Arrow S06E14 Review: You Have Failed This Show

Arrow, Season 6, Episode 14: Collision Course

Again, a disclaimer, which I feel I sort of need to do at the beginning of the past couple of Arrow episodes... this is a perfectly well-executed episode, with most of the actors working well enough with the crappy material that they're given. The script asks them to act like gigantic assholes to each other, so they do. Except that, y'know, they're acting like gigantic assholes for each other as the show doubles down into the Team Arrow Civil War plotline, with this episode turning them from prissy rivals to straight-up trying to hurt each other in this episode.

The entire episode is so, so messy. The episode's big conflict is that everyone needs Laurel, who stole all the money wired to Cayden James's bank account. How she manages to do that when it's an actual plot point in the previous episodes that they need Cayden to even have airlifts out of Star City, I'm not quite sure. Or how Felicity, Alena and Curtis, people who've been proven to quite literally perform magic miracles with hacking, not think to try and track down where the money went -- either electronically or if Laurel stashed them somewhere in huge duffel bags or some shit. 

But of course, Laurel's been kidnapped by Quentin in order to try to find some good out of her, Dinah wants to murderkill Laurel... and I can understand Quentin and Dinah's motivations. What I don't really understand is why everyone's such gigantic dicks. The arguments being thrown around is valid -- "We wouldn't have this conversation if Black Siren didn't have the same face as Laurel  Lance!" and "Vince knew the risk!" but there's no satisfying conclusion to take away from any of those arguments beyond both parties are assholes. 

Both groups act on a disgustingly hypocritical moral high ground, and they just repeat the same argument. "Rene betrayed us!" "Oliver planted bugs on us!" even though both parties has since dicked the other team over the past few episodes. The Outsiders talk up a good game about how they're different from Team Arrow, but in practice they're all written as assholes. The Outsiders are written to be as dysfunctional and uncaring as Oliver is at his worst, and honestly? While with Dinah I can understand it, to have Rene and Curtis get dragged on to be unreasonable assholes (Curtis fucking up Diggle's arm implant is low) ends up making me not sympathize with the Outsiders. 

Of course, original Team Arrow isn't much better either, with Oliver, Diggle and Felicity showing up with a smoke bomb to quite literally just take a peek to see if they have Laurel or her body stashed somewhere instead of, y'know, asking them by phone. This all ends in a huge, huge fight between the two teams and it's all chaotic and messy. Which probably explains the mental state of the characters involved, but also explains the state of this episode as a whole. It ends with Dinah sparing Laurel... because... something something? There's really no buildup to this big character twist beyond everyone telling Dinah that "Dinah, no! Killing is bad! Bad Dinah!" the entire episode. Oh, and we've got Rene being severely injured and hospitalized, causing a big "we can never be friends, ever again!" 

And can we say how dumb is it to have Felicity running around with Diggle and Oliver when, really, she should be in front of a computer using her magic hacking skills to track down the money in case Evil Laurel didn't pan out? 

And that's without going into the whole mess that is Evil Laurel, too. Nevermind the unfortunately sexist implications that apparently all of Laurel's evil acts is her trying to find a father figure in Zoom, Prometheus, Cayden and others. But as much as Paul Blackthorne and Katie Cassidy tries to act the scene out, it never really seems convincing. And it could be just that Quentin's too desperate (and I can buy Quentin being desperate) but the fact that his read on Evil Laurel is actually right, and that she's actually a murdering terrorist because she doesn't have a daddy feels just kinda dumb and shoehorned in. It's definitely a scene that could've stood to be thrown into the editing room and severely changed. 

And that's not to mention that the huge Cayden/Ricardo plot twist last episode wasn't given any real follow-up to. That bugs me a lot. Is Ricardo going to be kept in the background again until it's relevant that he does a big bwaaa plot-relevant-stuff thing? Bleh. 

The episode ends with Laurel in the wind, Rene in the hospital, the Outsiders and Team Arrow being antagonistic with each other and Oliver telling the people seeing to him as mayor that "I have failed this city". Yes, show-makers. You have. All the actors try their best, but when they're asked to act out this drivel, it's just not that enjoyable to watch.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Evil Laurel using the pseudonym "Siu Jerk Jai" to recover the money from Corto Maltese is a reference to one of Dinah Laurel Lance's actual aliases in the comics.