‘Arrow’ 2.11 Episode Recap and Review: Blind Spot

Things are going downhill quickly on this episode of Arrow!

As our story begins, Blood is visiting his “aunt” at St. Walker’s asylum, looking for more information on Laurel’s visit. Maya tearfully admits that she told Laurel everything. Blood forgives her and leaves, but reappears seconds later wearing the skull mask.

News of Maya’s death (ruled a heart attack) reaches Laurel. She wants her boss to help her investigate Blood, but he isn’t game, so she turns to the one person she thinks will be, the Arrow. Ollie decides to look into the death of Blood’s father. As it so happens, the case is sealed and old enough to not have an online version for Felicity to conveniently hack into. Ollie, in full Arrow rigging, takes Laurel to the Starling City Archives in order to sneak in and grab the hard copy. After an extremely close call with local law enforcement, Laurel and Ollie manage to snag the right file, but it’s completely empty.

As it so happens, the real file is in the hands of Slade. He tells Blood to “fix” the Laurel situation. Laurel gets home to find her apartment tossed and Officer Dailey waiting to arrest her for possession. Back at the precinct, she tries to explain everything to Papa Lance, but he isn’t buying it. Ollie takes Laurel home, only to be met with a blow to the head. He wakes up to find Laurel gone and “Tell the Arrow Starling Cannery” scrawled on the wall in what looks like an awful lot of blood.

Ollie dons the hood and heads to the cannery. A long fight scene ensues in which the mysterious man in the skull mask briefly gets the upper hand. It doesn’t work out so well for him, though, as Laurel decides to be slightly less damsel-ish for half a minute and shoots the livelong daylights out of him. When Laurel and the Arrow unmask him, however, it isn’t Sebastian Blood, but corrupt Officer Dailey. As a result, Ollie is no longer pursuing Blood. Laurel’s boss has found out about her pill-popping and is forced to let her go.

Back in the Glades, Roy has decided that he has to confide in someone about this crazy new superpower of his, and it might as well be Sin. The two of them decide that the best way to handle something that fundamentally alters you on a very deep level is to take up vigilantism. Hey, it worked for the Arrow, right? Their first target is the Starling Slasher. (Frankly, the writers were busy working on other plot points, so the Slasher is just Jack the Ripper in a business suit.) Sin dresses up as a prostitute in order to act as bait, a plan that works remarkably well considering just how many prostitutes were hanging out on that particular street. Roy has a flash of ‘roid rage and beats the tar out of the Slasher, putting him in the hospital. The Arrow confronts Roy about the Mirakuru and offers to train him in the ways of the Force vigilantism.

Honestly, not much happened on the island this week. Ollie and Sarah couldn’t find Slade. Sarah sneaks out in the middle of the night to talk to Ivo on her long-range walkie talkie. Ivo feeds her a lot of lines, but Sarah expresses a healthy amount of skepticism. In return, Ivo promises to torture her lots, then dance on her grave (kind of negating all of the lovely sentiments he’d just been spouting).

Maybe it’s just a leftover from when I was just a wee proto-geek and watched the heroes lose in Empire Strikes Back, but I rather enjoy “darkest before the dawn” episodes. They tend to be what give a character, or a whole series, a little more depth. That’s not to say that this particular episode qualifies as “darkest.” We’re definitely moving in that direction, though. Laurel’s been fired for pill-popping, Roy put a badguy in the hospital because of his Mirakuru-induced rage issues, and the Arrow-team are now firmly on the wrong track with regards to Sebastian Blood.

I think next week is when we’ll start to see the turn. We know that Roy’s going to be in training. I’m hoping that getting fired from the D.A.’s office will be Laurel’s rock bottom, and that we’ll start to see her become something other than a Broken Bird in the next several episodes. (Possibly not, but hope springs eternal.)

Best Quote:
Ollie: “Roy’s not the kind of guy who’s confortable discussing his feelings.”
Digg: “Not like you and me.”

Things to Ponder:

  • If the Arrow is going to be training Roy, does this mean that Roy’s going to be privy to his secret identity?
  • I’m still wildly curious about what makes Slade turn against Ollie. I understand that there’s an island-centric episode coming up. Maybe we’ll find out then!

Responses

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  1. for the things to ponder second point.. i am guessing that it has to be about shadow. that ollie did not choose shadow when ivo shot her. remember slade liked shadow deeply

  2. slade must of found out, what actually happened at the shooting! and felt betrayed by ollie, for letting shadow die

  3. It’s starting to look like it was a combination of Shado’s death and the Mirakuru. We know a little more now, but I’ll save that for the next recap! Thanks for the comments. 🙂