Arrow this week decided to change things up and have the person to die in the first thirty seconds not be a victim of the Hood. Instead, it's some poor woman hopped up drugs that make her want to go and play in traffic.
Vertigo, the drug designed by the Count...
No, not this guy
...is back. And it's new and improved. And it goes and screws up my sweet pack of boys, so I am seriously holding a grudge. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Detestable DetectiveLance storms into Verdant, Oliver's new night club and demands to know which one of them injected the girl with drugs. Or basically that's what his ranting amounted to, anyway. When they point out that they can't hope to keep track of their hundreds of customers, Lance sneers at them and goes on his detestable way.
Oliver is not too happy to realize that Vertigo is back on the streets. It makes him regret being merciful to the Count. I'm not sure that filling him so full of his own drug that it dissolved his brain is really a mercy, but you know how Oliver is.
He goes to Arkham the loony bin where they're keeping the guy and tries to interrogate him, but the Count is currently the Mayor of Crazytown and can't really answer questions.
Or maybe he's crazy like a fox! The wonderful Felicity Smoak reveals that the Count has flown the coop, as it were. Oliver takes the news badly, upending tables and stomping his feet and holding his breath until he turns blue.
Okay, there is just way too much Lance in this episode. I mean, any Detective Lance is too much Lance, but this episode is really overdoing it. First they want us to believe he's actually pursuing the case of the missing Count. Come on, show, you've made it clear that all Lance does all day long is fantasize about ripping the vigilante's, er, hood off. He doesn't actually do any police work.
Then, to top it all off, you want me to buy into the idea Lance is hesitant to roust his daughter's boyfriend? Sorry, show, my suspension of disbelief only goes so far. It helps to throw in some shirtless training montages, just FYI. A minute or two of Steven's abs and the logical parts of my brain shut down for a good twenty minutes.
We get even more Detestable Detective Lance as he interrogates Tommy in front of his daughter—great plan, there, Lance. He wants to know about some missing money and a mysterious text and how Tommy's hair always looks so perfect and so on and so on.
Tommy refuses to answer and Laurel, the lawyer, tells her dad to get lost. Lance tries to make the case that he's being the good cop, trying to politely accuse Tommy of dealing drugs unlike some mean cop who would say it in an insulting way.
The amazing Felicity, who is a much-needed balm in the midst of so much Lance, uses her mad skills to track the drug dealer. Oliver kind of stupidly uses his first shot to send a brick of pills scattering across the pavement. Wouldn't the best idea have been to fire some arrows into the tires of the drug dealer's car?
But Oliver just loves to make an entrance. He breaks up the party by blowing up a car belonging to the drug dealer's pal. Again, was that the best target? I'm starting to wonder why Oliver is so off his game. Has Digg been keeping him up all night?
Then again, Digg is getting all secretive. He wants to find Dead Shot and put him down for good, and he wants to do it all on his own. It's always a bad sign when a couple starts keeping secrets from each other.
In fact, Digg is so consumed with his little mission that he blows off the call on the Arrow Phone. So Oliver has to somehow manage to take down one emaciated, drug-addled stoner all by himself. I don't know how he managed it.
Sigh.... Detestable Detective Lance comes into the plot again. This time he confronts Tommy about a bribe to a city inspector. Lance wants to know what that's all about and what possible reason Tommy could have for bribing an inspector and oh God will he please just go away?
No, he won't. He comes back with a search warrant. He wants to know what's in the secret clubhouse underneath Verdant. Doesn't he understand that sometimes boys need a place to just be alone? Why does he have to intrude on everything?
Tommy saves the day, though. He snuck into the Arrow Cave and turned it into a storage room so that nasty nosy Lance wouldn't find out Oliver's secrets. Yay! Tommy, you are awesome, and even more so when you make Lance look like an idiot.
Only.... Only.... Wait, no, not awesome. Instead of being super grateful, Oliver is a little bitchy. And it seems that all the hurt in Tommy's heart that has been building since he found out the truth about his buddy has reached the boiling point.
He fumes at Oliver for suspecting he would deal drugs. Oliver snaps that Tommy used to do a lot of naughty stuff. Oliver, you brat, this is where you say you're sorry! Your best buddy just saved your ass, kept your secret and has committed crimes to help you out. And you're being snotty.
Where is Digg with that paddle when you need him?
Oh, he shows up and gets a face-full of attitude from Oliver too. My goodness but our hero is in a mood. Digg explains that he was looking for Dead Shot and Oliver gripes that now is not the time.
The only one who gets to fixate on things is Oliver, apparently.
He even snaps at Felicity. And that is so far over the line there isn't a word for it. I mean, I appreciate a show that will let its lead character be a little unpleasant, but I expect there to be comeuppance. And thus far, the comeuppance have been lacking.
With a little help from Felicity, Oliver realizes that the Count is actually still in the loony bin somewhere, making his drugs in some sort of secret lab. I guess the administrators of the asylum bribed the city inspector too.
When Oliver sneaks into the lab, he finds to his surprise that the Count is still down for the count. I guess that shock was enough to completely short-circuit his amazing reflexes and instincts, because some orderly thug whacks him over the head with a pipe.
It turns out the real villain is some doctor guy who is now making his own version of Vertigo just to turn a quick buck. You got to admire his entrepreneurial spirit, anyway.
Oliver manages to make his escape, but not before getting dosed with way more of the drug than can possibly be good for him. Just as that mean nasty orderly is about to whack him again, Digg arrives to save the day!
Finally. I swear, I've been waiting for Digg to get his hands dirty for way too long. He makes short work of the henchman while Oliver deals with the evil doctor. No prison time for this guy, no sir. Oliver kills him deader than Michelle Shocked's career.
When Oliver gets back to the club, Tommy is still mad at him. And since he's in the right, I can't really fault him for it. But then he quits and that just hurts so much. Oliver, you run after him and say you're sorry!
Of course, he doesn't.
Oliver does go and chat with Digg and thanks him for saving him. That's something, at least. He also agrees to help Digg find Frank Lawton.The friends that slay together stay together, right?
Tommy winds up going to his dad to ask for a job. This could be the beginning of Tommy turning into this series'Lex Luthor and that makes me sad. I liked Tommy being the good guy, the stalwart friend. It's going to be hard to watch his father corrupt him.
Now, as for Magical Ninja Island, I honestly don't have any clue what is going on. There's a bad guy named Fyers, who has a plan to blow something up for some reason, there's Shado who seemed to be working with Fyers but maybe isn't and there Slade Wilson, who is the real Deathstroke, who was there to rescue Shado's dad but now doesn't seem to care about him.
It kinds of makes my head hurt trying to figure it all out. I kind of like Shado and I hope she isn't on Fyer's side, but I can't even say right now. Maybe her loyalties are as flexible as her limbs?
I didn't much like the exchange between her and Slade where she says her dad wanted a son and he says that Yao got one. I understand Slade is this rough and tumble soldier sort of guy, but saying that Shado was tough enough to pass for a man was just unnecessarily sexist.
But this was the first time we see Oliver with a bow. So that was a big moment. Now if the make-up department could just do something about his truly awful wig...
I can't say I enjoyed this episode, but it wasn't bad. There was just way too much Lance and not nearly enough Felicity. And watching Tommy and Oliver break up hurt way more than I expected it to.
What did you guys think?
