the final battle between Oliver and Merlyn went, which just felt rather short and unimpressive, and the battles between the random ninjas ended up being confusing because both Nyssa and Malcolm loyalists all wear the same black uniform -- I get that shedding their garb for something different would not make sense realistically and story-wise, but that was kinda confusing and honestly kinda boring up until the war and the destruction get dragged out to Star City streets.
A good chunk of this episode is Oliver's own moral dilemma as he has to struggle between picking sides in the League of Assassin's big civil war, and it's certainly one that was handled far better than anything in Season 3. Nyssa and Malcolm are both likable in their own way, and like Diggle and Felicity I was actually cheering for Oliver to kill Malcolm Merlyn. That is definitely the most sensible cause -- Nyssa has the cure for the dying Thea, is not a manipulative bastard like Malcolm (who we are reminded brainwashed his own daughter to kill Sara and place herself in Ra's Al Ghul's crosshairs), did not create a big earthquake machine. And that is why I cannot be a proper superhero like Green Arrow, I guess. But Oliver is determined to find a way where Nyssa and Malcolm both walk out of the encounter alive, even if it's partly for Thea's sake.
Well, arm-less is still alive, after all.
I thought the execution was decent, if slightly iffy-paced. I'm curious why Nyssa didn't just go ahead with the trial of combat in the first place both of them eventually agreed, but I guess Oliver himself pushing for a logical conclusion was what made the two of them think with something other than their swords. Oliver curb-stomping Merlyn is... something that I honestly hoped to be more epic. Instead it's just short and kinda disappointing that Merlyn didn't give much of a fight.
It's a bigger twist than having any one of the players (Thea, Malcolm or Nyssa) die, and is definitely the superior writing option. Death can be good, but sometimes death just feels like a cheap way to end a character that they've been spending so much time building up. Arrow's Nyssa has grown into her own character that's far more likable than her comic-book counterpart, and this episode has her grow out of the shadow of her father, partly inspired by Oliver, and finally complete a circle of characterization as she ends up disbanding the League of Assassins and melting the ring, the biggest 'fuck you' ever that she could've done to Malcolm.
Malcolm Merlyn getting what he deserved really has been a long time coming. Even discounting the fact that he was the Big Bad of season one and fucked up half the city with an earthquake machine, there was every single event in season three that he set in motion by brainwashing Thea to kill Sara. He's since been turned into a token evil teammate thanks to being Thea's father, and he's just charismatic enough for the audience to roll with it, but unlike, say, Captain Cold, Malcolm Merlyn is an actual psychopathic murderer.
It also gives us a nice little moment to show that Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow, can actually be a far more positive force of good than the more barbaric 'kill all mooks' vigilante he was three seasons ago. It's fascinating when a character who we knew is a killer resolves not to be one, yet is faced with a seemingly lucrative choice where killing one evil bastard will save the life of a loved one, stop a big assassin war and generally be good for everyone except for Malcolm, who really deserves it. Yet he shows himself to be the better man.
There's definitely a 'daddy issues' theme going on with this episode, if the title wasn't clear enough. Nyssa struggles to escape the sins of her father, Thea's father is blatantly refusing to believe or trade fairly for the only cure to save his daughter, Oliver recounts his father both in the flashback and the present, and Felicity's B-plot involves her dealing with her own father. More on that later.
Thea's finally cured of her bloodlust, and the threat of Nyssa's League of Assassins is no more, but Malcolm Merlyn might rise to the occasion as a major villain once more with a single-minded grudge against Oliver Queen now. He casually name-drops William to Oliver, and later reveals the existence of Oliver's secret son to Damian Darhk, and suddenly so much makes sense. The fact that Oliver finding out about William became the star of an episode and promptly forgotten... yeah, Oliver's past sins are all going to come back to haunt him. And we suddenly have a far more major candidate for that body in the grave.
And will dissolving the League of Assassins... affect anything at all? They've been implied to be opposing if not directly fighting HIVE, so will Oliver doing so cost him a huge advantage against Damien Darhk?
I think Felicity's B-plots this season have been really strong, after last season turned her into this lovesick blubbery mess. This episode, in particular, has Felicity deal with whether to accept the fact that her father, the Calculator, has really turned over a leaf for good. Is he trying to reconnect with his daughter after finding out that they had one thing in common? And Felicity so desperately wants it to be true, but she was warned -- by her mother, who breaks her veneer of ditzy crazy mommy to deliver one of the harshest and grief-tinged lines in the show -- not to trust him. And, well, Felicity was open-hearted enough to give Calculator the benefit of the doubt, but was definitely smart enough to get to him in a test of character, and ends up setting Noah up to be arrested. Felicity's lines at the end where she's pissed that she feels guilty, or the fact that Noah was enough to make her feel guilty despite not deserving it, is a really heartwrenching line.
The flashbacks were... still forgettable. I don't really buy that Taiana switches over from being 'I hate Oliver and will rat him out to Reiter' to being his steadfast BFF ally in the span of two short scenes and a sob story. But it moves the plot forward and the sooner we're done with this the better.
Overall, a slightly uneven but still satisfying episode. I think it's weaker than the previous one, but honestly it takes a lot to top that episode.
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