"You can't trust Sebastian Blood."
Arrow - a show that now comfortably wears the mantle of one of TV's best ever live-action comic book series - wrapped 2013 on top form. It returns this year as slick and stylish as ever but with perhaps a little less vigour and energy than it had in December.
'Blast Radius' sees Oliver (
Stephen Amell) aggressively pursuing "the man in the skull mask" - who is, in fact, Starling City's newest benefactor Sebastian Blood - and working to thwart highly-trained urban terrorist Shrapnel (Sean Maher).
Blood is an intriguing character played by supremely charismatic Kevin Alejandro - the viewer is kept guessing throughout how much of what he reveals to Laurel (Katie Cassidy) is the real Sebastian. Is he really deranged or simply misguided?
Oliver and Laurel's dual investigation into Blood is engaging enough, but 'Blast Radius' doesn't really pick up speed until its frenzied final scenes, as Blood's rally spirals out of control. However, just as it reaches a dramatic high, the episode fizzles out with a weak climax. Shrapnel's defeat - put out of action by a single arrow - is hugely underwhelming.
One of the better aspects of the episode - and I never thought I'd say this - is Laurel's involvement. She features heavily here and after several Laurel-lite episodes of late 2013 - where the writers clearly didn't have a clue what to do with her - they've now returned to the character with renewed vigour and a game-plan.
Placing Laurel in opposition to Oliver, as with Moira's trial, clearly wasn't working - there's a middle ground between bumping heads and bumping uglies. She needs to be incorporated into the Arrow's world in a way that's both entertaining and believable and her getting close to Blood to uncover his true motives is a good example of that.
The only concern now is that brief scene in which she's seen popping Quentin's pills - a drug-fuelled breakdown for Laurel is the kind of tiresome and distracting sub-plot that this show just doesn't need right now.
'Blast Radius' is a perfectly serviceable
Arrow episode, but following a month-long hiatus, the show needed to return with something just a little bigger... a little bolder. It's perhaps an unfortunate consequence of the show's recent quality that it's now expected to be not just solid but spectacular every single week.
ArrowHeads!
- Olicity moment of the week - Queen and Smoak are initially at loggerheads this week over her "distracted" behaviour - with a comatose Barry Allen preying on her mind. But their reconciliation - in which Ollie admits how much he needs Felicity - is easily the episode's standout moment.
- Oh, and "Were you apologising to me or were you talking to your quiver?" wins the Line of the Week award too.
- So Barry's in a coma - presumably he'll stay that way unless
his pilot gets green-lit.- It's a minor grumble, but it's a pity that the show's opening sting has now removed all traces of Blake Neely's fantastic '
Five Years'.
- The action sequences on
Arrow remain second to none, with some exhilarating motorcycle scenes this week.
- That said, love how Oliver wears his mask under his bike helmet - safety first!
- It's a little detail, but there's a pleasing internal consistency in having the reporter covering Blood's rally be the same guy who dramatically informed us that 'Oliver Queen is alive!' way back in the pilot.
- For the DC comics novice, the original Shrapnel is a member of the Doom Patrol and is a being made of organic metal. He has superhuman strength and stamina and the ability to project the metal plates of his body into explosive bursts.
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