ARROW: The Crucible Recap

I’m watching the show with my sister, who is both still working her way through the first season of Arrow and who is far, far more familiar with DC canon than I am, given that she grew up watching Batman and I grew up thinking Batman was the biggest Mary Sue on the planet. So watching Arrow has rapidly become an O’Scanlin Sisters Educating Each Other Hour (“Wait, Blood? Does that mean…Brother Blood?”/“Laurel Lance hurts me deep inside, Grace.”).

And so much happened with Crucible. Last week’s episode formed what I hope is going to be the Commissioner Gordon/Officer Lance & Batman/Arrow duo, but it also placed Laurel in danger once again and did me the ultimate favor: by having Laurel realize that Tommy would never have been in the Glades were it not for her, I found the character sympathetic for once. Only now I’m side-eying the plot because we’re in danger of getting into “I’m so excited! I’m so…scared!” levels of Jessie Spano here. But that’s getting way ahead of ourselves! I should tell you what’s happening in the rest of the episode because there’s a lot, and it’s exciting.

As always, Emily Bett Rickards shines as Felicity Smoak, hacker to the archers and current owner of a lot of Oliver Queen-related heartburn

The episode kicks off with Felicity in a panic, covering for Oliver at a party at his own estate. Isabelle Rochev is less than happy that her business partner is “fashionably late.” Too bad for her that he’s out stealing weapons from thugs on the street and that the tying up that Felicity claims he’s doing is literal. He arrives and Isabelle immediately wins herself a Felicity Ramble ™ by asking if that’s blood on Oliver’s face—it’s not his, no, wait, why would he have somebody else’s blood on his face? That’s ridiculous! Oliver really needs to learn how to shave and ha ha isn’t it hilarious how incompetent Felicity’s boss is at the little things and somebody get Felicity a glass of (really good) wine because I’m pretty sure Oliver doesn’t pay her enough to stand up to River Tam Isabelle’s best Not Having It stare the way she does here.

At the party, we also have Alderman Blood and Laurel, who serve two purposes: to inform Oliver that the Mayor is the new bad guy in the Glades, and the second, a two-for-one deal, is that we get to see Laurel tossing back champagne, which is the best shorthand on TV for an upcoming addiction spiral and not a sign that she’s at a party where Oliver Queen can afford top-level brand champagne or anything, and it makes Felicity realize that Oliver’s female counterpart with the bow staff has shown up in two locations, and maybe it’s Laurel and not Oliver she’s obsessed with.

Caity Lotz as Sara Lance, The Black Canary, and winner of “Best mask with anger lines already drawn in.”

And sure enough, we cut to Laurel’s apartment and Oliver does some neat bondage to catch our favorite blonde superheroine. Not only does she call him Ollie, but he recognizes her as Sara Lance, the not-so-deceased sister of Laurel. She had no idea he was alive until there was tell of a vigilante in Starling City and she came back after the earthquake because of her family. It’s all very tragic. She gets away thanks to a minor explosive (never leave home without them; who knows when you’ll need to vanish in a puff of smoke? ).

Felicity and Diggle are perturbed that Oliver didn’t let them or Sara’s family know she was alive after the Queen’s Gambit went down. Nor are they pleased that Oliver won’t tell them about the island. Stephen Amell wins the episode for his delivery of “I was there five years and nothing good happened!” To be fair to Oliver, it appears he saw Sara die a second time (and she saw him die, and this seems like the Island Plot of Season Two, and bring it, writers, my body is SO READY).

Bex Taylor-Klaus kicks butt as Sin, who is having none of your bull, Roy (Colton Haynes). Image courtesy of kissthemgoodbye.net

Sara Lance returns to the Canary Cage (the clock-tower and hands down one of my favorite locations on the show) and she and Sin smash the Bechdel Test to pieces by talking about their families and not being wanted and reasons for keeping their lives a secret. Guys, I’m not going to lie: I really, really like Sin. She’s spunky. She’s probably going to die horribly.

Diggle’s military contact shows up and flirts with him to deliver information about the guns that the Mayor has hijacked and you go, Diggle. You get your military flirt on!

David Ramsey as John Diggle. Image courtesy of kissthemgoodbye.net

Meanwhile at some point in this episode (I’ve lost track of the order), Laurel goes out for dinner with boss, whose name is probably not Paul but that’s what I’m going to call him anyway. Paul unfortunately doesn’t spend the entire dinner talking about the delightful clones in his life. I’m sad. I’m also sad for Laurel, who slams a few too many back at dinner and gets pulled over afterward for drinking and driving. The officer calls Quentin instead of throwing Laurel in jail.

On the Mayor front: it appears the Mayor has hijacked a military supply of incredibly bad guns. Though they’ve disabled tracking on the crate, Felicity uses magic considerable skill and technical whoopass to turn the tracking back on and lead Oliver to “City Hall,” where the Mayor has holed up (and is making the classic bad guy mistake of shooting minions that have screwed up. Does he think minions grow on trees? Villains are so wasteful). Oliver lays siege in classic vigilante fashion, but the Mayor gets away.

Summer Glau as Isabelle Rochev. Image courtesy of kissthemgoodbye.net.

On Queen Consolidated fronts, Oliver is still determined for the Queens to save face in the Glades, so he works with Alderman Blood to initiate a gun buy-back program. Isabelle Rochev does not feel this is a good idea, as Oliver wasted a lot of money on an investors’ dinner that got them no new investors and QC doesn’t have the money to fund this. When Oliver says he’ll pay for it himself, Isabelle points out that his trust isn’t as deep as he thinks it is.

Sara visits Oliver in his lair the Foundry and they catch up on the happy days that must have been them knowing each other. And wouldn’t you have it that this is the time Officer Lance shows up, wanting to talk about his daughter. Even though he regularly cursed the name of Queen for all of Season One, he’s desperate enough to ask Oliver to talk to Laurel because he doesn’t want Laurel going down the same dark path he did after Sara died. Sara stands at the door and listens. Poor Canary. When Oliver talks to Laurel about it, Laurel insists that she doesn’t have a problem, that her dad is the one with the problem, that she’s fine, okay, she’s fine! Uh-oh.

Oliver Queen and Sebastian Blood (Kevin Alejandro). Image courtesy of kissthemgoodbye.net.

Either way, the gun buy-back program goes on. Roy sells back a few of his guns, with Thea tagging along, and they run into Sin, who taunts Roy about his girlfriend not knowing that he’s the vigilante’s delivery boy. I hope this is literal. I just want to see Roy fetching Big Belly Burger and leaving a bag of greasy fast food embedded in the alley wall with his red arrowhead. Anyway, Oliver and Blood hang out and talk about crucibles and people that survive them (read: not anybody that crosses Winona Ryder): the survivors, the victims, and the people that enjoy pain. As the plot would have it, the Mayor attacks. Oliver saves Blood (earning him an ally, OR SO YOU WOULD THINK), Roy and Thea manage not to get hit, and Sin takes one to the gut.

I told you this would happen.

Oliver Queen: proficient in ANY medieval weapon. I’m so excited for the mace episode.

While Thea and Roy keep a vigil at Sin’s bedside, Diggle and Felicity locate the Mayor by a) “borrowing” the FBI’s criminal database and matching his face to a name, and b) tracking down his foster brother, who is in the military and on a convoy to deliver some weapons through Starling City. Sara and Oliver show up and kick ass, at one point taking up the other’s weapon and it’s really kind of hot, you guys. Oliver urges Sara not to kill the Mayor because he doesn’t kill anymore, and it’s up to justice (read: Laurel) to put bad guys away.

From there, it’s a relatively happy ending. Sin wakes up and befriends both Thea and Roy and gosh darn it, I enjoy the three of them together so much. The Mayor’s de-throned, and the gun buy-back program with the mysterious donor is a mighty success. Oliver and Sara clear the air somewhat, but there’s still a lot of mystery left between them, and about what Sara’s been up to.

Bex Taylor-Klaus as Sin, Colton Haynes as Roy, and Willa Holland as Thea. Also, Sin is looking at Sara, and it’s ADORABLE. Image courtesy of kissthemgoodbye.net.

The two not-as-happy endings are Laurel mixing pills with wine while Officer Lance worries about it in an AA meeting, and Alderman Blood, wearing some kind of mask, torturing people and turning out not to be such a good guy. They actually call him Brother Blood. Crap. Seriously, if you’re a do-gooder on TV, you’re either secretly evil or you’re a martyr. No wonder we have so many anti-heroes.

The island plot, for those of you interested (and I know it’s all of you): Oliver, having woken up in a cage, is interrogated by a man who tells him either Oliver talks and the man kills him or Oliver gets tortured, talks, and the man kills him. Putting his money where his mouth is, the interrogator shoots him. He wakes up to find medical supplies outside of his cell. Oliver asks the man in the cell why they do that and the man replies (with a heavy Russian accent), “It’s to prove you’re strong.” And Oliver certainly is, as he sews himself up without anesthetic and say what you will, guys, but dude’s pretty badass. The interrogator comes back and demands to know if Oliver’s found the cave, if there are bodies inside and if they are strange, and though Oliver doesn’t answer, it’s enough to let the interrogator know that this is the correct island. In the end, Oliver is dragged into a room and tossed inside and standing there…is Sara Lance. I’m sure Oliver’s gobsmacked look speaks for us all.

See? Image courtesy of kissthemgoodbye.net