Arrow S03E15: LAZARUS PIT CNFRMD

Arrow, Season 3, Episode 15: Nanda Parbat

It’s not quite an awesome episode as last one, but a shit-ton of things go down and even more secrets are revealed. It’s basically a big series of secrets being revealed and long-standing plot points getting tied up. Thea reveals her role in Sara’s murder to Laurel, and I do like that Laurel doesn’t actually make a big fuss about it… regarding Thea, anyway. But she does explode on Oliver, and later on goes off to confront Malcolm Merlyn on her own. Granted she did bring a gun, but really there is no way in hell she’s going to stand a chance against Malcolm and it really looks like a kid fighting against an adult and looked relatively painful to watch.

But Thea has somehow managed to contact the League of Assassins and basically handed Malcolm over to Nyssa, despite Oliver’s protests. It’s nice to see Thea being extremely proactive, and despite how badly it could’ve gone, Nyssa, who we know has a liking for Laurel, saves her and rather easily takes out Malcolm and is ready to leave Starling City for good. Which went a little too fast and too convenient. The fact that Malcolm is actually honourable enough to not give out Thea’s role to Ra’s Al Ghul (whether he knows it or not) is also rather convenient… Ra’s could just kill Malcolm, and with that both villains would be out of our heroes’ hair.

Of course this is hardly a fitting or climatic ending to a third season, so through some logic hoops Oliver decides to go off and rescue Malcolm from the League of Assassins with the rather flimsy and strange excuse of not wanting to make Thea into a killer living with the guilt of basically killing her own father. Laurel, Felicity and Thea are obviously against this rather stupid decision, but Diggle (and the audience) is smart enough to know that there’s something more going on in Oliver’s head than just wanting to save his sister’s soul.

We get to see Oliver fight Nyssa and manage to subdue her, but the League goes off with Malcolm. It’s a delight to see Nyssa battle both Oliver, and earlier on Malcolm, and the fight scenes are as always awesomely written. Oliver puts Nyssa in a cage he happens to have, and Nyssa tells him where to find Nanda Parbat.

And throughout this episode Diggle actually gets to take the spotlight somewhat after being under-appreciated for a long, long time. His role in the Brick arc has basically made him the rational Big Brother figure (Oliver is the stubborn, authoritative one) for their little dysfunctional family, and I do like how everyone else listens to him when he tells them to get out while Oliver seems to want to torture Nyssa, or when Diggle trusts Oliver’s decision. The episode really, really seems to be setting Diggle up to dying in a future episode, though, which I don’t like. We get to see Diggle play with his daughter and talking to Lyla, who is supportive of him not wanting to leave Oliver to go off and face Ra’s alone… and later on he makes his brotherly bond with Oliver clear and asks him to be his best man when he remarries Lyla.

Diggle and Oliver taking on the assassins in Nanda Parbat is a pretty cool scene, even if those fire arrow shooting mooks are kind of shitty shots for assassins. Diggle totally killed a couple with his machinegun and Oliver aims for the sides of their neck which is… still kind of dangerous and could easily be fatal. And Oliver totally set one of the mooks on fire! That was fucking awesome! But I suppose the sentries could’ve easily been ordered to miss on purpose. Of course, Ra’s Al Ghul manages to trap Oliver and Diggle.

And in that prison, Diggle points out that Ra’s Al Ghul is the only person who totally owned Oliver Queen, and Oliver is having to deal with being defeated which is why he basically wants a rematch with Ra’s Al Ghul, which is kind of a flimsy excuse but one that sort of made better sense than his initial ‘I have to jump into hell to save a psychopathic villain to save my sister’s soul’ excuse. There might be more to it, but sadly we have to wait three more weeks until a new Arrow episode because DAMMIT CW

I do like Ra’s scenes, and he’s definitely an awesome fella. The final twist that he wants Oliver to succeed him as the next Ra’s Al Ghul, despite being transparently borrowed from how Ra’s acts in the Batman comics he originates from, is a rather nice thing to explore with a different hero. I do like how he talks to Nyssa about how he disapproves of her daughter’s lesbian romance with Sara, which may or may not lead to a confrontation between father and daughter – extremely likely considering what Nyssa does in the comics. I also do like Ra’s conversation with Malcolm, how he tells Malcolm to stop begging and just accept his death with dignity.

Also, Ra’s Al Ghul has got a fucking awesome-looking golden dragon sword.

Malcolm isn’t dead yet, so we may see more of him. I do want to see what they are planning to do with Malcolm, since I don’t expect him to come into contact with the League or get captured until far later in the season.

Also, the Lazarus Pit is basically confirmed, isn’t it? Not only is Ra’s just hanging out in the damn thing like it’s a spa, he also mentions to Malcolm how he met a magician in the 1800’s, and how he met the magician again near death, showing that he’s extremely long-lived and everything. Ra’s lines about how not even magicians can cheat death is a nice one to deliver to Malcolm.

Adding to the more comic-book feel of this episode with the allusions to the Lazarus Pit, Ray Palmer finally get the Atom suit operational. Ray and Felicity’s little romantic comedy scenes were nicely written and it appears that Felicity is going to fully get over her love for Oliver and hang out with Ray… but with everything else that’s going on, Ray and Felicity’s part in this episode felt really out of place. We haven’t seen Ray in over two or three episodes (lampshaded by Felicity in the episode) and this little subplot certainly seems to exist in its own universe instead of being integrated to the main plot like the Firestorm plot in the Flash… but it kind of pays off because Ray Palmer finally dons the Atom suit and flies around the city and that looks pretty awesome! Lazarus Pit, Atom suits…

Granted, the Atom suit looked like Robocop, the Iron Man armour and the N7 Armour from Mass Effect made a baby and it was painted in Captain America colours, and it doesn’t have shrinking powers yet, but I suppose it’ll come in time.

Thea and Roy also get a little thing going on with them bonding over killing people under influence (which everyone saw coming) and Roy has apparently been anonymously helping out the family of the policeman he killed. And I do like how they acknowledge that the pain will never go away, the guilt will never go away and all that. Rather interesting where this goes from here. Thea has been phenomenally awesome in this season, but they haven’t really done much with Roy other than him donning his awesome costume and I do hope we explore more of their relationship and dealing with killing stuff.

Thea seems to have became some kind of penance seeker because at the end of the episode the big cliffhanger is her telling the ‘I killed Sara’ bit to Nyssa and handing her a sword… but eliminating the fact that she was under influence. Thea definitely isn’t thinking straight, but considering Nyssa’s blood knight tendences I’m sure things aren’t going to end well.

I also liked Laurel’s short scenes in this episode. How she instantly forgives Thea (despite being visibly shaken) and how she explodes at Oliver for keeping such a giant secret from her… it rang a bit hypocritical considering two episodes ago she was doing something comparable to her father, but Laurel keeps it under control enough to hang out with Team Arrow despite being angry as hell. I also liked Laurel’s little bonding with Nyssa and reminiscing over Sara.

The flashback sequence is kind of underwhelming, but still makes me curious over what’s going to happen. General Shrieve lets Oliver and the Yamashiros return home, but obviously that happy ending isn’t what happened to them as they are attacked by what Maseo and Oliver assume to be Amanda Waller’s men… but it could very easily be Shrieve or China White, considering how Oliver didn’t really mind Waller in the present day. By the end of the episode Oliver manages to escape with Akio (who might die in the future?) while Maseo and Tatsu are left behind pinned under fire from their assailants.

Overall a rather clunky episode, but a lot of things happen, a lot of developments happen… and the two final scenes – Oliver being offered the Ra’s Al Ghul position and Thea handing Nyssa the sword – really make the three-week cliffhanger a really massive tease. All I can say is, well, look at just how far Arrow has gone since its first season!

Agent Carter Episode 8 Review: Moving on. Also, Arnim Zola

Agent Carter, Episode 8: Valediction

It’s definitely a solid episode to cap off the first season of Agent Carter, with most of the loose ends and plots wrapped up whether there will be a second season or not. Granted there’s really no tension of Howard Stark or Peggy Carter dying (or Carter not returning to the SSR) considering we know of how events will play out, so that kind of makes the final ‘will Jarvis shot down Howard if Peggy fails to talk him down’ scene kind of tenseless… but the showmakers do manage to make it be very feels-y by exploring several emotional themes for not only Carter, but also for Howard.

Howard Stark, of course, returns for the finale and takes on a far larger role than his two previous ‘talk a bit, drop a bombshell, then going off’ appearances. And while he continues to make a lot of antics similar to his son and generally making an ass out of himself, I do like how Jarvis is just basically eye-rolling every time Howard does particularly assy things. Like his expression during Howard’s first appearance, how he’s just talking about how the SSR should’ve hired him for security, or how he follows Peggy in walking off in disgust when Howard tries to pinpoint what Dottie’s name really is.

Fennhoff’s master plan is apparently very personal to Howard Stark, and Howard finally reveals the significance of Item 17 and how it ties into the mystery of the Battle of Finow. ‘Midnight Oil’, as it’s called, is supposed to make soldiers be able to go without sleep and fight for days, but it instead causes them to enter a stage of heightened sleep deprivation and thus causing them to become, well, psychotic angry rage-monsters. It’s a nice touch to see that not all of Howard’s inventions are meant to be weapons, but like Fennhoff mentions, Midnight Oil only exists because of Howard.

We also see Carter, Sousa and Thompson investigate the aftermath of Midnight Oil on the theater and Sousa accidentally gassed himself in the face with Midnight Oil and gets into a fight with Thompson before he gets knocked out. And apparently Midnight Oil can cause asphyxiation, and they note that the two Leviathan members who had their larynx destroyed probably was exposed to experimental Midnight Oil… which is kind of weird, but it makes more sense than them just being a psychotic cult. Still doesn’t really give an explanation why they were masquerading as soldiers killed in Finow, but I guess that’s just them being weird.

That’s about the connection to Leviathan as a greater organization as we get, though, since the rest of the episode only focuses on Fennhoff and Dottie (or Dr. Faustus and Black Widow, whichever you prefer) as the threats. Howard Stark kills two birds with one stone by having Thompson declare him innocent in a big public statement whilst drawing Fennhoff back to try and nab him. It solves the big plot of declaring Howard’s innocence pretty well, and I do like Howard just pulling a Tony an telling Thompson to throw in words like ‘brilliance’ and ‘humbled’ and whatnot.

Of course, Fennhoff and Dottie manage to nab Howard Stark with the aid of a hypnotized police officer (who later gets disposed of), and we get a couple of flashbacks on how Dottie indeed seduced Howard and Howard had shown her his private collection of airplanes and whatnot. Fennhoff reveals his backstory, how he was present at the Battle of Finow when the Russian soldiers were gassed with Midnight Oil and he had to see his brother get torn apart. It helps make the conflict between Fennhoff and Howard feel a lot more personal, and ties in the whole Finow thing even more.

I do like how Fennhoff hypnotizes Howard Stark, and this forces him to deal with his own inner demons. How everything he created has been destructive, Midnight Oil included, and how his only real positive creation, Captain America, is gone. And Howard’s happy place is flying a plane to bring Captain America back, and it is honestly heartbreaking to see Howard just being so happy with how he’s telling Peggy how he’s bringing Steve home… when he’s driving a plane filled with murderhate gas to New York. While we do get fights against Black Widow and Dr. Faustus, I think the real climax is Peggy Carter talking Howard down, which is a climax both plot-wise and emotional-wise as Peggy tells Howard that they both loved Steve Rogers, but he’s dead now and there’s no use clinging to the past and they have to move on, and you can just see from Peggy’s expression how her own words apply to her as much as they do to Stark.

Jarvis himself also gets to participate, hopping on a plane and ready to shoot Howard down should they fail to talk him down but this naturally doesn’t happen. Speaks volumes for Jarvis, though – despite how cowardly and passive he’s been most of the time, and how much he respects Howard Stark, he seems pretty ready to shoot down his boss and friend.

We get a couple of final battles here, with Peggy Carter facing off against Dottie the Black Widow. I just wished Dottie was more developed as a character so there would be more impact when she was ranting about how she had always wanted to be like Carter, and I thought Dottie’s ‘death’ was a bit disappointing with her just falling out of a window. But I do like how Carter is unable to outpace Dottie physically since, y’know, Russian super-assassin and all. Fennhoff faces off against Sousa, and tries to hypnotise him too, playing off his insecurities as the cripple and almost getting him to shoot Thompson… but Sousa is wearing earplugs so he’s just stringing Fennhoff along. That was actually funny how that scene played out.

And after the bad guys are taken out, we get a little closing. Dottie apparently escaped having her head split open by the fall and escapes to fight another day, but they captured Fennhoff. Howard apparently destroys all his creations off-screen, which is another parallel we can draw between Howard and Tony. And we get the little SSR scene where everyone basically acknowledges Peggy Carter’s role in bringing down the big conspiracy… but the senators and whatnot, naturally, acknowledge Thompson and I do like how Thompson doesn’t do a 180 from his initial characterization, and while he respects Peggy as shown from his many lines both this episode and before, he is still enough of a jackass to take the promotion from the senators.

Peggy herself seems to have outgrown the need to be lauded with praise, though, and I do like how she tells Sousa how it doesn’t matter what other people think of her – only what she thinks of herself. Sousa kind of asks her for a date and gets rejected, but Peggy’s smile may hint on future developments of their relationship… after all, if she moves on that quickly from the grief and loss of Steve that quickly it wouldn’t feel too natural.

As a little closure to the stupid dorm, Howard and Jarvis give one of Howard’s house for Peggy and Angie to live in… and Jarvis talks to Peggy and tells her that she is the only person who has earned his integrity, which is a pretty awesome and touching scene. I guess Howard being a dick got to bite him in the ass, as Jarvis hands over Steve Roger’s blood to Peggy… and Peggy pours it over the Brooklyn Bridge as she says farewell to her darling, fully embracing the grief and sort of moving on. I guess that’s the sort of closure she needs, bringing at least one part of Steve Rogers back to his home? I dunno. Not really feeling up to analyze the emotional ramifications of that scene, but I am touched and kind of sad because of it. It’s a nice page to leave Peggy Carter on, that’s for sure.

Meanwhile, the final scene shows Fennhoff placed into the same prison with… Arnim Zola! Arnim Zola was among the characters people were expecting to show up in Agent Carter, and while him showing up isn’t entirely unexpected, it does come as a surprise that the very final scene will show him. Arnim Zola basically recruits Fennhoff into Hydra, or at least they share enough information for Arnim Zola to manage to get his hands on Fennhoff’s little methods of hypnotism, which would explain Daniel Whitehall’s penchant for hypnotism in Agents of SHIELD, as well as the Winter Soldier program, both affiliated with Hydra. Or it might point to something more direct in future Agent Carter seasons. Maybe we’ll see Hydra actually infiltrating the SSR or SHIELD?

Anyway it doesn’t really matter as the show’s loose ends were all tied pretty nicely, but there’s enough openings to explore in a hypothetical season two. Presuming the Black Widow Program will be touched upon in Age of Ultron (coming soon!), the only real cliffhangers are Dottie’s escape and the true scope of Leviathan, which would be interesting as a season two but on the other hand I wouldn’t really shed any tears if those plot threads weren’t explored at all.

Overall plot-wise there really isn’t anything fresh beyond the two ‘harmless character is actually evil’ plot twists, and thanks to being set in stone there really isn't much tension as far as pre-established characters are. But for its tension and pacing problems, it’s definitely a more character-driven series than I expected, especially this last episode. It’s not a perfect series, that’s for sure, with several pacing problems especially early on and the whole Leviathan thing built up in the first three episodes being a big red herring, but while undoubtedly with its problems, I certainly enjoyed Agent Carter thanks to the strong performances put in by its actors and actresses. Next week we’ll return to Agents of SHIELD, who, hopefully, is better paced than the first half of the season now that they've got more than two months to sort things out. Anyway, Agent Carter has been a pretty fun show. It's not particularly great, but it's definitely good. I definitely enjoyed myself more than I thought I would for a character that I didn't really care much about. 

Agent Carter Episode 7 Review: Hypnotism

Agent Carter, Episode 7: SNAFU

It’s a pretty solid episode, that’s for sure. I thought it wasted a fair bit too much time on the interrogation sequences and the whole internal conflict between Peggy Carter and the rest of the SSR which didn’t really seem to have much of an impact to me personally. But there are a fair amount of excellent scenes that more than makes up for it.

The most excellent one is, undoubtedly, Chief Dooley’s death. I’ve been waiting for one of the three obvious death candidates (Dooley, Sousa and Thompson) to kick the bucket, and this episode delivers with Dooley’s death and it is one of the most cruel bait-and-switch ever. Chief Dooley spent most of the episode under Ivchenko’s hypnotism, and after he helped Ivchenko lock Carter and Jarvis up, and later stole Item 17, it looks like he returns home to have dinner with his estranged family and manages to take solace that despite the fact that he ‘let the bad guy get away’ he doesn’t care so long as he can get back to his family. And indeed, Dooley’s desire to reconnect with his family and his regrets about being absent from his family has been Ivchenko’s “in” so his hypnotism could work.

And we’re brutally ripped out of that fantasy, which is apparently what Dooley has been seeing, to see him strapped onto one of Howard Stark’s failed creations, a heating vest that malfunctions and is impossible for them to remove. Dooley’s sacrifice is kind of what you’d expect. The mentor tells the main character (Carter) to get the villain, before running and detonating where it won’t hurt anyone. Granted it’s convenient that the suit went off just as Dooley jumped out of the window and not while they were talking or when Dooley hit the ground, but that was a nice and sad death scene so I won’t bitch too much about the logic of that scene. The little hope spot that Dooley was merely a failure certainly made the sadness all the more poignant as his last thoughts turned to how he can’t do anything to reverse the past – either regarding his family or regarding his failure in letting Ivchenko get the drop on him.

I also do like how Jarvis breaks his normally staunch stance regarding Howard and blames Dooley’s death squarely on ‘Howard’s bloody inventions’. And I do like the subtlety of calling the vest an ‘armour’ powered by a goobledeygonk sciency power source no one understands. Not quite similar to the Iron Man suit, but definitely nods to it.

The interrogation scene was kind of redundant, but it does give some rather excellent lines and confrontations between Carter and the three SSR men. Plot-wise it really didn’t make sense for Carter to be indignant and not just spill the beans regarding her actions and explain everything before Ivchenko puts his plans into motion, but the fact that Sousa and the rest didn’t particularly trust her at that moment probably made her guarded. I also do like how Carter lampshades Sousa’s view on women, namely how a woman is either an virtuous angel or a whore… which Sousa definitely had coming considering he basically explodes on Carter. Granted he probably felt the most betrayed among those present, but damn, Sousa, that didn’t mean you had to imply Carter was whoring it up with Howard Stark.

I also do like how Thompson, despite still retaining his jackass aura, keeps noting how the Carter he fought alongside in Russia doesn’t seem to be the type to be a traitor and kind of hints that he doesn’t want to go all Jack Bauer on Carter and later on agree with Sousa that they believe in Carter. It’s a nice little bit of character development for Thompson. I also thought that he was a goner when Dottie got away from Sousa during the little battle in the building , but Dooley is the only casualty in this episode.

Other than her finally exploding out about how no one respects her and whatnot, I thought Peggy Carter’s clincher scene was revealing Captain America’s blood to Dooley and the others, and the rather heart-breaking delivery of the line where she says she wants a second chance to keep Steve Rogers safe… which delivers rather poignantly that she still loves Steve Rogers with all her heart and definitely blames herself for not being able to save Steve before his perceived death. And that survivor’s guilt certainly explains her desire of being recognized as competent and all that. And I definitely like how Peggy’s love to Steve Rogers and dealing with his loss is explored but it doesn’t take up the entire show.

Also Carter is fired from the SSR… which honestly we all know won’t stick because we have seen multiple times in the Captain America movies and Agents of SHIELD show that Carter will go on to be a member of the SSR for quite some time.

Jarvis also shows up, faking a confession by Howard Stark to attempt to barter for Carter’s freedom. And he’s bloody fun! His little exchanges with Peggy Carter, their little comedy scene with using the table as a battering ram, Jarvis’ awkward confession that the confession was a fake… and I do like how Jarvis isn’t just a bumbling yes-man and acknowledges Howard Stark’s bloody inventions as being rather fucked up.

The best character so far, however, is probably dr. Ivchenko. We start off this episode with a flashback of a younger Ivchenko helping to hypnotize a young soldier as his leg was amputated, and we see how Ivchenko’s hypnotism works, by putting the patient in a ‘happy place’ in the past and talking to them so they wouldn’t want to leave despite realizing what’s happening in the real world. I had thought this was a bit of a redundant scene until it finally ties in with Dooley’s death.

Ivchenko seems to be shaping up to be the final villain and mastermind for this season, though he’s definitely not the leader of Leviathan or whatever. At this point I don’t think we’re even going to deal with Leviathan at all, only Ivchenko and Dottie… and that kind of makes the big foreshadowing with the typewriters and whatnot just a rather large red herring or just building it up for season two. Oh well. Ivchenko is too entertaining not to like.

Also, as a final note, it appears that Ivchenko is not his real name, but rather a pseudonym based on the soldier he saved in the flashback, namely Ovechkin. His real name, established by the flashback, is dr. Fennhoff. He’s apparently MCU’s version of a Captain America enemy, Johann Fennhoff, otherwise known as Doctor Faustus (and he was reading that same book in the flashback, too). Not being a big Marvel comics reader, I know absolutely nothing about Doctor Faustus, but I thought this yet another in a series of ‘this seemingly-original character is actually an actual guy from the comics using a fake name’ after Skye, Skye’s Father and Dottie. Not that it’s a bad thing, but really all the multiple names is kind of confusing.

A nice little nod is that Doctor Faustus has, as someone informed me, been mentioned before in Agents of SHIELD’s second season, where Daniel Whitehall briefly mentions the ‘Faustus method’ of hypnotism while doing his whole compliance thing. And with Fennhoff (I guess I’ll call him that from now one) display of his hypnotism skills, it’s a rather awesome little tie-in between both shows.

Fennhoff’s big plan is to steal Item 17 from Howard Stark, and I can’t decide if he was working with either one of the Leviathan agents from the first two episodes and I don’t particularly care, to be honest. Item 17 is apparently a gas canister which Dottie unleashes upon a theater using a baby stroller which is darkly humorous. The gas is basically the Hate Plague from Transformers, amplifying anger and causing people to tear into each other and all that. Except since it’s happening on real people biting and tearing flesh instead of robots in an 80’s cartoon, it’s kind of more horrific. No idea why Dottie and Fennhoff are unleashing it on a random theater beyond being evil, but I guess they have a final endgame in play for the next, final episode.

Dottie is also pretty cool in this episode and busting out all her Black Widow moves. She did fail to kill Sousa, which sucks since Sousa is a cripple (a cripple with a gun, but she’s a goddamn Black Widow)… but I guess it’s another subtle exploration of the ‘don’t underestimate people who look weak’ theme running alongside this series. The scene with her just parkour-ing down those stairs is pretty awesome, though.

It’s not really an original plot by any means, and I’m slightly disappointed regarding the whole Leviathan thing and lack thereof, but I do like the smaller scale direction that the show is taking. The threat feels a lot more concentrated and localized with only two villains – Fennhoff the hypnotist and Dottie the Black Widow – and I really did like the whole concept about hypnotism. I thought the episode was slightly oddly paced, but it did help to illustrate just how hectic the situation is and everything. I also do appreciate that they cut down on the jokes significantly this episode, concentrating it to the rather sparse but hilarious Jarvis/Carter moments so as not to distract. 

Toriko 314 Review: Fusion PAWNCH

Toriko, Chapter 314: Saru We Dance?

A bit of exploration on both fronts with Kaka and the Four Kings. A fair amount happens on the latter part, but the first half of the chapter focuses on Kaka. We see her... him? It? Eh. I've been calling Kaka 'her' for a while, but I guess we don't have a confirmed gender. And it does look like a horrific monstrous animal. We see it react to Komatsu being a poison doll and basically acknowledges that the penguin, MIA for a while, might have hidden the real Komatsu. Before it can react, though, Denshark's autonomy mode ended and it just falls down a deep hole as the 100K gravity pulls it down. Kaka seems to be crushed for a bit... before it apparently rips Denshark apart as it returns to the surface. Kaka wants to get to Toriko and company, but the three animals block its way and it basically threatens to eat them with a horrendous nightmare face.

We then cut back to more silly faces with Bambina and the Four Kings, and it's just funny to see some of the goofy faces that fucking Zebra makes while they go through the motions of the monkey dance. There's a little speech about how Enbu and the cells can be cumulative between the four of them and they realized it when Coco and Sani were juggling pillbugs together. And Pair starts to mature and the Appetite Demons are calm and whatnot as they go through the dance. And all they had to do is the last movement and plan to just go with whatever Bambina decides to go...

And there's a tense standoff as Bambina doesn't do anything after pulling off a silly pose, before pulling out yet another nightmare face as it apparently goes rabid. It's mouth is rather gigantic and it attacks, apparently embedding its head straight into the floor which is a hilarious image of his gigantic, muscular neck extending out from his shoulders.

The Four Kings decide to not dance and fight, so Zebra first unleashes a 'Bakuhankyou Voice', some kind of big explosive voice that disorients Bambina (but doesn't break Sani's hair net). And while they're stunned, the Four Kings bring their arms together as their cells kind of react, and their arms kind of merge together like some kind of plasticine, and the four of them basically have their upper arms connected to this giant gestalt of a fist, and they punch it straight into Bambina as 'Enbu: Shitenhou Seiken'.

And Bambina is definitely hurt, reacting with wide eyes before spitting out blood. Will it take him out, or make Pair ready, however, is an entirely different matter. And there's Kaka to contend with. Looking forward to the next one, certainly.

One Piece 778 Review: Fastball Special

One Piece, Chapter 778: Tactics #5

So in this chapter we wrap up the Zoro/Pica fight at last, and I do like how it's done, how Zoro doesn't just Mary Sue his way and murder Pica and actually uses some strategy involving the few minor characters he met up with in his many previous glimpses of fight scenes.

And the Jinbe cover story finally shows a major relevance since its inception with Jinbe discovering a Poneglyph in one of the ruins, which was definitely not what I was expected. It's not really a big ground-breaking thing, but I guess the Poneglyphs will come into play sometime in the future with the whole missing century thing and it's nice that the rambling insanity that is Jinbe's cover story actually has some payoff.

We start off with, of course, a little recap of last chapter's final scene with everyone just reacting to the giant Pica golem with all the gross veins on his back gunning for King Riku. Also, Sai survives his little squish from last chapter which isn't really a surprise. King Elizabello wants to help out his old friend Riku with his King Punch, but Zoro, who has met him a bit before (even if he forgets what his name or country are) stops and asks Elizabello to give him two minutes.

Zoro then recruits the aid of Warden, er, Admiral Orlumbus to help him fly, as in an X-Men Fastball Special via Orlumbus' 'Admiral Killer Bowling', one of the most ridiculous attack names in One Piece yet. Which, while kind of cliched, is still pretty fucking cool. We get these soldiers firing cannons at Pica's face and King Riku just shouting at Pica to just aim for him. We get one of those 'the king is so noble' scenes with Riku ordering Tank and Viola to evacuate everyone else except for him. And Usopp is just freaking the hell out.

Zoro, meanwhile, is being launched towards Pica and his sword starts getting engulfed in Haki. As Pica tries to squish Riku rather slowly, Zoro is just flying towards him reciting this little Buddhist mantra. Over the nine mountains and eight seas and the earthly realm and all that, making it quite freaking cool, before declaring that there's nothing he cannot cut... while his face is being pulled backwards by the shear force which is funny.

Pica gloats over how a peaceloving idiot like Riku cannot even protect his own country and his powerlessness means he isn't fit to be king. Riku talks about how he's not going to kill anyone ever again and Pica says something along the lines of all good people die early and Usopp is screaming the fuck out.

And then, of course, a two-page spread with Zoro slicing Pica's giant golem form cleanly in half with his 'Santoryu Ougi: Daisen Sekai Ichidai Sanzen'. And while this is what we expected, really, Pica getting sliced in half again... it still looks pretty fucking badass with Zoro's little mantra and how the attack's name was given out bit by bit as he flies. And the next page? We get a little establishing shot, and Zoro realizing that the true Pica has moved onto the upper half, before slicing that giant chunk of Pica in half. Again, another great visual.

Everyone's just all reacting while Zoro is noting that half of Pica is still moving while the other half is dead, deducing that the true body has to retreat to one of the halves that he cuts. So Zoro slices off Pica's arm, and when the 'head' of the giant golem goes dead Zoro slices the arm apart. And Pica himself comes out of the remnants of his giant arm, all clad in Haki like a true gladiator, and talks about his Haki and whatnot. Zoro, meanwhile, calmly states that his Haki is better, repeats the mantra that 'of the nine mountains and eight seas, there is nothing I can cut'... and then finishes Pica off with Sanzen Sekai, the very first Santoryu Ougi from way back during his first fight against Mihawk.

Pica is finally down, with a shit-ton of slashes and a broken helmet, revealing his rather... normal-looking face. As Pica's true body tumbles down and Zoro returns to where King Riku and the rest are, the rubble from Pica's giant golem form plummets down onto them... at which point King Elizabello launches a King Punch that destroys the rubble, or at least sends it flying down to crush unimportant people the space behind where King Riku, Zoro, Usopp and the rest are.

Overall just a cool take-down-Pica chapter and while there isn't really much tension to it I thought it was a hell lot cooler than how Diamante was taken out. It's simple, but it makes use of some minor characters and Zoro is just a gigantic badass all around. Next up? Bring us Law and Luffy and Doflamingo and Bellamy!

Gotham S01E17 Review: Majora's Mask

Gotham, Season 1, Episode 17: Red Hood

Well, way to be meta, I guess? The Joker candidate from the last episode, Jerome, plays up a definitely Heath Ledger inspired performance with a hint of Mark Hamill thrown in, but the Red Hood, seems to take his (or their) performance more on the campy, happy performance of Cesar Romero or Jack Nicholson. And they're both tackling different Joker origins too... or at least that was what it seemed before the crazy thin young thug with the Red Hood gets shot through the chest... which I admittedly didn't see coming. Honestly expected Gotham to be obvious with its Joker candidates and setting up this dude to be the second one -- the happy campy one to contrast last episode's more psychotic one. But no.

The Red Hood itself seems to be... haunted, of sorts, except it was literally made out of cloth. Guess it's just liberating people when they view themselves as a symbol? Basically anyone who wears it gets an euphoric sense to grandstand in the limelight while committing bank robberies. And be have above-average bullet-dodging luck. And they seem to gain a little Joker-esque lisp. Or that might just be me reading too much to the whole Joker thing. Some sick parallelism with TDKR's 'anyone can be Batman under the mask as long as their heart is in the right place', I'm sure. I could write a long essay about the power of masks and what a mask represents and how hiding your identity can turn you into someone else and talk about Majora's Mask and Batman and internet trolls and whatnot, but I won't. That'll take too long.

Anyway, the formulaic villains of the week is the Red Hood Gang, which takes a classic-ish Batman enemy and putting a new spin on it. I thought the haunted mask and the madness it brings onto people was kind of odd considering how the show hasn't really led anything to believe such matters are going to be addressed, though I do enjoy the wild and hammy antics of the Red Hood Gang while they are donning the hood. 'We ain't stealing your money, we're stealing the bank's money!' And I do like how there's a nice variation in that the bad guys this time around isn't a psychopath or some deluded fellow with an agenda or the mafia, but just a bunch of the little guys in Gotham that got pushed too far. The dude with the obviously-supervillain name of Destro is a baker! And while this episode is mostly a slower one just showcasing this villain of the week, I do like how both main plots this episode does have that same theme of little guys being pushed too far by the city which causes them to resort to uglier means.

Of course, on the Gordon side of things, the Red Hood Gang members are all dead by the end of the episode and Destro is presumably in prison with that gaping hole in his chest. But this random kid picks up the Red Hood and immediately makes a gun gesture, so I guess the curse of the Red Hood or whatever it is lives on? Hell of a weird take on the Red Hood concept. But other than that, the main Red Hood plot was very much an episodic one. Gordon and Bullock go through their motions of finding the crime, look for clues, interview wacky people and solve the case through a shootout. The difference is, there aren't any Leslie or Nygma scenes this episode to help spruce things up.

On the other side of the plot, the Bruce/Alfred plot is finally taken up in its most interesting incarnation yet. Alfred is visited by this old military friend of his, Reginald Payne (who as far as I'm aware isn't based on a DC character) who kind of stays in the Wayne Manor for a bit. I do like how Alfred is happy to see his friend from the past, but is still cautious of having him hang around Bruce. And Reggie does go ahead and kind of train Bruce to kind of fight dirty, use his surroundings, to not show mercy and all those dirty fighting that in the comic he will learn from less-noble masters like Lady Shiva or Wildcat. But for now, I guess it's nice to kind of instill it in Bruce (and Alfred) that naivete and hard work is not going to get Bruce anywhere in Gotham. It's a nice little sentiment there.

And I do like Bruce's little tantrum against Alfred when he stops Reggie's dirty-boxing session, but he doesn't really hold a grudge because later on he chooses Alfred's side later in the episode. We get a bit of a hint of the fact that Alfred was a badass back in the military days, fending off twelve people single-handed. It's kind of treated as this big scary mystery that Alfred kind of has a checkered past haunted by the people he kills, but I do hope it isn't brought up to be some Big Thing that will drive a rift between Bruce and Alfred.

And then Reggie, under the pretext that he's robbing Wayne Manor, stabs Alfred straight in the chest. Bruce manages to get an ambulance in time to save Alfred's life, and while people are talking about how he only has a few weeks to live... let's get real. He's not going to die. He's fucking Alfred Pennysworth. Still, it does give some rather heartwarming moments for Bruce, especially his distraught face when he calls the ambulance for his 'friend', as well as how he turns immediately to Gordon for help. They're best buddies, is all I'm saying. Also I'm going to assume this incident is what makes him Batman with his restraint and whatnot.

Of course, Reggie isn't here to just instill the thoughts of dirty fighting to Bruce. His final scene reveals that he's been sent by the Wayne Enterprises Board of Directors to investigate Bruce Wayne's little detective hunt, and the Board of Directors are basically making ready to make a move on the boy. Which is cold-hearted on their part, but it's nice to see some progress on this front. Even if Reggie's identity as an agent from the Wayne heads is kind of blindingly obvious after Bruce's rather poorly-thought-out speech last episode.

We've got a rather short scene with another adult instilling dirty fighting mindsets to impressionable young minds, this time in the unlikely form of Barbara Kean. Who still treats Ivy and Selina as roommates, gets drunk during the day and gives them pretty dresses and talks about how beauty is a weapon and blah blah. Well, when they grow up to be Catwoman and Poison Ivy, they sure took that advice to heart, no? Selina kind of brushes off Barbara's attempts at prettying her up and kind of calls her shitty and useless, which made me laugh. Yeah, the show is definitely poking fun at her.

We've got a Penguin sub-plot running through this too, and it's a lot more entertaining than the rather short and uneventful one we had last episode. The Penguin has kind of claimed the 'the' in front of Penguin, but he's kind of a shit bar manager because, well, he runs out of liquor! That was kind of funny, and the fact that he can't get anything because Maroni controls all the alcohol distribution was kind of a nice little fun twist Penguin finds himself in since being the boss in town isn't as easy as he thinks it will be. Also a nice nod to just how deep-rooted the mob's control is in Gotham. Then it delves into creepiness as Butch Gilzean shows that he's not brainwashed into a puppet like last episode implies or had his memory wiped. He still retains everything. He knows how things work, he had full awareness of what Penguin did and who Fish is and everything... the only difference now is for whatever reason Zsasz has turned the ever-loyal Butch into someone who really hates Fish Mooney. Well, that's disturbing.

Speaking of Fish... I have absolutely no clue what her plot line is going to end up being. It's all over the place, although we get some semblance of coherence this episode. Apparently the weird human organ spare parts facility is run by the Dollmaker (or rather, dr. Dulmacher) who was hinted way back in episode two or three. Which kind of explains why the process is kind of fucked-up, sure, but really did we need three episodes of Fish taking charge of the basement and whatnot to re-introduce the Dollmaker? And the manager or whatever that Fish meets up really should've just shot her in the gut and ripped her eyes out if they wanted them. That was kind of dumb for them to just stand there, ready to capture Fish and either gouge out her eyes or kill everyone in the basement but just stand around yapping. And then Fish... gouges out her left eye and stomps it to nothingness which is, uh, kind of too gory for my liking. And how is that going to stop them from using Plan B: kill her and harvest her eye? I am so confused about what is going on.

So anyway, a rather fun episode in my opinion overall with a rather subtle overlying theme which isn't something that Gotham does often. Certainly enjoyed myself watching this.

Gotham S1E16 Review: Circus Business. Also, Joker.

Gotham, Season 1, Episode 16: The Blind Fortune Teller

This episode had a couple of astounding moments, and I’ll just cut to the chase and acknowledge the most spectacular being Jerome, who is an absolutely horrifyingly yet appropriately creepy little crazy bastard. Kid’s definitely channeling Heath Ledger’s iconic performance in many of his lines, while his laughs and more sneering dialogue is definitely influenced by Mark Hamill. That scene lasted, what, a minute? Two? But it was an absolutely awesome scene and I absolutely loved how Jerome seemed like some random generic little kid who happened to have his mother murdered. I was skeptical of them actually touching Joker, but this little kid actor definitely has my thumb of approval for being the likeliest candidate to be the Joker. (Of course, with the next episode being titled ‘Red Hood’…)

Jerome is definitely a lot more suitable a Joker candidate than the random comedian from episode one who we never see again – Jerome is a lot closer to Bruce’s age than he is, and good god his voice and his mannerisms and his psychopathy! I’m not quite a big fan of having his backstory so laid out, but I do love the little stroke of brilliance of welding together Joker’s clown-ness and having originated from a circus… which in this case is the iconic one that starred the Flying Graysons, parents of Dick Grayson, the first Robin.

It’s one of the show’s better attempts at Easter Eggs or Continuity Nods or whatever you want to call it, including John Grayson and Mary Lloyd-soon-to-be-Grayson as random minor characters and having the Flying Graysons (which is a family act in the comics) already established but without throwing Dick in that. Sadly, the rest of the episode was kind of dull. The big murder mystery felt a little generic, and I find it rather ridiculous that two acting families that clearly had such a gigantic enmity against each other would perform in the same troupe for three freaking generations.

The other excellent scene in this episode was Mr. Zsasz’s surprise appearance at the end. This episode is entirely devoid of mob scenes beyond Penguin just trying to run the Iceberg Lounge (well I’m calling it that for lack of a better name) and apparently failing, as Zsasz notes. And Zsasz has apparently done his creepy torture magic on Butch Gilzean, who returns not to exact revenge or whatever, but as a brainwashed, broken-down doll thanks to Zsasz’s machinations that he literally dances upon Penguin’s orders. That chilling standoff between Zsasz and Penguin, and the revelation that Butch was brainwashed? That was awesome. Penguin just… kind of wasting screentime watching his mother singing and stabbing some drunk who booed his mum and playing the piano alone? Not so much, especially in an otherwise uneventful episode like this. There’s nothing abjectly bad with his scenes, it’s just that usually Penguin is a nice distraction to the more tense plots running alongside it if he’s not being the focus, but not in this episode.

Bruce also steps up to the table, with a fair amount of… relatively boring scenes, to be honest. I get that there’s only so much a young Bruce Wayne can do, and I get that he’s mini-Batman, and I get that this plot regarding the Wayne Enterprises being corrupted and shit needs to be addressed, but at the same time it’s also kind of blah and extremely dry. Unless this show brings in a Lucius Fox, I doubt I can suspend my disbelief enough to see a little kid bring down a board of directors of a multi-millionaire company who secretly runs the city. Even if he’s Batman.

The main plot with Gordon and Leslie investigating a random circus family feud between the Grayson and Lloyd clans who can somehow tolerate each other enough to act for three generations? Nevermind the fact that other than the little tense walk through the dark park, there isn’t any actual tension beyond whether the murder is resolved or not, the murder is just kind of ridiculous. There isn’t any serial killer, the circus people are a bunch of doucheholes, Cicero the psychic is rather obviously evil and other than the surprise Joker twist at the end it really amounts to Gotham’s most filler-y plot so far. There’s also the rather eyeball-rolling little lovers’ spat between Gordon and Leslie about how Gordon needs to respect women as equals and whatnot… which kind of came out of nowhere and was resolved rather abruptly. Especially since Leslie’s random naggingness and random insistence that the paranormal is real came out of nowhere and seems to be tacked on so Gordon has to deal with gender equality… which isn’t a bad topic to tackle, really, but the way they executed it was kind of poor.

Poor Bullock got like five lines in the entire episode. I am sad.

Fish had the biggest brunt for wasted time in this episode, however. None of Fish’s plot thread really needed to happen. So apparently the weird illegal prison thing that kidnapped her is basically Michael Bay’s the Island, except instead of clones, these are random people apparently kidnapped off boats to have their organs harvested? And they are randomly a family now? And somehow Fish’s swaggering around managed to get the five armed guards to pussy out? Even if Fish’s men did kill Prisoner 57A that they need alive, they could’ve just shot Fish in the head or moved her to solitary. Kill a leader, break the riot. Something like that. Fish’s little heartless method to take advantage of the fact that the people in charge need them alive is kind of awesome and somewhat clever, I guess, but I really feel her scenes ate up way too much time for absolutely no good reason.

Barbara returns to serve, really, to show off her stuff as admittedly nice eye-candy. Also to be… actually rather funny to laugh at. The first scene in this episode has her strut in a very revealing dress, and instead of freaking out that Selina and Ivy, two hobo kids she’s never seen before in her life, are shacking it up in her apartment, she simply goes ‘where is Jim?’ Yeah, she’s not only a hypocritical self-centered destructive bitch, she’s also an idiot. She basically sits down and like ten minutes later is taking fashion and dating tips from two random ten year old girls. Also, she’s all like in outrage when she plops into the GCPD complex to make up with Jim and finds him making out with Leslie, even though she was the one who left Jim for no real good reason and she fucked Montoya the night she broke up with Jim. So Jim moved on after a couple of months and found a new girlfriend. Well, that a lot more decent than leaving without so much of a notice and then fucking your old girlfriend the very night, and then returning after a few months when your old girlfriend wants you to stop drinking and your parents throw you out, and then throwing a temper tantrum when you find that your boyfriend isn’t pining for the absolutely perfect partner that you are. Yeah, that’ll work out. Bitch. Fortunately, the show kind of plays Barbara’s ridiculousness up somewhat, and I do like this because I actually laughed at her antics this time around.

Overall there’s a couple of great scenes, a couple of great concepts, but it’s definitely a weaker episode compared to some of the better works that Gotham did before.

Fairy Tail 421 Review: Bunch of mooks

Fairy Tail, Chapter 421: Wendy and Chelia

Seriously, the Wendy/Carla mini-subplot isn't resolved by this point? And it isn't even a remotely interesting thing either. It looks like we're going to get like three chapters for Wendy. Minimum. So it looks like we'll be getting around 3-5 chapters per character for this pointless 'let's gather everyone from all over the world for no good reason' arc, which I've bitched about before. There's some interesting details given in this episode, of course. The fact that Makarov might not have randomly decided to disband the guild on a whim (well because that would be fucking stupid) and it having something to do with the Council... which is now made out of the Ten Saints, apparently, including Jura. Which is like the only real interesting member of Lamia Scale since Lyon really only works as a foil to Gray.

And that really points out that there's a shit-ton more interesting filler arcs we could've had, yeah? We could've had a smaller arc regarding another member of the Ten Saints. But no, we get this pointless thing that would've sort of made sense after the first seven-year timeskip, but now? It feels so forced and generally just a big fat whoop.

We've got Natsu basically just dragging Wendy back, and Wendy going all 'I want to stay in Lamia Scale because my friends are here' and Chelia later on being all 'follow your heart', so no guesses that Wendy is going to follow Natsu. Kudos for them not just doing it right off the bat, but it also makes this thing so long. And with the timeskip not really changing anyone's personalities... you'd think Igneel's death and Lucy lapsing into borderline obsession-slash-depression during the timeskip would make Natsu and Lucy respectively mature somewhat, but no. Wendy even lampshades that they're all exactly the same as before.

Chelia's cool, though. She's like the only part of this chapter that I am not entirely indifferent about. She's pulling off a generic 'follow your heart' speech, but for whatever reason I kind of like how she's grown slightly more beyond 'Wendy's little happy rival-friend'. And apparently next chapter will see Wendy and Chelia take down whoever is behind Oroch.

Carla's big human-form thing from the last chapter? Turns out it's pointless and not some weird thing she got herself into, which is certainly more interesting than 'oh random dark guild attacks Lamia Scale' and 'oh Wendy is wishy-washy about which guild'. No, she simply learns transformation magic. Whee, I guess?

Oh and this 'Orochi' guild sends a hundred thousand monsters to attack Lamia Scale. It looks impressive art-wise, sure, but at no point of reading this chapter do I feel that they are any sort of a threat. Natsu and Wendy and Chelia and I guess Lucy and everyone will just take them out like it ain't a thing. They are truly the epitome of 'filler villain'. Never really heard about before, doesn't look threatening and Lyon just one-shotted one of these beast-men with no problem. I expect Natsu will pull a Luffy and take out half of the hundred thousand mooks in one shot. Except that unlike Hody Jones, we don't really know who the hell is the leader of the Orochi beyond 'they hate Lamia's guts'. They don't really stand much of a chance.

Taking it on its own, it's really not a bad chapter. It's actually a little charming side story, and for that I do applaud it... but with three side-titles already running alongside it, in addition to all the anime filler arcs, do we really need more? Add that to this unnecessary timeskip holding absolutely no tension or really any point to it whatsoever. At the moment, I have just so little interest with Fairy Tail right now if it's going to continue this string of uninteresting plot points. I just hope that when we get to the more interesting characters -- people like Laxus -- we actually have some filler villains worth writing home about.

Agent Carter: Episodes 2-6 Review

I did say that I won't be following this show, but I was bored one time so I binge-watched five episodes at once. It's still my least favourite among the superhero TV shows, not because the lead character is a woman, but because of other reasons. Like some obvious things that are going to happen, generic supporting characters, somewhat poor pacing and a dearth of interesting plot points. The show definitely picks up in episodes 5 and 6, and I may be a little too harsh since (a) it's still season one and (b) being absolutely tired when I reviewed episode one.

That said, I don't think I'll talk too much about each episode, so I'll just lump them all in one go.

Agent Carter, Episode 2: Bridge and Tunnel

Episode 2 is more of what episode 1 did, and I must say that the two pilot episodes were actually quite weak compared to the rest of the series. We've got way too much of 'let's put Agent Carter in funny situations to see how she acts' and kudos to Hayley Atwell for switching from Peggy Carter to her cover roles on the snap of a finger, but that doesn't really lend well for interest. She and Jarvis are the only two people that are remotely really interesting in the show, Jarvis moreso due to his wacky butler skills and generally being a fish out of water with everything that's going on which isn't what I expected. "Please stop shooting things" indeed. I think this was the episode that Jarvis notes how Carter has a death wish? Interesting, but I don't think it was explored much more in the future. Their interactions and exchanges of hilarious British dialogue is really the highlight of the show, moreso than practically anything in the episode or indeed series in general.

The blatant 'oh look sexism is bad' is still annoyingly as subtle as explosions in a Michael Bay film. And while it's definitely a great message to send out, especially in a show starring a woman, it's also absolutely distracting. Subtle ones, like the SSR agents thinking Carter can't stand the sight of some rough torturing, despite her being a WWII veteran? That is good. Ridiculously blatant ones like the 'Captain America Adventure Time' with Peggy Carter's expy being turned into a generic damsel in distress? Cute for all of five seconds before it refuses to stop. Yes, we get it. Sexism of the time. Alternating between Peggy beating up a dude and having the show on is a bit too much on the nose, especially since we had a full minute of the show already earlier in the episode. Thankfully it's never brought up in any future episodes.

The other SSR people are kind of generic. Chief Dooley is the generic 'fair but slightly sexist thanks to the time' good boss. Thompson is a jackass sexist pig. Sousa is the cripple nice guy who may be on to the picture of Peggy in a wig being, y'know, actually Peggy. As for the people in Peggy's life, Angie is the chipper friend of Peggy's that really kind of generic and sucks too much screentime. None of them are really interesting.

The Leviathan plot is... still pretty underwhelming. Green Suit, the evil Leviathan dude, kills Peggy's roommate and I must say I don't really care? We saw her for all of two, three scenes and my reaction was 'good, they got rid of the chipper but annoyingly irrelevant character'. It does let Carter get some angst, though, so her death at least serves as a point. Green Suit and Leet Brannis, the rogue Leviathan dude, both die in this episode which is great because both of them are pretty generic villains. Green Suit at least gets a couple of moments of evil-monster douchebaggery, killing off not only Carter's roommate but also a bunch of other civilians.

We get some cool action scenes, some nice CGI implosion-explosion thing that wiped out Roxxon, some nice callbacks to the greater MCU with vita-rays and whatnot... but otherwise it's a generic plot. And it's not helped with the padding of 'oh, look, Peggy Carter is making a fool of herself hiding under a desk' and 'oh look Peggy Carter is impersonating a health official'. There's too much of these moments that I'm just kind of annoyed at the rather iffy pacing.

Agent Carter, Episode 3: Time and Tide

We explore a couple of cliffhangers from episode two, namely Krezminski finding Jarvis' car plate among the Roxxon wreckage, Sousa coming ever closer to deducing Carter's 'secret identity' and the weird symbol that Leet Brannis wrote before he died.

Bute before we delve into the important plots, we get at least five full minutes just bullshitting about Angie introducing Peggy Carter to the new dorm with the super-strict-super-conservative-men-are-evil lady and holy shit do I give no fucks to this scene. It might have happened in episode two, actually. Don't care enough to check. I don't care fuck shit about the rules of this stupid dorm, and even as a location setup it could've been done more elegantly and take up far less time.

A couple of the plots laid out in the two pilot episodes also get resolved... somewhat. Because Ray Krezminski, a bigger asshole than Thompson, kind of discovers that Peggy Carter might have been involved in the whole Howard Stark business. And this episode really lays it on thick that Ray Krezminski is a gigantic douchehole jackass, even moreso than Thompson. He's a jackass to Sousa, a jackass to Peggy, cheats on his wife, is mostly incompetent... he's basically your textbook definition of 'jackass who will get his comeuppance' although that particular comeuppance was kind of brutal since he wasn't outright evil. And then he gets killed off alongside the random thug by the end of the episode. And while I thought Krezminski was another unmemorable, two-dimensional character, I really liked how his death wasn't glossed over like many shows do, and the SSR office was actually pretty damn downcast after Krezminski's death and despite hating Krezminski I do like how Peggy Carter was actually sad for his death.

Jarvis also had some great moments. Again, his dialogue flowed really well with Carter and I enjoy their little wacky odd-couple moments a lot more than Carter trying to tone out Angie's civilian talk. I very much enjoy Jarvis' little backstory about how Howard Stark basically helped him to get together with his wife during the war, earning his undying loyalty. And I do like how Thompson's interrogation against Jarvis and pushing his buttons about deporting his wife nearly got him to snap... and while Carter rescues Jarvis by playing up the 'bumbling secretary' that the SSR men think that she is... well, she kind of trades in what little respect they have for her. Which is a lot better way to show sexism, again, than spending a sizable chunk of an episode stabbing people in diners or having that stupid radi show. And this one actually helps to show Carter's characterization too in a way, which is definitely welcome.

We get introduced to a couple of random residents in the dorm which I kind of tune out too -- not because they are women -- but since they are mostly all just generic cheerful Angie expies. Which actually worked pretty fucking well considering the big revelation in episode five, but hey.

Carter and Jarvis track a buttload of Howard's inventions to this ship, the Heartbreak, and after taking out the thug with a nice little action scene involving Howard Stark's muscle-destroying-massage-machine, I do like how Jarvis calls it into the SSR with a stupid-sounding American accent. Jarvis also acknowledges Carter's desire for respect among her peers in the SSR, which I think is kind of painfully obvious. There's also this plot point about how Green Suit and Leet Brannis aren't real names and they are names of people confirmed dead during a certain battle, which is kind of a mystery I don't particularly care about other than the nice little worldbuilding.

So overall, other than development for Jarvis and Carter, it's mostly an open-and-shut case with the SSR recovering most of Stark's inventions and there being a presumably Leviathan-allied killer around. And the SSR is naturally (and understandably) blaming Howard Stark. Better than the two pilot episodes, but it still feels like Gotham and Arrow's earliest episodes in that it is just so shaky.

Agent Carter, Episode 4: The Blitzkrieg Button

A rather oddly-paced episode compared to the first three, but also one that had less pointless padding. And that definitely wins out. Howard Stark returns and he still does his big swagger thing, except Peggy Carter isn't really interested in taking shit from him. The plot this time around is basically Howard Stark asking Peggy Carter to recover this little item he calls the 'Blitzkrieg Button' which he claims to be a city-wide EMP bomb... but plot twist, it's actually Captain America's blood! Yeah, all right, I actually was impressed by this little plot twist I didn't see coming, and it actually helps to keep the Captain America theme going on in this show. And Captain America's blood is definitely more personal and far more effective plot device for Agent Carter to fight over compared to some random energy source like the Nitramene was. That's actually nice.

But there is still a rather unnecessarily large amount of unfunny-funny moments, especially involving the dorm and Peggy Carter sneaking Howard Stark into the dorm via dumb waiters and whatnot and Howard Stark getting into trouble by fucking anyone in sight the moment Carter lets him out of her sight. Or Carter stealing food for Howard or just generic 'oh must avoid the landlady' bullshitting. Also the rather pointless opening action scene that, while funny with the little punchline that the thugs were smuggling a billiard-playing Howard Stark, kind of took up too much space. And the whole pen-camera thing? Yeah.

And Jarvis' little 'touch my ear when I am lying' quirk? Especially when he delivered relatively splendid performances for a civilian in previous episodes? That was kind of stupid.

Thankfully this episode still has several more scenes going on for it that puts it head and shoulders over episodes 1 through 3. There's the obvious Carter emotional moment when she's basically ranting at how Howard Stark is just trying to profit out of Captain America's blood and basically is out for himself and never trusting people. And really, there is no reason for Howard to not trust Carter about the information since she's proven to be anything but untrustworthy so far. Howard's little speech about how he lies instinctively while he and his parents clawed from the muck of society to be the successful people they are now is kind of a nice little speech about pragmatism, and there's a bit of a pragmatism-versus-ethics debate thing that's going on here, which is definitely the highlight of the episode.

We've got a generic villain in Mr. Mink, who has a gatling gun pistol and is out for revenge after he thinks Howard Stark didn't pay enough money for smuggling him in. He never really feels like a threat, but he acts like Green Suit does as a scary murdering man. But he gets stopped by the fucking landlady because NO MEN ALLOWED which I thought was the only point in this show that the rather pointless setting actually worked out well.

And then Mink gets absolutely taken out like a bitch by Dottie, who before this kind of blurred together with Angie and the other dorm girls as happy, chipper civilians. No, she jumps into the air and snaps Mink's neck and it appears there is more to her than meets the eye. And it's heavily implied (and confirmed by later episodes) that she is a different incarnation of Black Widow. Which is fucking awesome! I definitely didn't see that coming, and it lends credit to the point the show is making that women are often overlooked. Which is nice, because I was defintiely not expecting that.

I thought the scene with Chief Dooley talking with the Nazi on death row, Colonel Mueller (who, incidentally, is apparently a minor Marvel comics character), was pretty well done. Dooley gets deeper in the whole 'every member of Leviathan uses the fake identity of people who died in the Battle of Finlow', and apparently the Nazis wasn't responsible for that particular massacre. I thought the little fake-out with Dooley giving him the cyanide pill was clever, and fleshes out what is easily the most generic member of the SSR.

Sadly the rest of the cast doesn't get much to shine. There's the moment where Sousa brings in a hobo who saw Carter board the Heartbreak, and Sousa's appealing to his better senses gets rejected while Thompson bribing him with food gets the answers they need. Thompson is a gigantic dick and while not a one-dimensional one like Krezminski (he doesn't exactly dismiss Sousa's suspect but acts like a dick nonetheless until he gets results) he is still a dick. Especially when he basically launches a bunch of generic 'you woman you never get respect' insult at Carter again. And Sousa continues his slow, slow realization that the woman in the photo resembles Carter. The cliffhanger shows the typewriter moving, and that is how you make use of the wacky typewriter. Not showing it type every single damn word.

Overall a rather nice episode for the great character moments for Carter and the surprise reveal that Dottie is a Black Widow, and the fun little unexpected Stan Lee cameo near the end. I do like the little fallout between Carter and Howard Stark too, which was a nice if not unexpected development. It's a bit clunky, really, but this is the point when I watched the series when I don't just fast-forward through chunks of the episode.

Agent Carter, Episode 5: The Iron Ceiling

Definitely my favourite of the episodes I’ve watched so far, and the one that made me go, ‘okay, I was definitely too harsh on this show while reviewing episode one’. We get a bunch of stuff going on in this episode, starring a couple of familiar guest stars, some interesting backstory that I actually give a shit about beyond ‘ooh creepy Leviathan’, and a fair amount of progression for both Carter and Thompson, the least likely among the supporting characters I thought would get characterization.

And this episode is definitely helped in no small part with the inclusion of things that are bigger nods to the greater MCU, the most relevant being the Black Widow program… which is actually set to be touched upon in Age of Ultron if trailers are anything to go by. The Howling Commandos also make a return. Well, Dum Dum Dugan does, at least. Apparently the members that show up in this episode are people from the comics that didn’t make the cut for the first Captain America film. I don’t know anything about Captain America comics, but it’s nice to see the Howling Commandos show up nonetheless.

The most interesting part of this episode for me, however, is about Dottie, or Black Widow. The show doesn’t exactly call her that, but we get a pretty nice flashback of the Black Widow program being this fucked-up school and process where the girls are bred and chained to bed, and Little Dottie shares some bread with a fellow Widow and later kills her in a goddamned exercise. I absolutely am all for this expanding of universes. There’s also the Widow trainers training the girls via cartoons implanted with subliminal messages. It’s nice and kind of fucked up, but definitely makes the whole Black Widow thing feel like an actual threat that Leviathan really didn’t manage itself to be.

Also I kind of like how the cartoon that the Black Widows use to learn English is Disney’s Snow White. Marvel-Disney merger working to create the ideal image of psychopathic assassin-children.

We also get to see a second Black Widow in the show, a younger, unnamed one that attacked Carter and the Commandos and managing to kill one of them. I don’t think she died in this episode, which is cool. Don’t think we’ll be seeing much of her, though, since Dottie is the most prominent and most dangerous Black Widow in this series. The unnamed Black Widow managed to kill one of the two generic SSR agents that tagged along as well as one of the Howling Commandos, so good for her!

Dottie gets some nice moments this time around, poking around Peggy Carter’s apartment and bypassing her string-on-door security system and searching for… stuff, presumably the Captain America blood vial. She gets her hands on Peggy’s knockout lipstick from episode one, which is nice. Also she talks to a mirror with an English accent about how she is Peggy Carter, which is unnerving. It’s definitely jarring how she is just so happily talking about seeing all the sights in New York in the opening and being a klutz (I do like how the show doesn’t zoom in on her swiping Carter’s key, but eagle-eyed viewers will notice that she does that) and then when she’s alone she’s this creepy emotionless human thing. It’s a nice little switching of roles in that Peggy Carter now falls for the ‘bumbling woman’ act she often puts up earlier in the season to get what she wants.

Carter also gets to absolutely flaunt her competence in this episode. First by decoding a crazy Russian cipher code thing from the typewriter cliffhanger last issue basically on the go. Kind of impossible I think especially since she does both decoding and translating together, but eh, nice to see that expression on Thompson’s face. Carter also calls in the Howling Commandos with what amounts with an offscreen call lasting less than a minute, bonds with the Commandos and treated as one of them, and takes charge of the shootout while Thompson freezes up. I definitely like how Dum Dum Dugan and the rest of the Commandos basically treat Carter as an equal, especially at the end where Dugan lets Carter be the one to cover their escapes.

Thompson, though? Thompson gets the biggest brunt of characterization this time around, as he gets absolutely destroyed and deconstructed. His attempted swaggering and trying to discredit Carter being useful and being a war hero gets being outed as him killing a couple of Japanese soldiers who snuck into camp and the Commandos basically only want to follow Carter… though Carter isn’t that big of a jackass to make use of this and halfway through they kind of go ‘let’s hear your opinion on this mission’. He also freezes the fuck up during the final shootout and Carter had to bail him out. And he reveals that the Japanese soldiers he killed were trying to surrender and he didn’t realize, so his tough-guy thing was a sham. Well, Thompson, you just sunk into a lower level of douchebaggery. And at the end he kind of warms up to Carter and brings her along with the boys for a drink. I still dislike Thompson, but nevertheless I do like how his character is absolutely expanded upon.

Dum Dum Dugan is still a gigantic rowdy guy and he is absolutely a blast to have around, being a boisterous partner to Carter while she’s on cold terms with Jarvis, and I absolutely love the two of them just hanging out and gossiping and reminiscing about Captain America and whatnot. Their friendship feels really genuine and I absolutely love the jokes they crack with each other. Dugan also brings up this excellent point: why doesn’t Carter join the Howling Commandos, where she is respected and even adored? Well, it’s her choice and she wants to make a difference. Kind of inefficient, but hey.

The other Howling Commandos, Junior Juniper, Happy Sam Sawyer, and Pinky, uh, something, are kind of generic, sadly. Junior gets killed off by the Black Widow. No real explanation to where the rest of the Commandos went, although it isn’t too unbelievable that they are divided up into several teams. Jarvis gets a short scene where he talks to Dooley, and while refusing to entertain him, apparently realizes that Dooley is at least fair. He also remembers not to rub his ear, which thankfully he does because that was kind of dumb.

Despite some sexist comments on his part, Dooley gets the whole ‘I am fair’ treatment, as he acknowledges that despite Howard Stark being their target, he might not be the actual responsible one. Sousa slugs even closer to the whole ‘Carter is the mystery woman’ shebang which is really taking its sweet time. And he did that by accidentally peeking on Peggy changing clothes in the men’s locker (although her underwear was, true to the time period, basically fully clothed anyway). So I guess Carter gains Thompson's grudging respect only to shortly lose it from Sousa.

Carter also recruits the Russian psychologist Ivchenko into the SSR after liberating him from the prison, which is kind of nice that their hard work was rewarded with some information regarding Leviathan. (Oh, if only). We get a bit of them kidnapping other engineers to try and replicate Stark’s creations, including this crazy dude Nikolai who dies at the end of the episode.

It’s absolutely nice to see Carter actually taking it into the field and actually showing her stuff instead of just going with pointless espionage and pretending to be health inspectors. And she’s an absolute badass too, fighting next to the Howling Commandos and generally outing Thompson and the other SSR people as incompetent idiots. And the world-building with the Howling Commandos and the Black Widow program is absolutely cool, and will make watching Age of Ultron somewhat different now than if I didn’t catch up to this show. Which is something, at least.

Agent Carter, Episode 6: A Sin to Err

 A bit slower than the past two episodes in my opinion, but that’s mostly because plot threads culminate. Some scenes run a fair amount longer than they should, especially the scenes with Ivchenko. Apparently, like the ditzy country girl Dottie, the bubbly funny Russian man Ivchenko is also a double-agent! And Ivchenko is in league with Dottie, and he displays a pretty realistic version of hypnotism by giving suggestions and repetitions instead of the more Hollywood-y ones with spinning things and pendulums. Of course, this also meant that the scenes he spent with Chief Dooley took a fair amount of time longer than it should.

Sousa outs Carter’s possible working with Howard Stark to Chief Dooley, and a good chunk of this episode is basically Sousa and Thompson leading the manhunt for Carter. We get Carter and Jarvis beating up a room full of government agents which is absolutely fun, especially Jarvis’ brief ‘hey, I took one out!’ which is a nice little moment especially since we’ve been seeing him struggling to keep up with Carter and basically playing a supporting role and nothing much. Carter is also forced to take out Thompson (who at least acknowledges her abilities after last episode) and run out on Sousa without the opportunity to really explain the reasons she’s been doing things. Which is a nice bind our heroine finds herself in, and by the end of this episode the SSR manages to capture Carter. Of course, there really isn’t much tension on this part because we know Peggy Carter will be remembered as a hero so next episode or the following one (which is the finale) she will be cleared of all charges. Which really is the biggest problem with these flashback shows. It’s kind of cool to see it play out after being built up and kind of dragged along for the whole season.

That action scene was pretty great, though, I must repeat.

I did think her sneaking around in the dorm took too long, though at least Thompson nicely shut the annoying landlady up by absolutely ignoring her. Angie finally gets to do something by putting her acting skills to use and basically clearing her of suspicion by crying about her grandmother and whatnot, allowing Carter to seek refuge in her room. That was actually quite cool and kind of gives Angie’s constant presence throughout the series some payoff. And now I actually care enough about her to kind of feel tense since she wanders into Dottie’s room at the end of the episode. Won’t particularly be sad if she died, but it would suck.

Sadly, Dottie the Black Widow is still in play and she takes Carter out with the knockout lipstick… although I wonder why she doesn’t just stab her from the get go. I do like the scene with Dottie and the sniper rifle was a ‘oh, which one is her target’ moment until it’s revealed that Dottie is actually using the sniper’s viewfinder to communicate in Morse Code with Ivchenko. Cool stuff. Dottie taking out the pervert dentist by stabbing him in the eye with a drill is a lot more relevant to the plot, allowing Dottie to gain the vantage point the needs to communicate with Ivchenko and showcases more Dottie psychopathy. Far more well-done and elegantly done than Carter stabbing some random pervert with a fork for no good reason.

Ivchenko’s little hypnotism session with Dooley is pretty fun and gives some backstory for Dooley regarding his broken marriage, and while it’s interrupted, we see Ivchenko managing to get this random agent, Yauch, to face his insecurities and manage to manipulate him to basically let him go and walk into the path of a moving truck. There is definitely a theme of ‘overlooked competent people’ with Carter, Dottie, Ivchenko and Angie in varying degrees.

Peggy and Jarvis’ little outing isn’t quite as fun as it was earlier in the season, even if I do find the ‘Howard Stark bangs a lot of women’ kind of funny. Basically Jarvis serves the role that Pepper Potts served in the first Iron Man movie pre-love-interest, except Howard’s former lovers are prone to slapping the ever-loving shit out of Jarvis.

We get a couple of call-backs, like Sousa talking to the one loose end, the one man not affiliated with Carter who saw her face and is still alive. Or the knockout lipstick. And there’s the nice acknowledgement that Dottie most likely used Howard Stark’s womanizing habits to get the information she needed out of him.

Kind of a tense episode, and while not quite as strong IMO as the previous two, still a lot better than what I initially gave Agent Carter credit for. The shorter season definitely helps it out to not feel dragged along, because as much as I enjoy the later episodes I still feel like a large part of this show is kind of redundant with the foregone conclusion. Though with two episodes left to it, I will admit that Agent Carter does deserve its great reviews. It’s a great show with its problems (but what show doesn’t?), just not for everyone and not a particularly geeky one, and is definitely not for everybody.

Nanatsu no Taizai 115 Review: Meliodas' Sacred Weapon

Nanatsu no Taizai, Chapter 115: Once More Into the Nightmare

We finally see the big earth giant monster thing in full view, and Merlin confirms that it isn't a member of the giant tribe or anything, but rather a golem, specifically the Giant Beast Albion. It's this cool-looking hulking brute that would look at home as a dungeon boss in a video game, and it's got these weird star-shaped eyes. Merlin and Meliodas note that the golem is a weapon since there are multiple magical presences within it but not a sign of life. They note that Albion was resurrected alongside the Ten Commandments... no word if it's automatic, or if the Ten Commandments made a little pitstop after their awakening before heading to Edinburgh, though. 

Hawk freaks out and goes all 'IT'S OVER 5500!' all Vegeta-style when he realizes that this Albion's power is loads more than Meliodas and even Merlin. Albion attacks them in response to their power levels, but Merlin pulls out several tricks. Basically steering Mama-Hawk around like a little plane, and summoning a self-admittedly weak barrier to protect Camelot for two or three hits. 

Albion attacks with this ball of fire, and while the Knights of Camelot manage to repel it with their generic blasty powers, they can't repel a second one, and only Merlin teleporting Meliodas down and him using Full Counter was able to launch it back at Albion. Not that it apparently did much to him, mind. Arthur doesn't really get to do much in this chapter, just being your generic 'good boss' who cares about his subordinates and puts his life after them and yadda yadda yadda... really not feeling Arthur. He seems too squeaky-clean of a character and therefore a boring one. 

Meliodas, Arthur and a bunch of holy knights run up Albion's arm, but he just slams his other hand down and apparently killed most, if not all of the nameless holy knights. Meliodas saves Arthur from being trapped in-between Albion's fingers, but in the process this broke Liz's little dagger gift. Which is honestly a bit expected since Meliodas is going to fight with his Sacred Treasure anyway further on in the series... even if I expected it to be done in a more cliched yet dramatic way.

Meliodas just goes 'oops, them's the breaks', thanks the dagger before bunny-hopping away from Albion's next punch. 

Merlin goes all vague about not returning 'that', but will return 'this'. Damn you crazy woman, speak with proper nouns! Merlin apparently had tracked down Meliodas' Sacred Treasure from whatever pawn shop he sold it to and hung on to it... well, you crazy woman, why didn't you give it to him before this? Merlin is just such a weird character all around. The final page shows Meliodas holding his cool-looking curved dagger, Lostvayne, which has a bunch of holes running down its length.

And that's the end of the chapter, which make me grit my teeth in anticipation. Damn cliffhangers! Overall it's a rather good chapter with movement on the Camelot plot thread front, and an unexpected addition in the form of Meliodas finally getting back his Sacred Treasure. Who's going to expect that to happen now of all times? But Meliodas has his Sacred Treasure back, making nearly everyone bar Ban reunited with their respective Sacred Treasures.

Yeah, with Merlin and Threader not even doing anything yet but watching, and Diane not even assuming her original giant size yet (she's still shrunk on Mamahawk's back) I don't think Albion's going to pose much of a threat, IT'S OVER 5500 or not. But still, it's a nice little intermission to see Camelot and Arthur, showing what the Ten Commandments are up to, and the unexpected introduction of Meliodas' Sacred Treasure.

Arrow S03E14 Review: SLADE & Nice Flashbacks

Season 3, Episode 14: The Return

Pretty fucking awesome episode! And not just because of the triumphant return of one Slade Wilson, though that is definitely a contributing factor. Everything that's being dealt with in this episode is awesome. The present-day plot centers on Oliver and Thea getting some bonding time in Lian Yu whilst fighting Slade Wilson, as detached an enemy from the whole League of Assassins plot as can be, and we get some more major internal revelations and some things that shakes up the dynamic of the show. As a present day B-plot we are treated to Laurel having to deal with the aftermath of her lying to her father to the extremes... and I do believe this is one of the first times where I sympathize with both Laurel and Quentin while they're arguing with each other. And I actually feel sad for both of them instead of just one. Even the flashback sequences, which frankly hasn't been the most interesting thing in the show, are top-notch this time around as we are actually shown some character work on Past!Oliver's past and shows a key point in his transition from 'selfish survivor' to 'I will rescue this city'.

Let's talk about the flashbacks first, shall we? The Hong Kong plot with Amanda Waller forcibly recruiting Oliver Queen to work for ARGUS and stop a big bioterrorist weapon isn't exactly... interesting. The plot twist with China White is something all right, but they've kind of failed to really make much of it. And while Maseo and Tatsu are relatively interesting characters they are kind of... unengaging. Plus we are struck again with 'oh so the big mystery is what happened to them to lead them to their present-day selves' which is not exactly the best way to create tension because whatever the case, Oliver will return to Lian Yu, China White will still be alive, Maseo will rejoin the League of Assassins, Tatsu will be a hermit and their kid will possibly die. And so far this season the flashbacks have been kind of pointless dredging of the Hong Kong plot onwards with the occasional parallel to present-day plot points.

But this episode's plot, though? Oliver returns to Starling City during his five-year exile, and we see him just spying on his friends and family under the cover of a hood, which actually builds up on the character arcs of the secondary characters. We see the self-destructive drunk Quentin who is a gigantic jackass after Sara's death, which, not only contrasted with the less-self-destructive Quentin of the present day, is also a nice comparison regarding Quentin's different subsets of emotional pain. Also shows just how much chipper and happier he was after he kicked off the drinking habit and whatnot. We saw a bit of Laurel too, but that was generic good-girl Laurel. Though, again, the flashbacks help to make some sense out of Laurel being so adamant to help the little people back in season one, as well as adding some explanation to her Black-Canary-ing in recent episodes. The crux of their characterization happened in the present-day sequences, which I'll talk about in a bit, but the flashbacks certainly helped to build up to it.

We see a bit of Thea just being the wild child that she is early in season 1. Crashing parties despite not being of legal age, buying drugs from sleazebags in front of Oliver's grave... though she mellows out somewhat by the end of the episode. Somewhat. Tommy also gets some great screentime as Thea's sorta-surrogate-older-brother, chasing off the little drug dealer. Tommy's a cool guy. He also dates Laurel for a bit too here, foreshadowing (or call-forwarding?) their relationship in season one, episode one.

It's all a bit of padding, though it's cool to see just how great Thea has grown and I always like to see Tommy again. Shoehorning in Felicity and Diggle, though? Felicity was especially unnecessary and relatively obnoxious because as much as I like her, do we really need her just walking in, mumbling about how hot Oliver is and then exiting stage left? That was a bit on the nose. Diggle at least had the excuse of displaying his disdain for the rich kids (which he mentioned back when he was being Oliver's bodyguard) and we did see Andy Diggle which is something, but do we really need it?

We get Oliver killing the drug dealer in a homage to the neck-snap from the first Arrow episode, which was fully deserved. And we get Oliver finally coming across Robert Queen's message -- thus solving a mystery which I completely forgot in which he told Diggle he found the message not on the island. It was a bit abrupt how we went from Oliver being all emo and shit to finally deciding to fight alongside Maseo, but it's an at least well-done characterization on Oliver's part. Couldn't care less about China White and the Omega/Alpha plot, though... Maseo and Oliver beat up the random guys, I think arrest China White or at least re-obtain the virus (I am not entirely sure) before Oliver is confronted by General Matthew Shrieve, apparently based on a DC character, the leader of the Creature Commandos (which I have never heard of despite my relatively extensive DC knowledge) who recruits him for another mission.

That about wraps things up for the flashback plot, which isn't perfect by any stretch of means but still more engaging than anything the flashbacks have had to offer for the past few months. The present-day island stuff is a lot better, and while Slade is a great bonus the highlight is definitely the interactions of Oliver and Thea. Oliver finally learning to accept Thea as a grown woman instead of a fragile little girl (and seeing just how destructive Thea has been without Oliver around in the flashbacks, it can't be helped) and acknowledging her strengths... that forcible-shoulder-dislocation moment made me cringe. And Thea definitely maintained a nice balance between being persistent and obnoxious when demanding that Oliver tell him about Sara. And she does not take the information well. Thea is fucking awesome, though, the way she and Oliver double-teamed Slade, each of them hanging back while the other takes the brunt, and goes in for cheap shots whenever the other gets winded... her keeping up with Oliver's pace throughout their adventures on Lian Yu...

It is fucking hard to believe that this is the same annoying little brat from season one, is all I'm saying. The flashback does give us a little refresher course on the 'annoying coke-snorting brat' version of Thea, and it is nice to see just how long a way Thea has came.

Also there's the big speech about Thea rejecting Malcolm as her father, but deigning to work with him even as a soldier for the time being. Man, Malcolm must feel like shit being on the opposing end of emotional manipulations for once! But then again, what do you expect, brainwashing your estranged daughter and getting her to kill someone she actually likes? Even fucking Slade knows that's fucked up. And despite how 'good' Malcolm may be, that sin, moreso than the Undertaking or Tommy's death, is one Malcolm will never wash his hands clean of. And I don't think Thea will ever accept him. Like, ever.

Juxtaposed against Oliver's first kill in the flashback is Thea holding Slade at gunpoint with her mind all fucked up with the knowledge that she unwittingly kill Sara, and Oliver makes the perfectly valid point that if Thea kills Slade now his blood will be on her hands. So of course she doesn't.

Also Roy and Thea can totally bond over having killed someone in a mindless rage. Yay for fucked-up relationships!

Slade's big return made me smile, although they really need to give him some new material beyond being all 'Oliver I will make your life a living hell' stuff which was kind of all played out in season two. He's somewhat underwhelming this time around motivation-wise, basically just wanting to fuck Oliver up. There's absolutely no disappointment in the action department, though, as Oliver, Thea and Slade absolutely kick ass against each other. It's also confirmation that Slade's awesomeness and psychosis are not simply because of the Mirakuru. Regardless I'm happy that he's back, but I really wished they did more with him other than to have him be a catalyst for Thea's characterization. There's the ominous warning that he'll threaten Felicity in the end, but other than my personal love for Slade it's kind of a lukewarm return.

The scene with Laurel and Quentin is pretty awesome, and for once I can get both sides of the argument. And Laurel isn't really being that big of a whiny bitch and is just taking it all in because, well, as Quentin points out what Laurel did to him was rather fucked-up. Not simply because that Laurel hid Sara's death from Quentin, but also for lying to him. So many times. Up to the point that Laurel impersonated Sara. There was some talk about alcoholism and it's nice to see Laurel having outgrew hers, and Quentin not being a hypocrite and acknowledging that he needs to get help about it. Quentin just sounds so broken over Laurel's betrayal, and it's a rather heartbreaking, if natural, progression of their character arc. Certainly invested in this part of the show more than ever, which isn't what I thought would be the case.


That said, it's taking a hell long time for Ra's Al Ghul to make his move, doesn't it? There's some nice character development for all present, a lot of nice continuity shout-outs (all the actions done in the flashback that corresponds to the characters' season-one personalities, the graves on the island, Robert Queen supplying Oliver with his catchphrase, the reference to Captain Boomerang)... the tighter focus on Oliver, Thea, Laurel, Quentin and Slade (and the Hong Kong cast) meant that the rest of the main cast get sidelined, though. Diggle and Felicity get glorified cameos, and neither Roy or Ray Palmer makes an appearance.

It's a pretty great episode nonetheless, and despite its problems I really enjoy it. Bring on the finale of this season, because I really want to see Team Arrow fight the League of Assassins! Also, set Slade loose on some shit because I really want him to do more substantial stuff.