Arrow, Season 3, Episode 7: Draw Back Your Bow
Yeah, I don't think I really have that much to talk about this episode, so it might be relatively shorter than my normal TV episode reviews. It's an okay episode, but it's decidedly a distraction/filler episode. It does kind of build up on the romantic tension between Oliver and Felicity, as well as Ray Palmer and Felicity, but it's not something that, in my opinion, really deserves an entire episode dedicated to love and romance. It's not that I'm hating on love and romance plotlines, because those can be great if done properly, but I thought this one was a bit on the nose, introducing Cupid the love-obsessed stalker just right when Ray Palmer is being all sweet and a love rival and stuff. I thought that some of these Ray/Felicity and Oliver/Felicity moments could have been done in other episodes, and Cupid is... relatively annoying.
I mean, yes, I do appreciate just how faithful Cupid is to her comic counterpart (which is to say, I've only read her profile in a couple of DC profile books) and her character is the one that lends to being a massive twat -- kudos to the actress for making her work. But Cupid is this hyper-obsessed maniac who really wants the Arrow to love her forever and ever and twists everything that Arrow says into a different thing. And she's basically just going around killing people to attract Arrow's attention, and she's got connections with someone who can pinpoint where the Arrow's lair is and everything.
Also I thought the little addendum to the season two finale just to give Cupid a backstory, while kind of illustrating how interconnected she is, is kind of odd since, y'know, it's been a while in-universe, and Cupid's decidedly persistent, so why didn't she make a move until now?
I do like how Cupid ain't got any archery skills. She obviously knows enough to shoot people, but when compared to Oliver I do like how Oliver can just dodge her arrows and easily break her bow.
Of course, Oliver confronts Cupid and manages to stop her from killing them both in a fit of insanity, before... handing her over to the Suicide Squad? Really? I thought this was a massive dick move on Oliver's part. I mean, yes, she's not quite a criminal and more of an ill person, and I do agree that prison doesn't serve her right... but that means you plunk her into Arkham Asylum or something, not to join the damned Suicide Squad! For one, Cupid already knows Oliver's secret lair. And for two, she's likely to actually die in the Squad, so I don't think Oliver made a really wise call if he was truly pitying Cupid.
We did get a little reference on how 'the last woman they had on the Squad was crazier than her' or something. I laughed out loud so hard at this obvious Harley Quinn reference.
Oliver himself is still dealing with the whole 'I don't have a relationship with Felicity' thing, and he kind of tells Cupid the same thing in Felicity's earshot... despite the whole flirty-flirt moments we had between Oliver and Laurel last episode. (Incidentally, Laurel is completely absent in this one) I do like how he's dealing with Felicity seemingly in a relationship with Ray, and while jealousy is something probably everyone can relate to at some point, and the little anger display Oliver did in the Arrow-Cave is pretty well done, I thought it kind of took a bit too much time and could've been built up better. I do like how Oliver ended up trying to head off and tell Felicity how he's really feeling only to find out he's too late. But other than that, I dunno, I'm not really feeling it. Seems to be too much unnecessary drama.
Whereas Diggle is basically just being a massive Olicity shipper, and trying to convince Oliver to get back with Felicity and vice versa. He does get into the field once here, but otherwise he doesn't do much. Lyla does show up for a second or two, which is cool. I like Lyla.
Roy also gets some minor screentime, and he's called Arsenal several times, which is great. He's still dealing with the police murder thing, but other than a cursory 'you don't have your A-game' dialogues here and there we don't really get much of it beyond him somehow getting taken out offscreen by Cupid. Man, poor Roy. I don't think he ever beat anyone post-Mirakuru other than Wildcat's protege last episode.
Thea gets a couple of scenes where she's auditioning DJs, and this random douchebag cockhole who's just swaggering around like some kind of overconfident dick telling everyone to go home, and he suddenly shows up again like a goddamn stalker to steal the show and semi-forcibly steal a kiss from Thea... this all came really randomly. Thea had absolutely nothing to do with the main Cupid or Felicity plots other than serving Cupid a drink that one time, and this DJ Douchebag thing literally dropped out of the sky and seems to be an extremely cheap way to introduce a love rival to Roy... and it's stupid, considering how well they made Ray Palmer's entrance, they shove in this douchebag for Thea.
Felicity gets some nice moments where she's standing up for Ray Palmer, and I do like how she's still trying to help when shit hits the fan instead of bringing up some angst about how she needs to have her own life and stuff -- girl's got her priorities in order, at least, though how she teleported from the dinner with Palmer to the Arrow-Cave, I don't know. She gets some funny moments, some sweet moments now that Palmer is likable (they kissed and everything and Felicity gave that nice speech and all), and some rather heartbreaking moments. I do like how Palmer's actually being portrayed as sweet and whatnot (despite the extravagant money thrown at Felicity) and Felicity does give us some nice funny moments like her priceless reaction to Palmer doing the Salmon Ladder. But, as I mentioned in the Flash review, she's veering kind of close to Mary Sue territory, and with no less than three love interests (Oliver, Barry and Palmer; four if you count Brother Eye) and her insane hacking skills, we're kind of getting a Felicity overload after several episodes that focus so much on her. And I'm a bit conflicted because I really really like Felicity, but I'm not a big fan of all this angsty romance-drama stuff.
Ray Palmer's changed Queen Consolidated into Palmer Technologies, complete with a revolving electron-atom thing that Palmer and Felicity point out at two separate occasions, and if that isn't enough... Palmer's apparently working on the A.T.O.M. exosuit, powered by a white dwarf star! That's a sure hint that Ray Palmer is going to become the Atom somewhere in the near future. Hell, they even showed the exosuit! This, I think, is what got me the most excited throughout the entire episode. I do like the Atom, and if Arrow takes a veer from the gritty-and-serious into something more comic book-y featuring the Atom, I would certainly be welcoming, as jarring as it is.
The flashback plot is a fair bit of heartwarming family stuff, with the Triads killing a group of ARGUS agents and both Oliver and Tatsu thinking that Maseo died in the firefight, but it's not and stuff like that. It's pretty bland, although there's a couple of funny moments with Oliver and laundry, and Tatsu whipping out a katana and whacking a dozen people into submission (without blood, I might add)... well, I do love me some Katana references, and that scene was awesome if nothing. Shame that Katana's backstory involves a dead family, so things aren't looking good for Maseo and their kid.
And at the end, Captain Boomerang shows up and kills a random dude who has 'something he needs' with a razor-sharp boomerang! He's of reasonable likeness to the original Captain Boomerang except not as colourful or silly. It's another thing that excites me because I love Captain Boomerang, as nutter as he conceptually is, and I'm certainly looking forward to next week's crossover episodes if nothing. Boomerang seems to imply that he's a former member of the Suicide Squad what with him going all 'the thing about our line of work is that it'll always come back to haunt you' line, which will be interesting, or that could just be me reading too much into things.
Overall a pretty m'eh episode that'll probably appeal to shippers -- in which case, good for them -- but is pretty filler-y for me. Cupid's kind of intentionally annoying, DJ Douchebag can fuck off and jump into a pool of acid, and the romance stuff is at least tolerable. It's not bad, but it doesn't fill me with excitement or hype other than the Atom, Katana and Captain Boomerang references.
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