‘Arrow’ 2.07 Episode Recap and Review: State vs. Queen

The verdict is in on this episode of Arrow!

Actually, we’re going to start with the island flashback this time, just because I loved the main cliffhanger so much. Ollie is forced to lead the bad guys to the plane where he’s been living with Slade and Shado. They aren’t home, so Ivo has his men plant a bomb to blow it up, then makes Ollie take him to the gravesite. Slade and Shado return just in time to disarm the bomb, which they take with them as they head out to rescue Oliver. As it turns out, Ivo is looking for the hosen, which holds the coordinates to the sub. Slade and Shado show up just in time to keep Ivo’s minions from maiming Ollie. Oliver grabs Sarah and the four of them begin their attempt to find the sub in the hopes that the serum that Ivo is looking for will be able to save Slade’s life.

Back in Starling city, the closing days of Mo’s trial are finally here. Of course, we’ve just discovered that there was another potentially devastating effect of the earthquake: Count Vertigo was able to escape from his surprisingly un-padded cell. On what I feel sure is a completely unrelated note, Digg has started feeling rather poorly, so Oliver tells him to take a little time off while the gang is in the courtroom listening to testimony.

Of course, Digg interprets “time off” as “go back to the office,” where he promptly collapses in front of Felicity. The tiny blonde woman manages to wrangle the rather large man all the way to the Arrow-cave over in the Glades without any sort of assistance. Tests show that Digg’s been exposed to Vertigo. Fortunately, Ollie worked up a counter-agent. Unfortunately, the Vertigo formulation has been tweaked and the counter-agent no longer works. Not good.

Digg isn’t the only one suffering from Vertigo poisoning. The D.A. collapses in the middle of Thea’s testimony (which is just as well, as it was going rather poorly for Mo). He’s loaded into an ambulance, but since the driver is Count Vertigo himself, the likelihood of the D.A. getting healthy again anytime soon isn’t high. In fact, the Count puts him on a city-wide broadcast, letting the residents of Starling City know that the cure for this new “disease” is the highly-addictive Vertigo.

With the D.A. out of commission, it’s up to Laurel to take over the Mo’s prosecution. A review of the case notes reveals the secret that Mo’s been alluding to since the first episode of the season. Laurel can’t stand the idea of using the secret in open court, so she begs Mo not to testify. Mo decides that she’s kept the secret long enough, and so calls Ollie and Thea in to come clean in private. Back in the day, while Ollie’s dad was having his affairs, Mo had a “moment of weakness” of her own with Malcolm Merlyn. Laurel uses the affair in her cross-examination, but it tears her up inside.

Meanwhile, Felicity and Digg figure out that the Vertigo disease is being spread via a roving flu vaccination truck. Felicity goes out to track it down on her own, but is caught in the act by Count Vertigo. Ollie has to leave the courthouse to save her, despite the fact that the jury could be back any minute.

The Count is holding Felicity hostage at Queen Consolidated. His ranting and posturing reveal that he’s not working alone. He’s being funded by someone big who wants Ollie out of the picture. Oliver is forced to break his own no-kill rule when the Count decides to inject Felicity with enough Vertigo to kill her instantly. Neither Felicity nor Ollie is happy about what Ollie had to do, but he comforts Felicity by saying that there was never even a choice to be made. (Shut up, they’re cute!)

Oliver makes it back to the courthouse just as the jury comes back. Shockingly, Moira is found not guilty of all charges. Ollie is happy, of course, but concerned that the verdict doesn’t make any sense. As it turns out, the jury was rigged. By the very much alive Malcolm Merlyn. He has Mo’s driver bring her to meet him in a parking lot where he reveals not only his involvement, but that he knows the truth about Thea. She isn’t the daughter of Robert Queen. She’s the only surviving offspring of Malcolm Merlyn himself!

Barrowman is back! I may or may not have actually yelped when he appeared on screen (which may or may not have startled the cat. I confirm nothing). Given Malcolm’s revelation at the end of the episode, I’m kind of surprised that the D.A.’s trump card wasn’t more involved. Wouldn’t you think that part of the prosecution’s argument would have included the fact that they had a child together? That would seem a pretty crucial bit of evidence, in my thinking.

I’m still not entirely sure what the point of the Count Vertigo plot was, to be perfectly honest. Was it all just to get the D.A. out of the way so that Laurel would have to take the case? There are better ways of doing that than restoring sanity to an old villain just for one episode, I should think. But that’s just my opinion, and frankly, any negative points of the episode were trumped by John Barrowman. So there.

Best Quote:
Felicity: “I have this thing about needles. All pointy things, really, which is ironic considering who we work with.”

Things to Ponder:

• Was Count Vertigo’s release just a distraction? I may have missed something about why exactly Blood was funding his escapades.
• Nature vs. Nurture: Is Thea going to go bad when she finds out that Merlyn is her dad (because you know she’s going to find out)?
• Seriously, though. Wouldn’t Laurel HAVE to recuse herself from this case? She dated the defendant’s son, was the supervisor of the defendant’s daughter, and lost her boyfriend because of the defendant’s alleged actions. That has to be a conflict of interests.