Arrow: The Odyssey Review

Ladies and gentlemen, it's official: Arrow has grown the beard.

Spoilers follow.

Okay, I don't know if the writers planned this or they're making it up as they go and they just picked up on the fact that everyone loves the flashbacks, but long story short, after confronting his mother in costume, Arrow hesitates, only to take a bullet. From his mom. He manages to get away and winds up having Felicity of all people drag him back to the Arrow Cave (wouldn't the Quiver make much more sense?), where she and Diggle operate on him, thus giving us an excuse to spend most of the episode in Ollie's memories, exploring the early days of his time with Slade Wilson on the island. And it was awesome.

For awhile, my biggest complaint about the show, save for Thea, has been that they're under-using the island flashbacks. As a result, this episode won me over pretty quick. The main point is Slade training Oliver (who, if you hadn't worked it out by now, at that point was basically a priss) so they can hijack the supply plane. Manu Bennet as Slade... holy crap! This guy was amazing as Slade. He kicked an absurd amount of ass, he really toughened Oliver up (which was a little weird, given that the two are always bitter enemies in the comics. Maybe they're going for a Professor X-Magneto thing), and he just perfectly embodied the whole rugged soldier thing. Do we know if he's actually going to be Deathstroke (who is one of my favorite comic book villains ever, like in the top five, by the way)? Not yet, but that's just a testament to the fact that island flashbacks are really complicated (what is about islands and flashbacks that makes shows so complex?).

Basically, Slade's awesome (now if only they could get Seth Gabel to dial back on the Count, and they'll have executed all three villains that make of GA's rogues gallery well). And as a result, he lead to some sweet action scenes, which continue to improve steadily with each episode. Even Island-Oliver had a BAMF moment at the end.

Even though Slade stole the show, Oliver was great too. For me personally, its the first time I've really been able to see how the guy on the island could become the guy in Starling City, as the flashbacks show him starting to take a level in badass. Not only that, but I really liked two moments he had: when he got to call Laurel and had this silent breakdown, which was about as effective as they come, and when he went back for Yao Fei. He's nothing if not loyal, even though Yao Fei's working for Fyres. We know why that is, too. They have his daughter, who's got the same tatoo as Oliver does. Curious. My guess is she's China White, but who knows what could happen.

Only real complaint is when Billy Wintergreen (the guy in the Deathstroke mask who tortured Oliver) talked. He's played by a stuntman, so yeah. Granted, the fight between him and Slade was awesome, but still.

Even though most of the episode was flashback, some good stuff happened in the present, too. Thus far, I've been a fan of Felicity, so I'm pretty happy that she's brought onto the team, and she and Diggle had some great dialogue, especially when Dig recounted the worst thing he's ever done.

The bottom line is this is the best episode of the show so far, and I'm liking it more and more each week.

Final Rating: 95%