TV Review: Arrow Season 3 Episode 1

Join us each week as we review the latest episode of ARROW. Warning: the following review contains major spoilers for the newest episode of the show.

Episode 1: “The Calm”

Synopsis: With crime in Starling City at an all-time low thanks to the Arrow and his team, Oliver thinks he can finally balance being both the Arrow and Oliver Queen and asks Felicity out on a date. However, when a new villain emerges, who has claimed the name Vertigo from the recently deceased Count, Oliver is caught off-guard and someone close to him is hurt. Oliver and a newly suited up Roy take on the Count. Laurel joins Arrow’s inner circle and Felicity gets a part-time job at a tech store to make ends meet. Also, Oliver fights to regain his company, Queen Consolidated, but comes up against a very worthy

Recap: Two seasons into ARROW’s run, the producers are not looking to repeat the same old plots over and over again.  With Deathstroke defeated and a calm settling over the Queen family and friends, Oliver is still fighting crime, but with a much different outlook on the world.  Roy is now trained as Arsenal/Red Arrow and all seems to be status quo in Starling City.  But, things are different, including the opening logo and the media no longer calling him The Vigilante anymore.  He is now The Arrow.

It has been almost five months since last season ended.  Diggle’s baby is almost here, Thea is traveling abroad, and Oliver is still trying to get his company back.  Living in the underground base, there is obviously a romance brewing between Oliver and Felicity.  But, as much as Oliver tries to deny it, he hs feelings for her as well as Laurel.  Back to prominence with the District Attorney’s office, Laurel seems happy in sharing the secret of The Arrow.  We also see the return of Detective Lance, walking with a cane and now a captain, making the announcement that The Arrow is no longer seen as a vigilante in the city and recognize him as a hero.

In the flashback sequences, we see Oliver in Hong Kong trying to evade Amanda Waller and her team.  Waller explains she has a need for Queen’s abilities which is why she saved him from Lian Yu.  Oliver continues to try and escape and doesn’t want to hear her offers and is promptly knocked out.  When he awakens, he is in the home of one of Waller’s agents and his wife.  Oliver asks how he can leave and he is told he cannot.

As for villains, the great Pete Stormare is introduced as the new Vertigo, adding new ingredients to the former drug to make it more formidable.  During a pursuit of some bad guys, Arrow runs into Captain Lance in the sewers and thanks him for absolving him of being a criminal.  At her new job as tech support for a computer store, Felicity meets Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer, the new man in charge at Queen Consolidated.  Routh looks exactly the same as he did when he played Superman and it is a cool addition to the cast.  

During their date, Oliver reveals he spent some time in Hong Kong during his five years away from home and how hard it was for him to trust and learn to be with people and not treat them as targets.  Oliver relates his feelings to Felicity, the two opening up, but Vertigo identifies that Arrow is in the restaurant and shoots a rocket launcher in.  Oliver leaps onto Felicity, the explosion barely missing them.  Coming to, Oliver grabs the injured Felicity and brings her back to the base.  Oliver’s previous run-in in the sewer was a setup to plant a tracker on him.  Oliver feels he lost his focus and contacts Captain Lance to find out who is in charge of the criminal organization these days.

At the warehouse, Arrow is ambushed by Vertigo who drugs him before launching into a fight.  Vertigo says the new drug will make you see your worst fear which makes Oliver imagine he is fighting himself.  A nice nod to SUPERMAN III, even if unintentional, Lance breaks up the fight before collapsing like he did last season during the finale.  Lance has a heart condition and is in the hospital and Oliver, claiming not to feel the effects of the new drug, tells everyone he is fine, sending them on their way.  In the hospital, Laurel confronts her father as to why he keeps pushing himself.

At the new Queen Consolidated board meeting, Oliver Queen meets Ray Palmer who is also bidding for the company.  Palmer delivers a stirring speech denouncing Oliver’s leadership and a vision to save QC as well as Starling City itself.  His plan involves renaming the town Star City, a direct reference to the name of Arrow’s hometown in DC Comics.  Oliver, feeling the company is lost, tells Felicity he may need to stop trying to be Oliver Queen and completely embrace being The Arrow.

Tracking the crime bosses, they find the ankle bracelets worn all convened on a single location for a boxing match.  Oliver refuses to allow Diggle in the field saying it is because he is about to become a father.  They argue about why Oliver doesn’t want him out there.  At the match, Vertigo prepares a bomb.  Roy goes after the device why Oliver pursues Vertigo and is injected again.  Fighting against his visions of himself, Sara Lance returns in her Canary garb to fight another thug.  Using freon, Roy deactivates the bomb as Oliver continues his fight.  Arrow then shoots Vertigo in the chest.

With his daughter born, Diggle admits Oliver was right and that his world was now forever changed.  Oliver and Felicity have a talk about the events of the episode and Oliver tells her he cannot be both Oliver and The Arrow.  Oliver kisses Felicity passionately, confirming he truly does love her.  Felicity walks away, knowing they cannot be together.  At that moment, Oliver gets a phone call from Barry Allen who needs some advice, a connection to the pilot of THE FLASH.  Sara and Laurel then meet, Sara asking for her sister not to tell their father she is back.  As Sara walks away, she is shot by a mysterious stranger with multiple arrows before falling to what appears to be her death right in front of her sister.

Episode Grade: 8/10

Holy shit, did they just kill off The Canary?  In an episode that started out as a nice new phase in the ARROW mythos, it began to sag a bit in the middle, feeling like any other episode from prior seasons.  The flashbacks felt almost pointless, especially since they were so sparse.  But, once everything tied together in the end, the producers decided to throw one hell of a curveball at us by reintroducing Sara Lance and then promptly killing her off.  I thought I was going to like the lighter approach to Oliver Queen teased in this episode, but now I am totally bought into where this season is going to go.  Who killed The Canary?  Was it Ra’s Al Ghul or was it Malcolm Merlyn?  Either way, this was a very good episode.

Next on ARROW: “Sara” – Team Arrow is in pursuit of a new villain who poses a threat to Starling City.