The Calculator (Tom Amandes) has come to Star City and he’s brought a friend: Roy Harper (Colton Haynes)! Pressed into service with the threat of his identity being revealed to the world once more, Roy returns to Star City at the command of a mysteries villain named Calculator. He’s supposed to steal some items for him, but naturally Green Arrow & Co. rescue Roy from his indentured servitude and Arsenal joins Team Arrow once more. For now, at least.
As fun as it was to see Roy interacting with the team again, this was honestly a rather mediocre episode and felt like it wouldn’t have been out of place in the back half of Season 1. It’s not bad, but it’s not particularly interesting either and just feels like a huge step back. Given that it’s (mostly) a standalone episode and has nothing to do with the on-going conflict against Darhk & HIVE, it won’t do any damage to the season-arc. Still, if we’re going to be given a separate tale to stave off the main arc for a bit, it would be nice to have a bit more oomph to it.
Curtis is finally brought back into the fray this week, with the problems at Palmer Tech being highlighted once more after being forgotten for almost two months. Thankfully, that particular dangling subplot is solved by the end of the episode, leave one less thread to deal with as the season goes on. Here’s hoping Curtis is actually integrated back into the fold in the coming weeks, instead of disappearing back into the narrative ether like I suspect he will.
The conflict between Malcolm Merlyn and Nyssa al Ghul is also beginning to return, with the latter finally reappearing after escaping confinement in Nanda Parbat. Her mission to find a way to blackmail Oliver into killing Merlyn takes her to Japan for a short sequence that involves Katana. It made for a nice cameo, although I suspect we won’t see the latter anymore this season. I’d love to be wrong, however.
Nyssa still irritates the shit out of me as a character. When she’s not whining, she’s being lazy and trying to get others to do her dirty work for her. Granted Malcolm is similar in that regard, but at least he’s charming in his sliminess. Nyssa has found an herb that could potentially save Thea’s life. What do you mean save her life? She’s fine, right? Wrong.
Out of the blue, she gets sick and falls into a coma. Something is muttered about the wound inflicted on her by Ra’s, which makes little sense due to the Lazarus Pit healing her. Then Nyssa mutters something about it fixing whatever the Lazarus Pit did to her, which also makes no sense, because Sara Lance isn’t experiencing the same issues and she was dead for far longer before her resurrection. Honestly, none of it really makes sense. I’m really not sure what they are doing here, beyond trying to tie off a few more loose ends next week.
It looks like we’re about to get an Oliver vs. Merlyn rematch, which is good and fine, but if someone in League garb must die next week, I’d rather it be Nyssa. At this point in time, she serves no purpose as a character. Roy is still in town, so at least we have that to look forward to next Wednesday, along with a quick revelation at the end of this week’s episode: The Calculator is Felicity’s father! Cue dramatic music! I’m fine with the cheesy nature of that reveal, so long as something interesting is done with it.
Why do I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s Roy in that grave from the flash-forwards? It’ll be such a cop-out if it is. While he’s a much-liked character among fans (and myself), him being gone for almost a full season now would make his name on that tombstone a narrative cheat. Then again, I’m the guy that secretly hopes it’s a mass grave containing the various extraneous main characters from both “Arrow” and “The Flash“. It’s to the point where main players will disappear from the narrative for weeks at a time with no explanation whatsoever. I love both shows, but there are WAY too many heroic main characters. Both are in need of a permanent roster trim.
