Starling City seems under control in the Season 3 premiere of Arrow, but this is short-lived when a new Vertigo dealer is in town. There is a lot going on in this episode, so check out Josh’s episode recap for Arrow‘s new episode titled The Calm, along with both Josh’s and Violet’s thoughts afterwards!
Don’t need the Arrow episode recap for The Calm? Click here to jump directly to Violet’s thoughts on the episode!
To see Josh’s thoughts on this week’s Arrow episode, The Calm, click here to get directly there!
Episode Recap of Arrow, Season 3 Episode 1: The Calm
Season 3 Episode 1 of Arrow opens action-packed, with Arrow and the gang–including Roy, taking down an illegal arms dealer. Afterwards, they reconvene at the Arrow Cave, and celebrate the crime rate drop in Starling City. Diggle and Oliver have a conversation about Felicity, and it looks like there might be something going on there after all…
Meeting with Laurel, it seems they have a relationship of Arrow catching the crooks while she arrests them. It looks like Detective Lance has been given a promotion, but he also can’t be in the field due to his injury last season. Detective Lance then heads a press conference, and disbands the anti-vigilante group, and praises the Arrow publicly.
Meanwhile, we meet a new Vertigo dealer, who is unhappy with how his business dealers are handling things, and decides to take the leadership for himself. He also professes to kill the Arrow.
Meeting with Oliver, Felicity is working on a plan to get Queen Consolidated back. Oliver blindsides her with a date request, which she takes as a joke at first, but then is excited to agree.
Arrow and Diggle are hunting down another criminal, as Felicity works her tech support, menial job. She does her best to help out, and they catch him–with Lance’s help. At work, Felicity connects with a customer of hers, and he offers her a potential job opportunity. She declines, but helps him with his tech question.
Diggle, meanwhile, takes Lyla in for a check up on her pregnancy. Everything seems okay on that front.
Oliver then excitedly gets ready for his date. Felicity is already at dinner, and Oliver is taken aback by her all fancied up. They’re both nervous because they feel that they exhausted all conversation topics. Oliver decides to bring up his time in Hong Kong when he was missing. He also has a heartfelt conversation with Felicity about being the first person he could trust.
Meanwhile, the new villain, the Vertigo dealer, tracks the Arrow’s whereabouts–finding that he is in the restaurant since Oliver ditched his gear there. This new villain decides the best course of action is to launch an RPG into the restaurant. Oliver dives, hearing it coming, protecting Felicity from the blast.
He wakes up, having been knocked out, and finds Felicity unconscious as well. Back at the Arrow cave, the crew finds out that a tracer was placed on Arrow, and that’s how he was found.
Arrow heads out and begins investigating, and runs into Detective Lance. He meets up with the new villain, who calls himself Vertigo. He is able to inject Arrow with the drug, disorienting him. Lance is able to provide a distraction, which gives Oliver enough time to scare him off. Lance falls in pain, and it seems he has a heart condition.
At the hospital, Laurel chews Lance out for risking his life.
Oliver and Felicity head to the board meeting to “wow” investors. But it turns out Ray Palmer, the man Felicity met at her job earlier, wants to bid on the company as well. Oliver gives his speech, and it is followed up by Ray Palmer’s. He shows off a bunch of data, showing that the company needs his help. Turns out Ray wins the debate.
The Arrow team figures out that Vertigo is taking down his competition, so they decide to track the competition down. They’re all going to be in the same place, so the team heads out to track down Vertigo. Oliver tells Diggle to stay home since is going to be a father, but Diggle argues.
At the Heavy Weight match where these crime bosses are all congregated at, Vertigo has a bomb set to blow. Arrow and Roy join the party, and Felicity identifies the bomb. Roy heads for the bomb, Arrow heads for Vertigo. Then Sara as Canary shows up, and provides some assistance. Roy is able to disarm the bomb, and Canary shows herself to Arrow. Vertigo is captured, but professes the drug will remain.
Oliver and Sarah talk, and she might be hanging around for a while.
Felicity is followed by Ray Palmer, and asks her if she wants a job. She declines, and visits Diggle and Lyla, who has had the baby. Oliver also shows up. Diggle seems to have forgiven Oliver and even admits he is right.
Felicity and Oliver talk in private, and the Felic-Iver/Oli-City relationship is over as quick as it started. But not after Oliver gives her a romantic kiss. Felicity isn’t happy about it though, and walks off. Then surprise, Barry Allen (The Flash) gives Oliver a call asking for advice.
Sara talks with Laurel and tells her to keep her secret about being in town. Laurel leaves to interrogate Vertigo, when Sarah is pelted with arrows from an unknown assailant that she knew. Laurel finds her body as it falls from a rooftop lifeless.
So in Hong Kong, we get a scene of Oliver fleeing some men, and trying to make a phone call. He tries to email his mother, but is stopped short, and given a beating. Later in the episode, we meet a new woman, who apparently saved Oliver from the freighter last episode. Turns out this is Amanda Waller, the leader of A.R.G.U.S. Later on, Oliver wakes up in a Japanese house, with a husband and wife. The husband tells Oliver he has to stay there or the man’s family will be killed.
Josh’s Thoughts: Arrow, Season 3 Episode 1: The Calm
So there is a lot going on this episode of Arrow isn’t there? Unfortunately, Oliver and Felicity’s relationship is already over before it could really start. I am sure this disappointed a lot of people, and I can include myself among that group. I really like Felicity, and thought she and Oliver would get along nicely.
But we can see that this storyline is borrowed directly from many superhero stories, particularly Batman and Spiderman. The storyline being that the hero is unable to have the woman he loves for fear that that person being important to the hero, becomes a tool for the villains to use against the hero through threatening acts. It is a pretty common trope used in the superhero world, but it is always an effective one.
Another trope, sort of related to the one I just talked about, that seems to be a theme moving forward with Arrow is the idea of who Arrow is and who Oliver Queen is, and where the two end and begin. Arrow, when talking with Felicity, admits that he is afraid of losing his edge, and doesn’t really want to be “normal” Oliver Queen. Currently, I would say he is more Arrow than he is Oliver Queen.
And finally another trope being used, which is very prevalent again both in Batman and Spiderman is the idea of the public’s relationship with the city’s hero. At the start of the show, Arrow was persecuted for being a vigilante and a murderer. Now that he has done a lot of good–good that is highly publicized, he has won the hearts of Starling City. But if I know Spiderman or Batman well, There is only a matter of time before this public turns on the Arrow, and he becomes the enemy yet again. This might require the death of Captain Lance, which would be a very sad loss to the show, but one that I think I am predicting for this season.
I really am liking the teamwork going on this season so far. Roy is in the mix, Diggle (when Oliver will let him), while Felicity provides the “Oracle” support (Batman fans will get that reference). It is really interesting to see the team work as a team–and the show is at its best when the season come together.
And finally, I have to talk about it–the death of Sara. Apparently whoever took her down is someone she knows, and is someone she didn’t expect to impale her with a bunch of arrows. So who could this man be? We hear the voice, but it is disguised. Could it be Malcolm Merlyn? Rha’s al Ghul? Someone new? The other question I have is this: Does this villain use arrows typically? Or were these arrows meant to be used as a way to frame the Arrow for her murder? This could be part of the plan to get Arrow back on the bad side of the law, for whoever this villain is. As for the emotional side of this, I was not a huge fan of Sara to start with, so while it is sad for Oliver and Laurel, I am not particularly sad over the loss–given that she is actually gone for good.
Okay, now finally–I have to talk about Ray Palmer, the new addition to the cast, who will eventually play The Atom. I am not familiar with this character myself, but after checking out Wikipedia, he seems to be an equivalent to Ant-Man, able to shrink himself down to a very small size with a device. So far, I would guess that Ray doesn’t have that ability in Arrow yet, but now that he has Queen Consolidated, we probably will be seeing that happen soon.
OK really, this is the final thought. Barry Allen makes contact with Oliver! I am really like that the show is crossing the two universes. It is actually what DC/Warner Brothers has to do to keep us interested! I really can’t wait to see more of this crossing over, and specifically to watch the episode that will have them both working together!
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 3 Episode 1 of Arrow: The Calm
Ding dong, Sara’s dead! Hallelujah, let us all rejoice! Now we just gotta find a way to kill Laurel off too! Oh, um, hi there. Excuse me while I celebrate over here! If you’ve been reading our Arrow recaps, you’ll know that I’ve never been a fan of Sara, or Laurel. So, I’m kinda glad that at least Sara is out of the way. I can’t be the only person that feels this way, right? I didn’t expect Sara to be back so soon. In the season finale, it seemed like she was gone for good, and passing the black jacket on to Laurel to take her place eventually. Plus in the flashback, she had gotten sucked out of the boat to what Oliver believed was her death, so it’s not like she would be popping up in the flashbacks anymore. So when Canary showed up to fight, I actually thought that she was going to turn out to be Laurel, not Sara. I kept thinking, Oh no, don’t tell me that that’s Laurel, there’s no way she could have learned to fight that well this soon! And I suppose my prayers were answered, because it wasn’t Laurel, it was Sara. But then she got killed off real quick. Probably because she wasn’t supposed to be in town. We know that Ra’s al Ghul is supposed to be in Arrow this season, so I’m guessing it was him. I guess it could have been Malcolm Merlyn, too. Unfortunately, now that Sara is dead, that’s probably going to spur Laurel into some sort of vengeance kick – “Oh Oliver, teach me how to fight so I can kill the bad guys who killed my sister!” And we’ll have a new Canary on our hands. Sigh. Like it or not, I don’t think there’s any getting rid of Laurel on this show.
Alright, now that that rant’s over, let’s talk about the episode in general. What a great episode to start off with for the Season 3 premiere! Definitely action-packed, and it had elements that both guys and girls would like — well, and dislike. Tons of action for the guys, a tragic romance for the girls. I mean, we always knew that Felicity had a thing for Oliver, but I wasn’t sure anything would ever come of that. I guess this episode gave “Olicity” fans just a taste of what they wanted before they ripped it away. So sad, so sad. I actually like Oliver and Felicity together. This claim about the hero not being able to be with the woman he loves in order to protect her from his enemies is a load of crap. Oliver was recently with Sara, and didn’t seem to care then! And he was even wanting to move in together with her! Okay, so Sara is (was) a fighter, and could hold her own, but still. People know of the Arrow’s associations with Felicity, and whether or not they are “officially” together, his enemies still might assume that he cares for her and go after her. In any case, they would know that the two are close and still go after her. I really don’t buy into this overused superhero excuse.
Anyway, so that was cool how Superman showed up at Felicity’s store. He forgot to wear his Clark Kent glasses, though. Okay okay, I know he wasn’t supposed to be Superman, but that would have been pretty cool, right? I mean, it’s the right universe and all. It could have worked.
But yeah, I thought this was a very strong start to this season of Arrow! So much going on in just this first episode already. Is Diggle going to be out of the picture now that he has a baby? I hope not. I like Dig! Looks like Roy is doing pretty well as part of the team. What’s Thea really up to? Definitely looking forward to see what happens this season!
Scenes from Arrow, Season 3 Episode 2: Sara
Here are scenes from the next episode of Arrow, titled Sara:
Great episode 2 tonight! Absolutely loved it – and a great review too.