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Hey youtubers, this week on Arrow Slade Wilson returned to fulfill a promise he made to Oliver.
But it’s really just the beginning. This episode is really the first in a line of four
episodes that comprise a villains arc. It’s also the beginning of season 2’s end game.
Meaning every episode until the finale will take the Oliver Versus Slade story to new
levels.
Next week is a break but I will be doing a predictions video so if you’re finding me
for the first time be sure to subscribe to get it.
Since there were so many WTF moments in this episode let’s do our Top 5, then I’ll
do my favorite quotes and review. I’ve also got some more details about Grant Gustin’s
cameo as the Flash later this season.
Careful for spoilers if you haven’t seen the episode. But here we go. Number 5 - Businessman
Slade meets Oliver’s family. The main conceit here is that Slade was planting bugs all over
Oliver’s house, but I loved listening to businessman Slade talking to Moira as if he
were a totally normal person. A totally normal person running on mirakuru and leading a small
army of supervillains to destroy her family.
More to his campaign contribution. I think he’s going to embed himself in Queen Industries
via Summer Glau who is still part of the story. Even though he lied about not having a daughter
I think she’s working with him. She may not know who he really is though.
To be clear about his children Ravager and Jericho. Oliver mentioned him in a previous
episode, so either Slade thinks they’re dead or they’re emotionally dead to him.
So it could have just been a metaphor.
Number 4 - Team Arrow Rolls Into Battle. There were a lot of other teasers in the roll out
montage, like Roy with the bow. But when the “party” so to speak started, it was like
being ringside at a Muhammad Ali fight. That’s why my favorite lines of dialogue from the
episode came right then. Oliver’s “What would you like to do now Mr Wilson” and
Slade’s reply, “I hate to Break up the Party.”
The big reveal though was what the actual promise was and Slade’s ally who takes Diggle
out.
Number 3 - All Hell Breaks looks on the freighter. I’m considering a lot of the boat scenes
to be part of this, starting the moment Slade learns Oliver was responsible for Shado’s
death. They rebuilt the whole deck of the boat to shoot the action scene and it looked
glorious. Just a hail of bullets and people jumping overboard.
My favorite stunt was hands down, Slade reaching over and grabbing Oliver mid-air as he was
jumping over the side and yanking him back on. I know a little about how stunts are done,
so I could tell they used wires but it looked so bad ***.
And it got even crazier after Slade took control of the boat.
Number 2 - Oliver and Slade put on the hood and the mask for the first time. This is like
the birth of their persona’s, The Arrow and Deathstroke. If you remember the australian
rum they drank and that Slade brought in present day. My screen got all fuzzy so I couldn’t
tell, but it seemed like the name of the rum was Deathstroke. Somebody feel free to correct
me in the comments.
There were some funny moments that follow like Oliver missing that Lord of The Rings
signal fire shot. But really it was Slade calling him a brother. I still think Oliver
is going to try and redeem Slade by the end of the season. Even though they’ll spend
the next four episodes trying to kill each other.
And my Number 1 moment - Slade without his eyepatch watching the mansion. The first thing
that really grabs you is his eyeless socket. It’s just haunting. I think it’s just
meant to visually show the hole he has inside his soul right now. Like punishing Oliver
will replace what he’s lost. Both Shado and the eye.
That to me was bigger than Slade just peeping on the Queens. That just implies he’s going
to use the surveillance to catch them with their pants down.
Here are a couple bonus moments though - Roy and Slade’s handshake of the century, Oliver’s
*** dream of Shado, Oliver’s training montage on the island. Just running while
shooting and doing something that looked very similar to the salmon ladders.
I already said a few of my favorite quotes, but here are a few more. “Lucky for me,
before all this I had a lot of practice.”, Slade calling Sara “Blondie”, “I’m
fortunate to have your entire family here.”, “I have allies too”. My favorite quote
hands down was Felicity’s “Looks like Oliver Butt Dialed Us.” She didn’t have
much of a presence in the episode, but they did give her one of the best quotes. My other
favorite was Slade’s promise though. “You cannot die until you have known complete despair
as I have”.
Overall I give the episode a solid A. And it’s only the appetizer to the main course
that is the next four episodes. That’s what Arrow has done so well this season is build
the stories in such a way that they all inform these final episodes. We should all go back
and re-watch season 1 and 2 right now, because think of how the context of those stories
change now that we know what’s really been going on since Oliver came back to Starling.
Slade has been planning revenge this whole time.
The episode itself really did feel like a sequel to season 1’s The Odyssey. Remember
that episode setup Shado’s storyline and mirrored a lot of moments with Yao and Billy
Wintergreen.
High Fives to the production team. Seriously, they rebuilt that entire deck for the major
action scene and it looked amazing. Mark Guggenheim was behind it and he also had a big teaser
this morning about Episode 20. He was waiting for a special announcement to reveal what’s
happening, but it’s basically Grant Gustin coming back to guest star as The Flash. I’m
predicting he’ll come out of his coma. He might not have the red suit yet, but he will
have his super powers. I’m guessing he’ll be key to defeating Slade.
We only know the titles of episode up to 18, and there will be 23 total just like season
1. So there’s still so much that’s going to happen. I can’t wait to see it.
Be sure to subscribe to get all my Arrow and Flash videos. I’ll be doing another Flash
Bonus video this week and an Arrow Q&A. So feel free to ask me anything you want.
Right now click here to learn about Arrow Season 3 and click here for that Q&A Video.
Thanks for watching, see you tonight. High Fives!