Arrow S05E13 Review: Gun Violence Debate

Arrow, Season 5, Episode 13: Spectre of the Gun

Oh, hey, look, a 'current issues' episode. This episode deals with the gun violence debate, something that I honestly don't really give a shit about -- not living in America and all -- though credit where credit's due, both sides of the argument are covered by the characters, both the freedom to have guns, and the fact that everyone being able to have guns without any regulation is dangerous. Mind you, my personal opinion is that 'the right to have a gun without being monitored by the government' is inherently moronic and asking for trouble... but I don't know and don't care about the full situation in America so I'm not going to really comment much on it.

The result is... a pretty... boring episode, I guess, mostly because everyone suddenly ends up being super-preachy. Mind you, I've seen far preachier issues episodes in other TV shows, and the writing team is competent enough to weave in Wild Dog's backstory and Oliver Queen's mayoral efforts to make this episode not a terrible 45-minute-long PSA, but it's still quite preachy especially considering the entire Team Arrow group are essentially using unlicensed weapons themselves. Again, credit where credit's due -- the guys vouching that people need guns to defend themselves (Wild Dog and the councilwoman) aren't immediately painted as bad guys, so it's not a ham-fisted "GUN BAD!" and more of a debate episode... it's just a debate that I really, really don't care about.

Two things really stand out in this episode -- first is that how little Oliver actually spends in his costume, spending more time as Mayor Queen than as the Green Arrow, and he eventually solves the problem in his mayor persona, which is a nice bit. Hell, he even talks the villain of the week, a grief-struck man who's bent on unleashing a wave of terror to scare the government to clamp down on gun regulations, instead of putting an arrow through his chest.

The other thing is replacing Oliver's Russia adventures with a Rene-centric flashback, which is definitely surprising. It's quite effective in showing just how far Rene has came. Maybe we could've had a better transition from the broken man who saw his wife dead and begging, sobbing, to see his daughter to... 'don a hockey mask and become a gun-toting vigilante', which is a very strange thing to jump to, but showing that Rene actually used to be a very sweet father, and, yes, with troubles with his now-dead wife, and campaigning for the right to defend himself, is somewhat well done. I feel that the flashbacks could've been more coherent, but it does help flesh out Rene's character a little beyond being the Wild Dog of a team.

We get short B-plots of Diggle helping Dinah settle into a normal life, Adrian Chase heading out despite having a huge wound (and the revelation that he has a wife) and... shit, I can't remember what else happened. Thea came back, I think, after being absent for two or three episodes? As far as things go, it's a relatively solid episode, but probably not going to be the most memorable one.