‘Arrow’ 2.10 Episode Recap and Review: Blast Radius

Ollie’s back and he wants information on this week’s episode of Arrow!

So at some point in the last five weeks, Ollie and Sebastian Blood have become besties. So close, in fact, that Ollie’s throwing him a lovely little mixer over at Verdant. Felicity isn’t there, since she’s been in Central City with Barry, who’s “sleeping” after his encounter with a STAR Labs-driven lightning bolt. Laurel is, however, as she’s both kind of dating Blood and investigating some of his shadier ties at the same time, including those to Cyrus Gold (aka Solomon Grundy).

After the party, we learn that Blood isn’t the only villainous player in town at the moment. A bomber with delusions of anarchy has decided to start his reign of terror in Starling City. (We don’t learn his name until practically the end of the episode, so I’m going to be calling him “Simon” until we get there. You know why.) Ollie suits up to rescue folks from the freshly-bombed building, as superheroes do. News of the bomber reaches Central City, calling Felicity back earlier than planned.

Laurel’s still investigating, which evidently means “asking outright instead of being at all stealthy.” Blood spins her a sob story about his abused mother killing his drunken father in front of him. Gold was the preacher at Blood’s orphanage, and the only person who was able to make poor, traumatized Blood talk again. Laurel, bless, doesn’t quite take his story at face value and checks out a name on a medical bill on his desk, “Maya Resik.”

Laurel takes her worries to Papa Lance, who promises to check into things for her. He has other things on his plate, though, as the Arrow is asking for some of the bombing evidence so that he can run his own analysis. Lance has a bit of quid pro quo, though. He wants the Arrow’s help to find the mole in the SCPD. Their meeting is interrupted by another explosion. Felicity is able to use the bomb’s remote trigger to trace the bomber, but Simon scrambles the signal and gets away. The snafu leads to a fierce row between Felicity and Oliver when Ollie accuses her of having her mind on Barry instead of her job.

In the face of the second bombing, Blood decides to hold a “unity rally” in the Glades to show the city that there’s nothing to be afraid of (and to do a little campaigning on the side). The Arrow tries to talk him out of it, as a large gathering of people is practically begging the bomber to attack. The rally goes ahead as planned. The Arrow-team is able to trace the bomb back to an internet anarchist with the username Shrapnel. Ollie gets caught by the booby-trap in Shrapnel’s shop, but Felicity is able to talk him through disarming it via arrow.

Meanwhile, Digg has headed out to the rally to find the bombs that Shrapnel has already planted around the perimeter. He finds the primary detonator in one of the speakers, but isn’t able to disarm it before Shrapnel shows and puts a bullet in his shoulder. Fortunately, Ollie shows shortly thereafter, disarms Shrapnel’s trigger with a trick shot, then turns him over to the SCPD. During all the fuss and fury, we see another, smaller hero moment. Roy saves Mo from a falling lighting truss and manages to lift it off the both of them with strength that can’t be human. Thea is more than a little suspicious.

Back on the island, Slade, Ollie, and Sarah bury Shado alongside her father. Slade gives Ollie Yao Fei’s hood, saying that Shado would have wanted him to have it. Sarah is afraid that the mirakuru is making Slade unstable, a fear that is proven correct when he tries to strangle Ollie in his quest for vengeance on Ivo. When they make camp later than night, Ivo calls to threaten their lives unless they turn over the serum, but Slade has disappeared, taking it with him.

I have to be honest, this one felt like a bit of a filler episode. Possibly because it was a bit of a filler episode. No progress on the Mirakuru, no new information (for Ollie) on the guy in the skull mask. Even the island flashback was a little slow. Fortunately, both the island and Starling City had pretty big reveals at the very end.

Did anyone else find it a little crazy that Mo would have gone to the Unity Rally? Positive verdict or not, she’s still one of the most hated people in Starling City right now, and attending a rally about all the bad things that have happened lately seems a risky move to me. Did I miss a webisode where Ollie used his friendship with Blood to get him to stop talking smack about his mom?

Anyhoo, I’m willing to bet that the story will pick back up next week. See you then!

Best Quotes:
Felicity: “I prefer ‘sleeping’ to ‘coma.’ Kinda sounds, y’know, not fun.”

Digg: “I think you didn’t have a problem with Felicity’s performance until she met Barry Allen.”

Things to Ponder:

• What’s going to happen to Roy? Is this how he finally becomes Red Arrow?
• Show of hands, who thinks we’re going to see Shrapnel again?

There will come a day when I will see Sean Maher on a show and not immediately think “SIMON!!” But it is not THIS day.