ARROW S1E22 – “Darkness on the Edge of Town”

Arrow is quickly coming to a close and the action is only just beginning to heat up!

Synopsis: With Walter back in the Queen mansion, Oliver continues his campaign of justice going after the one man who he knows is the heart of all the chaos: Malcolm Merlyn. Thea and Roy continue to search for ‘The Hood’, landing them in hot water, and Laurel’s broken heart finally finds a home with ONE man.

Jolie’s Review: Season One of ARROW is one episode away from wrapping up and the action is piling up on all fronts. Like past episodes, this one does suffers from the tangled web of story lines that ARROW writers so often feel the need to weave together. On a good note, pretty much all of the characters are involved in the over-arcing plot (including the flashback) and it still wasn’t hard to follow.

Everyone who has a story in the Arrow-verse received face time in this episode, it’s making me anxious just trying to figure out who the cliff hanger will –urm, hang on.

Mike-EL’s Review: A jam-packed episode that keep’s us on the edge of our seats, only to stumble hard a few times along the way. There are some clever moments in this episode: the ‘kidnapping’ of Oliver and Moira Queen and the infiltration of Merlyn Global. These are interspread with some committee-mandated dumb moments like: Fyers supposed plan to cripple the Chinese economy by…blowing up planes (?) and Oliver’s sudden realization he can fornicate with Laurel because he might be scott free from crossing people off the ‘list’ (enacted directly in front of her open apartment window so that Tommy can see them from the street and be sufficiently melodramatic. So, in addition to Batman and The Bourne Identity, ARROW is now drawing inspiration from Melrose Place).

Despite the uneven quality, the episode does end in a nail-biting confrontation between Green Arrow and Black Arrow (or whatever they’re called here). Sometimes the writers come through with some delicious minimalistic dialogue, and Malcolm’s ‘Oh no’ does the job just right.

Next week should be an exciting conclusion to ARROW’s first year!

4/5

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