Friday 9 January 2015

Arrow Season One: Salvation

Was The Saviour decorating that train?
The episode begins with Oliver going after a slum lord named John Nickel but he is caught by someone else who Oliver thinks could be another vigilante, in a Flashback Oliver and Slade go over the arrangements for the deal with Fyers. At Roy's place Thea is angry that he has to hold on to a gun for someone while Quentin helps Dinah with her investigation but Laurel doesn't really believe Sara is alive. Later a live video on a website sees Nickel killed by someone and after Diggle uses one of his contacts finds out he was killed by a vigilante and former Glades resident called The Saviour who then shows a DA as his next victim. Moira later meets with Frank who suggests they should just run and Laurel investigates the photo Dinah has after giving advice to Thea. Oliver later tries to track down The Saviour's after Felicity finds a signal but soon loses it; Oliver tries to reassure her but she blames herself after the DA is killed. In a Flashback Oliver and Slade meet with Fyers who changes the deal and says he will kill Yao Fei's daughter if the circuit board isn't returned.

That is a really cool coat that Oliver is wearing
In the present Laurel finds out it isn't Sara in the photo which upsets Dinah because he blames herself for Sara death, having known beforehand she was going with Oliver. Thea then visits Roy and stops him from committing a crime however he is soon kidnapped by The Saviour and a video of him is shown on the website. Felicity then figures out that the ambient nose in the video is from an old subway and in a Flashback a huge fight breaks out where Oliver, Slade and Yao Fei's daughter escape but Yao Fei himself is injured and left behind. While Roy says no one would care if he dies The Hood breaks into the subway and kills The Saviour after failing to negotiate with him, Roy is then reunited with Thea. Dinah then leaves town and Oliver attempts to cheer Laurel up because he doesn't want to be alone anymore, in a Flashback Fyers has played them since he has already took the circuit board. Moira then meets with Frank who says she is sorry because she has told Malcolm everything and Frank is then killed by the Dark Archer. Oliver then tries to cheer up Felicity who finds out the journal and everything Moira and the Dark Archer are working on is connected to the Glades.

"It's good to be back"
We got something a bit different this episode, besides The Hood facing off against a villain or corrupt businessman he faces off with a rouge vigilante which is a vigilante that kills and uses sinister methods. I liked The Saviour because he represents the negative effects of The Hood is having on the city because The Saviour did say he was inspired by The Hood. This is something the sometimes troubles heroes like Batman because if he never became a vigilante would villains like The Joker, Riddler or Two Face even exist? Still The Saviour was a villain in the end because he only used his wife's death and helping the Glades to make himself feel better because his victims did only commit minor crimes that normal vigilantes would leave to the police. I also liked The Saviours methods and putting his kills on the internet because it was really different from what he have seen before and he provided quite the challenge for Felicity too.

"Two guns, twice the amount of killing"
I did like the majority of what else happened in the episode such as the progression of Thea and Roy's relationship because like I said before it gives Thea a better storyline and out of all the other romantic subplots, so far it is the only one I could stand to watch. I like how these two are complete opposites as well such as when Thea got angry with the gun because I bet she never really set foot in the Glades before, most likely just doesn't understand how things works for those who live there like Roy. I also liked the appearance of the of the Dark Archer again as well and killing off Frank because it really puts Moira in a predicament. She did is doing all these bad things to protect her family but she is crossing over the line more and more; It sabotaged Robert's boat, got Walter kidnapped and now she framed Frank and got him killed, when is it going to stop for her?

"You've cracked the code Felicity!"
The Flashbacks where great again and we got some great action between Fyers's men and Oliver and Slade. Too bad Yao Fei didn't make it but I guess most of their efforts now will be to rescue him and stop whatever Fyers is going to do with the missile launcher. As for what I didn't like it would have to go to the Quentin and Dinah subplot, don't get me wrong I actually enjoyed it and it did get pretty emotional at the end when Dinah admitted she knew about Sara (strong moment from the Lance Family). However I have said it before and I will say it again; this subplot does feel forced in to the episode, it was like if it was not there it wouldn't really have mattered overall. Maybe it would have been better if once whole episode was focused on this subplot rather than splitting it up over three episodes, now that would have worked in my opinion!

"I was so sceptical at first but now I've made this whole work station"
Overall this was a great episode that we needed after that horrible Huntress one and since Felicity figured out more of that journal maybe Oliver will be investigating The Undertaking more and may even suspect Malcolm soon.

SCORE: 8/10

Highlights: The Saviour was a great villain
                   Moira continues to tread a dark path with Malcolm
                   The interaction with Thea and Roy

Let - Downs: The Quentin and Dinah subplot was good but felt out of place                

The great screenshots of the episodes where provided by the great site Screencapped. You can look for yourself from the link below;
 
 



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