If you have not watched this episode I want you to stop reading this IMMEDIATELY and go watch, so many crazy things happened in this episode and from here on there will be major spoilage.
In Three Ghosts, Arrow’s holiday episode, the title is obviously a play on the classic Dicken’s story but believe me it has little to do with the holiday season. Probably the most you get out of it is a Christmas tree and talks of a Queen holiday party. But what you do get is the best Arrow episode to date and what may have been one of my favorite hours of TV ever, seriously. A lot of things happened last night so get ready. First let’s address the cliffhanger from last week. After his battle with Cyrus Gold, Oliver is badly injured and his team can’t save him so they bring in Barry Allen. Cyrus Gold got away with a centrifuge that will make Brother Blood’s manufacturing of Mirakuru, sorry DC fans I was way off thinking it was Miraclo, and now our hero is near death. But Barry is able to save him by injecting him with rat poison, crazy things you learn on tv these days. Before Oliver wakes up, he is dreaming and sees Shado who tells him to stay with her and that it’s his time and creepy things like that, then you realize isn’t Shado still alive on the island?! Not for long, because she is one of our three ghosts. Oliver wakes up, he’s mad that Barry now knows his identity, Felicity assures him it’ll be ok, and so on. Barry makes a comment about his face paint and why Oliver doesn’t wear a mask, you can see where this is going and we’ll get back to it later. Let’s talk about why Shado is a ghost. After their discovery of the sub and injecting Slade, unsuccessfully, with the Mirakuru, the three are captured by Ivo and his men. Back on the mainland, Ivo gives Oliver the choice of who will live, Sarah or Shado. Oliver doesn’t make a choice but when Ivo points the gun at Sarah he basically does and Ivo shoots Shado in the back of the head. I think I am going to address the next ghost as well right now, since to most it is pretty obvious who it’ll be. Oliver starts to see the “ghosts” even when he’s awake and the next to visit him is Slade. Both of the ghosts remind him of his guilt of what happened on the island and the hallucinations are pretty real to him, so much so that Oliver gets in a fight with Slade and destroys half of his lair in the process. I’ll get to the third ghost in a bit. Barry’s analysis of Oliver’s blood comes back and it’s clean, so nothing foreign is causing him to see things, its all mental leading Oliver to believe that it is his guilt.
I want to talk about Roy for a little while because some amazing things happen to him in this episode. After the Arrow shot him in the leg last episode, Thea gets him back to the manor and into her room. Oliver comes in and pulls out the arrow and calls Diggle in to patch Roy up. But Thea isn’t going to let this stop them from finding out what happened to Sin’s friend, so she goes to Laurel for help. They eventually get an address to the doctor who was giving psych exams to the people approved to donate blood, so after hearing all of this and of course being reckless like always Roy goes in on his own. At the office, Roy discovers that Sin’s friend was “approved” for Mirakuru testing, and just when he is about to hightail it outta there the doctor who is involved in all of this is trying to burn all of the evidence. Roy ends up getting captured and brought to Brother Blood. This leads to the final showdown which I will return to in a little bit. But I need to mention what happened when Diggle and Oliver went to check out Gold’s apartment. Barry was able to get a DNA sample off from Oliver’s previous confrontation with Gold and they track him down. Diggle goes in and is looking around, on the counter he finds a book with the classic poem Solomon Grundy in it, amazingly enough this is going to happen and after the final battle you can see how.
We have to also talk about what happened when Arrow called in Detective Lance, sorry Officer Lance, to go after Gold. Since Brother Blood has an inside man on the force Gold was aware that they were on their way. After ambushing them, in which Gold throws a saw blade into one of the cops, killing him instantly, Gold takes them down one by one. Another death happens in this episode as we have to say goodbye to Lance’s friend and partner Lucas. Luckily for Lance he only ends up in the ICU. Laurel finds out while she is out shopping with Sebastian, a relationship that I am sure will turn sour by the second half of the season.
Let’s get to the final battle. Roy is captured, Blood has injected him with Mirakuru and Arrow arrives to take out the operation and save Roy. At first it seems that Gold will end up taking Oliver out again, but time stops and the third ghost arrives. It’s Tommy, and in a very emotional, heartfelt sequence, Tommy tells Oliver that he doesn’t hold him responsible for his death and that his guilt is false. Tommy tells him that he is a hero and to get up and keep fighting, which he does and Oliver takes out Gold by throwing him in to the centrifuge which splashes chemicals all over him melting half of Gold’s face and killing him. So when will this character return as the zombie monster we all know and love? Soon enough. Oliver puts an end to Blood’s operation, Brother Blood gets away and Arrow can’t pursue him because he has to save Roy. Some how he is able to revive him and Roy survives the Mirakuru injection, for which we know the consequences, and after seeing the teaser for the second half of the season, I can’t wait to see what happens.
The major reveal of the episode comes after Brother Blood’s defeat as we find out that he is not the one running the show. Blood walks into an office and we see a figure with his back to us sitting in a chair, but when he speaks we know exactly who it is, Slade (and he is wearing his classic eyepatch)! Slade tells Blood that his failure is unacceptable and that anyone can wear the mask of Brother Blood. Even though the Mirakuru was destroyed apparently they can get more from Slade’s blood, so this isn’t the last time we will be seeing it in action. We find out through a flashback to the island that Slade had woken up on the sub and somehow realized that something had happened to Shado. He brutally assaults all of Ivo’s men and quickly eliminates them with his new-found power. Ivo escapes and Slade goes to Shado’s body and has a breakdown, he swears to destroy the person who is responsible for this. So Slade isn’t dead on the island, yet Oliver says earlier in the episode that he had died on the sub. So we know that Slade’s journey into darkness has only begun and that the events to follow are some that Oliver wanted to forget. In the current time, Blood asks Slade if he knows who the Arrow is and Slade replies that he’s his friend. But then he goes on to talk about how he is going to slowly destroy everything Oliver cares about and finally destroy Oliver as well, so obviously Slade has some serious issues going into the second half of the season. Will he become Deathstroke, or just remain as Slade?
Let’s talk about Barry, who really became a part of team Arrow this week, but was overshadowed by all of the awesome events. We need to address whether or not he becomes the Flash or not, right?! Of course he does, but that doesn’t happen until the final scene. Barry has returned to Central City but he is too late to make it to make it to the actual activation ceremony of the particle accelerator. In his lab, Barry is watching the news when suddenly something goes wrong and the accelerator overloads sending out a energy-wave into the city. And as Barry is closing the ceiling panel which is conveniently has to be done with a chain, a lightning bolt strikes and a series of events happen as the energy reacts with the chemicals in the room creating some kind of combustion and you can pretty much guess what happens next! Barry is knocked to the floor after being caught up in all of this and the last thing you see is some red energy coursing through his face, bring on The Flash! Oh and in this continuity Barry Allen is the one who gives Arrow his mask, and he looks pretty cool in it, time to grow out that beard some more Ollie!
This episode alone is the reason why Arrow is the best comic book show on TV presently and to date, and why it is mopping the floor with Agents of SHIELD. I can’t wait to see what’s to come in 2014! Sound off in the comments about this week’s episode and what you think will happen when the show returns in January! See you then Towelites!
Arrow S2E10 “Blast Radius”
Arrow will return on Wednesday January 15th!
Stay tooned 😛
~CynicNerd
