Arrow S07E10 Review: Return of The List

Arrow, Season 7, Episode 10: My Name is Emiko Queen

I've been sort of holding off on reviewing Arrow because I... wasn't the most interseted in the series after its tiresome mess that is the Ricardo Diaz storyline, but I did watch episode 10 back when it first aired. And it's... it's a decent episode, but man, it does feel pretty rushed.

Let's talk about the main bulk of this episode, which is the revelation and exposition dump that the mysterious Green Arrow impostor in this season is, in fact, Oliver Queen's half-sister Emiko, born out of Robert Queen's affair with a mistress. And Emiko's apparently working on what is basically Oliver's season one mission -- complete with secret base, ominous monologues, brooding vendetta and a list. Hell, we're just a silly catchphrase and a club short of being a re-enactment of the first season.

But the way the episode explores Emiko's backstory -- that her mother Kazumi was essentially abandoned by Robert Queen to live in the Glades, and was murdered by someone she thinks is William Glenmorgan. We basically rush through this information in quick succession as Emiko ends up looking for the only person in the show she can trust, and that's apparently Rene. Rene is all for a team-up and trying to understand Emiko's motivations and backstory, but the way Emiko basically warms up to Renee and tells her basically her life story feels awkward and shoehorned in. After a brief 'no, I work alone' bit, all it took is a commercial break for Emiko to recruit Wild Dog in her vendetta.

And... and I really do like the ideas being told to us in this episode, I really do. Wild Dog being unable to find a way to properly help the city other than being a vigilante is a great way to take the character (who's honestly became kinda stale over the past season). Emiko's backstory, told form both Emiko's own words and Oliver's investigation, is compelling on paper, and if it had been properly built up over multiple episodes instead of the rush job we got, it would've been far more interesting.

Anyway, Rene brings in Curtis to help out as the 'guy in a chair' for their impromptu team-up, and Wild Dog and New Green Arrow assaulting Glenmorgan's compound and fighting him and his silly Star Trek gun is pretty neat, but, of course, it turns out that Glenmorgan is being framed for the whole crime, and Emiko's back to square one, more or less, although she now has allies. It honestly feels rushed, and while part of me is kind of glad that we're hopefully moving straight into more interesting territories, it also feels like they really just wanted to get this over with.

Oliver and Felicity finding out Emiko's backstory and the fact that Moira covered it up by locking up part of Robert's will in some vault somewhere is... it's interesting and completely fitting with what we know of Moira, but it honestly feels utterly anticlimactic. I dunno. I do like that Oliver has a moment of 'should I even interfere in Emiko's life?' moment, but it honestly feels just kind of poorly done and rushed in general. I absolutely love Moira's hypocrisy, by the way, for basically condemning Emiko and her mother to live without financial support and hiding the letter away from Walter Steele (great reference there, too), while she herself has had Thea out of wedlock with Malcolm. Oh, Moira, you damned hypocrite.

The B-plot is... it's basically the formation of the NEW Suicide Squad, this time named the 'Ghost Initiative', which is... it's honestly quite hilarious that after being forced to write out the Suicide Squad in season whatever because Warner Brothers can't share their toys, we're getting them back but rebranded. It's a fun bit with Diggle and Lyla where Diggle tells a superior that Ricardo Diaz is their first recruit for the Ghost Initiative, but he does this without consulting with Lyla first, causing some friction between the two. Because there's always drama between this couple. I wouldn't call this quite out-of-character for Diggle just yet, I guess, but at the same time, he has been the most vocal about Oliver maintaining his no-kill rule. So.

It's some fun build-up, and basically leads to Diaz with a bomb in his head. Everything's moving pretty quickly, though, and this honestly makes the episode feel like the start of a retooled season or whatever more than anything. I dunno.

The future storyline is... it's a bit interesting for the fun parallels it draws to the present day scenes involving Rene. Apparently while in the present-day Rene is someone idolized by Zoe and is willing to help anyone out, in the future, Dinah's attempt to recruit Future Mayor Rene to their ranks ends up with nothing but bad blood. Future Rene is a dick who hates Star City and basically only cares about the Glades, and while he seems disturbed that Felicity's been apparently killed, he's also has no real qualms to continue working with the mysterious man that is behind the 'blow up Star City' plan. I still don't really care all that much about the flash-forwrad stuff, although at least they're trying to remain narratively consistent.

Overall, in a bubble isn't not a bad episode at all. All the storylines have some narrative cohesion between them, with Rene and general 'losing your own moral compass' as the shared theme between all of the different plot points, with Future Rene, the Queen parents, Diggle and Emiko all facing this theme in some way or another. But I really do have some issue with just how breakneck everything's been going on. It's definitely preferable than the alternative of slogging on at the pace of a snail, so I'm definitely willing to give this a chance.

DC Easter Eggs Corner

• Santa Prisca, where Walter Glenmorgan was apparently held captive for the past couple of years, is best known as the island prison where Batman's villain Bane was born and raised. 
• Kazumi Adachi is identified as Robert Queen's mistress and Emiko's mother. In the comics, Emiko was the daughter of Robert Queen and Shado. Since this is kind of impossible to do in the TV show, Kazumi Adachi, Shado's grandmother in the comics, became Emiko's mom instead.