After the explosive season premier, this week’s episode is aptly titled. After all, each character is forced to handle their grief for their fallen friend… and Sara’s death has affected everyone.
Suffice to say the plot is fairly contained to Oliver and Laurel struggling to come to terms with Sara’s death. It feels a lot like a short film, given the amount of dramatic weight contained within. We’re introduced to a new DC villain, and we catch up with a few characters who aren’t tied into the main action.
It was a bold move to kill Sara off in the first episode of the new season. Bold meaning more a sense of if the writers were looking to get rid of her they’re going to spend most of this season dealing with the fall out. Was it part of a grander scheme or was it simply an issue that could have been more easily solved by putting Sara on a metaphorical bus? Suffice to say, thank god for The Flash and its light-hearted tone or we would be in for some very grey television this year.
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Dealing with the immediate aftermath, Laurel brings Sara’s body back to the hide-out. What follows is everyone grieving in their own way. Naturally, the episode focuses around Ollie and Laurel the most. The biggest crux, is that Laurel feels telling her father would utterly destroy him. Her repeated ‘It’s not fair!’, suggests that Sara’s death has already destroyed what was left of the old Laurel to begin with. Ollie takes a more anger-fuelled approach and sets out to hunt down the one responsible. This leads to the introduction of Komodo, a mercenary with a penchant for wearing masks and using bows and arrows.
On the flashback Ollie side, we see that his attempt at making contact with someone whilst in Hong Kong has brought an old friend back into play: Tommy. These kind of moments can only ever be for the fans. We know that nothing major can happen between Oliver and Tommy or else his friend would have mentioned it in season 1 when he had the chance. It’s still not entirely clear where this thread is leading and hopefully more will be revealed as we go.
So with two major events competing for screen time this week, the clear winner is present day (given the episode’s title). It boasts some ambitious action scenes, notably where Arrow and Komodo face off whilst riding motorcycles. It’s an interesting sequence, though it left me wondering exactly how it got to the point where both archers were thinking ‘I’m going to ride straight at him and shoot arrows at the same time’. Compared to a later fight scene that pitted Arrow and Roy against Komodo in a brief but satisfying on-foot battle, this scene was definitely lacking.
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Elsewhere we get a bit more about Felicity and the kind of person she is. Roy Palmer drops in with some good/bad points in equal measure. I found myself a little unsure of what to make of him when he seemed perfectly capable of understanding that something was wrong with Felicity when he’d been throwing around his rich-man weight moments ago. Laurel also becomes considerably more pro-active, tracking one of Komodo’s marks in an effort to get information that can help them catch him and avenge Sara.
Her main drama most definitely comes from not telling Quentin that Sara is dead. It’s the kind of drama that strains credulity but if you’ve stuck with the characters for this long, you hurt for them.
Diggle doesn’t have an essential amount of work to do this week. Really, all he does is keep hinting that obviously Oliver isn’t taking the time to grieve Sara like everyone else is. Strangle enough this leads to some poignant moments between the two of them. And Roy, fight-scene aside doesn’t have a lot happening either. Though he does finally come clean about Thea not coming home, but by the time he does, Oliver is too broken to take it in properly.
Speaking of Thea, we do see her and her father this week. It’s a brief scene to be sure, but it speaks volumes of the kind of relationship we can expect from them. Not to mention that her now being trained in combat almost ensures a fight between her and Oliver/Roy at some point. All we can say is: damn you Barrowman!
Who do you think killed Sara? Will Laurel take up the mantel of Black Canary? Let us know what you think in the comments below…
