As the end of last week’s episode saw Thea Queen (Willa Holland) left for dead by Ra’s al Ghul (Matt Nable), this outing sees Oliver Queen’s (Stephen Amell) hand further forced when it comes to The Demon’s Head.
Much like we all expected, Thea wasn’t actually dead as last week’s Broken Arrow came to a close. Not actually dead, but near enough. Despite medical treatment here, she’s left in an almost vegetative state, only kept alive thanks to the machines that she’s hooked up to. It’s the perfect Ra’s plan, meaning that Ollie can either let his sister die or take Ra’s up on his offer to take over from him as the head of The League of Assassins and have the ability to save his younger sibling. You see, it just so happens that one of the perks that comes with ruling The League is that you have access to the Lazarus Pit that has the ability to bring people back to life… only changed and often unhinged. Just ask Jason Todd.
With Felicity (Emly Bett Rickards) determined to tag along with Oliver in his trip to Ra’s’ Nanda Parbat lair, poor Ray (Brandon Routh) has by this point pieced together that his beau still harbours some serious gooey feeling towards Ollie. And so it appears that the couple of Felicity and Ray are no more. We guess that’s what you get when you can’t come up with a snappy couple-based nickname like Olicity. Also along for the trip to see Ra’s is Diggle (David Ramsey), and Thea’s daddy dearest, Malcolm (John Barrowman). Digg just so happens to get involved in a fascinating chat with Maseo (Karl Yune) that confirms what we’ve been suspecting: poor Akio has indeed bitten the dust at some point.
One person who ends up not biting the bullet, though, is Thea Queen, who does indeed take a dip in Ra’s al Ghul’s Lazarus Pit. As predicted, the youngest of the Queen clan is not quite the full shilling when she’s finished with her soak. This only further irks Felicity, who grows a gigantic set of nuts and confronts The Demon’s Head himself, berating him for the twisted game he has been playing with Oliver. Firing back, Ra’s gives a little insight into some of his backstory, urging Felicity to not waste the chance to say her final goodbye to her beloved Ollie. Not hesitating, it doesn’t take long before Miss Smoak expresses her feelings to Oliver before lying down and giving us our first Arrow sex scene of sorts – the hussy! As well as that, she then drugs him! The supposed logic is that she doesn’t want to lose Oliver, but this logic is mightily flawed when the reality is that Felicity, Diggle and Malcolm now have to smuggle an unconscious Oliver and confused Thea out of Ra’s al Ghul’s impenetrable fortress. Luckily Diggle’s pep talk with Maseo worked, with the ponytail-adorned assassin lending a hand to our escapees.
All of this proves futile when Oliver wakes up and decides to embrace his apparent fate of taking over from Ra’s al Ghul, even barking orders at some League of Assassins soldiers. Now all that is needed is for “Oliver Queen to become distinguished from memory.” Oh, and to be branded. One quick wardrobe change later and we have our new heir to The Demon (although that element had already been spoiled by various CW promo videos).
Over in the flashback moments of The Fallen, we got to see the attention of Oliver, Maseo and Tatsu (Rila Fukushima) switch over to General Shrieve (Marc Singer). Whilst this arc does lend itself to Oliver taking down several of Shrieve’s men, it does also pose the question as to why these hired guns are being paid when their accuracy is of the level of a Stormtrooper. Either way, now that we know Akio is dead in the present day, it’s only a matter of time until we see the young Yamashiro’s demise.
The Fallen was an enjoyable, if predictable, episode of Arrow, and at least now the whole will he/won’t he arc of Oliver Queen joining The League of Assassins is over… for now. Again though, if you’ve read certain reports then you’ll know how all of this will play out by the time Season 3 is over. That’s not to say that it won’t make for engaging television, mind. Like this episode for instance, in which we largely knew what was going to take place but it still didn’t diminish the fun of watching it all unfurl.
With only a handful of episodes left before the season comes to a close, we finally got to see Ollie join Ra’s, we finally got to see Oliver and Felicity seal the deal, and we got to see Thea Queen come back from being near-enough dead. It’ll be interesting to see how Starling City fills the gap of the Emerald Archer this time around. During Oliver’s earlier death (and far too quick resurrection), it was Arsenal (Colton Haynes) and Black Canary (Katie Cassidy) who stepped up to the mark. Obviously Roy Harper has now departed Starling, meaning he won’t be able to help out (even if Haynes is still scheduled for one final appearance) – which is a massive shame, for he was the character who benefited the most from The Arrow’s previous absence. Black Canary? If you’ve picked up STARBURST #412 (on sale now!), you’ll find my thoughts on Laurel Lance/Black Canary in TV Zone. Safe to say, this is a character that I’m not exactly sold on and who comes across as unlikeable on so many levels. I guess this time she’s got The Atom to help her out, plus there’s the likelihood of further training from Talia al Ghul (Katrina Law).
The Fallen was another good outing for Arrow, although you get the feeling that there’s still another gear or two that the show can move up to. As such, it remains an interesting prospect of just how Season 3 will play out for Oliver Queen and Co.
