Arrow, Season 4, Episode 4: Beyond Redemption
A bit of a slower, less comic-book-y story as we take a break from the Anarkys and Double Downs and resort to a slightly more old-school ploy with a show-original criminal without any fancy codenames, and one that feels more at home with the vigilantism theme of the first season. Here we have a dirty cop playing games with drug deals while equipped with the anti-vigilante equipment which gives the writers a reason to have them outclass and escape our heroes in the second act. It's honestly kind of an okay-ish generic plot that is palatable yet ultimately forgettable.
Which is a good thing, because this episode's big focus is on Quentin Lance. Quentin Lance is always a haphazardly-written character that still always manages to shine very brightly among the Arrow cast thanks to the absolutely strong performance by his actor, Paul Blackthorne, and sadly his character is usually under-utilized or used as the source of needless drama as the show tries so hard (with varying degrees of quality depending on the season) to make him an antagonist yet still on the side of angels. Indeed, these past three episodes Quentin's role is basically giving snide remarks at Oliver yet still helpful enough when it comes down to catching the criminals... but his secretive dark dealings with Damien Darhk really promises to give him a huge role.
And this episode? Boy, does Quentin Lance shine brightly in this episode. Both the big potential character development spots for Quentin are both explored in this episode, firstly Laurel showing her the revived-but-insane Sara, whereas Oliver finds out about his deals with Darhk and the two men have a great heart-to-heart. It all ties together neatly as both Quentin and Oliver resolve to be better people with an awesome speech near the end by Quentin as he talks down the corrupt policewoman. Quentin's expression just turning from disbelief to joy to... well, however you can describe that look of horror when the mood whiplashes from what is possibly the happiest moment of his life (his dead daughter turns out to have been revived from the dead) into, well, seeing a thing that wears the face of his daughter but acts like an animal.
And then we have that odd moment of father-to-father friendship with Damien Darhk, which shows that despite him showing up to kill off his own mooks every episode, Darhk has standards of his own. And him pointing his gun at crazy!Sara, trying to ask for forgiveness, before eventually breaking down when Laurel confronts him... holy fuck, that's a wonderful, wonderful sequence. We all know Quentin's not going to shoot Sara because, well, that would be a waste of the whole Lazarus Pit thing, but damn if that scene doesn't tug at the heart strings.
I honestly feel that they should've kept Sara Lance's involvement in the Legends of Tomorrow series a bit of a surprise because this would make a 'holy shit where are they going with this' moment with Sara's role in this season, but I'm honestly fine with it.
And then Oliver confronts him and Quentin just alternates between regret, self-loathing, anger at both himself and Darhk and the world, self-defense... and granted Quentin does have a point that Oliver doesn't really have the right to lecture him about keeping secrets since Oliver's basically a mass-murderer in the first season. But then Quentin keeps pretending to be better than everyone, than Oliver and Laurel and all the other people who keep secrets, when he's the one that's figuratively in bed with the devil. But after that tense confrontation with Oliver, and eventually making up near the end thanks to Quentin talking down Liza Warner, Quentin apparently is now Oliver's man inside HIVE. Well. Plot relevance! Character development! Not two things I thought was going to happen in a single episode. Definitely one of the strongest, most character-driven episodes in Arrow since, well, forever.
Other plots continue to happen in the fringes of the Quentin Lance spotlight-stealing-show. We've got Curits Holt mucking around with Palmer's destroyed Atom suit and trying to get Felicity to move on and try to at least figure out what caused Palmer's death. It seems that the 'dead loved one' has been transferred to his now non-existent wife to his brother so we don't get a dead-gay-love-interest scene that could be interpreted as tasteless, which is cool. It's not a bad moment for Felicity and it acknowledges that someone doesn't just, well, lose feelings for an old loved one even if Oli-city is still the show's OTP. Something that its sister show The Flash could really need to learn. RE: Caitlin Snow. Also, can we recover Ray Palmer already?
Laurel learns a lesson from previous seasons (shock!) and immediately tells Quentin about Sara. Who is still an animal, and I suspect that the added mysticism to the show with John Constantine's future appearance and maybe Damien Darhk himself will be the solution. But for now, though, Sara's all crazy, strangling Laurel with a chain, and at the end of the episode breaking free. Next episode we'll have Laurel and Oliver undoubtedly clashing over, well, the fact that Laurel brought Sara back with the Lazarus Pit.
Oliver is also running for mayor, and I absolutely love that moment with Thea that really showed their brother-sister interactions well. See? This is how you do interactions, now have them at each other's throats for the sake of drama fifteen minutes into the first episode of the season. Granted it's plot-relevant because of the madness from the Lazarus Pit, but still. Thea's cool in this episode despite her minimal screentime. And Oliver repeating the 'I spent five years in hell' line from the opening intros could've really been cheesy, but holy shit, it really works for his mayoral campaign. #VoteQueen2015.
The flashback sequence has some generic plot going on about Oliver hiding the as-of-yet-unnamed-lady's death with the fake-death trick we saw all the way back in Season One, as well as Yao Fei's cave. Some nice throwbacks in the present-day sequence with Oliver using the "you have failed this city" catchphrase for the first time since, well, forever, showing respect to the good parts of the older grimdark material despite the shift in tone.
Overall it's great. Damien Darhk has a mysterious mystic-looking crate delivered to him. Both that, Sara's escape and eventual return to sanity, as well as Ray Palmer being shrunk (is anyone still honestly believing that Ray is dead?) seem to be the buildup for the next episode or two, and I'm looking forward to it.
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