Last week’s episode of Arrow, “Seeing Red,” was a very emotional hour that culminated in the death of Moira Queen. It was a nice swan song for Susanna Thompson, who gave a knockout performance and died something of a hero. The only downside to episodes featuring main character deaths? Grieving episodes!
“City of Blood” opens on Moira’s funeral, which Oliver, surprising no one, is not at. Nor is he at the reception – but a few old friends are. First up is Walter, who is always welcome. Colin Salmon, even with his severely reduced screen time, still knows how to imbue Walter with paternal warmth that his scenes with Thea, and later Oliver, are genuinely touching.
Then we get some unwelcome guests, the first of whom is Isabel, who is still alive because this is Arrow. Summer Glau plays “icy bitch” pretty well (probably because nowadays that’s all she plays). Next up is newly-minted mayor Sebastian Blood, whose presence rekindles Laurel’s dormant suspicions.
This is the best Laurel has been in a while. Arrow proved me wrong about two of its most problematic storylines: Moira’s mayoral campaign led to her making the ultimate sacrifice for her family, and Laurel’s, sigh, “drinking problem” led her to sober up and become much more levelheaded and effective. She and Quentin bug Blood’s computer, where they find a press release expressing his sorrow over Moira’s death, dated the day before Moira died. Jesus, Sebastian, that’s supervillian 101: don’t leave a paper trail. Or documents with incriminating time stamps.
Diggle and Felicity track down Oliver, with the help of ARGUS. It turns out he’s in his other lair, which is – record scratch, Oliver has another lair? It’s pretty bare-bones, and he explains that he has it in case the Foundry gets compromised, but more importantly than that it shows that he still keeps secrets from his team. He announces his plan to turn himself in to Slade and face the music, which naturally Team Arrow is against. Nevertheless, he goes to the pier after saying goodbye to Thea, where he’s shot in the neck with a dart. He wakes up…
…in the Foundry. And Laurel is there! She has the proof that Oliver needs that Sebastian and Slade are working together. Oliver decides to stop Slade’s army of lil’ Deathstrokes before they can destroy the city. This plan naturally goes to shit almost immediately.
Oliver is getting strangled, and looks pretty done for until Laurel (who followed him) hits Deathstroke Lite in the back with a pipe. Now we know what Team Arrow has been missing: a lawyer in a pantsuit. Diggle, planting explosives on the roof, is interrupted by Isabel, in a She-Deathstroke costume that I think looks kinda ridiculous, but nonetheless expect to see all over Comic Con.
If it sounds like I’m being hard on “City of Blood,” it’s because I am. But to be fair, this episode is in a thankless position. It follows “Seeing Red,” and is tasked with setting up the two-part season finale. It’s nice to see Sebastian return, but most of “City of Blood” is telling us about all the cool stuff we’re gonna see, just not showing us any of it.
A Few Thoughts
– All those Deathstrokes out in the wild…where were they keeping those masks? Especially the one in the police station. The cops definitely would have taken it from him when he got arrested.
– Loved Brother Blood addressing the Mirakuru army. That looked straight out of a comic panel
– It says a lot about Slade Wilson (and Manu Bennett) that he wasn’t even on screen tonight, and he was still terrifying
– So, Team Arrow is definitely moving into that new lair next season, right? a
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