In this episode, apparently Starling City’s only competent cop screws up big time, and we meet Slade Wilson.
The villain this go-round is Cyrus Vanch, an original character who apparently was a criminal nightmare back in the day and is hoping to get back on top by killing Arrow. Picking a fight with the vigilante who has a double-digit body and maiming count seems like a stupid idea, but since criminals are pretty thick to begin with, at least it’s credible.
Unfortunately, Quentin Lance does something that puts a target on Laurel’s back, hopefully in a believable way since the show tends to write Quentin against type as an intelligent, by-the-book cop who just has a temper problem, instead of a total idiot who would have been fired in reality years before the show started.
Also, Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) makes his first appearance in Ollie’s flashbacks and Thea will apparently begin to realize there’s a big, wide world and nobody cares about her whiny rich-girl problems. This probably ties into the fact that after episodes of them not calling her “Speedy”, her entire family apparently can’t call her anything else.
It’ll be interesting to see this episode, but honestly, the previous episode is a hard act to follow. The show finally merged Ollie’s family drama and his vigilante activities in a credible way, gave Thea the emotional smackdown we’ve been rooting for since this show started, and featured a lengthy action sequence where Ollie punched his way into a drug-dealer’s den before cramming an overdose of his own narcotic down the guy’s throat.
Which is something we’re guessing will bite Ollie in the ass somewhere around May, since Count Vertigo is apparently going to be his Joker.
Either way, more Quentin is always welcome: Nobody does “smart-ass” like Paul Blackthorne. The fun starts tonight at 8pm EST.