Violet recaps Season 2 Episode 21 of Arrow, titled City of Blood, where Oliver has gone M.I.A., and Laurel and her father do a little investigating into Sebastian Blood! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts on the episode.
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Episode Recap of Arrow, Season 2 Episode 21: City of Blood
- While everyone except for Oliver attends Moira’s funeral, Sebastian Blood is sworn in as mayor. Blood attends the reception, as does Isabel. Walter tries to comfort Thea.
- Laurel asks her father to investigate Sebastian Blood. Slade calls Mayor Blood and tells him to “get to work.” Diggle tells Felicity that Isabel must have been injected with Mirakuru. Felicity isn’t having any luck finding Oliver, or Sara, so Diggle and Felicity go to ARGUS to ask them to help find Oliver. Amanda agrees to help when she hears about Slade’s Mirakuru army.
- Isabel visits Thea at Verdant to give her a notice to vacate the premises. Laurel visits Mayor Blood under the ruse of asking a favor for a case, but her actual motive is to bug his computer. Laurel and Lance discover that Blood wrote a condolence press release before Moira died.
- ARGUS locates Oliver at his “other” lair, and Felicity and Diggle visit him there. They try to talk Oliver out of turning himself over to Slade, but he doesn’t listen.
- Thea decides to leave Starling City, and Oliver agrees it’s a good idea. They say their goodbyes. Oliver calls Isabel and tells her he’ll be at the pier alone. At the pier, someone shoots a dart at Oliver’s neck and he passes out. He wakes up in the Arrow Cave, and Laurel is there. She tells him that Slade told her about his secret, and that he can stop Slade by stopping Blood.
- Oliver meets Blood for dinner, while Diggle and Felicity apprehend Blood’s bodyguard, Clinton Hogue, to get him to tell them where Blood will begin the attack. Oliver lets on that he knows Blood is working for Slade, and reveals that he is the Arrow. Blood tells Oliver that there’s nothing he can do to stop what’s coming.
- Oliver, Diggle, and Felicity head out to stop Slade’s Mirakuru army. Oliver tells Laurel to stay behind. Down in the sewer tunnels, Blood dons the skull mask and addresses the Mirakuru army, who are all wearing Deathstroke masks, while Oliver watches. Meanwhile, Felicity directs Diggle where to plant bombs whose explosions will crush the army.
- Thea waits at the train station for her train out of town. Oliver fights a couple of Mirakuru soldiers, and one starts to strangle him, until Laurel shows up and hits the soldier on the back of his head, distracting him long enough for Oliver to shoot a trick arrow at him and take him down for the moment.
- Isabel shows up in Deathstroke gear and attacks Diggle. At the police station, a strategically placed Mirakuru soldier attacks Lance and other officers, while at the train station, another Mirakuru solider starts shooting right next to Thea.
- Oliver and Laurel run away from the approaching Mirakuru army, and seem to have painted themselves into a corner, but Oliver shoots an arrow into the ceiling, causing the concrete above to fall in front of them. The Mirakuru army takes to the streets of Starling City.
- In the island flashback, Oliver and the others go back to the submarine, but it won’t budge. They find torpedoes that must be manually operated, and Peter volunteers. Oliver sends Sara off of the submarine. Peter climbs into the torpedo, and they launch it. The torpedo turns around and hits the submarine, knocking it loose, and the sub is then able to move. Oliver radios to Sara that they did it, but she seems to be in distress.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 2 Episode 21 of Arrow: City of Blood
What a crazy awesome cliffhanger! What’s going to happen next? How is the city going to survive this attack by the Mirakuru army? I really don’t know! Can we talk about Summer Glau dressed in Deathstroke gear? So cool! Looks like Isabel and Diggle are in for a showdown. She’s probably not too happy about him killing her and all. Digg took her out easy enough last time by shooting her, but now that she’s got Mirakuru running through her veins, how does he stand a chance? Not only that, but how does the city stand a chance with an army of those guys running around town? It seems like their only hope is for someone over at STAR Labs to complete the Mirakuru cure and bring it over quick as a flash to disperse it across Starling City. Yes, I did say Flash. Will Barry Allen run the Mirakuru cure to Starling City and save the day? Pretty sure The Flash spin-off is supposed to be starting this Fall, and this would be a good intro of Barry’s newly acquired powers.
Laurel really annoyed me this episode. I mean seriously, Sara just left, and Laurel is already taking her place? Yeah yeah, it was courtesy of Laurel that Oliver found out that Blood’s been working with Slade, and if they hadn’t found that out, they wouldn’t have figured out when and where the Mirakuru attack would begin. But still, does Laurel really have to stick her nose into everything? Can she just go back to being a drunk? I think I liked her better that way, because at least she stayed out of the way for the most part. I was glad when Oliver told Laurel to stay behind at the Arrow Cave, that things started with just the 3 of them (Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle), and that things should get back to being that way. I liked the solidarity between them in that moment. Obviously, Laurel wasn’t going to listen though. As things always tend to go in these type of shows, every time someone gets told to stay behind, that person doesn’t listen, and they end up saving the other person’s life. Honestly though, I don’t think a Mirakuru soldier would have even felt a bonk on the head from someone as weak as Laurel. Is this episode the beginning of Laurel stepping into the shoes of Black Canary, since Laurel Lance is actually the one who is Black Canary in the comics? Only time will tell. She would have to go through a lot of training though.
One part of the episode I really liked was the transition from the scene where Oliver shoots his explosive arrow above them as the Mirakuru army is coming at them, to the flashback scene just as the torpedo is hitting the submarine. It flowed so seamlessly that you almost didn’t notice the change between scenes.
In any case, this episode has set us up for what’s sure to be a wild and action packed last two episodes of Season 2!
Josh’s Thoughts: Arrow , Season 2 Episode 21: City of Blood
This was a rough episode for Oliver. He was mostly absent this episode, and ditched his own mother’s funeral! Instead, he went to a new Arrowcave and reflected on his thoughts. His emotions get to him so much, he nearly commits suicide! That would be a terrible idea! That would just leave Slade to cause a bunch of other havoc! What’s with all of the heroes suddenly abandoning Starling City? We have Sarah leaving town, Roy leaving town (only to be brought back to town via Slade and the ‘roid-medication), and now Oliver trying to drown himself! Apparently only Diggle and Felicity want to actually try to solve the problem.
Luckily Laurel talked him down, after she tells him she knows whom he is. I feel like Oliver blew it on his awesome piece of information Laurel had for him. Not only did he tip off Sebastian Blood that something is “off”, but he also revealed to Blood that he is the Arrow. Why?! It really doesn’t make much sense. He blew his trademark skill-stealth and surprise!
The other thing I do not quite understand is why no one took the information found on Blood’s computer to someone, in order to get Blood arrested. I can let this one slide though, I guess, since it was not legally obtained evidence. I guess it is illegal to just hack into the Mayor’s computer and use the information against him.
I have to say that Isabel looked terrible in the “Deathstroke” uniform she had on. They couldn’t come up with anything better than that? A helmet like Slade’s would have been a whole lot better.
The episode has the big build up to a fight scene between many of Slade’s men and just a few heroes to help with. Despite the shortcomings of this episode, I am excited to see what happens next!
Scenes from Arrow, Season 2 Episode 22: Streets of Fire
Here are scenes from the next Arrow episode, titled Streets of Fire:
Moira’s death was hard! Poor Oliver. 🙁