Welcome to Last Night on TV, our daily column that looks back at what happened on television the night before. If we’re going to stay up all night and watch TV, we might as well talk about it the next morning.
Last night on TV, everyone on Arrow got to have a big moment. Even characters from several season ago! Even Oliver’s guilt!
Guilt Arrow
Even before we get into the real meat of the episode, “Unchained” shows its true colors. Opening with a sequence that reminds us that Felicity is the beating heart of this show (her dedication to using code names is adorable), it’s as if Arrow wanted to lay on a thick layer of charm before revealing what this episode is really about. In short, they should have called the episode “Guilt Arrow.” Part exploration of Oliver’s martyr complex and part reunion episode, “Unchained” was a chaotic 43-minutes that was really good until it did that Arrow thing where it needs to have a bunch of big gasp moments in the final few minutes.
One thing “Unchained” got right was the early action. For series newcomer director Kevin Fair, a lot of excellent work went into the on-foot chase sequences. As Oliver and Co. are chasing down the burglar, we get a few really slick bouts of acrobatics. Punches are thrown, but Oliver chasing the burglar in plain clothes might have been some of the strongest stunt work of the season thus far. They could have also called this episode “Parkour Arrow,” at least for a time.
Of course, the burglar turned out to be Roy and the whole mess of upfront action turned out to be fodder to get us to The Calculator. It also ended with Thea passing out in the field, an event that propelled the episode’s B-story. When you stand back from it for a moment, the episode title “Unchained” is about more than the literal vision of Oliver being chained and tortured. More than the emotional unchaining that Oliver must do throughout the episode. It’s really about leaving the Arrow writers room uninhibited to bring back a bunch of characters. Some of their reunion tour includes reaching very far back. Roy is fresh and probably the least surprising. Nyssa also had to come back into play at some point, as she and Malcolm Merlin have plenty of unfinished business. But I can’t say that I saw Rila Fukushima coming back quite so soon as Tatsu/Katana. Her scowls and that killer mask were sorely missed. Even more surprising was the return, albeit in vision quest form, of Celina Jade as Shado. That’s reaching all the way back to seasons one and two. It was a big, costume-driven reunion that will hopefully lead to more fun in the coming episodes. Even the wound where Ra’s al Ghul stabbed Thea in the chest got to make a guest appearance. The only thing that didn’t get a comeback was Stephen Amell’s horrible season one island wig. Given the sheer volume of things that happened in this episode, it’s probably for the best.
All of this happened in what is essentially the secondary story. It overshadows the work of The Calculator, whose actual plan is pretty terrifying. For the first time in a while, Team Arrow literally has to save the city. And it’s all because Oliver learns to let go a little and allow people to choose their own potentially death-filled paths. He is “Guilt Arrow,” after all.
Before we part, we need to talk about those last 90 seconds. For a time — a frustratingly short time — it was clear that in this week’s edition of “Who’s In That Grave?”, all signs pointed to Thea. In what is now classic Arrow fashion, a perfectly timed, conveniently specific and all-encompassing solution presents itself immediately. Considering the fact that the fingerprints of Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kriesberg are all over both this show and The Flash (which does this constantly), I’m beginning to suspect that this is just their rhythm. And lord is it groan-worthy at times. Arrow continues to be an immensely entertaining show that often makes me laugh out loud. In an episode that involved Arrow being summoned via a pager and the bad guy turning out to be Felicity’s dad, its final twist was by far its most absurd.
What did you watch last night? And why are Wednesdays such a dead zone for good TV right now? Also, did you know that all 4 seasons of Battlestar Galactica are on Hulu right now?
0 comments:
Post a Comment