By Meghan O’Connor
Contributing Writer
‘Arrow’ is back from its mid-season hiatus which seemed way to long for the Arrow fans of the world. The writers left the audience with quite the plot twist before the hiatus and it’s safe to say that the fans, including myself, highly anticipated this past Wednesday’s episode. Stephen Amell, the actor who plays Oliver Queen/ The Arrow, even kept the audience on their toes through his Facebook page. At least once a week he would continue to hype up the return of ‘Arrow.’ It would be an understatement to say that the return episode had a lot of expectations surrounding it.
Where the audience last left Oliver Queen, he was fighting against a foe and his odds didn’t look good. He left Starling City to face this foe and protect what he thought needed to be protected. This left his crew alone impatiently awaiting his return. This is where ‘Left Behind,’ this past Wednesday’s episode, starts off. Roy Harper, Felicity Smoak, and John Diggle are taking over in a sense and trying as best as they can to protect the city while Oliver is missing.
At the same time, Oliver’s crew is also trying to find him and figure out what has happened to him. Felicity Smoak, played excellently by Emily Bett Rickards, has an unshakeable faith in Oliver. She is convinced he will return, it makes her all the more likeable and endearing. Even when the crew is visited by the ever present villain Malcom Merlin, who is clearly trying to shake them up and make them question what exactly has happened to Oliver, Felicity holds her own against him swearing that he will return.
Felicity’s faith in Oliver, as well as the doubts from the others that Oliver has suffered an ill fate, makes Malcom look for proof/ evidence that he has, in fact, suffered this fate. He does find the evidence he is looking for and brings the bad news to the “Arrow Crew” that Oliver has been defeated. This brings out the complete spectrum of emotions from the crew. Taking it especially hard is Felicity who becomes angry and starts lashing out at anyone who seems to cross her path. Towards the end of the episode it seems as if she is completely broken when talking to John Diggle and she states, “There is no this without him. It’s done. I’m done.” This begs the questions, what happens to the “Arrow Crew” now and where do they go from here?
While all this is going on in Starling City, the audience is also treated to the sub-plots of the season. There’s Ray Palmer who seems to have his own idea and agenda about who should be the one to save Starling City. At the same time there’s Laurel Lance. The strong female lawyer by day who is unsatisfied with the way justice is being handled in the courtroom and decides to take to the streets by night, serving justice up in a different kind of way. It almost seems that with Oliver gone, others can now step into the spotlight.
The newest sub-plot, that has the potential to be something real important, deals with a new villain Brick. Brick like everyone else has his own agenda. He has released all of the criminals and erased the evidence against them that Oliver/ The Arrow has captured in the past. Though it is still unclear what Brick and this group plan to do, it doesn’t seem like it will be anything good or beneficial to Starling City. This could be the thing that brings everyone together and forces everyone to work together. Not just the “Arrow Crew” but those who have their own sub-plots as well.
By the end of the episode it almost seemed like the writers couldn’t get any more information into one forty- two minute episode. This was not the case. As if the audience was not already emotionally drained enough the writers throw another curve ball. At the end of ‘Left Behind’ the viewer’s get to see where Oliver is and what exactly has happened to him. Though it might not be what the audience was expecting it certainly was another plot twist, leaving some interesting questions for them to answer.
This was quite the emotional roller coaster for any fans who are deeply attached to the characters in ‘Arrow.’ I am one of those people who gives everything when it comes to the characters in television shows, especially if I love the characters and the show. Like anyone else, I have my favorite characters who I wish the best for and hope against hope that only good things happen to them. This episode really played on the emotions not just for the characters themselves but for the viewers as well and I loved that. The writers weren’t afraid to pull all the punches so to speak. I was on edge waiting to see what happened to Oliver, how it would affect those characters I love, and I am now on edge again waiting to see what will happen next week with all of them.
This episode seemed to be setting up the rest of season three for ‘Arrow’ and I thoroughly enjoyed that as well. I like knowing the basics of where the show will be going from here on out. I am not concerned with the show becoming predictable simply because every time that I think it’s going to become predictable the writers always flip it on me, giving me something completely unexpected and usually amazing. They have set up a bunch of side-plots on top of the overarching season plot which makes me really excited, I can’t wait to see where they go.
With all this being said, I did not leave the episode going wow! This was incredible! It wasn’t the best episode in the season so far, nor was it the worst. There were certain things I would have liked to know more about and there are also some things that I wished they hadn’t focused on so much in the first episode back from the winter hiatus. It definitely kept me on the edge of my seat though and you can bet that I will be watching the next episode of ‘Arrow’ as soon as it comes out this Wednesday. They keep me hooked and I can’t get enough of it.
