Arrow: Guilty
November 15, 2014 6:23 PM - Season 3, Episode 6 - Subscribe
Arrow and the team try to make a major bust, only to find the criminals dead and hung by their heels. There may be new vigilantes in Starling City, and murderous ones at that. More murders send them down the trail of Laurel's boxing trainer, Ted Grant, who has secrets in his past. Roy confesses that he's been having visions of killing Sara.
Boxing. Glove. Arrow.
Boxing. Glove. Arrow.
I have mixed feelings about the Roy storyline. I didn't particularly want Roy to be the culprit, but it would have been an excellent reason for Sara being caught off guard as badly as she was. And the given the forensics bit Felicity came up with in this episode, the likely culprit is someone else on Mirakuru--and I doubt the writers can come up with a reasonable explanation for Sara being off guard for anyone else that fits that description.
I do like that Roy's Mirakuru-fueled murder last year actually ended up having some repercussions for him; it seemed like a sort of Super Dramatic Moment that the writers wanted to ignore the minute it was over. It's still not as much as I would like (if I recall correctly, the murder of the cop was captured on TV, and there really should be wanted posters and such with his face on them) . I also like that they raised the possibility in the last episode and resolved it in this one, instead of drawing out the OMG-did-Roy-kill-Sara suspense as long as possible.
Still not into the Hong Kong flashbacks, though the kid is cute and his mom is smart for figuring out that Ollie is trouble waiting to happen. I am getting a bit worried about the fate of the kid now.
Can we just dump the "Laurel is a DA" bit now? I don't expect complete realism in legal matters, but the writing has been unintentionally hilarious (no conflict of interest in representing the DA's office in the investigation of your trainer/friend, we don't care that you commandeered a riot squad last week, etc.). Plus she's supposedly going to be vigilante-ready from working out a couple of hours every night after work.
Ted's arc seemed really weird to me. Like the writers wanted him to be sympathetic, so they had him express remorse for his previous vigilantism and what happened to his protege. But Laurel Must Become The Black Canary, so Ted's response to the torture, mayhem and 16 murders is just sort of try, try again?
I liked Roy and Felicity's interaction, even if it meant there weren't many opportunities for Felicity to be funny. Roy's been kind of isolated from everyone except Thea and Ollie, and if he and Thea and truly over, it would be nice to see him interact with other members of the cast more often.
posted by creepygirl at 9:17 PM on November 15, 2014
I do like that Roy's Mirakuru-fueled murder last year actually ended up having some repercussions for him; it seemed like a sort of Super Dramatic Moment that the writers wanted to ignore the minute it was over. It's still not as much as I would like (if I recall correctly, the murder of the cop was captured on TV, and there really should be wanted posters and such with his face on them) . I also like that they raised the possibility in the last episode and resolved it in this one, instead of drawing out the OMG-did-Roy-kill-Sara suspense as long as possible.
Still not into the Hong Kong flashbacks, though the kid is cute and his mom is smart for figuring out that Ollie is trouble waiting to happen. I am getting a bit worried about the fate of the kid now.
Can we just dump the "Laurel is a DA" bit now? I don't expect complete realism in legal matters, but the writing has been unintentionally hilarious (no conflict of interest in representing the DA's office in the investigation of your trainer/friend, we don't care that you commandeered a riot squad last week, etc.). Plus she's supposedly going to be vigilante-ready from working out a couple of hours every night after work.
Ted's arc seemed really weird to me. Like the writers wanted him to be sympathetic, so they had him express remorse for his previous vigilantism and what happened to his protege. But Laurel Must Become The Black Canary, so Ted's response to the torture, mayhem and 16 murders is just sort of try, try again?
I liked Roy and Felicity's interaction, even if it meant there weren't many opportunities for Felicity to be funny. Roy's been kind of isolated from everyone except Thea and Ollie, and if he and Thea and truly over, it would be nice to see him interact with other members of the cast more often.
posted by creepygirl at 9:17 PM on November 15, 2014
Can we just dump the "Laurel is a DA" bit now? I don't expect complete realism in legal matters, but the writing has been unintentionally hilarious
Hoo boy, yeah. This week's prize went to "I got my buddy out of a murder charge because, uh, statute of limitations".
posted by mstokes650 at 9:53 PM on November 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
Hoo boy, yeah. This week's prize went to "I got my buddy out of a murder charge because, uh, statute of limitations".
posted by mstokes650 at 9:53 PM on November 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
Can we just dump the "Laurel is a DA" bit now? I don't expect complete realism in legal matters, but the writing has been unintentionally hilarious
It's this year's version of "I was on trial for murder last season and now I'm front-runner for mayor". I love me some melodrama, but my suspension of disbelief is hanging on by a thread for this.
On other topics, I'm glad my guess about Roy not killing Sara was right, even if it was only because it was too early in the season to resolve that plot, and I'm also glad the Mirakuru-fuelled murder of the cop is coming back. The Hong Kong stuff was meh, but I did finally figure out where I'd seen the mom (she was the bodyguard in the last Wolverine movie, while we're on the subject of unrealistic white superheroes in Asia) and they tied the flashback together with the present with a pretty bow this week. I'm still sorting out the Mirakuru implications, but again, it's too early in the season to really have answers to anything. We're still figuring out the questions at this point.
As for Sara's killer, I don't think it's Cupid even though the way she was introed at the end of the episode was clearly intended to position her as a suspect. She's going to have a big old showdown with Laurel at some point, clearly, and Laurel may even suspect her. But she probably won't have the Mirakuru history and she looks like a red herring.
posted by immlass at 10:01 AM on November 16, 2014
It's this year's version of "I was on trial for murder last season and now I'm front-runner for mayor". I love me some melodrama, but my suspension of disbelief is hanging on by a thread for this.
On other topics, I'm glad my guess about Roy not killing Sara was right, even if it was only because it was too early in the season to resolve that plot, and I'm also glad the Mirakuru-fuelled murder of the cop is coming back. The Hong Kong stuff was meh, but I did finally figure out where I'd seen the mom (she was the bodyguard in the last Wolverine movie, while we're on the subject of unrealistic white superheroes in Asia) and they tied the flashback together with the present with a pretty bow this week. I'm still sorting out the Mirakuru implications, but again, it's too early in the season to really have answers to anything. We're still figuring out the questions at this point.
As for Sara's killer, I don't think it's Cupid even though the way she was introed at the end of the episode was clearly intended to position her as a suspect. She's going to have a big old showdown with Laurel at some point, clearly, and Laurel may even suspect her. But she probably won't have the Mirakuru history and she looks like a red herring.
posted by immlass at 10:01 AM on November 16, 2014
I never really read the Arrow comics--just HOW MANY people in the Arrow universe use bows and arrows?? Like, how many viable suspects/red herrings for Sara's murder can there be?
I can't tell if I'm just not feeling the show this season or if I'm still just angry at them for killing off Sara, but either way, I'm not really into it. Sigh.
posted by leesh at 7:32 PM on November 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
I can't tell if I'm just not feeling the show this season or if I'm still just angry at them for killing off Sara, but either way, I'm not really into it. Sigh.
posted by leesh at 7:32 PM on November 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
Ted's arc seemed really weird to me. Like the writers wanted him to be sympathetic, so they had him express remorse for his previous vigilantism and what happened to his protege. But Laurel Must Become The Black Canary, so Ted's response to the torture, mayhem and 16 murders is just sort of try, try again?
I felt like that was established well enough. The question of supporting your protege and how to deal with problems/disappointments is the subject of other discussions, including ones Ted has with Oliver.
How deliberately/smartly the show is dealing with the character inconsistency about these things is up in the air - seriously, we have a character insisting that his friend/compatriot who was on a mind-altering chemical he was tortured with must be brought to justice somehow, but it's okay you were just killin everyone in season one, Ollie. But I felt like they created enough discussion about "don't leave someone in the lurch" (even as Oliver does it to Laurel) to make it believable that Ted would train someone again. Not to mention that there's some difference between physically training her and taking her out to vigilantee with you.
I'm with you on the Sara thing, leesh. She might have been my favorite character.
posted by phearlez at 1:30 PM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
I felt like that was established well enough. The question of supporting your protege and how to deal with problems/disappointments is the subject of other discussions, including ones Ted has with Oliver.
How deliberately/smartly the show is dealing with the character inconsistency about these things is up in the air - seriously, we have a character insisting that his friend/compatriot who was on a mind-altering chemical he was tortured with must be brought to justice somehow, but it's okay you were just killin everyone in season one, Ollie. But I felt like they created enough discussion about "don't leave someone in the lurch" (even as Oliver does it to Laurel) to make it believable that Ted would train someone again. Not to mention that there's some difference between physically training her and taking her out to vigilantee with you.
I'm with you on the Sara thing, leesh. She might have been my favorite character.
posted by phearlez at 1:30 PM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
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posted by oneswellfoop at 7:15 PM on November 15, 2014 [1 favorite]