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Review of Arrow 3.06 ‘Guilty’ (Spoilers)

TV SHOW: Arrow

SEASON/EPISODE: 3.06 ‘Guilty’

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Erik Oleson, Keto Shimizu/Peter Leto

PLOT:

Ted Grant finds himself at the heart of Arrow’s investigation into multiple gangland murders, which brings up the former-Boxer’s past to both Oliver and Laurel. Meanwhile Roy believes that he is Sara’s killer, and shares this secret with Felicity.

VERDICT:

I loved how the series managed to use the famous Boxing glove arrow in this episode, making it both necessary and believable in it’s scene (more so than glove that inflates on the end of a trick arrow in the comics or cartoons). But that was the only real humorous and ingenious moment in this otherwise gritty and bleak episode (I nearly forgot to mention the memory game with Akio during the flashbacks, but it didn’t stick in the mind like the boxing glove had), which is something I would like to see change. I mean I am enjoying Arrow and have done since the end of the first season, but I would love to see more lightness brought to the show, giving it a good balance between the Nolan-like Darkness and what we currently have in it’s spin-off the Flash (Green Arrow is not Batman, so stop making him so).

Okay onto this week’s episode which had it’s focus split between Ted Grant’s murder mystery and Roy’s secret (which turned out exactly as I thought) and even though both stories are interesting, they are ultimately handled in a messy way that just doesn’t compliment each other (the writers definitely tried to have both fit together, but it didn’t work all that well). I mean having Oliver talk down to Ted for being a vigilante and accidentally killing someone came across as quite hypocritical, since how many has Arrow killed before making his ‘no more killing’ vow (not to mention the people he has killed in the flashbacks).

I liked Laurel’s growth (her learning to remain calm under pressure and tough training) in this episode as she continued her meetings with Ted and J.R Ramirez is fine here as Wildcat (though I wish the role was with someone older, because I think he still looks too young to play the washed-up Boxer. I certainly don’t want a romance to happen between them…. darn it, I just jinxed myself there didn’t I?).

His story was interesting in that he was a vigilante before Arrow appeared and even had a partner (who turned out to be the bad-guy everyone was after in this instalment), but what I was hoping to see was more of Roy and unfortunately the focus was mainly on the Wildcat-side of things, which is a shame as (I have said before) Arrow’s apprentice has not had enough coverage this season (though I did like his fight with Ted’s failed apprentice and getting the name Arsenal finally). And I didn’t like how easily everyone (other than Oliver) turned their backs on Roy about Sara’s murder (especially Diggle’s comment about ditching him). You would think everyone would want to believe that Roy was innocent and fight to find out the truth, but in the end it was Oliver who stood by his young friend and thanks to some meditation (the only time this season where his flashbacks actually played a part in what was happening in the present, actually I should try some of that next time I lose my keys), Roy discovers that he did not kill Sara (no real shocker there) but did kill a cop while under the influence of Mirakuru (which doesn’t come off as any better) and this leaves Arsenal in the same (if not worse) situation he was in at the start of this episode.

So really there was not much learnt or any real character growth (not including Laurel) this week among the rest of the Arrow cast, just some really bizarre behaviour from nearly everyone involved (their treatment of Roy and Oliver’s disliking of Ted) and the flashbacks (despite some nice characterisation from Yamashiro family and the meditation technique) did not add anything else to the season’s story, leaving the episode feeling rather undercooked and pointless.

We did get another bow and arrow-totting vigilante appear in the form of Cupid (another DC character) appear at the episode’s end, but I doubt that she killed Sara (this story is starting to drag out which is unnecessary) either.

Review Overview

Overall

This episode was overly dull and ultimately unrewarding to either the viewer or it's characters.

Guilty was a rather bland and pointless episode (despite one or two interesting moments) that did not move the story forward and left everything in more of the same mess it was in at it's start.

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