We will have to agree to disagree on this one. Dont get me wrong I have nothing against Amell but even in the flashbacks he is completely unconvincing to me. I dont think hes holding back, I think is lack of depth and range. He is learning and improving, in the recent episode with Felicity dating, he actually conveyed some hurt in his eyes. I like Amell in the role and it doesnt kill the show for me, Im just calling it as I see it.
Not a great show, but Banshee. Great, well orchestrated, brutal fight scenes.
I stand correct that the first half of the season was weak. Or I should say, it was redeemed by that “holy crap” of an awesome episode.
(And I think someone called it correctly on Sara’s killer.)
Heck a’ bloomin’ crikey! How are they going to get out of this?
Batman.
Well played!
I was pretty disappointed that they used the “mind control” shtick on Thea. She was already willingly going along with Merlyn in the training and such, why not have her fall all the way? Of course, they could always change that later and have her eventually admit that she knew all along what she was doing, but I doubt it.
I hadn’t noticed until this episode that Maseo’s wife was named Tatsu, which is the name of the Japanese superheroine Katana in the comics. They haven’t actually shown her dying yet, so I’m hoping she comes back eventually. Perhaps after Maseo and her son are killed, which is the basis of Katana’s origin story (at least one version of it).
I also keep hoping they’ll reveal that the white-haired chick is actually Lady Shiva. Or introduce Shiva as a new character, at least. She’d fit right in with all this merciless assassin stuff.
What do you want to bet that someone (probably Maseo) retrieves Oliver and tosses him in a Lazarus Pit? (If they really want to mess with us, they’d toss Sara in, too. Though in the comics, being dead for too long is a no-no for the pit.)
Yeah, China White’s a bit too whimpy to be Shiva. Plus I think she’s a preexisting comic villain (if a minor one.)
That’s one of the reason that the flashback sequences have been weak this season. China White’s the reason that they tried to shoot down the airliner? The same small time villain who steals drugs from hospitals, and who Oliver beat in one of his first outings? Still, it’s looking more interesting now with Maseo in the league.
I also wonder where they’ll go from here. After Deathstroke and Ra’s, I’m not sure where they’re going find a bigger challenge for a street level hero.
My inner monologue had to sarcastically interject a “Oh noes! What am I going to watch on Wednesday night now???” at the end of that episode. Was kind of hoping for them to end it and have one more episode with a nice, epic battle, but I liked this way well enough. I’m kind of guessing Diggle will save the day. It did, however, make me wish for a Batman cameo.
Well, shit. Hopefully a Lazarus Pit was on the other side of that cliff.
Quite an ending. Though, kind of shitty choreography in the fight.
Good mid season finale. I laughed when Felicity realized she was once again coveted by a crime-fighting hero. I suspected Thea pretty much all along but it didnt go down like I expected, thats for sure. I was thinking more on the lines of being brainwashed, you know, a stockholm syndrome kind of thing. When they started the final fight and the one guy said “Remove your shirt, its tradition” In sure I actually heard him say “Remove your shirt, its ratings” It will be interesting to see where they go with this now. Especially with the Thea situation.
That’s what I would assume, otherwise there’s less of a reason for him to be there at all, narratively speaking. (Other then, perhaps, to tie it in to the flashbacks, but that seems pretty weaksauce.)
I’m going to go with Thea wasn’t under mind control, and that’ll be the big end-of-season reveal.
(And yeah, the fight with not Liam Neeson was one of the weakest fighting setpieces on the show. He didn’t look good handling swords, at all… unless that was intentional, to be Lazarused up.)
I’m guessing Thea wasn’t drugged, but she also didn’t know it was Sarah. Merlin just told her it was a League assassin, and it was a ‘test’ in her training. d
Now that sounds more like it, I really can’t see Thea as deliberately killing Sarah, her brother’s ex-lover, it’s just not in her character as that’s been established so far (she loves her brother, after all).
I thought technically the fight scene was well done (for TV), even if the direction was to have Oliver flail about more than usual.
I’d say that she was drugged, and that’s that. They went to the trouble of mentioning the drug in the flashback, and it would complicate the “I wasn’t in Starling City” lie.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had terrible choreography for most of season 1, but season 2 had an amazing fight scene between Agent May and a brainwashed agent disguised as May. That was my second favorite TV show fight.
The best TV show fight I’ve seen has got to be the opening of season two of Hannibal. That was amazing.
With an episode name like “Left Behind”, it was pretty obvious what sort of things were going to happen this week. Can’t say anything surprised me except the use of Tatsu as the “resurrector” near the end. Makes sense from a writer’s perspective, though, ties together the past and present stuff. Also, about time ol’ Dinah Laurel Lance got her Canary on.
Yeah, last night’s episode was an outstanding way for the show to hit the ground running after the mid-season finale. Great stuff.
Enjoyed this week’s episode. Finally something useful out of annoying DJ dude, though it comes at the price of more insipid flirting with Thea. The B-team crime fighters are getting better, though I miss the canary-cry-sonic-thingies they had Laurel use in the last episode. I suppose just as they finally feel they’ve got things working, Oliver will come back, and there will be much drama over his inability to accept that they have some competence.
The episode totally trolled me with the Caity Lotz guest star credit, dammit!
Another strong episode. I’m really enjoying Vinnie Jones work as Brick, he just loves hamming it up.
One problem: So, Oliver in the flashbacks is just running around Hong Kong. How has no one taken a cell phone pic of him?