“Nanda Parbat” was a perfectly fine episode of Arrow. It was heavy on action, and explored themes like grief and obsession, like almost every episode of Arrow. It was competently directed by Gregory Smith (Ephram Smith from Everwood!). But something about it felt…off. I suspect it has to do with that big twist near the end, but we’ll get to that in due course.
First of all, one question: why does Thea always wear that weird training outfit? “I can’t sword fight unless I’m in parachute pants!” When she and Oliver are training with Malcolm, he’s just in jeans and a t shirt, and he’s handling himself pretty well. That stuck out to me for some reason.
Thea is telling literally everyone that she killed Sara. This is serious Spider-Man 2 syndrome. She tells THREE people tonight! But it’s the guilt that ultimately forces her hand; she’s unable to forgive Malcolm, or even be around him, so she calls the League and tells them where to find him. Which they do, but not before Laurel tries attacking him first. Laurel can handle herself in a fight, but I think a few more rounds at the Wildcat Gym are in order, because Malcolm kicks the shit out of her. After Stephen Amell, I’d say the Arrow cast member who fights most believably is John Barrowman. I was skeptical when the show brought him back from the dead, but I was wrong for the first time in my life, cause he is a fuckin beast.
Oliver and Diggle go to the League’s base in Nanda Parbat to rescue Malcolm – not for him, but, as Oliver explains, to save Thea’s soul. Thea’s got problems of her own, though: she confesses to an imprisoned Nyssa al Ghul that she killed Sara, then she unlocks the cell and gives Nyssa her sword. Thea kept saying “Maybe I am a killer,” or variations thereof, but it’s clear that she’s not when after one kill she’s telling anyone who will listen that she did it, then arming the woman who would want revenge the most.
Oh, and Ray Palmer gets the Atom suit working. Not gonna lie: it’s fucking awesome. I’m excited about this. The rest of the Ray stuff in “Nanda Parbat” concerns him sleeping with Felicity. That guy had a good night – sex with Felicity, then zipping around Starling City in a jet-powered exo suit.
So Oliver and Diggle go to Nanda Parbat, which is a seriously great set. The introduction of the League, and its larger presence this season, have added a great dimension to this show. Arrow is, at its core, all about secrets and mysteries, and the League is the biggest one yet.
But for a building stacked to the rafters with assassins, Nanda Parbat is hilariously easy to infiltrate. Granted, it’s a trap, but Oliver and Diggle still manage to take out a dozen assassins each before getting trapped by Ra’s al Ghul. Don’t quit your day job, Nanda Parbat security. Oh wait, this is your day job and you just fucking suck at it.
Then comes the big twist, the one that I (cynically) think was just designed to get #Arrow trending. Rather than kill Oliver, Ra’s makes him an offer: become the new Ra’s al Ghul. The moment lands, because of Matt Nable’s intimidating presence and Amell’s expressive face acting, but the more you think about it the less sense it makes. Sure, a League of Assassins led by Oliver Queen would be cool, but this show is called Arrow, not Ra’s al Ghul (I’d watch the hell out of a Matt Nable spin-off, though). Is there less than 100% certainty that Oliver will turn this offer down? No, no there’s not. He’s gonna say no, then he’s gonna escape somehow, and ultimately he’ll have to kill Ra’s, unless the show wants to keep him in its back pocket like Deathstroke.
So “Nanda Parbat” is, like I said, a perfectly fine episode of Arrow. It’s just not the game-changer it thinks it is.
A Few Thoughts
- There was a lot of talk about Sara’s laugh – when did she laugh? For the life of me I can’t remember a single time, except maybe a flashback on board the Queen’s Gambit. And that’s just me guessing. So Nyssa and Laurel bonding over Sara’s laugh doesn’t work because the audience has no idea what it sounds like. They might as well bond over Sara’s French pronunciation, or how well she rapped the Nicki Minaj part in “Monster.”
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