Arrow: What We Leave Behind

Arrow gets their turn for a winter finale in “What We Leave Behind.” I found it to be an uneven episode. The main plot was really well done, very suspenseful, with some good scenes. The flashbacks have finally gotten to the joke people were telling when the show started, looping back now to the first year of Oliver’s career as the Hood/Starling City Vigilante. They also went way out of their way to beat the point into the ground about how the flashbacks connect to the present.

Arrow: Invasion!

The massive CW crossover continues with Arrow’s part of the “Invasion!” At the end of the Flash episode, we saw a good chunk of the Arrow cast beamed up by the Dominators. Now we get to find out what happened to them, along with a few scenes of what the others are up to. Well, most of them. As I commented about in my Flash review, Artemis is never seen, mentioned, referred to at all. Rory gets a passing scene, but no in-costume action.

Arrow: Vigilante

Team Arrow this week is dealing with, “Vigilante,” which some might argue is a somewhat redundant title. Most of the main characters have been referred to as vigilantes themselves at one point or another, by themselves or by others. What they are dealing with is someone who seems to have very little problem with killing criminals. Then again Oliver started off that way, so maybe this is for contrast?

Arrow: So It Begins

Following Church’s death at the blades of Prometheus, Green Arrow is trying to find out what’s become of Church’s phone. His phone keeps moving all over the city, leading Green Arrow and Spartan on a merry chase. Bizarrely, Spartan’s helmet is now see-through, so you can clearly make out his facial features. I’m not sure how that’s an upgrade. I hope that wasn’t something Cisco did. They are finally led to a spot where fire spells out, “SO IT BEGINS,” both an ominous warning and this week’s title.

Arrow: Human Target

The writers are really going deep in the DC archives this season. Wild Dog is an obscure character, even if this is a different version, and Adrian Chase isn’t exactly well known. Now they dig up another one who most people don’t know about, even if did have his own show for a while. This episode is the DC CW-verse premier of the Human Target, also the title of the episode.

Arrow: Penance

“Penance,” opens with Team Arrow on the streets. Green Arrow is giving them a chance to show what they can do, and they fail pretty spectacularly. They are after Sergio, one of the higher-ups in Church’s organization. Artemis, who finally has a codename and is using a bow for absolutely no reason (aside from maybe the character from the Young Justice cartoon using one?) misses her shot when Wild Dog gets impatient and disobeys orders (again) and then Mr. Terrific rushes in and gets beaten to a pulp. In the comics, Mr. Terrific is a black belt in several different disciplines. That’s something Curtis might want to look into. Green Arrow eventually steps in to take over and finish with the thug. The team is told to bring him and the box he was carrying to the Anti-Crime Unit. Curtis, ever the rational one, wonders how to do this. “Do we call an Uber?”

Arrow: A Matter of Trust

Arrow’s new episode, “A Matter of Trust,” has a lot of trust issues in it. Maybe it should have been “Matters”? It does open with a pretty good idea for the new team. Green Arrow is running down a drug dealer, while the team watches via some version of a body camera. That’s a pretty clever training technique, even if most of them aren’t impressed, especially the ever-impatient Wild Dog. After dropping by for a brief chat with the recruits, Oliver heads out again to a report of a gunman with an AR-15. This proves to be a false alarm by Billy Malone, Felicity’s new boyfriend and Star City Police Detective. Malone wanted to meet the archer, among other things, to warn him about Prometheus and his declared vendetta against the hero.

Arrow: The Recruits

Arrow’s new voiceover at the top of the show mentions that he’s working as both hero and mayor. I like that they adapt the voiceover/introductions for the CW hero shows as they go. It’s a nice touch, and a nod that the shows change as time passes. Arrow is now trying to deal with “Recruits.”

Arrow: Legacy

Arrow returns for season five with “Legacy,” a concept that’s a part of a lot of DC’s history. Unfortunately, they don’t live up to the word on pretty much any front. I’ve been a fan of the show with varying degrees of intensity over the years. If nothing else, I like the show for starting off the “CW-verse.” But this may be, in my opinion, one of their worst individual episodes.

Quick Note from DragonCon

I will post a lot more later when I manage to get home, but of special interest, I have learned that legendary comics writer Marv Wolfman has written a novelization of the Suicide Squad movie, and that tie-in novels are coming for both Flash (in November) and Arrow (a few months later).