Thursday, December 6, 2012

Arrow - Vendetta


Despite Diggle's (David Ramsey) objections, Oliver (Stephen Amell) gets romantically involved with Helena (Jessica De Gouw) and begins training her to be a crossbow-wielding Starling City vigilante known as the Huntress.  Together the pair take down another name on Oliver's list,  a crack dealer who works for Helena's father, but  his influence, which isn't helped by an awkward double-date with Laurel (Katie Cassidy) and Merlyn (Colin Donnell), can't stop her from starting a gang war by killing the leader of the Triad to weaken her father (Jeffrey Nordling) and make the mob boss pay for the death of her fiance.

After returning from Australia, Walter (Colin Salmon) stops Felicity Smoak's (Emily Bett Rickards) investigation into his wife's (Susanna Thompson) activities. But when she uncovers a new lead which causes Walter to go snooping through his wife's possessions and discover a mysterious book (similar to the journal of Oliver's father) the mystery proves too tempting for either of them to resist, no matter the risk.

Helena's actions bring the fury force of the Triad and China White (Kelly Hu) down on her father and lead to a throwdown between Green Arrow and the Huntress when our hero shows up at the last minute to prevent his protegĂ© from killing her own father. Despite putting her father behind bars and saving Helena's life, the vigilantes' partnership comes to a quick end. The episode certainly rushes the Ollie/Helena arc and their whirlwind romance, late night crime fighting  and falling feels unnecessarily rushed. Helena isn't around long enough for actions to make Oliver second-guess his own motives and methods (as I was hoping) leaving the entire two-parter far less satisfying than it could have been.

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