Arrow: Emerald Archer

February 4, 2019 8:12 PM - Season 7, Episode 12

A documentary crew follows Oliver and team around to talk about their past as vigilantes and what the Green Arrow means to Star City. At the same time, Oliver deals with William's return from boarding school as well as a new threat to the city.

Den of Geek - Arrow brings back some familiar faces and raises the stakes for the future in a fun, form-breaking 150th episode

TV Line Episode 150 Recap: Which 'Return' Delighted You Most? And What New(-ish) Character Did We Meet?

TV Fanatic recap

posted by oh yeah! (9 comments total)

I couldn't figure out why they went with this format until I saw the links above and realized it was the 150th episode. Man, I can't believe I've watched this many episodes of this show. If you had asked me during the first season, I wouldn't have expected it to have lasted this long or for me to have stuck with it as long as I have. I must say, the level of acting has certainly improved since the start.

As for this episode, the ARGUS stuff bugged me. I can't image ARGUS letting the documentary crew into their super secret headquarters to interview Diggle. And then there was all of the Curtis being a loose lipped idiot thing in front of the cameras (and outing Cisco, and potentially the rest of Team Flash). Ugh. That was so not needed.

The inclusion of Barry was fun. The inclusion of Quentin Lance and Sara Lance was unexpected. Opening up on Paul Blackthorne drove home how much that character is missed. I hadn't really expected to see Sin or Rory again. They were nice inclusions, as was Thea. She was a big part of this show, and deserved to be in the episode. We really, really didn't need to see Diaz though. I wish they'd stop shoehorning him in. Plus his inclusion didn't make much sense. Why would ARGUS allow access to him, especially now that he's in a super-secret suicide squad program? Unless the interview was supposed to have occurred sometime in the past, but even then the circumstances and timelines don't make a lot of sense.

They really seem to be trying to get us to care about the future, first with the flash forwards and now with Connor and Blackstar. At this point, I still don't have an investment or emotional attachment to what the future holds.

The biggest question I'm left with is does Felicity get a badge, or does she have to keep doing her Overwatch thing in the shadows as a vigilante?
posted by sardonyx at 8:35 PM on February 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

The documentary format gimmick didn't work for me at all. I will never be able to take the whole 'vigilante controversy' seriously, whenever the show spends time having characters passionately argue over whether vigilantes are good or bad, I just zone out, and this was no exception.

And isn't Sara Lance still presumed dead to everyone in Star City? Even if she did happen to swing by Star City 2019 in between Legends missions, why and how would she have ended up crossing paths with the documentary crew and agreeing to an interview? Ugh, this show.
posted by oh yeah! at 8:49 PM on February 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

Dead, not dead. It's those crazy Lance sisters. What can you do?

(Yeah, Sara's status as a living--or not--being was definitely a problem and a big goof by the writers.)

As for the whole vigilante debate, I'm afraid that's a fundamental part of the show (and has been since day one) and we're stuck with it until Arrow gets cancelled.
posted by sardonyx at 9:03 PM on February 4, 2019

I think we're supposed to assume that Sara's interview and probably Thea's were done in the past or something. Assuming those people wanted to talk to a camera crew anyway, which I'd doubt. But yeah, WTF did they have to interview Diaz, like he has any profound thoughts to say? STOP TRYING TO MAKE DIAZ HAPPEN. The actor must be a super great guy IRL for them to want to keep him around, but the character stinks. Also, shut up, Not-Laurel, you can't exactly be sanctimonious about this topic either.

I normally enjoy crazy documentary episodes (and Barry, hah, was cracking me up) but it felt like they couldn't bother to keep going with the format the longer it went on. I missed Kelsey Grammar. I also laugh at "Emerald Archer," come on. Someone was being fancy.

On the one hand: not legal to vigilante. On the other hand: the cops clearly cannot handle this shit alone and Star City is a hive of scum and villainy. I totally agree with deputizing the lot of'em, solves the problem, amirite? Er...except for the whole shitty future thing, sigh.

I don't like William. I still don't care about William. Petulant teens who don't like superheroes do not fit well on a superhero show. I don't really want more William. (Who is not out of the closet, Zoe clearly thought he was having a girl issue.)
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:14 AM on February 5, 2019

But Sara’s interview can’t be from the past, since it mentions the recent event of her father’s death. And she’s been presumed dead since back when she and Ollie were lost at sea, she never came forward publicly after her return as White Canary and subsequent murder by Thea and resurrection in the Lazarus Pit, did she?

Like, I realize they can’t easily write Sara dealing with her father’s death on a Legends episode since it’s so heavy compared to the bonkers fun tone of the show, so Arrow guest spots are pretty much the only place for her to angst, but, having her do it via a documentary film interview is a pretty huge continuity gaffe.
posted by oh yeah! at 8:14 AM on February 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

Well, I think past as in, not filmed this week. Odd that they didn't date it or explain it.

Who the hell knows with this show. God knows it's my least favorite of the Berlanti superheroverse, but I feel obligated to keep up with it for crossovers. And Felicity.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:37 PM on February 5, 2019

The timeline for the interviews didn't bother me too much. It's a gimmick to bring back familiar faces for the 150th episode, and that's just fine. The whole episode was a giant lead up to the team getting deputized and Oliver outing Emiko to Dinah. Plus William's return. I focused on just those plots and enjoyed the little side bits like Barry and Zoe's friendship with William. It's always nice to see all those faces again.
posted by numaner at 7:22 PM on February 5, 2019

Well, that was a haphazard execution of a story idea! They should have fully committed themselves to producing an actual documentary. They could have then pulled pieces from it for the episode and also made it available from the show website.

Despite having my eyes bug out from some of the aforementioned issues (filming in ARGUS, interviewing Diaz, including Sara, etc.) and that Chimera didn't make any sense (a guy infatuated with vigilantes develops high tech weaponry and suit to take their masks???) I was quite entertained by this episode.
posted by plastic_animals at 10:43 AM on February 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

The best kind of Arrow. Makes no damn sense at all, and yet still quite entertaining. All that was missing was some gratuitous shots of shirtless men. You think they could toss us at least one slab of red meat for the 150th.
posted by Nelson at 8:15 AM on February 8, 2019 [2 favorites]