Last week’s near-perfect episode of Arrow, “Suicide Squad,” was great because it finally gave Diggle something to do, much like this season’s “Time of Death” gave Felicity more agency and independence. Those episodes are great every now and then, but it’s so nice to have an episode like “Birds of Prey,” which reminds us that Arrow has a ludicrously strong ensemble. The dynamic between Team Arrow tonight was great. And it was just nice to have all five of them in the same room. Where the hell has Roy been?
Tonight is the much-ballyhooed return of the Huntress. Despite Jessica de Guow’s admittedly great performance, I’ve never been sold on the Huntress plotline. But it works in “Birds of Prey” as a catalyst for everyone to look inward and find the best version of themselves. That might sound like a motivational speech, but it’s true. Oliver says “No one dies tonight” quite a few times in “Birds of Prey,” and for the most part he gets his wish. Sara doesn’t kill Helena Bertinelli, and Helena doesn’t kill her father…but Frank Bertinelli dies anyway, caught in the gunfire of a vigilante-hating SWAT captain (this character was kind of a problem spot for me; I thought Lochlyn Munro overacted almost to the point of parody, but maybe it’s because to me he’ll always be Cliff from Dead Man on Campus).
The action is great tonight. “Birds of Prey” is director John Behring’s sixth Arrow episode, and the man knows his way around an action sequence. The opening in particular was fantastically done, and Black Canary’s brawl with the Huntress was one of the more brutal fights the show has done. Watching the Huntress gasp for air and kick her legs as Sara tries to kill her was a striking image.
“Birds of Prey” is really about having the courage to not do something. Oliver makes non-lethal arrows; Sara stops short of killing Helena; Laurel doesn’t drink the brandy she reached for; and Roy goes so far as to let Thea catch him making out with another woman, just so Thea will be kept safe by breaking up with him. Colton Haynes is great as Roy. Slade on Mirakuru is one thing; that guy was already pretty crazy. But Roy was more or less normal, just a punk kid, but now he has strength and anger that he cannot hope to control.
For me, the Huntress plotline really redeemed itself in Helena’s final scene, in the interrogation room with Oliver. She drops the stone-cold killer facade and lets herself crack in front of the one man who could possibly know what she’s going through. But Arrow can’t call an episode “Birds of Prey” and only show us Huntress and Black Canary, so consider Barbara Gordon, aka Oracle, to be Chekhov’s Gun at this point (but that might just be wishful thinking on my part). In the meantime, Helena seems like a good fit for the Suicide Squad.
A Few Thoughts
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Director John Behring has my favorite IMDb profile picture ever
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I’m on record as not liking the drunken Laurel subplot. But Katie Cassidy really shines in the aftermath of Laurel’s decision to sober up
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I like Black Canary way more than Sara Lance
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