Arrow: Sins of the Father
February 11, 2016 7:43 AM - Season 4, Episode 13 - Subscribe

Nyssa has a way to save Thea, though you can bet there's strings attached. Felicity's familial issues continue. The flashbacks are still dull.

On the upside, we defy convention by getting right to Felicity discovering that her dad is last week's villain. Though her head gives advice that her heart ignores, she quickly listens to her head and hands him over to the cops. It's a nice and neat resolution in sharp counterpoint to the Nyssa/Malcom situation where the choice to opt for less killing is on its way to way more fallout.
posted by phearlez (9 comments total)
 
Yeah the flashbacks lately have been super uneventful, but they probably have to balance having lots of stuff in each time periods with how much show they can stuff into an episode. I still prefer the flashback storyline though.

Lots of things moved ahead in this episode, I appreciated that. Dispensing with secrets and honest communication works wonders when you just write characters like real people (except, y'know, superheroes). Then on the flip side, people don't change and Malcolm acted like Malcolm. I guess we'll see how Oliver tells Felicity about his son next episode. I wholly suspect them to bungle the whole thing, despite the well written parts of this episode.

The show is really coming into its own in terms of the mythology, what with Black Arrow losing a hand and League of Assassins getting disbanded. But of course when any show goes on long enough eventually they write all the old stuff back in. (see: Supernatural's Lucifer)
posted by numaner at 7:50 AM on February 11, 2016


Personal reactions:

OMG just give us Mister Terrific already.

As a parent I find this framing of a kid Ollie didn't know he had before this year as someone he loves more than anyone else to be kind of obnoxious. For Ollie to feel he needs to protect someone he cares about who didn't buy into this life the way Felicity did, sure, great. If we're going to go down the road that he'll be willing to step aside and let Drakkar Noir do his thing to the city to save him, however, ugh, that would be really upsetting. If for no other reason than the fact that the city is filled with other people's kids too.

Why would Malcolm say in the middle "no way you'd let the bad guy do his thing just to save William" and then we end with "hey I'm going to tell you about William so you can convince Ollie to let you do your thing?" I suppose I can buy that Malcolm doesn't care if Darhkman succeeds so long as he hurts William and therefor Ollie, but this show doesn't usually layer that deep.

Loved the bit with Darhk being snarky about Malcolm's missing hand.
posted by phearlez at 7:54 AM on February 11, 2016


I loved the snark, too, but this nonstop cycle of lying, "family above all else!" and good guys swapping roles with bad guys is getting tedious.

Phearlez, yes! I'm about to run out of patience waiting for that beautiful Mister Terrific moment to happen. That flashback did absolutely nothing for me -- and the least I expected was a "so now I'll teach you Russian/how to make antibiotics from a plant" scene.

Season's been pretty disappointing overall, tbh.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 9:31 AM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


I guess what I'm trying to say is that Arrow feels like it's turning into a mob drama, and that's not what I want from this show.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 9:32 AM on February 11, 2016


I like the dull flashbacks.. they seem to take up less time.
posted by FallowKing at 1:50 PM on February 11, 2016


Malcolm acted like Malcolm. ... and everyone is surprised somehow.

Also, was his severed hand creepily accurate? I mean.. the hairs? *shudder*

Also, also: nice crossover in the fact that Cisco used "Cloud-Citying" as a verb in Flash in the same week someone got their hand severed in Arrow.
posted by Mezentian at 1:19 AM on February 12, 2016


Was the fight with Malcolm staged? Or not?

Because, after the difficulty Oliver had beating him the last couple times around, it seemed like he went down super easy. Did Oliver get a levelup somewhere?
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 5:41 PM on February 14, 2016


Was the fight with Malcolm staged? Or not?

I thought it was, since it was so lazy and easy, but revealing Oliver's son at the end seemed to make it pretty clear it wasn't.
posted by Mezentian at 5:54 PM on February 14, 2016


Since when does Oliver care more about his son than Felicity?

Welp, I guess that finally explains the whole "husband" thing and why it kept being brought up.

You know, much as I love Felicity's wardrobe, those tight little dresses are probably a big ol' pain in the ass in the bathroom.

Good on Felicity for testing her dad and turning him in. That girl continues to be awesome.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:15 PM on March 11, 2016


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