Arrow Episode 16: Dead to Rights - Rate & Review Thread

[Frico]

Hats off to Geoff on this one. Everything clicked in this ep and felt incredibly well done. Good return for Deadshot and even the way Malcom was shot had me thinking "WHAT?!" I do enjoy when shows are able to pull that off. In no way did I think Tommy would find out about Ollie this season but I liked the way it was executed. Just another great angle for a show that continues to bring the goods week in and week out.

March 20th, hurry the **** up!

 

[Mad Love]

Yeah, I like the double take they did with Malcom. He's gonna die! Oh he has a bulletproof vest. I knew it. Oh **** he's bleeding, he's gonna die! Oh it's poison.

 

[Mr. Dent]

Everyone is going to find out his identity at this point lol.

And interesting, it looks like they're going to split Black Canary's character between Laurel and her sister.

 

[Liam_H]

No way they would kill him off that fast. Complete waste of potential, its like if Smallville killed of Lionel Luthor at the same point in its first season.

Malcolm has to die by Ollie's hand or at least have Tommy think so to set them up as enemies.

 

[Mr. Dent]

Yeah, Ollie is definitely going to be the one to kill Merlyn. I'm hoping Merlyn kills Ollie's mom and doesn't just threaten her like Norman did in Spider-Man...then Ollie finds out Merlyn is Malcom after killing him.

Either way, we all know it's Tommy's destiny to be Harry Osborn.

 

[Hunter Rider]

Great episode, it started off fast with the cool showdown between Ollie and the assassin on the helipad, and just got better from there with the present day story being particularly good as Malcolm has become more than just the big bad, I'm now curious about his year away and why he suddenly wanted to make amends with Tommy.

The scene with Ollie and Tommy at the Chinese restaurant was really well written and acted, as was their scene in the hospital. I'm actually hoping they keep Tommy as Ollie's friend as opposed to going the seemingly inevitable route of him becoming a villain.

I didn't expect Tommy to find out Ollie's secret this soon, it took me by surprise but I love the way it was done, they also did a good job of making me think Malcolm might die with the double swerve. One thing I did expect was Ollie to see the Dark Archer gear in the exposed room.

Deadshot and China White were better used here than in their previous outing(s) and Deadshot's new eyepiece was a big improvement. The action on a whole was pretty crisp in this episode, although there were a couple of obvious stunt double shots in the Arrow vs China White fight.

McKenna was looking better than ever in this ep and I think she is a good, if inevitably doomed, pairing with Ollie, I still think somewhere along the line she is on the take.

The island scenes were sparse this week but still effective in forwarding the story there and the relationship between Ollie and Slade, it's interesting to contrast Island Ollie with the present day Ollie.

I saw Alex Kingston's name in the opening credits but totally forgot about her until she rocked up as Laurel's Mom. I actually guessed she was going to say Sarah was still alive as she spoke despite that being to big reveals in one ep. I'm interested to see where that goes as it has numerous possibilities.

The show is really getting stronger and stronger, can't believe we have to wait 3 weeks for another episode!

 

[Nathan]

The show is really getting stronger and stronger, can't believe we have to wait 3 weeks for another episode!

 

[Grommers]

Stellar episode, my favourite one so far.

Honestly, didn't expect the reveal, I honestly thought Ollie was just going to knock out Tommy and do it anyways.

I have to imagine Tommy is going to find out more about his father's..secret life, see him die, and than go get the same sort of training. It sort of protects Ollie's family and his close ones with Tommy becoming the bad "merlyn" in my eyes, since he is also friends with them etc.

 

[Micromind]

Great Episode !

The actor who played Lau in TDK is in Arrow, and the references to other DC mythos were nicely done. Malcolm may have trained by League of Shadows.

And it's "Nanda Parbat" not Nanda Parpat.

 

[Mad Love]

Yeah, I recognized Lau too. I want more Geoff Johns episodes already just for the DC easter eggs

 

[dreammaster]

man this show keeps getting better every week I did not know that Geoff Johns wrote this week episode

 

[Project862006]

geoff johns wrote some of the best later seasons of smallville episodes and now this let this guy write some more

 

[BH/HHH]

Firstly not surprised Geoff Johns wrote this cause it was freaking EPIC.

It started with the best opening of the series yet, straight away a superb fight scene and he bloody kills the guy too... AWESOME! (As you can probably tell I'm a bit hyper tonight).

I love how they've used China White on this show, she's aways been in the background, good to see a consistent villain much like Malcolm Merlyn.

I'm loving the dynamic of Oliver's team, I'm a huge fan if Dig and I love Felicity , I'm loving her Oracle role.

I loved the interrogation scene in the Chinese restaurant. Infact this whole episode was a brilliant detective story, very very well done.

I also want to add that Deadshot looked way cooler in this episode than his previous appearance.

The final act if this episode was incredible, Malcolm and Tommys escape, Arrow vs China White, Oliver revealing the secret to Tommy OMG and everything else. Just freaking wow. I tell you Tommy becoming Merlyn over time is definitely gonna happen the more this show goes on. I can see it been a Green Goblin situation. It's also kind of ironic Oliver saving Malcolm's life after he kicked the snot out of him this season.

The ending Sarah may be alive WOW!

Lastly, I'm pretty sure now that my Malcolm been on the island theory is true.

10 out of 10

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Another great episode the series continues to be strong. Some amazing moments, couple of great fight scene's as well some brilliant reveals.

Island stuff was great again but for once it was topped by the modern day stuff. 10/10, possibly the best episode yet.

 

[BH/HHH]

Another great episode the series continues to be strong. Some amazing moments, couple of great fight scene's as well some brilliant reveals.

Island stuff was great again but for once it was topped by the modern day stuff. 10/10, possibly the best episode yet.

You know you're right this is probably the first tine the main story has topped the Island story. Definitely best episode to date

 

[Human Torch]

A little subtle thing I noticed was when Malcolm enters the apartment,he makes Laurel walk in front of him instead of closing the door behind him.I just thought it was cool.

Do you think Malcolm suspects Moira and is playing it cool?On one hand,he knows she wants out,but I doubt he figures she'll move against him while he has Walter.

He'll probably blame it on Mr Lau and make Moira kill him!

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

You know you're right this is probably the first tine the main story has topped the Island story. Definitely best episode to date

Its definately up there as one of the best, if they can keep this quality up the rest of the series should be superb.

 

[Justin]

Wow, it's getting hard to say "best episode so far" for this show as it's maintaining a pretty high standard. Last week was a bit of a dip, but perfect set up into this weeks episode. So anyway, my thoughts.

- Deadshot. Awesome. Could have had a bit more persuading and a bit more on his eye, but it's an hour show. He looked credible, because he inflicted a fatal wound on his target that if not for Oliver, would have killed Malcolm. Deadshot's whole M.O is he never misses his target, so to have him hit here, smile and walk away, makes him look strong and to me the fact Malcolm, a credible villain himself, lived doesn't hurt Deadshot. Also it's nice for Diggle to have a personal issue with one of the villain's, gives him a bit of character development and this could be the case where Oliver is the one who has to keep his emotions in check for a change. I hope very much that we see Digg vs Deadshot and overall thought DS came out of this very strong.

- Barrowman was great here again. It's starting to look to me that "the undertaking" is something to wipe out the glades, which started with good intentions of many of the members, but is now going to be mass murder. Sounds like league of shadows to me. Not enough up on my comic books to know the place he mentioned or the man he met, anyone know? Great development with Tommy, who almost got to see the suit and get in on this undertaking. Great to see Malcolm's human side and the grief of his wife and love of his son. Part of me thinks this season ends with Arrow killing him, but I see a lot more left in Barrowman's character. They love him, he loves the show, lets see a little more.

- The photo with Sarah with the canary, and then the "she may be alive". Is she the black canary? Lots of scope to surprise people here, as there is with thea/roy speedy line and the two deathstrokes thing. Alex Kingston is another strong television actress that along with Barrowman, Salmon, Moira's actress and Bennett helps bring credibility to the young cast.

Otherwise just a solid episode. China White came across as credible again. She hasn't been able to beat Ollie in a fair one on one, but she can compete with him equally, doesn't fear him and always escapes, so she's not exactly weak. Bennett's acting is really helping the island scenes, Tommy, Laurel, Thea, Roy all have plenty of ways to go with their characters. Amell is becoming better at the role week on week and Diggle and Felicity are cool. 10/10 from me this week.

 

[Justin]

I really did not care about anything going on with Tommy until now for obvious reasons. Also is there a reason Malcolm opened the room to his Dark Archer costume? I mean what was the point of it unless he was about to tell reveal the secret to Tommy, which seemed like there was no reason for. Pretty confused about that especially the look on Malcolm's face as he looked in.

He explained this as "I have a panic room in my office, we hide ourselves in there and wait until it's over". He then said "we have bulletproof glass and are completely safe" and kinda contradicted himself. But I just took it as that was his panic room, and he was close to revealing things to Tommy, given that his son had just seem him kill and fight, and was asking him where he learnt to do that.

And the fact he didn’t wear a mask and the henchman thought he must be a Chinese man because of the lack of accent is ridiculous. He was two inches in front of your face! Even in the darkness he should have seen that the guy was white. All of this could have been solved if Oliver just brought some sort of mask.

Oliver took out the lights then took some kind of cooking oil/sauce and fired it into the guys eyes. He couldn't see, but assumed he was Chinese because the accent was perfect.

What I want to know is, at what point between the island and his rescue did Ollie learn perfect Chinese and Russian, and get those links with the mafia?

 

[Naked Shia]

We need Geoff to write more episodes. Also the fight scenes were really good. They weren't as good as they used to be since episode 10, so it was a relief.

 

[HighFivingMF]

I like how after the first Johns' episode, everyone complained his work didn't translate to live action well. But after Dead to Rights, everyone wants him back.

I liked both episodes though.

 

[Naked Shia]

I actually loved both of his episodes as well.

 

[riotgirl77]

Hey guys my review of "Dead to Rights" is up on TV Ever After

Arrow 1.16 “Dead to Rights” Review