Arrow: Sara
October 16, 2014 7:37 PM - Season 3, Episode 2 - Subscribe

Team Arrow mourns Sara's death by searching for her killer.
posted by rue72 (18 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Wow, am I the first to comment? I was pretty happy with the way they showed how Sara's death affected everybody. I've been saying for a while that there were too many characters and that Laurel was getting short shrift, which would stop as soon as Sara was gone, and boy was I right. It looks like they're not just going to move her toward being the second Black Canary, but maybe actually give her some meat that goes somewhere instead of just resulting in more angst, which is what we got out of her alcoholism plot. But she still has the stupid impulse to lie to her dad for his own good, which is the number one way for people in Arrow to be stupid, season after season. But it's still early, so there's hope for improvement after they hit bottom in the second half of the season.

(Also, boo hiss for the lack of Alex Kingston. Hope she comes back when this all blows up.)
posted by immlass at 8:56 PM on October 16, 2014


But she still has the stupid impulse to lie to her dad for his own good, which is the number one way for people in Arrow to be stupid, season after season.

She seemed to have really lost her moral compass this episode -- interrogating the witness by literally twisting his arm, not caring *at all* when he was murdered right in front of her (she wasn't even afraid?), lying to her dad a bunch of times *about the death of his own daughter* (what's going on w/r/t Laurel's mom, too? I forget).

Personally, I even had an issue with her getting into the witness's hospital room by using her ADA credentials/lying about her job and then throwing her dad's name at the security detail. Which is kind of of uptight, I admit, but imo it's unethical and creepy in a similar (though not nearly as bad) way as the new CEO guy using his money to stalk Felicity and corner her into working for him. (Albeit, Laurel tried to get out of a DUI last year by similarly namedropping, etc, when she got pulled over. So I guess she's just kind of sleazy in general and this isn't a new driven-by-grief-over-Sara thing).

That all makes sense, I mean, the lead on this show had to be a freaking serial killer for years before before he was able to get to even his current relatively minimal/confused level of having a moral compass, but it does make Laurel kind of scary. She just gives zero fucks.

Anyway, like in the premiere, the flashbacks seemed kind of oddly tacked-on-yet important. SO happy to see Tommy, I really missed him, he was one of my favorite characters back in the day and I hated that he died (still hoping that SOMEHOW Malcolm can bring him back. I mean, it's a SUPERHERO show, why the hell not!). But another thing that was strange about seeing Tommy throughout the episode was, Tommy was emoting all over the place, per usual, and his presence also reminded me of how, when he died in the first season, Oliver started just straight up weeping -- I remember because it was one of the final scenes of the finale and it was ROUGH. Tommy, and Tommy and Oliver's friendship, was not exactly some cold-blooded, compartmentalized thing. Tommy also was the one who told Oliver that he didn't know who Oliver was anymore, and put him on blast for it (when he quit Verdant) -- that he was even willing/able to say that, though, was because they were obvs very close. So it was weird seeing Oliver tell Tommy that Oliver Queen is lying dead at the bottom of an ocean, and then tell Felicity that he needs to keep all his emotions on lock down for the safety/happiness of everyone else (which I guess was also what he did by protecting Tommy by convincing him that he was dead, in the flashbacks -- he convinced Tommy to stop looking for him because he was literally dead and he convinced Felicity to stop trying to get close to him/in his pants because he was emotionally dead) -- between those two events, though, he has been able to grieve for other people, since he certainly grieved for Tommy? How come he can't do that anymore and he's going back to the lessons he learned way back in Hong Kong instead? Last week I guess he decided that if he were/acted like a person, everyone else would be murdered (because of the "Amanda Waller threatened my son!" flashbacks to HK, and because of the bomb that went off as soon as he went on a date). And now he's decided he can't even express an emotion, just has to be a weapon/Arrow, 24-7? But also just last week, Sara said, "we are not our masks." I don't think it's actually a possibility to kill your own soul and become just a tool/machine (in Oliver's case become *just* the Arrow)?

I did find it somewhat tasteless and irritating that Oliver would be talking as though he's a martyr, when Sara was literally lying on a cooling slab right in the same room. But to be fair, I guess he really did believe what he was saying, even if I thought it was dumb. He also was in Arrow mode for virtually the whole episode, and obviously Arrow mode isn't really conducive to expressiveness and heart-to-hearts. I mean Arrow mode literally -- he was literally wearing the Arrow gear nearly the entire time, even when he was just hanging out at HQ. Even in the very beginning of the episode, before anyone had even seen Sara's corpse, he was also wearing regular clothes, but he was already all in green. The only time I remember him wearing something categorically different than the green/Arrow gear was in the very last scene, when he was wearing a normal grey T-shirt, and that was when he told Diggle he "didn't want to die down here." So that was clearly him out of Arrow mode, but I don't think any of the other scenes were.

Anyway, I thought that the line about not wanting to die "down here" was interesting, because I guess he was referring to what he'd told Tommy about "Oliver Queen is rotting at the bottom of the ocean"? I don't think he was literally saying "down in HQ," because yeah, even if being a vigilante is a deadly profession, you're probably not going to actually be killed in HQ of all places.
posted by rue72 at 12:51 AM on October 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


Oh yeah, and I also felt a little "YOU HAD ONE JOB!" w/r/t Laurel. Imo Oliver was right that taking care of herself and her family was the most important thing right then -- especially because nobody *else* could do that stuff, *just* Laurel. Cobbling together some random mission of vengeance was not only not necessary, but Oliver et al also already had that covered.

But I guess taking care of herself and her family was too hard, so Laurel preferred to distract herself by running around pulling guns and twisting arms and stuff? Understandable, and Oliver was clearly doing the same thing, too, so it's not as though that wasn't something very accessible to her. But still a bad idea. And her poor father. I mean, when she finally is able to tell him, she's probably going to copy Oliver *again* and be all weird and closed off from him, she was already very withdrawn and emotionless once she was going after the witness in the hospital, and she already kept him in the dark about *his own daughter's funeral.* I mean, forget reusing Sara's same grave, they buried her without even telling her parents! I guess nobody else (aside from Laurel) realized that her parents hadn't been told, since Oliver insisted to Laurel that she do that, and she really did go over there, and all? Although you'd think their absence at the burial would be a clue that they hadn't been informed. When Laurel said "this isn't right" and "this isn't fair," I thought,
TRUE. Not because of it not being a public funeral or something but because the people who loved Sara the most, her parents, weren't even included.

Has Laurel always been such a mess? No, right? I feel like she was actually doing great way back in the beginning of the series, with her free clinic and burgeoning relationship with Tommy, before Oliver came back into town.
posted by rue72 at 1:09 AM on October 17, 2014


As glad as I was to see Felicity's Jewish-ness referred to for the first time since season 1, this episode did not do it for me. I have always been way more into Sara than Laurel, and I'm supermad still at the way Sara was killed off to further manpain/womanpain for Oliver and Laurel. Laurel was finally getting interesting on her own, and I was excited to see where her involvement with Team Arrow would take her, and now this. Surely there are better ways to give her some character development. I was kind of hoping for a Sara-training-Laurel scenario down the line--wouldn't that have been cute and awesome?

I am also entirely uninterested in the Hong Kong flashbacks. Why exactly is Amanda Waller keeping Oliver captive? It's soooo dumb.

Did they bury Sara in the grave from when they thought she died at sea?
posted by leesh at 7:00 AM on October 17, 2014


Also, Ray Palmer IS super creepy and stalking Felicity, and she SHOULD be angry at him about it! I was so annoyed when he was all "you're taking your anger at something else out on me, look how nice and understanding I am." NO, you are weird and creepy! Why do writers feel like that's a nice/romantic way to be?
posted by leesh at 7:02 AM on October 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


Also, Ray Palmer IS super creepy and stalking Felicity, and she SHOULD be angry at him about it!

Maybe that's just how Brandon Routh characters are.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:15 AM on October 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


Also, Ray Palmer IS super creepy and stalking Felicity, and she SHOULD be angry at him about it!

YES THIS. Felicity, boot his (probably not yet superpowered) ass off the top of the QC tower and give Oliver the middle-finger salute. You're better than both of them.
posted by immlass at 9:08 AM on October 17, 2014 [5 favorites]


%n:
Felicity, boot his (probably not yet superpowered) ass off the top of the QC tower and give Oliver the middle-finger salute. You're better than both of them.
And then jump ship over to the Flash because my wife was heartbroken when she learned Barry was getting his own show instead of sailing on her favorite ship.
posted by charred husk at 9:58 AM on October 17, 2014


Wait wait, are you sure that Felicity is being for real and isn't trying to be a mole or something in Ray Palmer's org? Because she didn't especially seem like herself when she came back to say she'd take the job, and also, because he *is* very creepy and Felicity clearly knows that. I mean, buying a company so that she has no choice but to have him as a boss?

On the other hand, Felicity isn't usually a liar or slick at all, so that might be farfetched.
posted by rue72 at 11:15 AM on October 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


I WISH that was where the show was going!

Wait, last year was SO GOOD, how have I become this doubtful already! But I agree, Felicity trying to be slick would be pretty obvious. :)
posted by leesh at 11:42 AM on October 17, 2014


I thought it was odd that Laurel was able to take Sara's body to the lair (arrows literally included) without being stopped or questioned or needing assistance. That bothered me the entire episode. Choosing to hang onto a decomposing, smelly corpse at room temperature for however long didn't strike me as plausible either.
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 1:44 PM on October 17, 2014


a decomposing, smelly corpse at room temperature for however long

Someone (Felicity?) mentioned partway through the episode that Sara was in the freezer upstairs. I think she was only on the table when Laurel first brought her in.
posted by immlass at 4:53 PM on October 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


I, too, was hoping that Felicity was taking the job as some kind of mole to find out what Mr. Controlly McStalkerpants was up to, but sadly I don't think that's where they're going with this, which just sucks. Felicity deserves better.

Laurel . . . ugh. I also wondered how the hell she got Sara's body to the lair undetected. But I guess she was allowed only one moment of competence in this episode. And then her grief was expressed by 1) generic revenge storyline, 2) plenty of lying/abuse of her DA position and 3) yelling "It's not fair!" like a petulant child. No nuanced reflection on the complicated relationship she had with her sister, because I guess that doesn't serve the Laurel as BC arc that the writers are determined to write, no matter how much they sacrifice for it.

Was also disappointed that her dad just accepted her apology without any explanation as to why she was in witness's hospital room to begin with. Just crummy characterization all around.

I did like Ollie's understated response to Roy's confession. There was enough angst and melodrama on the show already.
posted by creepygirl at 8:22 PM on October 17, 2014


I don't think it's completely implausible that Felicity would decide to go on her own "mission" in homage to Sara. She admired her from day one, and even in this episode was talking about how Sara seemed invincible and made her feel safe. I would guess that her reference to wanting "more" was in reference to her wanting to be more than Oliver's Girl Friday and wanting to become a hero in her own right (which she arguably already is, but imo she probably wouldn't see it that way because she's a team player).

I dunno, whenever I've looked online elsewhere, people seem like they're thinking it refers to her wanting more than EmotionalCripple!Oliver and their "it's complicated" maybe-relationship, which I think is probably *also* the case, because uh yeah, Oliver is obviously not boyfriend material. But I don't really know why StalkerCEO would seem like he'd offer *more* as a boyfriend? And also, why would dating be Felicity's focus right now in the first place, her Amazonian friend/hero was just horrifically murdered, and the last date she went on ended in a bombing and the guy telling her he loves her but can't date her because he's incapable of being a person. I would think she'd need kind of a breather? Or maybe she'd drop The Flash a line, you know he's sorta on her backburner. WELL ANYWAY.

Even the idea that she's going to work for StalkerCEO as a way to get into his pants (!) would imply that she's going there with a hidden agenda (at least the semi-hidden "getting in his pants" agenda. Which doesn't sound like Felicity at all either, but...). If the only reason anyone can imagine that Felicity is taking this job is because she's got a hidden agenda of some kind, though, I would think that her hidden agenda would be about wanting more in terms of having a chance to become a hero in her own right and not about wanting more out of her dating life?

So I'm hopeful that she's actually a mole or at least doing a "keep your friends close, your enemies closer" kind of thing? Though, surprisingly, I also *did* find Ray pretty charming in this past episode, aside from the scary stalking-via-shows-of-massive-wealth stuff -- when Felicity was standing by the elevator crying, and Ray said, "it gets better, I promise" and gave such a sweet little smile, I have to say that I thought that was pretty charming. THOUGH. That doesn't mean I think he's at all trustworthy, just that he's surprisingly pleasant.
posted by rue72 at 11:44 PM on October 17, 2014


rue72: "Anyway, I thought that the line about not wanting to die "down here" was interesting, because I guess he was referring to what he'd told Tommy about "Oliver Queen is rotting at the bottom of the ocean"? I don't think he was literally saying "down in HQ," because yeah, even if being a vigilante is a deadly profession, you're probably not going to actually be killed in HQ of all places."

I actually think that was a direct reference to what Felicity said to him earlier in the episode about "hiding down here in this cave, waiting to die".
posted by katyggls at 8:23 AM on October 18, 2014


Just had a kind of strange thought. What if Laurel dresses up as Black Canary to talk to her dad, to keep up a ruse that Sara is still alive?

In anything like the real world obviously that wouldn't trick anyone, but Sara had that weird voice changer, which could help, and in the show there's sort of a..."rule" that nobody can recognize a person who has the top half of her face covered.

I actually think that was a direct reference to what Felicity said to him earlier in the episode about "hiding down here in this cave, waiting to die".

I think that it could have been both. The "cave" that Felicity referred to, and the "under the ocean" that Oliver referred to (to Tommy, in the flashback) were both sort of literal and sort of metaphorical, imo. I think they're about a state of mind and not solely an actual under-ground place.

All that talk of "underneath" and Sara's burial at the end makes me wonder if there's going to be a resurrection, actually? I would like that, because I would like basically any of the dead characters back again -- Tommy, Shado, Mr. Queen, Moira. Obviously Sara, but I doubt that will be happening since that would cause so much whiplash it'd be almost funny. On the other hand, maybe the "resurrection" already happened, in the form of the Thea/Malcolm reveal.

Also, I hope that they focus on Roy/Thea when she shows up again. I care about Oliver/Thea's relationship and think it's actually very well done, so it's not that I don't want any focus, but Roy is almost definitely going to be Team Thea rather than Team Oliver, so I think Roy's reaction to her showing up again will be the most interesting, plot-wise. I also wonder how Malcolm and Thea will react to Roy showing up in their lives?

BTW, is Starling City a stand-in for Toronto? The lead's/Oliver's super thick Canadian accent is always distracting me (I actually like the accent and like that he doesn't try at all to mask it, it's just that it's SO. THICK. I'm not used to hearing a Canadian accent that strong outside of HGTV, lol) but then I had a thought that maybe this is supposed to be set in Major Canadian City/Toronto anyhow? It seems more like it than it does any other city I can think of, and definitely more than any US city, but what do I know. And they have all that military stuff, but I don't know enough about military anything to know if that makes the setting definitely/not in Canada. The thing about LeCroix being from Quebec brought it to mind again -- also, I liked the character in general, and thought it was fun that they tracked him because he was always calling his mom back in some Quebec hamlet to say hi.

I'm so happy that they're going with the "no killing" thing and keeping all these interesting villains on ice. I bet that there's going to be some sort of jailbreak eventually, and hopefully LeCroix and the New!Count (?) will get a better second act than the Count (and the Dollmaker -- did we even ever hear about him again after his escape?) did last season.

Oh wait, this has to be taking place in the US, since Moira got threatened with the death penalty last season, right?
posted by rue72 at 9:31 PM on October 18, 2014 [1 favorite]


The only time I remember him wearing something categorically different than the green/Arrow gear was in the very last scene

He was in street clothes when he went to the rooftop where Sara was killed. I noticed that specifically as I thought that was one time he'd want to be in Arrow gear, in case the killer returned to the scene of the crime.

thought it was fun that they tracked [LeCroix] because he was always calling his mom back in some Quebec hamlet to say hi.

That was good the first time, but I was annoyed after he got away the first time, and someone on Team Arrow suggests they find him the same way again, and Felicity responds that he had made that mistake once and wouldn't make it again. Except LeCroix doesn't know that's how they found him! So he totally might make the same mistake again, and you'd think it would be worth a shot, especially given the ten seconds it apparently takes Felicity to do that kind of thing.

even if being a vigilante is a deadly profession, you're probably not going to actually be killed in HQ of all places.

Yeah, this isn't 24, after all. </snark>
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 5:03 AM on October 19, 2014


The appearance of Tommy and baby Sara's shark onesie in this episode broke my heart.

For everyone else keeping track at home, IIRC this makes the third reference to Felicity's Jewishness in the show. There was one each in the Christmas episodes of season 1 (Oliver: "Merry Christmas." Felicity: "I'm Jewish." Oliver: "...Happy Hanukkah.") and season 2 (Barry: "So, any plans for Christmas?" Felicity: "Lighting my menorah?") Apparently we get one "Hello, still Jewish!" reference per season.
posted by nicebookrack at 8:53 PM on October 21, 2014


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