Arrow Season 2 Episode 11
What They Say:
Blind Spot – Oliver feels conflicted when Laurel asks the Arrow for help investigating Sebastian Blood; Sin wants Roy to test his new super-strength.
Content:
While Arrow had some decent bits in the previous episode, it was one that was definitely more of a transitional episode than something really serious. The biggest downside was that the villain of the week was definitely weak and didn’t add much nor did it let the actor, Sean Maher, stretch all that much. We did get a few new pushes and prods when it comes to what happened on the island and a bit more regarding what Roy is going through, but the episode as a whole was admittedly a bit flat. The interesting part to it all was seeing some of what Laurel was coming up with recently in her investigations into Sebastian Blood, who we’ve learned was part of what Slade is orchestrating in order to cause trouble for Oliver. Slade’s motivations seem rather basic, but there’s this sense that there’s something larger going on as well.
The island arc gets a bit more material this time around, which is still dealing with the fallout from what happened to Slade and obvious Shado since nobody is taking it well. It’s down to mostly just Sara and Oliver at this point and Sara’s not exactly making friends with him since she’s trying to convince him that she can smooth things over with Ivo if they bring the drug back. Considering what Oliver lost because of Ivo, it’s no surprise that he’s not exactly agreeable and is more interested in just firming up their position to wait things out a bit.
The slowly building subplot involving Sebastian Blood takes a bit of advancement this episode as Laurel is trying to find out more about what’s going on with him. After her visit with his aunt, it’s amusing that Blood can go and visit the aunt, kill her, and then having nothing happen since the DA is willing to chalk it up to a coincidence more than anything else due to the danger of going after such a big target. Laurel’s increasingly pushed on the outside at the office because of this since she knows there’s more to what’s going on and isn’t going to let it go. So much so that she’s even willing to go to her father to connect her with Oliver as the vigilante to delve into what’s going on. Which isn’t exactly something that will go over well with Oliver since he’s spent time doing good things with him in their public personalities. She’s able to draw Oliver in with this, especially with the nod to Cyrus Gold, but she makes a decent enough case to get his attention and to actually investigate.
And that investigation takes an interesting turn along the way as they start looking into his father, which in turn has Oliver bringing Laurel with him to a records location in order to find out more. Considering the way the two of them started off the season, it’s quite the reversal. But one that also has a fair bit of action and gunfire along the way and leads to some nice heroics that’s quite a lot of fun to watch, even if the result wasn’t worth it.
That does set other things in motion though as Slade doesn’t like how close Laurel is getting and that has him forcing Blood working through his connections to set her up for illegal drug possession. While she is on the right path, which is why they’re removing her as an obstacle, it’s also something that has a lot of truth to it since her father does some of the questioning and all he sees are his failures in her, coupled with other recent events like the DUI. Having a cop on Blood’s side setting things in motion doesn’t help but there’s a lot of problems to be had here that Oliver at least tries to mitigate some. I suspect a lot of people are enjoying Laurel’s fall, but she’s gone through a lot after all that happened in the Glades, her family and Oliver and Tommy.
Of course, seeing her spiral down while believing she’s right, even if she is taking drugs she shouldn’t be, there is a bit of amusement in that she is proven right, to some degree, when she ends up getting kidnapped right out of Oliver’s hands and is taken by Blood’s cronies and played into believing that someone else is behind the mask. That exposes some interesting corruption within the police that should throw some concern out there about who’s involved in what. But for Laurel, it just muddies the waters more since she was so certain. Even more amusing is that Blood sets things up in such a way that the officer that was standing in for him ended up taking the fall for a lot of other things Blood did as well, which certainly tidies up a few loose ends in some ways for those working the cases.
Another of the subplots that grows a bit here involves Roy as we’ve seen him changing because of what he was injected with as well, which included his save of Moira previously. He’s been coping with it mostly on his own since he can’t tell Thea, so he does the next best thing and shares it with Sin, showing her what he’s capable of and making it clear that he sees it as a way to step out of the vigilante’s shadow and protect the city himself, focusing obviously on the lower class. It make sense that he’d deal with Sin with this since they both come from the same place and there’s a certain solidarity to them as well that’s fun to watch. There’s less said between them overall, but at least Sin shows a little bit of caution with it all.
Seeing him working with Sin to figure out what to do in the Glades is definitely cute since the first one they decide to go after is a slasher of prostitutes, which means Sin gets to be the bait. And he gets Thea to doll her up, against her wishes of course, and that’s just a comical sequence all of its own. For better or worse, they end up with the right guy from the start and we get to see that Roy is going to be the type to just go front and center on it, not even hiding his face. Even worse though is that he has a violent side to him which figures into what the Mirakuru drug does to those that survive it as we saw it with Slade before.
In Summary:
Arrow pushes a few changes through with this episode, though some of it like the plot with Laurel and Blood is just a feint. Roy is changing and not handling it well because he’s understanding the responsibility that comes from having power after using it in a way that is definitely hitting him hard. Laurel’s story isn’t a bad one as we see her fall from grace truly hit rock bottom now because of the way so many people view her and the fallout from her being kidnapped. Oliver’s getting caught up in her issues definitely works nicely since it adds a new wedge between them. But for me, it’s all about a 30 second scene in which Blood reports to Slade and we see Slade in his full Deathstroke outfit. It’s solidly done and works well, but it was when he pulled back the mask and revealed himself where the angle, the lighting, the look… it was Deathstroke personified for me in how it could be done well for TV. Add to that a nice nudge at the end with Oliver and Roy and there’s a whole lot to look forward to.
Grade: B