DC Comics, Recaps, Television

NOC Recaps Arrow: #Queen2016

I’m back guys!! So far, I’ve been cautiously pleased with this season. But that’s probably partly because I’ve avoided all trailers and pre-information about each episode. Of course, certain characters force angry or confused glares (both of the Lances), but so far, so good. I think both episodes one and two of this season so far have been set up episodes. “Green Arrow” got us back to Star City and where everyone is at, but “The Candidate” tells us where everyone is going. I think a lot of what ruined Arrow last season was that it was jumping into plots too fast, leaving themselves with nowhere to go. They wrote themselves in a corner. This season seems to be pacing itself better. Also it’s giving bigger plots to its side characters (but we need more Diggle please), so there is more story to spread around.

#TerrificSmoak

I want to talk about Felicity and Curtis Holt, her new Palmer Tech BFF first because Echo Kellum is awesome, and I really liked the chemistry he has with Emily Bett Rickards. (And Echo seems really funny and cool. He live tweeted the episode and I loved his tweets, so give him a follow, @EchoK! So Felicity is now the shiny new CEO of Palmer Tech (no one seems to mention it used to be Queen Consolidated, but okay) but that comes with the board of directors pressuring her to lay off dozens of workers.

“Workforce reduction has a nicer sound to it…”

Curtis’ name is on the workforce reduction list that his algorithm created, but he tries to play it cool. He and his husband can go on trips (I guess his husband can’t drive?). But Felicity becomes determined to find another way. She rehires everyone and basically pretends there’s a big project she and Curtis are working on that will WOW the board. Except there is no project.

Homegirl better come up with something soon. Wait, did they say the board meeting was in six months? As in, whenever Oliver heads to the tombstone and drops a silent thug tear? The cookie crumbs are being dropped…

Arrowing in on the Star City 2016 Election

Moira’s old friend, Jessica Danforth — played by Star Trek: Voyager’s Jeri Ryan, reconnects with Oliver and Thea and announces she wishes to die.

I mean, run for mayor.

“The last three mayors have been killed.”

Is there a more dangerous city for politicians in fiction? Being mayor of Star(ling) City is like being a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. (I just realized I made that comparison about Brooklyn Nine-Nine a couple of weeks ago, but here it’s slightly more apt.) (Wait: Defense Against the DARHK Arts! This will be a recap title soon, I feel it. But I’m saving it. The time is not now.) Jessica literally says the word “mayor” and gunshots are fired at her. Couldn’t even get a breath out! Oliver and Thea save the day (“I’ve been taking self defense classes.”), but Anarky is born. (He’s what happens when the big bad of the season doesn’t take another big bad’s sloppy seconds. More on him a little later.)

Jessica drops out of the race (all due to Damien’s behind the scenes string-pulling, even if Anarky got out of hand), but Oliver thinks someone needs to fill the void. Someone who can protect themselves. But… that only works if you can either keep your identity that much a secret that no one figures out their mayor is the Green Arrow, or everyone knows. And you’re terrible at keeping secrets, Oliver. And I hope Ollie actually talks to Felicity about this mayor thing, because it seems she has QTNA. #questionsthatneedanswering

https://twitter.com/hellresidentNY/status/65446231513228902

While I think it would be cool if Oliver was mayor of Star City (ultimate power couple!), it wouldn’t make practical sense for him saving the city every week. The lesson would be that he can’t do both. Which was the lesson for last season… so.

https://38.media.tumblr.com/f3e8af12cb3e4134a123a950d07ddc6b/tumblr_nw8p70LmYW1u27r1bo1_500.gif

But I’m excited to see where this leads. Because who else could run? (Is Damien gunning for the position or does he have someone in mind?)

Weekend at Speedy and Laurel’s

How did no one notice that Thea was getting worse? I guess Oliver coming in from the outside and seeing the marked difference helped him see it faster, but come on! Homegirl has some anger issues! Oliver is trying so hard to avoid these issue leading to her first kill (She didn’t kill anyone during the season-that-must-not-be-named, right? I remember Oliver stopping her from killing Slade…)

https://twitter.com/blerdocracy/status/654459271342481408

But the look of pure gleeful adrenaline on her face as she watched Anarky burn says that Liver is way out of his league here. Speaking of… Laurel suggests they just ask the League for help. Because they’ve been so helpful in the past. But did she really need the pretense? Laurel wants the League to resurrect Sara.

And Laurel. Honey. I know you think this is a good idea, but Thea was dead for like a day. Sara’s been dead for a year. And when you revive her and she dies again (however far down the line), you and your father are going to grieve her for a THIRD TIME. How does any of this make sense to you. I know you still miss her, but considering what Thea is going through, you don’t want to check in on the consequences FIRST? No, let’s just figure Thea out and bring the body with us! What could possibly go wrong?! (We already know Caity Lotz is going to appear on Legends of Tomorrow  but still. I guess Laurel is just creating dramatic tension for mid-season.)

Let’s see if they gloss over how Laurel and Thea are going to carry Sara’s year old corpse from Star City to Nanda Parbat without Oliver, Diggle, and Felicity knowing. Also just logistically, how’s that gonna work? SMH. Laurel, you gave Diggle good advice 50 minutes ago. Where’d that Laurel go?

Flechettes:

  • The voice over is officially Green Arrowfied!
  • Felicity and Diggle need codenames!! Suggest some names?
  • Office fern!

  • Hmm, still don’t care about flashbacks but THE WIG IS GONE. PRAISE BE!

  • I’m interested to see if it’ll just be the army suit that will differentiate flashback Oliver from current Oliver. Also, he still needs to grow long hair and beard for the rescue scene off Lian Yu… I guess that just grows in a year?
  • Oliver cracked the screen of a CAR and rolled away, merely annoyed. Did YOU have some Lazarus Pit action, Ollie?
  • “It’s one of the benefits of your girlfriend inheriting a multi-billion dollar conglomerate. We have money now.” (You had money before, just merely in the millions.)
  • Lance is annoying. All Lances are annoying right now, but Captain Lance is really not helpful. He says things to Oliver that may be true sometimes, but are never true in the moment Oliver needs to hear them. And because Oliver knows Lance has been right about him before, he trusts his opinion (even though it is laced with bitterness and anger). But this leads to Oliver making rash choices based on the words of a man who does not have his best interest at heart. Sigh. It’s a spiral.
  • Green vs Red! That scene was definitely intense, but why aren’t people more concerned about Thea basically spitting like a cat at Oliver? The aftermath had everyone acting like, yeah it’s a concern, but she’s just a little different, not that she’s basically animalistic when pushed too far…
  • I enjoyed the way the Olicity was handled this episode. Not too much, but they actually talked about their feelings and supported each other but the plot wasn’t tied to them being a thing. A good balance. 
  • Someone explain Anarky to me.

  • So he seemed like a normal (if crazy) dude. He touches Damien (“You know your hand is on me,” was delivered with such perfect, villainous warning. It was kind of delicious, but in an evil way. Getting rid of the villain stigma Ra’s placed on this show) and suddenly he’s able to fight Ollie and Thea and survive being burned? Does this mean that touching Damien causes unnatural things to happen? We already know he’s got Pit powers… Have we seen anyone touch him besides the minion he killed last week?

That’s all for this week, guys! Discuss in the comments but: “Remember to mind your tone.”

6 thoughts on “NOC Recaps Arrow: #Queen2016”

  1. I can’t believe Laurel wants to bring back Sara! Girl, I miss her too, but it’s been a YEAR! Nothing good will come out of bringing her back..Trying to come up with code names for Diggle is just hard – every time I try, I tell myself it won’t matter because he’s going to find his ring and become the Green Lantern so it doesn’t matter. LOL
    About to start calling Thea ‘Hellcat’ though..

    1. Haha about John. I wish!! He could work with Hal in Coast City now that we’ve caught a glimpse of him!!
      Sara is gonna need lots of time to recoup when they do this so she’s not a zombie on Legends of Tomorrow….!!

  2. Pingback: NOC Recaps Arrow: #Queen2016 | thenerdsofcolor | ConStar Writes TV

  3. Laurel, Thea and Sarah’s road trip = weekend at Bernie’s. 😋

    The original Anarky was based off V for Vendetta but 12 years old, most likely to serve as a potential Robin. He basically used newspaper letters to the editor as a hit list to brutally attack drug dealers and polluters in his first appearance. He then did stuff like illegally transfer corporate funds to poor countries and blow up buildings (Oliver helped him in the case of a gun factory). I recommend his 1997 miniseries, where he becomes something of a hero.

    1. Ooh okay, thanks for the info! Of course sometimes knowing comic details doesn’t matter because they change them, but I real,y wonder if Damian had anything to do with his sudden power up…. ::eyeball emoji::

  4. Pingback: NOC Recaps Arrow: Lazarus Flush | thenerdsofcolor

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