Arrow Arrow Season 3 Episode 14 the return

[Sterling Archer]

I was quite disappointed given the statements of people involved before hand that Slade didn't really get any development in this episode. His function was basically as a plot device rather than a character.

 

[ThePreface]

Slade should have gotten over Shado by now. Sure there's always going to be that lingering animosity between him and Oliver, but it's been almost a year of the mirakuru being flushed out. Just move on man. Go merc and put the Arrow in your rear view unless he happens to get in your way. Should've escaped tbh.

Still hoping for a full blown Malcolm redemption arc. That'll only work with a sacrificial death on his part on behalf of Thea/Oliver. Mostly because the fandom are unwilling to cut him a break even though Oliver killed 20 some odd bad billionaires in season one. Adding one more digit to the body count is apparently what separates who is eligible for redemption and who isn't (like you can put a price on life at all LOL).

The 'moment' between Oliver and Felicity would have been better spent on Oliver and Laurel. I mean he still carries that picture of her in the flashbacks right? If anything that could have been used as device to show how 'dark' working for Argus has made Oliver -- by knocking Felicity the eff out to get access to the QC database.

Overall good episode. Feels like Slade was a wasted opportunity, but it was still good to see Deathstroke and Lian Yiu again. Hopefully things will finally kick off in Hong Kong.

If the Flash does go through with a Flashpoint story arc it'd be really cool to see a timeline where Oliver died instead of Robert Queen and Robert is the Arrow.

 

[Seb]

Slade should have gotten over Shado by now. Sure there's always going to be that lingering animosity between him and Oliver, but it's been almost a year of the mirakuru being flushed out. Just move on man. Go merc and put the Arrow in your rear view unless he happens to get in your way. Should've escaped tbh.

Still hoping for a full blown Malcolm redemption arc. That'll only work with a sacrificial death on his part on behalf of Thea/Oliver. Mostly because the fandom are unwilling to cut him a break even though Oliver killed 20 some odd bad billionaires in season one. Adding one more digit to the body count is apparently what separates who is eligible for redemption and who isn't (like you can put a price on life at all LOL).

The 'moment' between Oliver and Felicity would have been better spent on Oliver and Laurel. I mean he still carries that picture of her in the flashbacks right? If anything that could have been used as device to show how 'dark' working for Argus has made Oliver -- by knocking Felicity the eff out to get access to the QC database.

Overall good episode. Feels like Slade was a wasted opportunity, but it was still good to see Deathstroke and Lian Yiu again. Hopefully things will finally kick off in Hong Kong.

If the Flash does go through with a Flashpoint story arc it'd be really cool to see a timeline where Oliver died instead of Robert Queen and Robert is the Arrow.

The number isn't the issue here. Oliver killed a bunch of bad billionaires and their bad cronies and feels kinda bad about it, Malcolm murdered 500 innocent civilians and shows pretty much no remorse (maybe a tiny bit for his son, but even that seems pretty faint). At least in Sara's case she actually hurt innocents as an assassin, but she was so eaten up about it that she actually tried to kill herself to escape the life.

The reason no one is cutting Malcolm any slack is that he killed a huge number of innocents, seems not to care, and continues to murder and manipulate anyone (including his own children) so long as it protects him.


On the Flashpoint note, I'd love to see an alternate Arrow universe for an episode. (I need not to think about it too much, though, in case my brain starts to hope for things that won't ever happen, like a continuity change that brings Sara or Tommy or Shado back)

 

[Kar]

This episode was just okay. Beast Master at the end was cool. I'm not against Oliver's military involvement cause obviously with the comment about him being able to go around the world, we'll finally see him in Russia where he should get his tattoo. And learn Russian. Although the more time he spends off the island the more I get annoyed. Also (I'm going to nitpick) but Ollie's like 24 and not that trained. It just seems like a risk for ARGUS to have him out there in the field as if they couldn't get a more trained individual. I could understand if they showed him receiving some type of training while in Hong Kong, but so far its just been on the island with Slade. I'm hoping we see him receive more training in flashback scenes. Not sure how I feel about that video Robert Queen left behind at all. And Ollie killing that guy made me so mad.

Slade was DEFINITELY wasted. He got out and locked Ollie and Thea up? Instead of killing them? Eh, I'm willing to let it go cause this is comic book fashion but still. And I NEED Thea and Ollie to stop working with Malcolm. This should have been the last straw in my opinion. All of Malcolm's plans seem really dumb when you think about it. "Let me force Oliver Queen to fight and kill Ra's al Ghul because he can't beat me, but Ra's can, so obviously he can beat him." Now it's "let me let Slade Wilson loose because I just know Oliver can kill him." Everything just sounds like blind faith.

 

[DigificWriter]

A really really enjoyable episode.

The Good:

1) The Final Confrontation with China White. (she's gone!! finally!!)

That flashback confrontation with China White was set BEFORE Season 1, so I don't know what gave you the impression that she's gone.

 

[JJmelo]

The number isn't the issue here. Oliver killed a bunch of bad billionaires and their bad cronies and feels kinda bad about it, Malcolm murdered 500 innocent civilians and shows pretty much no remorse (maybe a tiny bit for his son, but even that seems pretty faint). At least in Sara's case she actually hurt innocents as an assassin, but she was so eaten up about it that she actually tried to kill herself to escape the life.

The reason no one is cutting Malcolm any slack is that he killed a huge number of innocents, seems not to care, and continues to murder and manipulate anyone (including his own children) so long as it protects him.


On the Flashpoint note, I'd love to see an alternate Arrow universe for an episode. (I need not to think about it too much, though, in case my brain starts to hope for things that won't ever happen, like a continuity change that brings Sara or Tommy or Shado back)

That would be awesome. It would definitely help Arrow out as well. Allow them to retcon villains that failed to satisfy the first time around. Maybe show a new side to some characters we already know. Make Thea the Arrow instead or something cool like that. Plenty of room to experiment.

Barrowman does a great job as Malcolm but the writers have him flipflopping between wanting a redemption plot and just being a major anus. Maybe he will sacrifice himself to Ra's to keep Thea alive or something and she will deal the (seemingly) final blow as a thank you to her father. That will set her up as a potential wild card within Team Arrow and give Merlyn a bit of a redemptive story, though it wouldn't make up for the undertaking.

Ep.14 Review (The Return):
http://otlnews.net/2015/02/19/arrow-review-s3-ep-14-the-return/

 

[Daltonio]

Pretty good episode overall, but I was hoping for a bit more of Slade than we ended up getting.

 

[Rowsdower!]

I love how weak the security is at ARGUS's top secret underground maximum security prison for supercriminals. I mean, there was what? ONE guard? And apparently anyone can just walk right in? WTF?

 

[Daltonio]

I love how weak the security is at ARGUS's top secret underground maximum security prison for supercriminals. I mean, there was what? ONE guard? And apparently anyone can just walk right in? WTF?

I know, right? There was practically zero security of any kind.

 

[Kar]

I was surprised there was even a guard there. I just knew they left Slade alone.

 

[Boy Scout]

That flashback confrontation with China White was set BEFORE Season 1, so I don't know what gave you the impression that she's gone.

Pretty sure he was referring to her presence in the flashbacks.

I love how weak the security is at ARGUS's top secret underground maximum security prison for supercriminals. I mean, there was what? ONE guard? And apparently anyone can just walk right in? WTF?

I had assumed that Slade had killed everyone, but...yeah, now that I think about it, there was only one body.

 

[Daltonio]

I was surprised there was even a guard there. I just knew they left Slade alone.

That's a thought I had to at first, but someone had to be there to feed him I guess.

 

[yonny616]

It was a solid episode. Still think last week's episode was their best. The Slade stuff was great, but that's probably cause Manu Bennet is so awesome. I enjoyed the flashbacks and the much character development it gave to characters. It was great seeing Tommy again.

 

[mr. peasant]

Penny for people's thoughts though... We all saw Robert Queen's message for Oliver. However, we also saw that there was a second message that he had left for Thea.

Anyone have any speculations what it might be? It wouldn't quite make sense for it to be the same message as firstly, it's a tad heavy stuff for a young child to be made to bear and secondly, why would the show's creators include it in the first place?

 

[Rowsdower!]

"Dear Thea, in case your brother dies... ummm... go save the city. It's on you now. It shouldn't be, but thanks to me, Malcolm is going to cause an earthquake and kill 500 people. Sorry. Good luck. Love, Dad."

 

[Seb]

"Dear Thea, in case your brother dies... ummm... go save the city. It's on you now. It shouldn't be, but thanks to me, Malcolm is going to cause an earthquake and kill 500 people. Sorry. Good luck. Love, Dad."

"P.S. Malcolm's your bio-dad, but since he's a total psycho it would be a pretty dumb idea to ever trust him."

 

[Rowsdower!]

Hahahaha yeah.

Except we have to remember that Robert would never say anything that specific, because you know, that would make sense and could ultimately lead to a bunch of innocent people's lives being saved. He'd just be all cryptic and say something like:

"Sorry Thea. Bad things are going to happen. And it's my fault. Now it's your responsibility. Whoops. P.S. There's a list."

 

[p4poetic]

Slade was basically a caricature of himself in this episode. Very disappointing.

The Good:

- Amanda Waller being given a little more dimension. She actually appeared to be slightly afraid of her superior(s).

lol I'm not sure about that last part with waller.

She looked very vulnerable. It was interesting to suddenly see her as submissive when he enters the room.

 

[Kar]

Actually, what EXACTLY did Robert think his 23 year old goof of a playboy son was going to do with that message he left?

 

[Loki882]

-Not enough Slade. He didn't get enough to do and didn't really change at all. Guggenheim was talking about this "closing a chapter" on his and Oliver's relationship, and I didn't see it. It didn't look like ANYTHING was really resolved between them this episode. Also I was disappointed that he just got locked up again at the end.

-This episode makes Thea's sudden, inexplicable hatred of Malcolm last episode look even more nonsensical. If they had just waited ONE episode, then her turning on him would have made so much more sense.

-The flashhbacks are becoming ever more tedious, and no add ridiculous to them as well.

-Some good acting this episode as well. Particularly from Paul Blackthorne and Willa Holland, well done.

 

[Spider-Ock]

That flashback confrontation with China White was set BEFORE Season 1, so I don't know what gave you the impression that she's gone.

What I meant was that her role's finished in the flashbacks...

 

[Boy Scout]

Do you guys think we're done with the bio weapon?

 

[bjavor]

On a side note:

The action in the flashback scenes reminded me how much better, fluid and badass Oliver used to be in the first season while he was still doing some parkour like stuff.

Lately all he does is zip along on zip lines and grapling arrows and he and Roy looked positively clumsy the other week even while running down some simple stairs...

 

[bjavor]

Oh, and it's funny how everyone calls Marc Singer Beastmaster. For me he will always remain Mike Donovan

 

[Kar]

Do you guys think we're done with the bio weapon?

Hopefully. I'd like them to move past Ollie to new assignments or something.