After last weeks outstanding premiere I was more than pumped for this weeks episode of Arrow. Sadly I might have gotten a bit too pumped. While “The Candidate” wasn’t a bad episode by any standards, I was left a bit disappointed by a few things that happened in this episode that seem to have been retelling stories we have already seen in previous seasons.
Warning: SPOILERS may follow!
1. You’d wonder if Thea was missing Roy this season and even though he hasn’t been mentioned at all, it’s clear why she isn’t missing him. She has become him in more ways than just donning the red hood. While I like Thea as Speedy and do miss having Arsenal on the team, I don’t miss having to watch Oliver deal with the “Roy Rage“. Alas, Thea’s trip through death and Lazarus pit has turned her into yet another red hooded vigilante being too violent and almost killing people. I’d much rather have Thea go back to drugs than have her Roy rage causing tension within the team. I really hope this line of story doesn’t go too far. When Sara Lance gets her turn in the Lazarus pit, will she be the member on the Legends of Tomorrow team to freak out and almost kill people? If so then I’m not going to like White Canary that much.
2. Anarky was dumb. For fans of the Batman Arkham games, you may remember Anarky from Arkham Origins. That version from the comics has Anarky wearing a hood, cape and mask with a huge Anarchy “A” on his chest. This version of the character was… well just a rebellious twenty something who had a stun stick. The definition of Anarchy is “… a single person who doesn’t recognize authority” or “leaderless”, which I would get having him as the bad guy for an episode where someone is trying to run for mayor, but the fact that Anarky was so submissive to Damien Darhk and his own master Rick Pinzolo of the Bertinelli crime family doesn’t seem very anarchistic to me. This guy was supposed to stop Danforth from running for mayor and the most anarchist thing he can think to do is kidnap her and when that fails kidnap her daughter. Sure he was about to torture her daughter, but that’s sadistic not anarchistic. The coolest thing this guy did the whole episode was use a improvised blowtorch ineffectually. Next time give him the freaking mask to at least make him look cool.
3. The best part of this episode was the flashback sequences. Now that Oliver is back on Lian Yu, I’m getting some really nice season one and two flashback… flashbacks? The flashback story in season two was fantastic and after last seasons blasé flashback story, I’m excited to see Ollie getting into more island action. What I don’t get is where these new island baddies were in the first few seasons? I would love to see some kind of connection between the criminal organization Ollie and Slade took down and these new slaver guys. I know the Solntsevskaya Bratva are due to appear in this seasons flashbacks, but I expect the “slaves” that this new group of baddies are using, came from Russia or at least that same region. I predict Oliver will end up helping out an enslaved Anatoly or something of the like that will put him in “family’ position for the second half of this season. So far I’m really liking where this story is heading, it’s just too bad they didn’t give us more time on the island this episode.
4. Captain Lance‘s story was pretty odd this episode. After his whole ordeal last season and his now resigned hatred for Oliver, you’d think that him accepting help from Oliver throughout this episode seemed a bit uncharacteristic. Then again we haven’t seen a whole lot of Lance this season, but what we do know is that he got into league with Damien Darhk in between seasons, and that alone could be causing him to unconsciously turn towards Oliver for help. I would guess that this is the only explanation, and if that’s what the writers intended then I tip my hat to them, because that would be some deeply thought out stuff. Besides the scenes with Anarky, Lance’s story offers us more amazing Neal McDonough acting when Lance goes there trying (again) to tell him he’s out. I have a feeling that if I’m right about Lance, this shady relationship will eventually make Lance knowingly go to Oliver in the end.
5. Echo Kellum‘s character Curtis Holt appeared for the first time in this episode and I actually really enjoyed his performance. For those of you who aren’t comic fans, Holt is the alter ego of Mister Terrific who’s another hero within the DC Universe. While I know a lot of people are complaining that he doesn’t look or have the physique that his comic book rendition has, I think Echo Kellum was solid in his role personality-wise. Not only do we get a charismatic black homosexual character added to the cast to mix things up, but a genius level character who can act as Felicity’s counterpart throughout this season without people speculating about any kind of romance triangle. We already get to see them team up this episode at the end when Felicity decides that he’s going to help her save Palmer Tech. I can’t wait to see what Curtis brings to the story, because there are a lot of interesting things they could do with him.
The ending of this episode really saved the overall feeling I have for Arrow. Oliver running for mayor is going to be amazing. I really can’t wait to see Darhk trying to take out another person running for mayor but having it come back to bite him in the end. Also, who doesn’t want to see how Lance would handle having Oliver as his boss? This amazing Olicity moment pumped me up again for the next episode instead of having me worried about the next episode following in a mediocre suit. I really loved that they gave Felicity her own story line as well. We got to see her several times outside of Team Arrow and Olicity being a CEO and handling her own stuff. It’s about damn time because people don’t love Olicity for Oliver. Felicity is the best character and has been for a while, so I hope we get to see more of her running Palmer Tech and not just have her as a Watchtower every episode. This week I give The Flash the point in the race between Arrow and The Flash. For my review on The Flash – Flash of Two Worlds click here!
Do you agree? If so or if not, leave a comment down below!