Kyle’s Review

I’ll give Arrow this, they are fully committed to the Ra’s Al Ghul arc. I’m still not sure if the Ra’s Al Ghul arc’s a good or bad thing but it’s something very few other shows would try, so that makes it interesting.

Still, there are a lot of incongruities with this episode. How does Thea know that Merlyn’s her father but doesn’t know that Ollie’s alive? How can Ollie go to the ends of the earth to bring back his sister from the dead and then leave his sister in less than a minute to have steamy extended cable sex with Felicity that’s cut short by a flashback? Who thought that Felicity’s idea to smuggle Ollie out of Nanda Parbat was a good idea? That had to be the most laughable moment this season.

Despite all that, the acting was good. Stephen Amell has perfected his wounded face – I just hope they don’t over use it like Laurel’s doe eyes – and his farewells to his team were genuine. I liked him calling Diggle his “brother” and “the best man he’s ever known.” That’s right, Ollie. Never forget your first and best friend.

Merlyn was less of a tool and more fatherly this week but his whole premise of the Lazarus Pit changing a person at their core didn’t pan out. Besides ten seconds of rage, Thea was more confused than anything else. Once she returned to Starling, she was back to the normal Thea, so I don’t see why Merlyn would object to a Lazarus bath or why the gang hasn’t thought to do the same for Sara.

As for Matt Nable as Ra’s, he’s done an adequate job. I think most fans were upset with Arrow casting a Brit as Ra’s because they thought that Brit would’ve been Liam Neeson reprising his Batman Begins role. Nable has enough screen presence to pull off the role but he does come off as Neeson portraying Ra’s instead of a different Ra’s. I also liked Ra’s’s offhand remark about his other children. Could he be referring to Talia and Dusan al Ghul?

The flashbacks disappointed again this week. They don’t add anything to the present day arc that we didn’t already know and this week’s flashbacks continued the trend of not explaining Maseo’s thought process behind making Ollie the new Ra’s. He had to know about the prophecy.

We know that Team Arrow won’t take Ollie’s absence lying down but what does Ollie’s new position mean to his heroic career? Ollie has the League at his disposal but I don’t think they’ll help him play the Good Samaritan.

Verdict:

An interesting but confusing episode of Arrow, “The Fallen” gave a strong blueprint for the season’s finale. I just hope it’s a finale that ties everything together.

No, we have no Arrow secrets today.

Sorry, there’s no Arrow secrets page this week because there weren’t too many secrets this week besides the aforementioned Lazarus Pit making its first real appearance and Ollie joining the League — for now — but we’ll leave you with one tidbit. Remember how Arrow gets branded at the end of this week’s episode?

Well, the arrowhead during Arrow’s opening sequence has changed every year and usually, that’s for aesthetics (except for the Cupid episode) but this year, Arrow’s arrowhead has hinted at this moment.

That had to hurt, Ollie.