Arrow, Season 6, Episode 15: Doppelganger
I'll save talking about Roy until later on, because I kind of want to tick off the multiple B-plots first. We've got Ricardo Diaz finally getting some screentime. Sure, it's a pretty generic way to show off how badass your villain is by having them work out in a gym and beat up some fighting champion or other, but here we have him talking about the values of family and trust while he is super-angry with Evil Laurel for stealing from them. It's not much of a personality to go on, neither is it particularly fresh, but at least it's something beyond being a walking plot device. Anatoly, meanwhile, is just happy to hang around and say funny Russian-accented stuff. "Is it Laurel or Laurel these days?" He's angry at Oliver for costing him his Pakhan rank among the Bratva, and he also wants money. Simple stuff to talk about.
Meanwhile, Evil Laurel announces that she is the real Laurel, back from the dead after being kidnapped and drugged somewhere by Damien Darhk's forces since two years ago, putting her within Quentin's care to avoid being hunted down by Dinah. Ricardo kidnaps her, and then releases her... and it's all a whole ball of "IS EVIL LAUREL ACTUALLY REDEEMED NOW" nonsense, except this time around the acting isn't needlessly melodramatic, and people actually interact relatively sensibly. Dinah is still angry, but this time she's not putting her vendetta over the fate of the city or edging the two Arrow teams to fight each other. Quentin is still protective, but also acknowledges that Laurel's somewhat of a loose cannon. There's a huge bit of hypocrisy that Oliver tells Dinah that he doesn't trust her anymore, but the final scene of this episode is him telling Evil Laurel that she gets a second chance, but that's Oliver.
Of course, Evil Laurel turns out to still be 'in bed with' Ricardo Diaz, but I genuinely didn't expect her to turn from evil to good, at least not this soon, and Katie Cassidy really sells all the acting, yes? As Earth-2 Laurel acting as a lost Earth-1 Laurel, and then as her deceiving the team when she comes back, pretending to be a conflicted girl to play to Quentin and Oliver's sympathies? I'm not too invested in Evil Laurel since her flip-flop allegiance isn't anywhere as interesting as the showmakers seem to think, but eh. It's a lot better-written compared to when a lot of the previous episodes, and plus, allowing Katie Cassidy to actually act out her deceptions instead of her just looking confused and irritated is a lot better to consume.
The combination of Laurel's brief kidnapping from the SCPD, as well as the fact that the police officers are part of the crew that have captured Roy Harper, means that Dinah and Quentin get to play frenemy-buddy-cop in trying to root out the corrupt policemen within the SCPD, which is... a lot more interesting than what they had before. Of course, the corruption stems from the top, with Star City's new police captain Hill being in Diaz's employ, but that's a lot more palatable than the drivel we've been served for the past couple of episodes.
The main storyline, of course, is that Ricardo Diaz has captured Roy Harper, and is torturing him to force him to testify against Oliver... and we get the spotlight not on Roy, surprisingly, although he does get a fair amount of screentime. Instead, the main bulk of the story is carried by Thea in what looks like her swan song. And if not for the final scene, I'd say that this would be the final episode to have Thea Queen as a main character. She's been in a coma for half of this season, and in the previous season she's spent a good chunk of it out of costume. She gets into the Speedy suit one last time (or, well, maybe one more time next episode) to help get her old boyfriend out, and her single-minded determination and her clashing with Oliver over whether to play it safe or not is definitely well done.
So, anyway, we've got the old Team Arrow suiting up and bringing hell down upon Ricardo Diaz and his crew, beating Anatoly and we have a bit of Thea fighting against Ricardo before finally absconding with Roy. Of course, there's really the question on why Oliver doesn't just shoot Ricardo then and there, but eh. It's a fun, simpler and altogether less depressing episode of Arrow. We get an exit for Thea drummed up as Oliver notes that it's probably best for Roy and Thea to bugger off together and get a happy ending, and that seems to be what we're getting as the final scene... until a random League of Assassins member shows up and notes that they have found Thea, "Heir to the Demon". So Thea's exit might be slightly more explosive than this more mellow episode, then.
Overall, a neat episode. Poor Rene's still in bed and I'm curious if he, too, will be written out of the show alongside Thea. I mean, it's a possibility? For now, the focus is on our Speedy, though.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Roy Harper returns since his exit from the show all the way back in season four, and the circumstances of him faking his death to help cover for Oliver's identity is referenced. Likewise, the doctor that treated 'our' Laurel when she dies makes a brief return, and a lot of the Black Canary/Laurel stuff from the fourth season is brought back up here.
- We get a Flash reference when the doctor notes that "there is a man who can run faster than light".
- Among Cayden James's belongings is a stuffed polar bear, which, of course, is a homage to Michael Emerson's role in Lost.
No comments:
Post a Comment