Arrow Review: “Salvation”

From our Arrow expert, Jethro:

This week Oliver has to contend with another vigilante who goes after, among other people, Thea’s new boyfriend, while Moira ends up with blunt symbolism. Dinah’s search for Sarah comes to a conclusion.

Title: “Arrow” Review: Salvation

Cast and Crew
Director: Nick Copus
Writers: Drew Z. Greenberg and Wendy Mericle

Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green arrow
Katie Cassidy as Dinah “Laurel” Lance
David Ramsay as John “Dig” Diggle
Willa Holland as Thea “Speedy” Queen
Paul Blackthorne as Quentin Lance
Colin Salmon as Walter Steele
Susanna Thompson as Moira Queen
Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak
John Barrowman as Malcolm Merlyn
Alex Kingston as Dinah Lance
Colton Haynes as Roy Harper
Byron Mann as Yao Fei
Celina Jade as Yao Fei’s daughter, Shado

Full cast and crew can be found here.

Premise

Oliver attempts to, uh, remove another person from his list, only to find that someone has beat him to it – the potential victim has already been kidnapped. This new vigilante then broadcasts the execution. Naturally this new vigilante ends up going after people who are less and less actually guilty of anything, finally abducting Thea’s new semi-delinquent boyfriend. Which was lucky because nothing makes you give up a life of crime like being kidnapped by real criminal. Meanwhile this new vigilante seems to be able to defy tracking by the police, Oliver and Felicity, but then practically tells everyone who he is on his live broadcast.

While this is going on, Malcolm Merlyn informs Moira that he is very close to finding out who ordered his assassination, leaving Moira to make a terrible choice in order to protect her family.

On The Island… I want to say Oliver learns something, but it was really just some action this week (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Oh, and apparently Yao Fei’s daughter was being held prisoner for fun because she can apparently kick butt. And her name is Shado, which Google tells me is yet another archer from Green Arrow world. I suppose we now know who taught Oliver to use a bow.

High Points

  • “You have one hour!”
  • They let Alex Kingston say more than three words this week.
  • I also like how (and how FAST) the whole Sarah thing got resolved. They could’ve dragged that out forever.

Low Points

  • Once again the tech stuff bugged the hell out of me, but probably because that’s what I do for a day-job. I’m fairly sure that if I was a professional archer all the bow stuff in this show would bug me.
  • The New Vigilante giving himself away so easily was a bit… silly.
  • Did Moira have to literally end up with blood on her hands?

The Scores:

Originality: While not super-original, this episode wasn’t terrible, either. Though some of the plot points were fairly predictable, I suppose. 4/6.

Effects: I think these were really good this week. 6/6

Story: I liked it, despite some predictability and in-your-face symbolism. 5/6.

Acting: Always good, and they let Alex Kingston act this week. Susanna Thompson stood out this week for me. 6/6.

Emotional Response: You kinda feel for the other vigilante, and his victims (well, the last two), which is a bit unusual. There was some family drama with Laurel and her parents, too, but all in all I didn’t find this a very emotion-invoking episode. 4/6

Production: This show has consistently good production values. 6/6

Overall: I think this episode showcases one of the biggest strengths of this show. They occasionally have weak episodes, yes, but when everything clicks, Arrow can take a mediocre story and make it pretty good. I think that’s what we had this week – a fairly weak main plot surrounded by good B- and C-plots, great acting and fantastic production. 5/6.

In total, Arrow: Salvation receives 36/42 points.

4 replies on “Arrow Review: “Salvation””

  1. I felt it was a decent episode but on its own not as important as its role in furthering the larger plot.

    1. This may be what drives Roy to step up his game as Red “Hood”
    2. I don’t believe that the Sarah plot is done. Far too easily resolved, I’m guessing Laurel found more and is holding it back, or something else is going on there.
    3. The island plot progressed a little with Shado and is setting up for more to happen there
    4. The discovery of the location/target, if not the exact meaning, of The Undertaking

    The subway vigilante probably slipped up because he wasn’t all that good in general, he just had a good hiding spot. He probably also was doubting himself a bit and wanted to get caught, given how far he was stretching to find people to target.

    • Hey a comment! That’s what I get for leaving the review so it conflicts with a Doctor Who review.. (;

      I agree about the Roy thing. I don’t want to pounce on that since I never really read the comics so I’m going by what I’ve heard on this site, but yeah, makes sense.

      I don’t know that the Sarah thing is over, either. But it is for now, and that’s fine. I mean we all know that TV shows can resurrect people and plotlines as much as they want. It’s a sad fact that it’s not impossible that Oliver’s father will come back one of these days, either… though we can hope.

      • Question: Was the girl in the photo thought to be Sarah actually Shado?[/spolier]

        I think bringing back Oliver’s dad will be shark jumping territory.

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