Saturday, May 25, 2013

Arrow 1.23: "Sacrifice"

“You know, I used to think the vigilante was a criminal. But he’s willing to sacrifice an awful lot for the people of this city. Kind of makes him a hero, doesn’t it?”
- Felicity

We are finally at the finale of season 1. When last we left Oli, he was getting the crap kicked out of him by Malcolm. Oh and there was the little snag of Malcolm pulling the hood back to find out he’d just been pummeling his son’s former bestie. Oli flashes back to his father shooting the pilot in the boat and then killing himself. He comes to when Malcolm douses him in water. We get some exposition from Malcolm that Oliver can’t stop what’s going to happen and that the reason Oli always comes up short in their physical altercations is because Malcolm knows in his heart what he’s fighting for. I wouldn’t agree with that. I think Oli knows what he’s fighting for. Malcolm leaves and Oli ends up breaking free of the chains by doing some acrobatics and taking out a few of the guards with said chains. Diggle comes to his rescue and they head back to the man cave. Felicity is on her way (having found the design schematics for the earthquake device0 when Detective Lance catches up with her. He starts to question her at the precinct about her hacker activities when Oli calls and relays the news about Malcolm’s plan to level the Glades.

Back on the Island, the Big Bad orders the first missile to lock on to the Chinese flight flying over the island. Slade, Oli and Shadow break free and take out a bunch of the goons but the Big Bad still gives the order to launch the missile. And said missile does in fact launch. But our trio manages to reprogram the missile and send it back into the camp, blowing a lot of people up. Night falls and Oli and Slade reunite only to find the Big Bad has Shadow. Oli grabs a bow and for the first time we see him use it and nails the guy in the throat. So our trio is successful. Huzzah! I can’t wait to see what happens with them next season.

At Verdant, Tommy and Oliver have a conversation about Laurel. I’m getting really tired of the triangle drama between them. Tommy is mad at Oliver for sleeping with Laurel. Oli doesn’t care much. And his attempt to clue Tommy in on Daddy Merlyn’s nefarious plans, Tommy’s not interested. I half expected Oliver to tell Tommy he wasn’t welcome at the club anymore. Meanwhile, at the precinct, Detective Lance tries to tell his supervisor about the threat to the Glades but all he gets for his efforts is a suspension for working with the vigilante. Yeah, something tells me he’s going to still want to do something about Malcolm. And Oli puts more pressure on Moira to find the device and stop it. Oliver drops the metaphorical bomb that Robert survived the sinking of the yacht and that he shot himself in the head to give Oliver a chance. It looks like he’s starting to get to Moira with the whole “do you really think I’ll let thousands die in my name?” But Malcolm calls her and informs her he’s moving the Undertaking up to that night. Oliver heads off to be all heroic and stop Malcolm. After all, someone has to.

Amidst all the drama, Laurel and Oliver manage to have a moment where they kiss and Oliver admits that the island cut away the fake parts of him until all that was left was what Laurel had always seen in him. It was a little cheesy with the swelling music and what have you. But I guess it needed to happen. And things begin to go downhill fast from here. Tommy, now a bit drunk, heads back to Merlyn Global to whine to Daddy about losing Laurel. He lets slip Oli’s assertion that Malcolm was going to level the Glades. Malcolm tells his son it’s true and then plays the voice mail recording of Rebecca’s last words. That was awfully cruel of him to traumatize his son like that. Then again, Malcolm is becoming increasingly unhinged. Tommy questions him about killing everyone in the Glades and Malcolm explodes, saying that they all deserve to die like his wife did.

And things take an even more interesting turn when Moira holds a press conference and outs herself as part of the conspiracy. She warns the citizens of the Glades to evacuate and warns the police that Malcolm is the real threat. She gets arrested (not surprising) and Thea freaks out because she realizes she loves Roy and she has to go get him from the Glades. The cops show up at Merlyn Global but Malcolm has already shown Tommy his Dark Archer suit and grabs a sword and promptly takes out the cops. He and Tommy have a brief stand-off before he knocks Tommy out and takes off. In the man cave, Oliver decides to go take out Malcolm while he sends Diggle to disable the device. Diggle declines the offer and says he’s going to back Oliver to give him a shot at not dying at Malcolm’s hand and Felicity is going to be helping Detective Lance to help save the city. And we learn that Oli knows exactly where the device is going to be: the spot where Rebecca Merlyn died.

The Glades are a mess as people panic and loot and riot. Roy is still around and he sees Detective Lance show up and race into a subway tunnel. One hopes he stays the hell away from it. Detective Lance finds it finally (it’s a giant blue glowey thing it’s hard to miss). Meanwhile, Oli and Diggle get to Merlyn Global and after checking on Tommy, find Malcolm waiting in his little secret room. A three-way fight ensues which leads to Diggle getting a knife in the chest. Diggle sends Oliver off to follow Malcolm as he lays there on the ground bleeding. I’m counting the number of people who might actually die at the end of this episode; Diggle and Detective Lance on the good guy side and Malcolm on the bad guy side. Obviously they aren’t going to kill off Oliver. He’s the titular character and you can’t really have Arrow without you know…Arrow.

Thea and Roy are trying to get out of Glades (after Roy intervenes and saves a guy’s life and Thea then saves Roy). But Roy can’t leave the people of his little pocket of existence so Thea takes off. Meanwhile, Felicity talks Detective Lance through how to get the device to shut off. The first thing he tries accelerates the clock (it was originally 7 minutes). So he calls Laurel and says his tearful goodbyes. She promises to live her life and not be like him after Sarah died. Oli and Malcolm are fighting on the roof and Oli uses one of his flash grenade arrows (that Malcolm catches) to get the upper hand. Unfortunately, just as Detective Lance and Felicity actually shut down the device, Malcolm starts choking Oli out. But Oli grabs a piece of pipe and jabs it through his own chest and into Malcolm. So Malcolm is definitely dying. But he had a redundancy. There’s a second device and that one actually goes off. More people are left in peril and questionable states of dead or alive. Laurel is trying to get out of the legal aid office when the roof kind of explodes and knocks her out. And Felicity is still in the man cave as it starts to crumble around her. But she’s with it enough to let Oli know that the damage is mostly on the east side. Cut to Laurel coming to and Tommy lifting a piece of ceiling off her. Laurel makes it out but Tommy doesn’t. Oli gets inside but Tommy is seriously injured (okay so he’s impaled). So both Merlyn men are goners. I think Oli lies to him when Tommy asks if Malcolm is dead. Oli breaks down over Tommy’s lifeless body as the city crumbles around him. It is going to be one hell of a second season.

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