‘Arrow’ 2.03 Episode Recap and Review: Broken Dolls

The Dollmaker and the Canary are both in Starling City on this episode of Arrow!

This week’s Arrow picks up right where we left off last week (thanks to a rather fantastic cliffhanger). Ollie and his secret identity are saved by none other than the Canary, who uses her legendary Sonic Scream in the form of a nice little handheld device. (I may have audibly shouted “nice!” at that part, startling both cat and roommates. Apologies, guys.) She, of course, disappears shortly thereafter. Ollie puts Roy on her case while he goes and works on a new old problem.

The Glades quake allowed several prisoners to escape in the confusion, including a serial killer known as The Dollmaker. He has a nasty MO of picking pretty victims, closing their throats with a special polymer, then posing them like dolls. Quentin was the detective who originally put him away, but Pike wants Lance off the case. Evidently Lance’s pursuit of the villain took him to a dark place. Understandably so, as Quentin got the case only a month after Sarah’s death, and the victims all fall in her age range. When Lance goes to Laurel looking for intel, she accuses him of having a vendetta. Lance turns her argument back on her with regards to the Hood.

Laurel’s info leads Lance and the Hood to the Dollmaker’s old lawyer, who sends them to the Bisque Motel. Unfortunately, the only thing in his room is a doll and a phone, through which the Dollmaker makes our heroes listen while he kills yet another victim. They’re able to break into the crime lab to sneak a look at the girl’s autopsy reports. Felicity notes that all of the victims have used the same kind of high-end, fortunately-rare skin cream. She volunteers to go to the only four stores in the city that sell the cream and act sufficiently helpless and bait-like. The sting ends with Felicity injured and Quentin in cuffs for Obstruction of Justice.

Laurel pulls strings and gets him out, but the Dollmaker snags both Laurel and Lance before they even get out of the parking lot. Ollie manages to get to them just seconds before Laurel becomes the next victim. He’s not the only one on this run, though. Thanks to Roy, the Canary also knows the whole situation and shows up to lend a feather. Ollie manages to pin the Dollmaker, but the Canary isn’t interested in Starling City’s version of justice. She kills the villain on the spot, then disappears yet again.

The stress of the whole kidnapping thing leads to an emotional breakdown from Laurel. She admits that she’s blaming the Hood for Tommy’s death because she would otherwise have to admit that it was her own fault for not getting out of the Glades when Lance and Ollie told her to.

As if the Dollmaker case wasn’t big enough, Ollie has to head to the courtroom for Mo’s pre-trial, in which the D.A. shocks all assembled by announcing his intention to pursue the death penalty. Meanwhile, the Canary has been tracked by a ninja in the pay of Ra’s al Ghul. Ra’s wants her back, but she isn’t interested. In time-honored tradition, she kills the messenger.

Back on the island, Slade and Ollie have left Shado back in the plane to conduct an autopsy on one of the bodies they found last episode. The boys are climbing to get a better vantage point when they see one of the ships start to fire on the island in the approximate vicinity of the ship. They both run back down, only to be taken out by the shells, themselves. Ollie loses consciousness, only to wake up in a prison cell on the not-so-good ship Amazo.

Arrow sure is fond of using folks from the Batman canon. Anyone else notice that? I liked their take on The Dollmaker, though. I wish we’d seen a more protracted storyline centered on him. Given his previous attachment to Quentin, I think he would have made a great multi-episode villain, something along the lines of 3XK on Castle or Yin and Yang from Psych. Ah well…

I don’t know about you lot, but I’m excited about the new chapter on the island. I know Oliver’s current state of being off the island can’t last terribly long, but it’s a nice change for now. I don’t know if either Slade or Shado are still kicking, but here’s hoping!

Best Quote:

Felicity: “Yeah, because going after actual bad guys is so last year.”

Things to Ponder:

• Did anyone else think that Felicity’s head injury was going to have more lasting repercussions?
• So Canary has ties to Ra’s al Ghul, hmm? Didn’t Malcolm Merlyn say he’d been to Nanda Parbat last season? Possible connection?
• Okay, my Green Arrow fans, obviously Amazo has significance. Share with the class!