Arrow Season 2, Episode 17 “Birds of Prey”
Written by Mark Bemesderfer & A.C. Bradley
Directed by John Behring
Airs Wednesday nights at 8pm ET on The CW
In Arrow‘s first season, The Huntress stood as a litmus test for where the show was in defining its main character, showing just how damaging a loose grip on one’s internal memory could be. Murder with principles is still murder, and The Huntress’s mission to kill her father forced Arrow and its main character to face that fact. A season later, The Huntress’ return to a completely different show in “Birds of Prey”, and it makes all the difference: all the philosophic undertones of season one’s episodes are able to flourish in the light of season two’s improvements – and despite suffering from some of most stilted, awkward dialogue in recent memory, stands as a testament to Arrow‘s massive creative growth in season two.
The only problem “Birds of Prey” runs into is when it tries to explore identity crisis through a non-costumed character: as always, Laurel draws the short straw in the episode, highlighted (lowlighted?) by her grabbing an alcohol bottle in the middle of a hostage situation (being chased by men with machine guns, no less) and threatening to drink her sorrows away. With Oliver, Helena, and Sarah, the “darkness” in their characters have much higher stakes: these are human beings killing people, erasing numerous lives where Laurel is really only trying to waste her own away. A cruel thing to say about a character, yes – but Arrow‘s done nothing through two seasons to show us that Laurel has any kind of emotional or mental fortitude, someone who is able to “be strong” when its needed. She’s pined over Oliver, cried and drank over Tommy – and although I can empathize with her for being part of a dangerous plan from a crazy ADA (one of two legal system-centric subplots that are grounded in absolutely nothing, the latter being the SWAT Team leader’s attempts to kill the vigilantes), I can’t waste my time watching her clutch her 30-day keychain, going on about proving her strength by sticking with the hostages and a woman she knows is unstable and extremely violent.
But at this point, I’m beating a dead horse by examining Laurel’s stories: her character is so emotionally volatile and naive, she’s never going to be a character allowed to express herself in any way that isn’t being used for some plot device (see: her relationship with Tommy, the seed for the crap tree that is her season two story line). Where “Birds of Prey” hits home is when Helena and Sara are under the microscope, jumping between the island and Starling City as the two women fight with the darkness in themselves. By this point, Helena’s defined herself by her quest to kill her father: there’s literally nothing else to her or her appearance in Starling City, a mission and resolution ripped away from her when one of the SWAT man’s bullets kills him.
“Once the darkness gets inside of you, it never comes out” she tells Laurel (who embraces it by blackmailing her new boss!), something we’ve seen Sara struggle with all season. Helena and Sara are really a fascinating contrast in character, in a way an examination of how Oliver’s philosophies have changed: while a seasoned Arrow has been able to soften Sara and help her heal from her darkness, his irresponsible approach to “training” The Huntress turned her into a killer, a person who became consumed by the worst parts of what Oliver tried to share with her. Helena’s the embodiment of Oliver in season one; Sara’s close to what he is in season two, but thanks to the events on the island, she’s still struggling to make that reconciliation that she’s one of the “good” guys (something Laurel’s not even sure of herself when she first runs into her).
When “Birds of Prey” focuses on the Triad of Oliver’s Lovers, “Birds of Prey” becomes a (mostly) fascinating exploration of morality in a world of superheroes and villains, and the slippery slope of “means to an end” for those trying to identify with the former. Sure, a bottle of alcohol is not as compelling as a retractable titanium bowstaff or pocket-sized crossbows, but the framework is there for each of the episode’s main characters – and while the rest of the season’s narrative hangs in a holding pattern, is a wonderfully entertaining alternative to the season’s biggest stories (even if it puts Felicity and Diggle on the sidelines for most of the hour), an example that shows Arrow‘s not just getting better at plotting stories, but finding interesting, character-focused stories to tell, just another rung on the ladder of the show’s climb from mediocrity to must-watch television.
Other thoughts/observations:
– Nice shout out to “Ugly” Mannheim, notorious DC Comics gangster, in the opening scene (Quentin is hunting down his son, Hugo).
– Oliver forces Roy to break up with Thea, even though it’s the only thing that keeps him from Hulking out. Thea cries and doesn’t understand, forcing Ollie to face the fact that he lies to the one person who thinks he doesn’t. Not the greatest material, but Willa Holland does a great job with is (she’s really been underrated and underutilized this season, hasn’t she).
– “Birds of Prey” ends with Thea getting into Slade’s limo… probably not a good thing for Roy’s recent anger problems.
— Randy