Arrow 2.11

Blind Spot

- Definite inbetweener; there was a lot more plot fast forward than I care for in this episode; lots of developments, but no time to breathe
- Laurel is an addict and gets framed by Sebastian Blood; Blood then manages to convince Ollie that Laurel was nuts to think that he is the villain behind the mask
- Roy tries out his new super strength on a street level villain of the week and almost kills the baddie
- Deathstroke returns to mentor Blood
- I always loved the way Brother Blood was depicted in the comics; I'm less than crazy about the way he is being played in the TV show; he's just a little too silly for me to take seriously; it's apparent that he is a big part of the season long arc but I just don't like him on the tv show
- on the whole there's just way too much that they are packing in to this season; it needs to be tighter and more focused than it is; I lack to see the benefits of trying to fit quite so much into this season
- not sure I want to stick with this season; if I can I might just watch a few of the remaining 12 episodes in this season and then move on

Arrow 2.10

Blast Radius

- basically a villain of the week type episode with a little bit in it to advance the overall story of the season
- somebody is blowing buildings in Starling City using cell phones to detonate the bombs; why is he blowing these building up? I can't seem to remember why
- Ollie gets snippy with Felicity for losing the trace on the bomber while he was trying to catch him; later he apologizes for his behaviour after Diggle questions his actions
- Thea notices that Roy isn't quite the same any more when he easily saves Moira from being crushed by some scaffolding and in a separate moment heals faster than normal
- In the past Slade seems to have grown super-humanly strong after getting injected with the experimental drugs in an earlier episode
- Laurel investigates Sebastian Blood's background and finds his mother in a mental institution

Arrow 2.09

Three Ghosts

- Barry saves Ollie's life by injecting him with Rat Poison (aka Warfarin) which has the side effect of causing him to hallucinate
- his first hallucination is of Shado, who is revealed to have been killed on the island, later in the episode; he experiences this one when he is at home after helping Roy who he shot with an arrow in the previous episode
- the death of Shado was a bit sudden, I thought she would be in the show for a bit longer, possibly until the end of the season; her death does serve the purpose of creating a rift between Ollie and Slade
- the second hallucination is of Slade, who was seemingly dead at the end of the previous episode (on the island) but is very much alive both in flashbacks in the island and in the present; Ollie has a fight with his hallucination of Slade in his secret lair
- in a flashback it is clearly shown that Slade now has super strength as he breaks a gun in half and rips a man's heart out (one of Ivo's henchmen) with his bare hands
- the third hallucination is of Tommy
- although they teased it, Barry does not become Flash in this episode but it does end with the accident that gave him his superpowers; I thought he already had the superpowers based on a story he told in the previous episode
- still not crazy about Sebastian Blood or the mask he wears
- happy to see Slade Wilson in the present
- it looks like Roy is going to develop superpowers

- on the whole a very good episode which kept me on the edge of my seat as I was eager to see how it would unfold; possibly it deserves a better rating than very good, compared to most other episodes of Arrow I would say it is well above average

Arrow 2.08

The Scientist

- first appearance of Barry Allen on Arrow
- also seems to be the introduction of superpowers on Arrow; up to this point all the people on the show with super abilities seem to have tech providing those abilities (I'm thinking of Deadshot)
- Barry flirts with Felicity or maybe it would be more accurate to say that she flirts with him
- Barry has come from Central City to help out with an investigation; he is a crime scene investigator; but it turns out that his boss doesn't even know that he is there
- there are some flashbacks to the island where Ollie and friends (Sarah, Shado, Slade) try to find a cure for Slade, which they eventually do but when they administer it to him it seems to kill him
- meanwhile in the present Ollie is dealing with at least one super-powered bad guy who reminds him of something he saw during his time on the island; Sebastian Blood seems to have a hand in whatever it is that the bad guys are up to
- Barry talks about his mother's death and how his father is in prison for her murder
- Moira deals with Malcolm Merlyn again; he wants Moira to tell Thea that he is her real father; Moira doesn't; she gets him to back off by mentioning Ra's Al Ghul
- the episode ends with Ollie badly injured and Felicity and Diggle revealing to Barry that Ollie is the vigilante because they need his help to make Ollie better

- I'm pretty sure Slade will be back in the next episode filled with awesome powers
- so far no Flash but I think that will change in the next episode
- lots of interesting developments; I am eager to see how things evolve from here; still not a great show but this episode was a lot of fun

Arrow 2.07

State v. Queen

- not a great episode
- Moira goes on trial, at first it doesn't look good but then she gets acquitted
- Laurel seems to have withheld something, what happened to her ace in the hole?
- Vertigo shows up again; in a flashback it is shown how he broke out of Iron Heights after the earthquake damaged the prison; he also helped the serial killer from 2.03 breakout
- Vertigo unleashes another drug on the city which was distributed via flu shots to its unknown victims, which include Diggle and the lead prosecutor in the case versus Moira
- Brother Blood is behind Vertigo's actions actions; in the end Ollie kills Vertigo, who has figured out he is the masked vigilante
- episode ends with the return of Malcolm Merlyn and the reveal (his reveal) that Thea is his daughter; implied that he has been through a Lazarus pit
- more flashbacks to the island with Sarah, Shado, Slade, Ivo, and more; episode ends with Ollie escaping with Sarah, Slade, and Shado and a number or Ivo's men dead
- no good acction in this one, a bit blah, a definite inbetweener type of episode

Arrow 2.06

Keep Your Enemies Closer

- Oliver, Diggle, Felicity, and Isabel travel to Moscow to rescue Lyla, who in this episode is revealed to Diggle's ex-wife
- Lyla is being kept in a prison or gulag; in order to get her out Diggle gets arrested smuggling drugs and thrown in the same prison; he has a contact on the inside but that part of the plan falls to pieces when the contact is killed by Deadshot
- Diggle has to work with Deadshot, the man who killed his brother, in order to find Lyla and break them all out of prison
- Amanda Waller (much younger and slimmer than in the comics) makes her first appearance and is the one who tells Diggle where Layla is and how she got there
- Ollie's Russian contact is also in the flashbacks on the prison ship
- Deadshot tells Diggle that it wasn't an accident that he killed his brother and that HIVE is the organization behind the contract on his brother's life
- Ollie and Isabel have a quick roll in the hay
- Isabel suspects that Ollie and Felicity have a thing going on; Felicity is hurt when she finds out that Ollie slept with Isabel; they are definitely teasing the idea that Ollie and Felicity should hook up
- Jean Loring, Moira's lawyer, tries to get Thea and Roy to break up for her mother's sake, but Moira steps in and approves of their relationship
- In the flashbacks Ollie gets fooled by Sarah into revealing to Dr. Ivo that Slade and Shado are still alive

Arrow 2.05

League of Assassins

- Sarah is now allied with Ollie's group; he introduces her to Diggle and Felicity; all of this happens after they (Ollie and Sarah) get attacked by another member of the league who claims to have trained Sarah and Malcolm Merlin
- Sarah fled the league; they want her back and threaten her father's and sister's lives
- Sarah reveals her presence to her father and before it is over kills her former teacher in front of Ollie and her father; Laurel does not learn of Sarah's return and still thinks she is dead
- flashbacks to the boat accident 6 years before and what happened to Sarah afterwards; but it is just a start
- Moira accepts a plea deal to keep her from getting the death sentence but then decides not to accept it after Ollie and Thea reiterate how dedicated to her they are no matter what comes out in the trial
- it is a little weird seeing Sarah 2 and 8 years prior to DC's Legends of Tomorrow; she's a very different character on the newer show

Arrow 2.04

Crucible

- finally it is revealed that the mystery woman is Sarah Lance, who everyone thought had died in the same same boating accident that left Ollie stranded on the island for 5 years
- Actually Ollie reveals in this episode that he did see Sarah after the boat went down, a year later after he was captured by the group on the ship
- there are a few threads going through this one
- Ollie trying to help the city, meeting with Alderman Blood (who at the end of the episode is revealed to be Brother Blood)
- Ollie working with Sarah (after he learns her identity) to take down a group of assault weapons wielding thugs led by a man who calls himself the Mayor
- Laurel starting to abuse drugs and alcohol, despite what her father and Ollie try to do to help her
- big reveals at the end regarding Brother Blood and that in the past Sarah was Ollie's torturer (or at least slated to be); in the previous episode it was revealed that she has ties to the League of Assassins
- fun stuff, still very soap opera-ish

Arrow 2.03

Broken Dolls

- Best episode of the season, so far
- Lots going on but at least this ones seemed to have an A plot, with lots of other interesting stuff going on
- A Plot: A serial killer from Officer Lance's past returns, the Dollmaker (reminds me of the serial killer from the the Harry Bosch novels); not a great villain but I loved (a) seeing Arrow and Lance working together, and (b) the way it was shot; compelling
- B Plot: Moira is on trial, possibly faces the death penalty but seems to accept her fate; hints that there is more that she knows which has not been revealed yet
- C Plot: Black Canary; who is she? Laurel missing and presumed dead sister? was this the first mention of Ra's Al Ghul and the League of Assassins?
- D Plot: On the island (in the past) Ollie and Slade are attacked and taken prisones
- Officer Lance finally becomes interesting
- Roy, Diggle, Felicity, Thea are also in this one
- the serial killer was very creepy; especially the way he was killing his victims; I thought at first that Thea would be the one he threatened, and for a moment it looked like it would be Felicity, but in the end it was Laurel which made sense since she is the daughter of the man who got him locked up

Arrow 2.02

Identity

- lots of little things going on in this episode but the sum of them all is not greater than the parts
- this one dragged a bit, especially near the end
- Roy wants to be a vigilante
- Thea is tired of Roy's antics and dumps him temporarily
- Felicity hates her new day job as Ollie's assistant
- 1st appearance of Bronze Tiger
- yet another set of weak bad guys doing something bad, this time stealing medical supplies headed to a hospital in the Glades
- subplot involving Ollie wanting to help the hospital in the Glades but then misses the fundraising event because he has to stop bad guys n gals

Arrow 2.01

City of Heroes

- Ollie returns from the island for a second time; this time he was there by choice

Arrow does quite a bit
- defeats a gang of hood who are angry about the effects of the earthquake
- avoids a hostile takeover by Isabel Rochev
- goes to see his mother in prison
- saves his sister from the gang of hoods
- visits Tommy's grave
- rescues Felicity twice (once on the island; once at Queen Consolidated)

- towards the end of the episode Roy gets saved by a woman who looks like Black Canary
- overall I was pleasantly surprised
- the moment at the end where Thea visits her mother in prison got me a bit choke up
- still no chemistry between Ollie and Laurel
- more flashbacks to the island with Slade and Shado