‘Arrow’ 1.12 Recap And Review: Vertigo

Arrow gets Vertigo this week (which is an imprint of DC, so that works out)!

Yes, the tagline was a pun about Vertigo Comics. In penance, I offer this week’s recap:

The Hood has been spending all of his time tracking down leads to Vertigo dealers in Starling City. His shaking down of street dealers finally yields him a name, “The Count.” He takes the name to an old friend in the SCPD, Vice Cop McKenna Hall, who tells him that they’ve known that much for months.

Thea’s court date goes poorly, to say the least. The judge in charge of her case is up for reelection and therefore decides to “make an example” of Thea. He denies her plea arrangement and forces her case to go to trial, making prison time a very real possibility. Ollie thinks that he can get the heat off Thea, but he needs time, so he goes to Laurel to ask her to ask her father to call in a few favors. Laurel makes an impassioned plea to Papa Lance, comparing Thea to her late sister, Sarah. Quentin finally agrees and manages to get Thea a new deal, placing her probation in Laurel’s hands.

Thea, on the other hand, would rather risk jail in order to hurt her mother, whom she still thinks is cheating with Malcolm. Oliver finally tells her the truth that he learned last episode: that their father had been cheating on Moira for years. Thea and Mo reconcile, and Thea takes Laurel’s deal.

In between bouts of family drama, Ollie uses his Bratva connections to secure a meeting with Count Vertigo. He manages to procure a sample of pure Vertigo, then uses Felicity’s ridiculously comprehensive IT skills to analyze the sample and find the Count’s lair. The Hood takes on Vertigo HQ and the obligatory fight scene ensues. Ollie ends up pumping the Count full of his own drug and turning him over to the cops, thus ensuring that the City of Townsville is saved, at least from this week’s villain.

Then we come to the final scene, which really made the whole episode for me, personally. Felicity asks Ollie to meet her at Big Belly Burger. She knows something’s going on, and that Ollie’s been lying like so many rugs, but she trusts him. Felicity hands over the Revenge Book that Walter gave her just before he disappeared and tells Ollie everything she knows thus far, including that Walter believes that the book belongs to Moira.

This week’s episode seemed to be a bit of a breather from Arrow‘s major story arc. The Book only made an appearance at the end of the episode, and no mention was made of anything Conspiracy-related until then. As thoroughly enjoyable as it was, this was rather a filler episode for me. We did get to meet Count Vertigo, a DC Villain actually associated with Green Arrow, and there were some lovely family moments, but all in all, this episode didn’t really go anywhere.

With the mentions that Vertigo has been getting in previous episodes, I really felt that the actual Count Vertigo storyline was going to be a little more important than it was. I really wanted to see the spread of the drug be somehow related to the Grand Conspiracy. Maybe it was and we’ll find that out in a later episode. Fingers crossed.
On the family note, I really hope that we see more of Laurel and Thea interacting. I think Ollie’s right that Laurel would be a good influence on her, and I’d really like to see Thea become a character who really contributes to the Hood part of the show. They’re calling her “Speedy,” for heaven’s sake! Let the girl live up to her namesake in some way other than the drug abuse.

Best Quotes:
Digg: “The Count? That’s worse than ‘The Hood!'”

Tommy: “I’m learning you’re not much of a morning snuggler.”
Laurel: “And I’m learning that you don’t like to wake up at any hour that ends in A.M.”

Things to Ponder:

  • Ollie knows about Mo’s Book! How long before he pieces together Mum’s involvement in the whole Conspiracy?
  • Did anyone else notice that Thea still got off without jail time because she knew someone who knew someone? Isn’t that still preferential treatment for being a Queen?
  • I asked the IT guys about their spectrum analyzer. They laughed again. I’m starting to think that Arrow has an inflated idea of what actually happens in an IT Department.
  • Responses

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    1. thanks so much for the recap. it was pre empted here by basketball and was to air afterwards but the game ran late and the show was already in progress so i missed the first 25 minutes of the show. was not happy. but your recap filled me in on the missing parts. the end of the episode when felicity met with ollie was the best part. finally ollie learns the truth. know that he has this info what will he do with it next. will he really take down his own mother?

    2. A solid episode! I like the flashback scenes of Ollie on the island. Always provides a frame of reference to the storyline in the episode. Thanks for the summary.

    3. I’m just not a fan of the flashbacks anymore. They seem more disruptive than helpful now. I feel like Ollie’s character has changed enough in the present that I’m not as compelled to know how he changed into The Hood in the first place. Thanks for reading, guys! 🙂