Arrow Season 2, Episode 18 “Deathstroke”
Written by Marc Guggenheim & Drew Z. Greenberg
Directed by Guy Bee
Airs Wednesdays at 8pm ET on The CW
Although there’s still five episodes left in the season, much of “Deathstroke” feels rushed, so excited to get to the next step in Slade’s endlessly layered plan to destroy Oliver Queen, that it doesn’t take a lot of time to pause and look at the dramas it just created. In a way, there’s almost too much momentum in the episode, which incorporates everything from Queen Consolidated, Oliver’s relationship with his mother, and Roy’s feelings for Thea all under the orange-and-black umbrella of Deathstroke (a name Slade admits is flamboyant, but it’s growing on him). “Deathstroke” marks the clear beginning of Arrow‘s third act, a series of events that snowball to massive proportions in merely an hour’s time.
Now, some of these developments are really interesting – but nearly every single one of them are being rushed, so there’s a lot of clunky writing bringing things together. After Slade kidnaps Thea, it sends Oliver and the rest of Starling City into a spiral (rich white girl is missing panic hits so hard, Sebastian Blood SUSPENDS his campaign!), and catalyzing a series of shoddily-executed story beats. Roy gets mad at Oliver out of nowhere for getting Thea kidnapped (wait… what the fuck?) – something so illogical it almost retroactively makes Slade’s ridiculously misguided love for Shado seem like feasible motivation for his obsession. But like many other things to follow, the show needs these changes of character to happen quickly, in order to get to the larger plot threads in play: in this case, it’s getting Roy out of Starling City, for reasons we don’t know yet (maybe just to hit a spa and relax for a little bit somewhere?).
This tactic pops up all over the episode: Thea’s disappearance leads to a groan-worthy, nostalgic speech from Moira about how she loved to color, her whining about Oliver hating her eventually pushing him to take her hand and provide a little emotional support (which he should… but do we need the lame, sappy story to bring it about? At least give us something better and less cliched than CRAYONS). It also happens with the election: after Thea disappears, somehow Moira – someone just on trial for mass murder mere months ago, I must remind you – has pulled ahead in the mayoral race, on account of a “sympathy bump”…. don’t you think most people in Starling City would be cheering Moira’s prized daughter disappearing, a symbolic gesture of sorts to the 503 people she disappeared when she allowed an entire segment of the city to be caved in?
Like Slade’s “love” for Shado, I’m not completely buying Moira’s sudden about-face in the public eye, two important bits of story that cast a lot of the events to follow in “Deathstroke” in an emotionally hollow light. As a villain, Deathstroke is at his best when he’s two steps ahead of Oliver, fucking with him without explicitly stating his purpose for making him miserable. When he’s giving that mission definition, the episode suffers: Shado’s presence weighs heavier in death than it did in life, and its not the most solid foundation for our villain to build his insanely-complex plan of destruction on. Taking down a man who abandoned him halfway around the world? Sure, I can buy that: but at the end of the day, Ivo killed Shado, and there really wasn’t much Oliver could do about it – is he going to let a girl he’s known his entire life die, or a woman he’s known for a few months?
I’m getting sidetracked: there are still plenty of developments in “Deathstroke” that will be interesting in the future – even potentially with with old Snorel Lance, who now knows that Oliver has been masquerading around with a bow and a mask on, causing all sorts of trouble for her and the DA department (not to mention being the son of the woman who caused Tommy’s death, which never helps) since his arrival in Starling City. On the heels of her father being arrested for conspiring with the vigilante (Arrow employs him to bring in Slade for interrogation, even though they had no legit charges), it appears the loyalties of the Lance family are about to change yet again – and although this flip-flop may not be the most original direction for them to go, it seems the Lance family members are better served in opposition to Oliver and Arrow, rather than lukewarm acceptance or reluctant teamwork, as season two’s tried to go.
Arrow needs that hometown conflict, and with so much attention being paid to outside entities like the League of Assassins and Deathstroke, it’s good to see there’s still some attempt being made to keep something in the show somewhat grounded in Starling City. The election is essentially a ruse at this point (who knows what Moira would do in a seat of power, and Blood is just Slade’s puppet), and it seems the public is cool with people leveling the city, so there’s nothing to worry about there. In other words, that hometown drama has to come from some other characters in the city; which, by default, leaves Laurel, her father… and Isabel, who it turns out is working for Slade, too.
Which brings us to the most ridiculous turn of the episode: when Thea gets kidnapped, Oliver literally hands over the entire company to Isabel. THE WHOLE THING – no background check, no hesitation, no thought of anything except getting that one responsibility (one that Felicity points out he’s ignored a lot lately anyway) off his hands. This plays RIGHT into Slade’s plan, however, which makes Thea’s kidnap a little too clever for its own good – or Oliver a little too dumb, you can have your choice here.
However, it’s a double-edged sword: and the good side of that is Oliver turning the blame to himself, recognizing his less-than-consistent decision-making and dishonesty that have led him to this place. Maybe saying “I’m my own worst enemy” is taking it a little too far, but there’s some truth to the idea that Oliver is still trying to figure out his form of hero-ism and how to balance out the pros and cons of what he does at night with the life he leads during the day. Even something as easily forgotten as Arrow not killing guys anymore plays into it: it’s leading to packed prisons in Starling City, and those packed prisons are forming the backbone of Slade’s genetically-enhanced army, being created on Queen Consolidated’s Applied Sciences budget.
Needless to say, Oliver’s problems are only going to (literally) get bigger: and although “Deathstroke” finds some very clumsy ways to give all of this emotional weight, it never ceases to be entertaining, piling on the twists and turns and burying Oliver further and further, to the point that he’s ready to abandon any pretense of being civil and bloodless in his pursuit of defeating Deathstroke. He might as well have closed the episode saying “It’s on now, motherfucker” – it appears Arrow is ready to finally cash in on its many running threads of the season.
— Randy