‘Arrow’ 2.22 Episode Recap and Review: Streets of Fire

Last episode’s explosion buried Laurel and Ollie, but in slightly different areas. Ollie manages to fight his way out from under the rubble, but Laurel has fallen into another part of the tunnels. Fortunately, Ollie’s bow and quiver fell with her. He coaches her through shooting an exploding arrow into the debris blocking her exit. I won’t lie, it was a pretty awesome moment for Laurel.

Digg is still in the middle of a minor boss battle with the terribly-masked Isabel. She throws out some pretty nasty threats to Felicity, who appears on the scene to save Digg by hitting Isabel with a van. It’s almost comedic, until Isabel manages to get back on her feet, causing Felicity to floor it and GTFO with Diggle in tow.

Felicity informs Digg and the now-present Ollie that a courier is on his way from STAR Labs with the Mirakuru cure. The courier calls Felicity to let her know that he was in a pretty bad accident and can’t move. The team heads out to find him, but Slade has been listening in on their communications and moves to find him first.

Meanwhile, Blood has been towing the party line like a good mini-boss, keeping the National Guard out of the city until Slade’s plans come to fruition. That changes when Slade’s minions storm City Hall and kill the new District Attorney. It appears that Slade failed to inform Sebastian that the plan is to raze Starling City to the ground, destroying one more thing that Oliver loves. When Slade acquires the cure, Blood sneaks it out of the building and to Team Arrow. Shortly thereafter, Isabel discovers Blood’s treachery and kills him for it.

Meanwhile, there’s an army massing outside of Starling City. Blood diverted the National Guard, so our heroes know it isn’t them. A call to Amanda Waller reveals the truth: the army is ARGUS, and they have orders to destroy the city if Slade’s army cannot be stopped. Oliver tells Waller that he has the cure, but it hasn’t been tested. She gives him until dawn to stop Slade’s army, or she’s going to nuke Starling. The call causes Ollie to test the cure on the one subject they have: Roy.

While all of this is going on, Laurel is attempting to find her way to safety at the police station with Quentin. She finds herself being chased by another minion, and then rescued by the Canary. Laurel reveals that she knows that the Canary is Sara, and the two bond over Sara’s past and the good that she’s done since. The two make a brief pit stop so that Sara can save a small child from a burning building, thus cementing her status as a hero in the eyes of the Starling City police officers who were on the scene.

Sara and Laurel make their way back to the police station, where Quentin has made a rock solid case as to why the SCPD should be helping the vigilantes fight Slade and Blood. The acting chief not only buys his story, but reinstates Quentin as a full detective. Woo! Now the entire Lance family (save River Song) is together and happy at the police station. I foresee this going terribly awry next episode.

On the family front, Thea had been trapped in the train station by Slade’s minions. One grabs her, only to be taken down by black arrows. That’s right! Malcolm Merlyn is back in town. Now that she knows the truth, he’s come back to try to be a father to Thea, or at the very least get her to safety. She’s not exactly buying it, but is a little more on board when he saves her from a second attack. As Merlyn tussles with the minion, a gun falls out of the fray. Thea picks it up and, once the fight is over, aims it at her bio-dad. The camera zooms in super-close, and Thea fires. We can hear a body fall, and then the credits roll.

Wow. They weren’t kidding when they said that these last three episodes are like one big movie! I’m excited to see how they’re going to wrap this all up next time. Well, okay. I know they aren’t going to wrap it ALL up, because it’s an action show and action shows always end a season on a cliffhanger that launches the next season. Show of hands, who thinks Thea could be a villain next year?

I’m going to save the large part of my opinions until next week, when they finish off the season. For this one, I’m just going to rejoice in the return of John Barrowman (Don’t give me that look. You knew my opinions on Captain Jack when you started reading these reviews) and once again be happy that Laurel is starting to suck less.

Best Quote:

Felicity: “Just saying, if you guys don’t come back alive, I’m gonna be really pissed.”

Things to Ponder:

  • So Lance is a full detective again, has both his daughters being all family-like, and has the SCPD on the Arrow’s side. Is he going to die next week or sometime in season 3?
  • Did Thea really shoot Merlyn or was something else going on off-camera?
  • Just because it makes me giggle, can I just pretend that Felicity somehow invented a mask for Sara that magically removes and reapplies the black makeup around her eyes?

Photo Credit: The CW

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