Arrow Season Three: The Return

DEATHSTROKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oliver and Thea run in to Slade Wilson AKA Deathstroke while on the island and in Flashbacks Oliver is forced to return to Starling City with Maseo for a mission but is not allowed to contact his family.

I am really glad that we got the return of Deathstroke this season even if it is just for one episode but it is enough just to see him in action again! Plus I really liked that we got to go back to the island again after I have been complaining that the Flashbacks haven't been as good since they left it. Slade still has a lot of hatred to Oliver and proves just how much of a badass he is with some great fight scenes with Oliver and Thea. It wasn't much of a surprise that Malcolm was behind it all so they can get back their killer instinct (this is just the kind of thing he will do) but it was cool that Slade accepted it; they weren't it any scenes together but it was a nice villain team up. I was a bit disappointed however that Slade and the island didn't get as much screen time as I would have liked, for example Oliver and Thea could have dodged more traps. Also, I'm not going to mark the score down for this because the writers obviously wanted just Slade to be the opponent, but it is a shame we didn't see Captain Boomerang who is one of my favourite DC villains. Now as for Oliver and Thea we did get some great bonding moments between those two and I liked that Thea has grown more as a character in just this episode. Her reaction to her being Sara's killer was really well done and I liked her response to Malcolm this time because she now has more reason to hate him now then last episode when it came out of no where in my opinion. Now Slade says that Thea is in the darkness despite her sparing his life which makes me wonder if she is going to end up more like Malcolm than she wants?

Yay Tommy

The second half of this episode was all about the Flashbacks which is good because we need to have these more focused episodes every now and again. I really liked the Flashbacks this episode mainly because it wasn't in Hong Kong and we got to see the dilemma Oliver had a being so close to his friends and family. It was awesome that they finally got back to the message Oliver found from his father that was mentioned in season one and that we got to see him as a killer again like he was in the beginning. I enjoyed seeing Tommy again because he is always a scene stealer and we actually got to see Diggle's brother which is something I wasn't expecting. What I didn't like though was that Moira and Walter wasn't there (they could have easily been in it) and that while Thea's drug problem and  Quentin's drinking was expected I hated that we wasted time addressing them again because I how much I didn't like their addictions. Still Quentin did have any strong performance dealing with Sara's death and I am glad the show didn't put this off until next episode. Glad that Quentin is mad at Laurel because he has every right to be because Laurel mentioning how her mother already knew just reminded me how stupid her plan was. Finally we got the introduction of Matthew Shrieve (Marc Singer) which I am interested to see more of him because in the comics he is in charge of a group called the Create Commandos which is made up of Meta - Humans who are like fictional creates e.g. Frankenstein, Wolfman etc. So how is this going to work in Arrow which has always been more grounded than The Flash?

"Using a green hoodie to hide my identity is good, red wouldn't work"

Overall it was great seeing Deathstroke again (hope he returns soon) and it was refreshing having a more focused episode that was just about one storyline and the Flashbacks. Just now remembered to mention that the Flashbacks have finally dealt with China White and we can focus of maybe another villain.

SCORE: 7/10

Highlights: DEATHSTROKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
                   Thea had some great development in this
                   Flashbacks that showed Oliver's struggle and Tommy cameo

Let - Downs: Not enough Deathstroke or island
                      Moira and Walter should have been in the Flashbacks
                 Didn't like that we had to address Thea's and Quentin's addictions again even in Flashbacks

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

 

 





http://screencapped.net/