If Ollie isn't pulling a long con over Ra's Al Ghul, then I'm not sure I totally buy his transformation into big bad. After all, our hero spent five "hellish" years on the island, so it's going to take more than a transformation montage to convince me that Ra's was able to "break" Oliver Queen. Moving past that, it was admittedly cool to see Ollie decked in League-garb and facing off with Team Arrow. The fact that he even resorted to kidnapping Lyla provided an extra dose of drama that really escalated the stakes heading into the climax. Plus, Amell plays cold and stoic very convincingly. 

Of course the highlight of “Al Sah-him” was Nyssa getting a whole lot of screen time. Disregarding the fact that she keeps losing every single battle she fights, it was an absolute pleasure to watch Katrina Law dip fries into her milkshake (upon Laurel's request), and face off with "Darth Oliver" before the episode's final bombshell. All throughout the episode, I was sure the writers were planning on offing Nyssa (which would have been a grave mistake) after she had found her "happiness", so I was particularly delighted with Ra's ordering his daughter and his heir to get hitched. It's a soapy twist worthy of a romantic comedy, but I can't say I didn't have the biggest smile on my face as I watched Ollie and Nyssa and the priceless looks on their faces as the episode came to a close.



Although her story didn't take center-stage, Thea finally became useful and took her first steps into assuming the mantle of Ollie's sidekick, now that Roy is gone. Naturally she had to learn about Roy's whereabouts, so I guess the final two episodes of the season will involve her tracking him down and getting his blessing to become a full-fledged member of Team Arrow. Couldn't we just jump to that? I'm not in the mood to suffer through Colton Haynes trying to "act" his way through another scene. But hey, Willa Holland must be absolutely psyched; the scene with our hooded little Queen saving Diggle from Ollie via bow and arrow was just incredible!

I will commend the writers for having Ra's link back to the bioweapon that was set loose in the Hong Kong flashbacks. I still don't think the flashbacks were worth our time time this season, but this at least adds a cohesive through-line to the entire season. It also allowed the writers to introduce the show's next Big Bad for season four: Damien Darhk, leader of H.I.V.E. I can't say I'm too excited for that prospect; maybe it's time the show embraced a full-on female Big Bad? That's an idea worth considering!

Arrow by Nadim S. - 5/4/2015 8:11 AM219 views