Arrow S2E1 “City of Heroes” recap by CynicNerd

Arrow was one of the most popular new shows last year and it quickly became my favorite of the season. Following on the curtails of shows like Smallville, Heroes and Birds of Prey before that, Arrow looked to rejuvenate the superhero genre on TV. Season 2 has promised more superheroes, properly dubbing the overall name for season 2 to be “City of Heroes“. Yet at first this episode did not feel like Oliver wanted to get back into the game.

Actually the beginning of the episode is kinda confusing as Ollie is running through the jungle on the island, but then you realize that it’s not the Ollie 5 years ago, this is now, well at least a little bit after the events of the season 1 finale. Well Ollie is on the Island again, he’s abandoned his city just like Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight Rises. But Felicity and Diggle are not going to let that happened so they fly out to the island to bring Ollie home.

Oliver has taken his best friend Tommy’s death at the end of season 1 pretty hard. Tommy’s father Malcom Merlyn aka The Dark Archer has destroyed a good chunk of Starling City called the Glades and all of our characters are dealing with that. Thea, Oliver’s sister, has cleaned up her act and her and Roy Harper are running Oliver’s club. Moira Queen is in jail because of her involvement with Malcom’s scheme. Laurel is on her kick that the clash of the two archers was the reason the Glades was destroyed and she now has a personal mission to stop “The Hood”.

We also get back to the Island flashbacks and really it seems like a video game there because the trio of Slade, Shado, and Oliver now have a new wave of bad guys, this time around I think they are pirates. Well I guess I am ok with this because it is interesting to see Oliver develop his skills and the three of them kick butt every week.

So the bad guys of this episode are called the Hoods. They impersonate Oliver’s classic “you have failed this city” tagline and are taking their family loses out on those who they think are responsible for the destruction of the Glades. Especially in this episode, they hold the Queen family responsible for everything because Queen Industries helped build the earthquake machine. These guys have no problem killing, because they think the Hood had the right idea and use him as a role model. They eventually try finding Oliver at the club but kidnap Thea instead, cuz someone has to pay! This drives Oliver back into the costume, Felicity reveals that she has had a custom bow made for him, and the Hood is back! After a daring rescue and not actually killing anyone Ollie returns to his new upgraded HQ, thanks to Felicity of course, he feels that the Hood is dead, and that he needs a new name, which at the end of the episode he’s about to say Arrow, but then the show ends and the Arrow title card appears conveniently.

The killing is definitely toned down this season, but that is a necessary step on Ollie’s journey to actually become Green Arrow. Another great thing that happened is we get our first look at Black Canary as she rescues Roy from a beat down. Bring on the heroes, because the show needs to focus on something other than everyone being upset about Tommy and The Glades. I felt that for the first episode it was a little slow and its frustrating that Oliver decides not to be “the Hood” anymore, but then he comes to terms that there is a higher calling to his deeds, Diggle of course sways him to realize that for every bad guy he killed in the past, Ollie save lives. It’s the ying and yang of being a hero. Something that we will see as the overall theme to this season. Another addition to the cast this year is Summer Glau’s Isabel Rochev who is trying to acquire Queen Consolidation through a hostile takeover. Oliver now has a new role and that is saving his company from going under, a familiar character returns to help him out and it’s a nice touch to the episode. So am I excited for this season, hells yes. Arrow more than impressed in season one and I hope that the show is stronger this year and is around for long time!

s2E2 “Identity“