Screen Rant Best of 2018

SCREEN RANT BEST OF 2018

2018 was my second year as a Features writer for Screen Rant and this was the year I finally felt like I came into my own, especially in the latter half. Writing about Marvel, DC, and all the nerdy things I like - and being paid for it - is a privilege I'm very lucky to have. And while Marvel, DC, and Star Wars pay the bills, this year I was fortunate to diversify my subject matter and write about a lot of the other movies and television shows that interest me, which was particularly satisfying and something I plan to do even more of in 2019.

I wrote 255 Features in 2018 for a total of 471 since I began in January 2017 - for a guy who liked to review a few movies a month tops on this very blog, this is an output that staggers and surprises me. But I'm very proud of my growing body of work and I think I've improved immensely as a writer. I thank my very British editors Alex Leadbeater and Hannah Shaw-Williams for honing my skills the way Superman can crush a piece of coal and find a diamond inside. Or at least a very shiny cubic zirconia. 

Below is my selection of the Screen Rant Features I'm proudest of for a variety of reasons; mainly because I feel like with these, I brought the goods to a fun smorgasbord of nerdy subjects. I would call this my favorite and best work in 2018. Thanks to everyone who has read my Features and I hope they were worth the click. Onward to 2019 and year three - the best is yet to come!

BLACK MIRROR: BANDERSNATCH: ALL 5 ENDINGS EXPLAINED
(AND HOW TO GET THEM)

BUMBLEBEE IS A REMAKE OF THE ORIGINAL TRANSFORMERS (BUT MUCH BETTER)

EVERY TRANSFORMERS MOVIE RANKED, INCLUDING BUMBLEBEE

TRANSFORMERS COMPLETE MOVIE TIMELINE: FROM 4.5 BILLION B.C. TO 2018

LEGENDS OF TOMORROW MIDSEASON FINALE EXPLAINED AND UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

THE GIFTED SEASON 2 FALL FINALE EXPLAINED:
THE MUTANT UPRISING HAS BEGUN

 

THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL ENDING EXPLAINED: WHOSE SIDE IS CHARLIE ON?

THE GIFTED HAS NO PROFESSOR X - AND THAT'S A GOOD THING

ALL 8 ROCKY AND CREED MOVIES RANKED: FROM 1976 TO 2018

THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS: ALL 6 ENDINGS EXPLAINED

THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB TRIED TO TURN LISBETH SALANDER INTO JAMES BOND (AND FAILED)

RANKING ALL THE LISBETH SALANDER FILMS:
FROM DRAGON TATTOO TO SPIDER'S WEB

THE GIFTED: THE MUTANT UNDERGROUND ARE THE X-MEN'S WORST OPTION

 

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE: EVERY EPISODE RANKED

DAREDEVIL SEASON 3 FIXED SEASON 2'S BIGGEST MISTAKES

HOW THE ARROWVERSE CAN MAKE SMALLVILLE CANON

REMOVING ZACK SNYDER'S MOVIES FROM CANON SOLVES THE DCEU'S PROBLEMS

JACK RYAN'S ENDING AND SEASON 2 SET UP EXPLAINED

RANKING ALL THE VERY DIFFERENT JACK RYAN MOVIES

THE MCU KEEPS AVOIDING NEW YORK CITY - AND THAT'S A GOOD THING

 

THE AVENGERS WOULD HAVE WON INFINITY WAR WITH JUST ONE DIFFERENT DECISION

TOM CRUISE'S MOST EXTREME MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE STUNTS
(AND HOW HE DID THEM)

GLOW SEASON 3 WILL DELIVER THE GLOW FANS KNOW

 SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME WILL DELIVER ON AN ANDREW GARFIELD PROMISE

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR WAS WORTH THE 10 YEAR WAIT

DC'S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW IS NOW THE BEST ARROWERSE SHOW

ALICIA VIKANDER IS A BETTER LARA CROFT THAN ANGELINA JOLIE

BLACK PANTHER: WAS KILLMONGER THE RIGHTFUL KING OF WAKANDA?

 

IS STAR TREK: DISCOVERY ANY GOOD? YES, IT'S INCREDIBLE

MARVEL'S AGENTS OF SHIELD'S FITZSIMMONS IS THE BEST LOVE STORY IN THE MCU

DC's Legends of Tomorrow at Screen Rant

DC'S LEGENDS OF TOMORROW AT SCREEN RANT 

Midway in season 2 of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, during the Legion of Doom story arc, the needle began to move. Legends was always considered the fourth and least of the Arrowverse shows behind Supergirl, The Flash, and Arrow, but a shift had begun. Now that Legends' fabulous, raucous, and utterly bizarre season 3 is over, it has surpassed its sister series and has taken the top slot as the most entertaining - and dare I say best - Arrowverse series on The CW.

I've gotten to write some fun features in recognition of Legends season 3 for Screen Rant. Check them out collected below:

LEGENDS OF TOMORROW IS NOW THE BEST ARROWVERSE SHOW

 LEGENDS OF TOMORROW MOMENTS EVEN WEIRDER THAN GORILLA GRODD TRYING TO KILL BARACK OBAMA

TIME TRAVEL TO MAGIC? LEGENDS OF TOMORROW'S SEASON 3 FINALE COMPLETELY CHANGES THE SHOW

Arrow: Roy is a Fool, or The People of Starling City vs. Roy Harper

On last week's episode of Arrow (season 3, episode 18), titled "Public Enemies," the walls closed in on Oliver Queen after League of Assassins cosplayers dressed as the Arrow framed him for the murder of Starling City's latest Mayor, among other victims. Ra's al-Ghul himself revealed the Arrow's secret identity to Captain Lance, prompting him to publicly declare that Oliver Queen is the Arrow and issue an arrest warrant. Oliver turned himself into police custody, but Roy Harper, the Arrow's sidekick Arsenal, decided to cosplay as the Arrow himself, attacked the police caravan, and de-hooded, announcing that he was the Arrow.

Roy is a fool #Arrow
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) April 2, 2015

I tend to agree with Mr. Shatner. That was also my reaction when I saw Roy's gambit. But is Roy really a fool to confess to being the Arrow? If Roy remains in custody and this goes to trial, how could Roy possibly convince a grand jury that he is the Arrow and was all along? True, Roy Harper possesses intimate knowledge of Oliver Queen's activities as the Arrow, but could he ever sustain his story under serious questioning? What about Team Arrow, Oliver's accomplices? And how does what Captain Lance know about Team Arrow, including his daughter Laurel being one of them as the Black Canary, affect the case? So many questions.

Like last year, when Moira Queen was on trial for her role in the Undertaking, I turned to my lawyer friend for his legal perspective on what could be the People of Starling City vs. Roy Harper and this is his take:

With no new Arrow on this week, I figured I’d take the opportunity to wade back into those murky waters that are the Starling City legal system and analyze the ramifications of Roy Harper’s “I’m the Arrow” gambit.  

First, since Roy’s motivation is to save Oliver, the important question is not whether or not Roy can prove he is the Arrow and was the Arrow all along. The question is, can the Starling City District Attorney (let’s just assume Laurel is not handling the case for simplicity’s sake) prove that Oliver is the Arrow in light of Roy’s public unmasking?  Or, more accurately, can the DA prove that Oliver Queen actually committed one of the crimes being attributed to the Arrow.  Presumably, he is not being charged with “being the Arrow” but rather with the murders that the League of Assassins Arrow cosplayers committed, in particular the killing of the mayor. 

Even before Roy claimed to be the Arrow, what was the evidence that Oliver was the Arrow in general and that he killed the mayor in particular? Captain Lance got the arrest warrant for Oliver because Ra’s Al Ghul told Lance that Oliver is the Arrow. Since Ra’s isn’t going to offer that testimony under oath in a court of law, that’s inadmissible. What else is there? Oliver didn’t actually confess. He voluntarily turned himself in after Lance got an arrest warrant with his name on it for killing the mayor. That’s not a confession; that’s a smart move for an innocent person to make (as opposed to running and making yourself look guilty).  Even in the police wagon with Lance, Oliver never came right out and admitted to being the Arrow.  There was talk of the island and why he came back to Starling, but not an outright confession to being the Arrow, let alone to killing the mayor. 

So when Roy shows up in full Arrow gear and admits to being the Arrow, there is no way to prove Oliver is the Arrow – let alone that he killed anyone as the Arrow – beyond a reasonable doubt.  But Roy’s stunt really wasn’t necessary.  Oliver should have just walked into police headquarters, denied being the Arrow, and dared them to try and prove otherwise (after destroying all evidence in the Arrow Cave).  But, now that we are left with Roy in cuffs as the Arrow, what happens to foolish Mr. Harper?  

Roy doesn’t have to prove he is now, and always was, the Arrow.  It is still the job of the DA to prove him guilty of a specific crime; again, presumably, killing the mayor.  I assume the evidence against Roy would be (1) the mayor was killed with an arrow, (2) Lance saw someone dressed as the Arrow fleeing the rooftop from which the kill shot was fired, (3) Roy confessed to being the Arrow and (4) Roy was arrested in full Arrow gear.  That’s certainly sufficient probable cause to bring criminal charges.  Sure, a good defense attorney (say Jean Loring) would be able to punch holes in that evidence, but if Roy was insistent in not putting on a defense, or even just pleading guilty, he could easily wind up taking the fall for Oliver.  Way to go Roy, you’ve succeeding in sacrificing yourself to save Oliver Queen when no sacrifice was necessary.  That should be called “Pulling a Harper.”  

Arrow 2x16 - "Suicide Squad"

One day, while guarding Felicity's body from the potential threat of Slade Wilson snapping her neck, John Diggle receives a booty call from his ex-wife/current girlfriend Lyla. Next thing he knows, Diggle is plunged into an international incident of murder and deceit alongside some of DC Comics and Arrow's shadiest super criminals. Diggle becomes a member of the Suicide Squad. The Suicide Squad is a hell of an idea: force incarcerated super villains to do black ops for the government. If they die in the process, cool. If they attempt to escape, cool -- an implant in their head detonates and kills them. If they succeed, that's good too. For the Squad's overseer and A.R.G.U.S. bigwig Amanda Waller, DC Comics' premiere super spy and super bitch, it's a win-win-win concept. Well, until Diggle gets involved. That Diggle, so "rigid" (according to Lyla) and determined to see the world in black and white (not a race thing). You can't take Dig anywhere.

Diggle's foray with the Suicide Squad begins, as many of James Bond's do, post-coital. Waller was nice enough to let Diggle and Lyla wrap up in the Ostrander Hotel suite (named for comic book writer John Ostrander - he must be very proud to have his name coined as a sex room. I know I would be) that all A.R.G.U.S. agents use for secret sexy time. Waller brings both Lyla and Diggle back to A.R.G.U.S. HQ to brief them on a terrible chemical agent in the hands of a terrorist named Gholem Qadir, an old acquaintance of Lyla and Diggle's. You see, six years ago while Oliver Queen was trapped on a hellish Island, Lyla and Diggle were serving in Afghanistan getting shot at while herding refugees. Diggle saved Qadir's life; Qadir later became a high value informer for the US Government and went free. Now Qadir has this chemical agent and Waller wants it, as she explains while checking off countries that exists in the DC Universe: Khandaq, Qurac, and Markovia. Qadir was actually the mysterious buyer of Malcolm Merlyn's earthquake machine a few episodes ago.

Unfortunately, being strong armed into the Suicide Squad means Diggle has to work alongside guys he and the Arrow have fought in the past: Shrapnel, Bronze Tiger, and the one that really pisses him off, Deadshot, his arch enemy and the man who killed his brother. Worse, Diggle gets the lamest codename: Freelancer (Black Driver is better). Lyla meanwhile is Harbinger, her character's classic comic book name from the Crisis. No clue why Waller is Mockingbird and not The Wall. Though he hates Deadshot and isn't all that fond of the Suicide Squad, at least Diggle doesn't have that bomb in his head rigged to explode. If there's one thing that would really piss James Bond off about the Suicide Squad, they all have the irritating habit of touching their ear when speaking on comm -- the most obvious dead giveaway that they're spies.

Once in Markovia, Diggle makes contact with Qadir all-friendly like, and is the target of a fake assassination attempt by Deadshot. For no reason whatsoever, Shrapnel panics and bolts out of the mission, and out of the series as Waller explodes the device in his head. So long Shrapnel, and thanks for joining the Arrow universe, Sean Maher. That was weird and pointless, except to show off how Waller killing a Squad member works. Later, in a gala ball in a mansion owned by Qadir, Deadshot sneaks his way into the secret sub basement and discovers the chemical agent he's supposedly able to "pocket" is actually a room full of tanks of the stuff. Waller's been lying to them! Plus she sent a drone to blow the whole mansion up.

For some reason, Diggle decides he has to save Deadshot, who's not interested in skedaddling back to the rally point. Diggle, who got to know Deadshot a little bit and knows he does merc work to provide for his young daughter named Zoe he never sees, invokes Zoe to get Deadshot to not commit suicide. In that moment, Diggle explains to Lyla, the man he hates most in the world showed more character than Amanda Waller, who's charged with guarding the world. Funny how that works. Turns out Amanda Waller runs the Homicide Squad along with the Suicide Squad. Also, Bronze Tiger was there too and killed Qadir. And the drone tried to murder the Suicide Squad until Lyla and Diggle tricked it and blew the drone up, It was really kind of a slapdash op, this whole Suicide Squad business. Waller concludes this messy affair by giving Diggle a dressing down and sending him back to the waiting arms of Oliver Queen, who may not have noticed Diggle was AWOL and went off to Eastern Europe for a few days.

Oliver's quivering in fear. He says he's not and he's full of surly, grim-faced bravado, but he is totally terrified of Slade Wilson and what Slade can do to his family and friends. Haunted by nightmares of bloody Shado in his bed calling him a murderer, Oliver irrationally starts burning bridges. He asks the Russian Bratva to find Slade, refuses to do them a favor in return, and earns their emnity. What's Russian for "he's acting like more of a jerk than usual?"Oliver shuts Sara out while he stomps around Verdant above ground and below ground. Felicity has to chide him that they are still crime fighters and sends him off to stop a burglary at Giffen Street (named for comic book writer Keith Giffen), where he's unaware Slade is stalking him in full Deathstroke armor until Oliver finds the present Slade left for him: his old Deathstroke mask with an arrow through the eye. Later, when the Bratva comes through for Oliver with Slade's address, Oliver invades Slade's lair to find the Bratva's leader dead with an arrow in the eye and a home movie of Shado playing on the wall. This freaks Oliver out.

Luckily, Laurel and Sara are there for him. The Lance sisters are getting along again and Laurel is sober, downing virgin cocktails Sara whips up from behind the bar. Laurel actually was able to talk some sense into Oliver, who scoffs at her assertion that she knows him better than anyone. Then Sara, who he tried to break up with as if Slade would suddenly not attack Sara if he hears they're no longer together, finally reaches him and gets him to admit he's afraid and doesn't know how to beat Slade. No more tough talk from Oliver. Sara and the Canary are standing by Oliver and the Arrow. But Oliver has another idea and goes to see "an old friend": lo and behold, Oliver Queen drops by A.R.G.U.S. because he personally knows (and hates) Amanda Waller. And Waller has intel to share, about a mercenary who's cut a swath of death and destruction around the world and into Starling City: a man they're calling Deathstroke!

However, the single most important takeaway from "Suicide Squad" is the prisoner in one of the cells who claims she's a trained therapist. Harley Quinn exists in the Arrow universe! And she was voiced by Tara Strong, who plays Harley in the Batman Animated Series. This way well be Arrow's best easter egg ever, puddin'.

Harley Quinn on #Arrow! Oliver, Laurel, Sara, Diggle, Slade and Roy should tell her all their problems. http://t.co/06ZdkV50bh #SuicideSquad
— John Orquiola (@BackoftheHead) March 20, 2014

Arrow 2x15 - "The Promise"

Have you ever had someone come over to your home and behave so abhorrently, you were completely ashamed, yet were unable to break decorum and ask him to leave? In "The Promise," that someone was Oliver, who in Moira's eyes, couldn't have behaved worse towards her new campaign investor and business partner Slade Wilson if he whipped it out and gave Slade a golden shower. The whole time, Oliver wanted to whip something out, all right, and let loose from his shaft, but he just didn't have his bow and arrows handy. Nonetheless, Slade was in Stately Queen Manor to merely talk and make thinly veiled threats that went over Moira's head but were picked up by Oliver loud and clear. In Oliver's eyes, Slade was there to kill him, his mother and his sister Thea, who conveniently arrived and happily gave Slade a tour of the late Robert Queen's art collection (including a rare "Curtis Swan" - shout out to legendary Superman artist Curt Swan). But Slade was up to something else entirely. For a man gruesomely missing an eye, which Arrow chose to show us in grim detail, by the end of "The Promise," all of Slade's eyes are now on Stately Queen Manor.

Most of "The Promise" is a flashback episode to five years ago on Lian Yu, where Oliver, Sara and Slade made their fateful assault on Anthony Ivo's freighter Amazo. Sara and Oliver would occasionally head off into the woods to discuss what to do with the Mirakuru Ivo is desperately after (burn it), which Slade overhears, while Slade somehow isn't present for their other discussion of why Oliver can never tell Slade he chose Sara over Shado, hence Ivo murdering Shado. For his part, Slade was off recovering a bottle of "authentic Australian rum," Reuther Rum, that he and his old Deathstroke mask-wearing mate Billy Wintergreen hid in the plane wreckage for a rainy day. Oliver has a nightmare of Shado blaming him and stabbing him to death for choosing to let her die; five years ago dream Shado is pretty bitter compared to how helpful and encouraging ghost Shado was in "Three Ghosts."  Soon, Oliver dons the green hood of Yao Fei and Slade dons the dual colored mask of Deathstroke, marking the first time these future adversaries would accept the mantle of their dead friends and mentors. I believe "The Promise" is the first Arrow episode where Oliver doesn't actually wear the green hood in the present day timeline, but he wears it plenty on the Island.

In the few days at most Oliver, Slade, and Sara had to plan how they were taking the freighter, Oliver put himself through intense training exercises including pull ups and archery that drastically accelerated his abilities. Almost all of a sudden, Oliver is a capable warrior. He asks Sara to promise to tell his family he's not the same callow idiot he was when he got on the Queen's Gambit if he doesn't survive their mission, and Sara in turns asks him to tell her family she died on the Gambit if vice versa. As we learned last week, Sara has formidable bio chemistry knowledge after her year with Ivo and she whips up an antidote to Ivo's favorite sodium pentothal. Sure enough, as planned, Oliver is captured by Ivo's men and tortured on the freighter by Ivo, feeding Ivo true information (his full name is Oliver Jonas Queen) and false information (lies about Slade and Sara's position on the freighter), while faking being stoned under the duress of Ivo's truth serum. Soon, Sara and Slade parachute onto the freighter, join up with Oliver, and the battle is on. Sara frees the many captives in Amazo's bowels, including Oliver's future Russian Bravta brother Anatoli Knyazev, and a strange new character not from DC Comics named Reverend Thomas Flynn. They and a bunch of others are able to escape the Amazo and swim to the Island, but Oliver is unable to join when when Slade catches him by the foot and tosses Oliver back onto the deck in a physics-defying feat of strength.

For you see, secrets don't get kept long on Arrow. Oliver not only couldn't kill Ivo in cold blood, but he was careless enough to let Slade overhear Ivo's double talk about "oh sure, I pulled the trigger, but it was you, Oliver, who aimed my gun at Shado" nonsense, and that was all she wrote to turn Slade completely psychotic. Slade murders Ivo's captain replacement for the previous captain and commandeers Amazo. Then he makes Ivo confess to murdering Shado and slices off the hand that pulled the trigger like in patented Skywalker fashion. Poor Ivo, it turns out he was doing all this for his beloved wife Jessica, who is back home suffering from dementia. (Or maybe it's MacGregor's Syndrome?) Things don't look promising for Oliver with Slade in charge of Amazo.

In present day, things looked a lot more promising for Oliver when he was clever enough to call Felicity's cell so Team Arrow in the Arrow Cave, including archery novice Roy Harper (whose initiation into Team Arrow made it into the "My name is Oliver Queen..." opening montage), could overhear Slade's pontificating about Robert Queen's art. Sara recognized Slade's gruff Australian voice right away and looked right into the camera to announce Slade Wilson is back. Then, in a fanboy wet dream, Sara as Canary took command of Team Arrow, barking orders at Roy and Diggle, asking for "the biggest gun" Diggle has. It was pretty big. With Diggle positioned outside Stately Queen Manor ready to take a headshot at Slade, Sara and Roy joined the Queen-Wilson Art Tour, making a tense situation even more full of tightened jaws, clinched fists, and intense laser stares. Slade probably could have killed them all anyway if he wanted to, but instead discretion was the greater part of super villainy. Slade opted to leave in his ridiculously swank Lamborghini to murder Queens another day, walking out with Oliver and promising to pay "the promise" he made five years ago to destroy everything Oliver holds dear. Oh, and Diggle was taken out before he could take out Slade -- probably by Amanda Waller's people so he could get shanghaied into the Suicide Squad.

So what was Slade really doing in Stately Queen Manor? Turns out he was planting mini cameras all over the house, so he could now watch all the comings, goings, and doings transpiring in the house of Queen. Why, Slade can just sit back in the Stroke Cave and watch Thea shower if he wants. That dastardly devil!

I hope no one calls Slade's lair the Stroke Cave. #Arrow @manubennett @ARROWwriters @amellywood @mguggenheim pic.twitter.com/THnpESE2aN
— John Orquiola (@BackoftheHead) March 6, 2014

Arrow 2x14 - "Time of Death"

"Time of Death" happily states for the record that Sara Lance is here to stay, and yay! Well, yay unless you're the two other female leads on this show - Felicity and Laurel - who suddenly feel very marginalized that not only is Sara firmly established as part of Team Arrow, but she's also rocking the Queen bed once more. Laurel pieced that together at a terribly awkward Lance family dinner (+ Oliver) that saw her mother Dinah tell giddy as a schoolboy Quentin to talk to the hand when it came to them resuming their six year-dormant marital bliss. Before Quentin could throw a tantrum at his romantic hopes dashed, Laurel went nuclear over Sara and Oliver shafting arrows ("You've been back, what, a week?" Actually, it's more like months) and stormed out of her own apartment. Oliver and Laurel had their most heated conversation yet where Laurel tore into Oliver for being such a stand up guy, always asking if she's okay while bonking her now-back-from-the-dead sister. In retaliation, Oliver flat out called Laurel a drunk and a drug addict. "I'm done," he seethed, pushing all of Laurel's abandonment issue buttons.

Meanwhile, Felicity is even more threatened by the new hen in the rooster's nest (do roosters nest? This analogy has gotten away from me). Blonde, ass kicking Sara seems to be an upgrade to Felicity, plus Sara keeps calling her "cute," like she's a puppy. Oh, and Sara has a working knowledge of biochemistry and "knows her way around a microscope." Not to mention Sara, Oliver and Diggle have all these sexy battle scars all over their bodies, comparing them in a scene reminiscent of Mel Gibson and Rene Russo in Lethal Weapon 3. Making matters worse, Felicity's one area of dominance, technology, is upended by Team Arrow's new adversary, William Tockman, the Clock King. Tockman, a former technologist at Kord Enterprises (DC Universe reference to the second Blue Beetle), can hack into Team Arrow's network and he even went ahead and fried all the tech in the Arrow Cave. And the one time Felicity donned spandex and decided to work out, Oliver didn't even register it as hot. "What are you wearing?" was the best compliment he could muster.

The Clock King (Robert Knepper) isn't out to ruin Starling City or anything; he's pulling crimes for the money. Some detective work gleaned that William Tockman is dying of McGregor's Syndrome (the very same disease Nora Fries and Alfred were dying of in Batman and Robin) and he's trying to pay for the treatment of his sister, who has cystic fibrosis. That's a bummer, but still, he's stealing from billionaires, and as a billionaire himself, Oliver must stop him. The Clock King penetrated Kord Industries and absconded with a Skeleton Key, a device that can hack into any network and, for example, open bank vaults. But the Clock King will kill if he has to, and managed to foil both Arrow and Canary for a while. Oliver decided to bait Tockman with 800,000 shares from Starling National Bank, and Felicity took it upon herself to run point on the trap. Of course, Felicity needed rescuing, but as it turns out, it was Felicity who ended up taking a bullet for Sara and saving the Canary's life. Plus Felicity out-tech-smarted the Clock King and got him good. This lead to a delightful scene of Felicity high on oxycodone excited that she now has a scar like the rest of Team Arrow. Oliver sweetly told Felicity "You'll always be my girl."

Oh okay, Oliver. It's funny and sweet when Felicity's on oxycodone, but when Laurel's using, that's different... #doublestandard #Arrow
— John Orquiola (@BackoftheHead) February 27, 2014

Also, if anyone should feel marginalized and insecure, it's Diggle. The more ladies keep popping up in the Arrow Cave, the less Black Driver seems to have to do. But you never hear Dig complain; he's all man.

Lance Family Matters came to a head this week after Laurel blew off a Welcome Home party for Sara at Stately Queen Manor. But just as well as Oliver, Sara, and Quentin all ran off from the party to deal with the Clock King. (By the way, Quentin is not a stupid man. He knows Sara is the Canary and he knows Oliver and Sara are back together; as a detective and a man with working eyes, he must see that the Arrow standing with his leather-clad, masked superhero daughter is also Oliver. That hood and mask hide nothing. If Quentin does, and he must, he's being awfully cool to keep it to himself.)  Sara, afraid of Laurel's seeming hatred of her, exacerbates it by bringing Oliver to the Lance reunion dinner, which set Laurel off. But in the end, Laurel did some soul searching and came to Verdant - where Sara now works as Thea's bartender (Sara used to bartend at Oblivion, a DC Comics bar that was home base of the Shadowpact) - to apologize to her long lost sister. It was a remarkable apology; on one hand Laurel was pleading forgiveness to Sara but in a meta way, the Laurel character was apologizing to the Arrow audience who hates her, asking them to give her another chance.

Five years ago on the Island, Sara, Oliver, and Slade muse about how exactly they're going to get onboard the Amazo freighter to kill Anthony Ivo when a plane explodes high above. They hustle to rescue the dying pilot but he's too injured to save. Instead, he tells Sara of his orphaned twelve year old daughter in Starling City, whom Sara promises to look after one day. And all of a sudden, we have the Secret Origin of Sin, Sara and Roy's sidekick. And the Island Trio have parachutes salvaged from the plane: the means now to get onboard the Amazo.

The cold war between Oliver and Moira hasn't escaped Thea's attention, as Oliver works overtime to lie to her that he's very busy being a CEO and nothing's the matter between him and their mother. Oliver is kind of ridiculous, as Moira points out when he's angered she's at his welcome home party for Sara which, Moira reminds, Oliver decided to host at her house. Oliver is doing all this lying to Thea to protect Sara from the truth of who her true father is, or so he says, but he's really just mad at his mommy for doing all the things he does himself. But he does all his lying in the cause of justice and protecting his family, so it's justified. (Moira could make the exact same claims.) Maybe if Oliver did pay more attention to his mother, he'd be aware of her business dealings with Mr. Slade Wilson(!!), who's right there in the Stately Queen Manor living room!

Guess who's coming to dinner...

Some Tweets to wrap this  up:

Sitting calmly watching #Arrow but my inner 10 year old is jumping around the living room watching Arrow and Canary team up. @mguggenheim
— John Orquiola (@BackoftheHead) February 27, 2014

To me, Quentin and Laurel scenes are the beating heart of #Arrow. A rich,real father/daughter relationship @PaulBlackthorne @MzKatieCassidy
— John Orquiola (@BackoftheHead) February 27, 2014

BLUE DEVIL movie coming this summer! #Arrow pic.twitter.com/uxrHKOLRVg
— John Orquiola (@BackoftheHead) February 27, 2014

Arrow 2x13 - "Heir to the Demon"

The heroic, slam-bang, sensational "Heir to the Demon" brings prodigal daughter Sara Lance back to modern day Starling City, and she didn't come alone. (Double entendre.) Hot on Sara's heels is a major player, not just as a DC Universe import but to this series and its grander game -- the daughter of Ra's al-Ghul, the titular "heir to the Demon," Nyssa al-Ghul (Katrina Law)! Sara had left Starling to keep her family out of the League of Assassins' cross hairs, but the League has manipulated events to bring Sara home so that she can be reunited with her... as it turns out, beloved! As the Arrow observed from the shadows like a silent guardian, a watchful protector, Nyssa al-Ghul sexily somersaulted from above in the same manner the Canary did in "Broken Dolls" to confront Sara and instead of killing her -- they locked lips! Whoa. Whoa whoa whoa. Who saw that coming?! Suddenly, millions of arrows stood up in their quivers when Nyssa and Sara reunited. Hey, this show just got interesting!

All right, enough of that. The stunning reveal that Sara and Nyssa were lovers further tangles the web for the heroes of Arrow. (Quentin's reaction was the most rewarding, swallowing his surprise and glad that someone loved his daughter and cared for her during those terrible years she spent away. Father of the Year.) During Laurel's amusing little bender last week, a League member spiked her booze with poisonous snake blood, correctly suspecting that concern over her sister's life would lure Sara back to Starling. (Oliver was quick to lay blame on the League though it was Oliver himself who personally called Sara to alert her to Laurel's plight.) Nyssa has come to Starling ostensibly to bring Sara back to the League, but truly to confront her lover who ran away from her. Nyssa even has a little Arabic pet name for her: Ta-er Sah-fer. Why did Sara quit the League? Because she couldn't take all of the killing she was forced to do by her sworn oath to the League. By quitting the League, or trying to, Sara also quit Nyssa, who says she found Sara starving and helpless. Nyssa saved Sara's life and taught her to be the super cool, super awesome superhero she is today. This is much more compelling than it seemed at first when it was just a superhero being chased by the villains who trained her. Though she loved Nyssa, in her heart Sara is not a killer, echoing Oliver's evolution in his time under the hood. Sara begs Nyssa to ask her father to release her from her vow; Ra's has only ever released one from the League - Malcolm Merlyn - and look what happened there.

(Incidentally, there has long been a discrepancy as to how to pronounce 'Ra's al-Ghul'. Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy pronounced it as 'raahs', and that's how Oliver says it. And I as well. Nyssa, with her Arabian-like accent, pronounces it 'raysh' like in Batman: The Animated Series. Arrow has it both ways, successfully.)

And yet, Nyssa cannot take "no, go home to Nanda Parbat" for an answer, so she goes into the League of Assassins playbook and kidnaps Sara's mother Dinah, who has also returned to Starling to care for her ailing daughter Laurel. This leads to a tremendous The Dark Knight-like chase where the Arrow and Canary race Nyssa's truck on the Arrow Cycle, with Canary busting out her Canary Cry sonic device before leaping onto the truck. Canary realizes the kidnap victim is her mother but Nyssa punches her right in the face and sends her onto the asphalt. The Arrow then decides to quit the chase entirely -- this may have been the first superhero high speed chase ever that ended because the heroes were somehow aware there was an act break. Nyssa's devious plan is a simple trade of Dinah for Sara, but Sara would literally rather die than return to a life of murdering others at the behest of an immortal madman. Sara poisons herself with the snake venom, but the Arrow arrives with the antidote and saves Sara after taking on and defeating Nyssa one on one. In the end, a heartbroken Nyssa incredibly releases Sara from her vow to the League of Assassins. Sara is back for good in Starling and free to perform ridiculously painful looking athletic training in the Arrow Cave and fight crime as Canary alongside the Arrow. To celebrate their new arrangement, Oliver of course jumps at the chance to bring Sara back to the land of heterosexual sex. All's well that ends well.

Well, not really. The saga of Sara Lance's return to Starling has major ramifications for Arrow and for the Lance family. For the first time, Arrow eschews flashbacks to the Island, taking us back instead over six years to the happy days in the Lance household the night before Sara secretly sailed off with Oliver on the Queen's Gambit. We see Quentin and Dinah happily married and a young, optimistic Laurel getting ready to apply for law school while planning to share an apartment with her "frat boy" boyfriend Oliver. Sara returns home from college to surprise her family, but is really planning to meet that shameless cad Oliver on the Queen's Gambit. Later, we see it was Moira Queen herself who came to the Lances' door to share the terrible news that Sara was on the Queen's Gambit when it sank. When Laurel at long last sees her little sister alive, all the pieces fit for her that Sara is - and Laurel is correct about this - the lone cause of all of the tragedy that has befallen her family. Sara's deceit by sleeping with Oliver and her presumed death shattered their parents' marriage and drove their father to alcoholism. Sara spent six years never attempting to contact her family. Dinah was abducted and held ransom while Laurel was literally poisoned, all as pawns to bring Sara back to Starling. And now Sara gets a pass because she's home, and Sara not only gets to be a superhero but unbeknownst to Laurel, she's also seemingly back with Oliver. Is Laurel wrong to resent or even hate her sister? To see Sara from Laurel's point of view, Sara is kind of horrible, even if no one else will share Laurel's opinion.

Meanwhile, the campaign is underway to make Moira Starling's new Mayor, a development neither Slade Wilson nor Sebastian Blood welcome. Everyone's positioning themselves for war and making threats. Caught in the middle is Felicity, who did her usual sleuthing into Moira's finances and discovered the truth about Thea's parentage -- that Malcolm Merlyn is Thea's actual father. Moira immediately goes into defensive mode and preys on Felicity's insecurities, promising that Oliver would hate her if she ever revealed the secret that would rip her family asunder. But Moira really doesn't know her son at all; when Felicity suddenly reveals some long-withheld details about her home life growing up and tells Oliver the truth about his own family, Oliver doesn't take it well. He does manage to grit his teeth through a questionable-sounding introduction of his mother at her first campaign rally, but later, Oliver really tears into Moira for all her lies, ending his relationship with his mother and forever turning his back on being the mommy's boy he was. Never mind that Oliver lies by omission every minute of every day by pretending he's not the green hooded vigilante archer who is the scorn of crime and savior of Starling City, but he just can't take his mother's lies any longer. Pot, kettle, green, Queens.

Fantastic, emotional, shocking #Arrow. Everything you could ask for and more. #Nyssa @amellywood @caitylotz @Misskatrinalaw @MzKatieCassidy

Applause to #Arrow for keeping Sara and Nyssa a secret in this Internet spoiler age. Best surprise. @ARROWwriters @AJKreisberg @mguggenheim
— John Orquiola (@BackoftheHead) February 6, 2014

— John Orquiola (@BackoftheHead) February 6, 2014

You know who Sara Lance needs to date? Jesse Pinkman from #BreakingBad. He couldn't take the killing any more either. #Arrow @ARROWwriters
— John Orquiola (@BackoftheHead) February 6, 2014

Nyssa should seduce Laurel. Then Nyssa and Oliver can compare notes on the Lance sisters. #Arrow @amellywood @caitylotz @Misskatrinalaw
— John Orquiola (@BackoftheHead) February 6, 2014

After tonight, somewhere in porn valley, #Arrow XXX: An Axel Braun Parody is fast tracking production.
— John Orquiola (@BackoftheHead) February 6, 2014

Arrow 2x12 - "Tremors"

"Tremors" does indeed create major, no-turning-back-now upheavals in the Arrow universe. As promised, the Arrow took on the Mirakuru-powered Roy Harper as his student and protege. It didn't go as well as he'd hoped. They say there's no such thing as a bad student, only bad teacher. Wait, who said that? I think it was Mr. Miyagi. In this case, both applies. Roy is a terrible student; he's impatient, angry, ungrateful. A lot like Daniel LaRusso was, except Roy can punch through a wall, a talent the Arrow would sorely need by episode's end. On the other hand, while Miyagi cleverly used Daniel and his karate training to get some household chores done, the Arrow didn't delve into metaphor or impart much in the way of sage wisdom when assigning Roy tasks like slapping water. He just droned on about learning control in his droning, modulated voice. So one can understand Roy's frustration. Also, there are drugs in his system driving him crazy. It just seems like Oliver didn't think this whole project through - what he was mainly thinking about was the guilt he feels over Slade Wilson five years ago.

"Who's Slade Wilson?" Diggle and Felicity ask. Funny they don't know that story. We, the audience, have watched it unfold every week for a season and a half, but Oliver's never mentioned his old buddy Slade to his trusted confidantes until now. Oliver launched into an Obi-Wan Kenobi-like quasi-explanation that Slade once suffered from the same Mirakuru poisoning Roy now has, and that he tried to help Slade, but it all ended up with him putting an arrow in Slade's eye. Five years ago, on Lian Yu, Sara and Oliver tracked Slade from the plane to the cave to Fyers' rocket launcher, after skipping the hatch, the three-toed statue, and the Black Rock. The Mirakuru-crazed Slade decided to use these leftover rockets to blow up the freighter and kill Ivo and his men once and for all as revenge for killing Shado. Oliver would like very much to tell Slade that Shado was killed because he was forced by Ivo to choose between Sara and Shado, but Sara talked him out of mentioning that to his insane, gun-pointing-in-Oliver's-face buddy. Point is, Oliver Queen, you have failed Slade Wilson (according to your finely sharpened guilt complex), and Oliver can't fail Roy Harper in the same way. Plus there's Thea to think about.

Ah, Thea. The heartbeat of all subplots. The common thread woven into ancillary character's motivations. Thea doesn't do much these days beside run Verdant, worry about Roy, and give her mom attagirls, but she's so very important to everyone. Moira was asked out to dinner by the very welcome-whenever-he-appears Walter Steele and laughed when Walter and his political partner were very serious in pitching Moira to run for Mayor against Sebastian Blood. What a race that would be: Who do you go for, Starling City? Blood or Queen? Moira can't fathom how someone just tried and acquitted for her role in an Undertaking that destroyed part of the city and killed 503 people could run for Mayor of that very city, but Thea, a newly registered voter, sold her mom on the idea of redemption. There are, apparently, many in Starling (43% - just shy of Mitt Romney's 2012 estimates) who think Moira was merely protecting her family from crazed, murderous billionaire Malcolm Merlyn. And the Queen name is still the most visible in Starling. Mayor Moira Queen, eh? It's not as unlikely as Kansas State Senator Martha Kent on Smallville.

Meanwhile, Oliver needs his new protege Roy's help in fighting an new/old foe, Benjamin Turner, the Bronze Tiger, newly liberated from Iron Heights prison. Cue Felicity scoffing at Turner's codename because "tigers aren't bronze." No, but see, then we get into how casually racist comic book creators were for decades where many African-American characters had to have a qualifier in their name like "Black Panther" or "Black Lightning" to help remind the reader that the character was black, but that's neither here nor there. The Bronze Tiger was hired for ten million American dollars by someone named Armitage to break into Malcolm Merlyn's mansion to steal -- a prototype earthquake machine! Malcolm had another one! Armitage plans to sell it to a buyer in Markovia, a DC Universe Eastern European nation famous for spawning Geo-Force of the Outsiders and the traitorous Terra of the New Teen Titans. (Incidentally, Dr. Brion Markov - the alias of Geo-Force - was the name of the scientist who invented the Unidac earthquake machine. Malcolm Merlyn murdered him last season.) "Do you have one of your hoodies?" is the Arrow's call to action. "You're kidding, right?" responded Roy. And so the Arrow and his boy wonder blundered into Stately Merlyn Mansion, past a framed photo of dearly departed Tommy Merlyn, and battled the Bronze Tiger, but were unable to stop Turner and his men from stealing the Unidac device because the Arrow had to stop #RoydRage from beating a henchman to death.

Thanks to Felicity's sleuthing skills, Team Arrow learned where the exchange for the Unidac would be made, and the Arrow brought Roy yet again. This was after #RoydRage expressed his displeasure at the Arrow's coaching style by hurling him across the room and through a table. Not even Obi-Wan Kenobi put up with that kind of abuse from his padawan Anakin. Well, except when Anakin went full on dark side and they lightsaber dueled for what seemed like forever on the volcano planet. Out of ideas for ways to motivate the crazy strong, crazy angry, crazy Roy, the Arrow name drops Thea - Roy's beloved girlfriend whose arm he almost broke during #RoydRage when she refused to follow his instructions to leave town for no particular reason. Together, the Arrow and Roy again get the drop on Bronze Tiger and Armitage, foiling the sale of the Unidac.

When the Arrow's explosive tip arrows aren't enough to penetrate the crate the newly activated Unidac machine is in, the Arrow realized he has only one recourse and he unmasks! (Later, Oliver admitted to Diggle and Felicity he wasn't really thinking of the consequences. No kidding.) The unmasking of the Arrow literally stopped #RoydRage from beating Bronze Tiger to death via his patented move: mount a man and then punch him in the face over and over. Roy might as well have echoed Felicity's famous words when she saw the true face of the Arrow: "Oliver. Suddenly, everything about you is incredibly clear." You see, all Roy really wanted was the Arrow's trust in him, and now that he knows the Vigilante is the hero he worshiped who saved his life and later shot him with an arrow ("Forgiven, by the way.") is also the older brother of his girlfriend, this knowledge curbed Roy's #RoydRage. But at the moment, Oliver really needs Roy to channel that #RoydRage for the greatest good, and punch that crate! Punch it, Roy does, and another explosive arrow put an end to the threat of a second earthquake machine. Unless, you know, Malcolm has another one stashed somewhere. Finally, Roy Harper is welcomed into the warm bosom of the "Secret Society" called Team Arrow - "We don't call it that," says Oliver. "I do, sometimes!" retorts Felicity.  "How many people know your identity?" Roy wonders. "Too many." says Oliver. Yep, those numbers add up. Roy meets the two most important ones, Felicity and Diggle, and gets a season pass to the ultra exclusive Arrow Cave, right below where Roy works. Convenient. And now, #RoydRage is as much Diggle and Felicity's problem as Oliver's.

Speaking of problems, Laurel doesn't have one. Why does everyone keep insisting she does? Now unemployed, Laurel's father Quentin tried to trick Laurel into an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, but Laurel quickly took way more than twelve steps in the opposite direction. However, Laurel does have a problem: she's unhireable, pending disciplanary action from the bar. Laurel could be legally disbarred. So, she heads straight to the hottest bar in town, Verdant, you know, the one run by her ex-boyfriend's eighteen year old little sister who was herself a drunk and substance abuser. I have to admit, Drunk Laurel is my favorite Laurel, dropping truth bombs on the disapproving Queens on either side of her. Plus Laurel said the cleverest thing she's ever said: "Sure, bar me from your bar. That's today's theme, right? Disbarment." Her wordplay is really witty when she's smashed. Give that girl some olives. Oliver sees as much of this as he can stand and since he doesn't need to ask Laurel this week if she's okay, he puts a mysterious phone call in. Later, when Laurel stumbles him to her apartment - the scene of numerous home invasions and at least two of her kidnappings - to collapse next to her couch, she's visited by a ghost. But it's not a ghost - it's Sara! The Canary came home!

Finally, someone else gets a mysterious visitor back in Iron Heights when the clickety clacking of five inch heels brings the highly-classified Amanda Waller to the cell of Benjamin Turner. She's here to recruit him for a Squad. (A Suicide Squad, she doesn't say, because that's a horrible pitch. But that's what it is.) 

Arrow 2x11 - "Blind Spot"

Oh Laurel. What are we gonna do with you? Discredit you, fire you, make your life a living hell. Done, done, and done. "Blind Spot" slammed the door - hard - on (now former) Assistant District Attorney Laurel Lance's attempts to uncover the nefarious truth about Alderman Sebastian Blood, the future Mayor of Starling City. Laurel really got knocked around; for the second time this season she was abducted by a villainous lunatic, this time as bait for the Arrow by the Man in the Skull Mask. When Sebastian got wind that Laurel visited his crazy mother/aunt Maya Resik (sort of like Oscar Bluth was Buster Bluth's father/uncle on Arrested Development) at Saint Walker's, Sebastian dropped by one last time before the Man in the Skull Mask put Maya out of her misery. The rest of "Blind Spot" was a chess game between the real brains behind Blood, Slade Wilson, and the unwitting Laurel, who got checkmated big time.

Thing is, Laurel was actually pretty awesome for most of the episode until Slade outwitted her. "Blind Spot" is some of Katie Cassidy's finest work on the series. Finding things for Laurel to do was a challenge for Arrow's writing team last season, but her recent crusade to get to the truth about Sebastian Blood thrust her right into the thick of the action. Neither Laurel nor Oliver were aware they were hunting the same man, and they both got bamboozled at the same time by Slade by the end. With no legal recourse or political incentive from the District Attorney's office to investigate "Starling's Favorite Son" Sebastian Blood, Laurel turned to the Arrow, like a Lance would, for help. She can be very persuasive standing on a rooftop announcing with conviction that Sebastian Blood killed his own mother and is a lying liar and bad, bad man. (She did sneak in a funny line calling Roy Harper the Arrow's "groupie.") The Arrow never made the mental leap to to connect Blood with his own quest to find the Man in the Skull Mask, but it's Laurel asking for help, something Oliver Queen simply cannot ignore. Maybe Oliver should have listened to Diggle after all; Diggle was quite contrary to everything Oliver wanted to do this episode, poking holes of reason in all of Oliver's assumptions and crossing his arms and frowning as Oliver ignored him repeatedly.

Of course, there's a secret file on Blood that could prove Laurel's theory correct. Of course, it is a hard copy hidden in a Hall of Records, and of course the Arrow has to break in and find a proverbial needle in a haystack. Laurel and Arrow (they could be an old timey vaudeville duo) break into the room and it looks almost like the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. A shocking twist would have been Laurel and Arrow finding the Ark of the Covenant. When the police quickly realize the Starling City Vigilante is in there and send a SWAT Team, Arrow and Laurel pull off one of those cool superhero through-the-window escapes, only to find the Blood file is blank. D'oh! From there, Slade Wilson, who bullies Sebastian Blood a lot more than Max Schreck did when he was masterminding Oswald Cobblepot's Mayoral run in Batman Returns, really put the screws to Laurel. They enlist their loyal acolyte Officer Daily to break into Laurel's apartment and arrest her for possession of a controlled substance. (This means DA Adam Donner was injected with Vertigo on television and now ADA Lance is also a drug addict. Looks real bad for the DA's office.) Laurel pleads with her father to believe her about Blood, but Quentin's a Blood booster and thinks he's a nice guy, and he can't see past Laurel having a problem with addiction that runs in the family.

Oliver gets Laurel home, presumably by being rich enough to post her bail, and somehow, shockingly, manages not to ask her if she's okay. He does manage to get knocked out by the Man in the Skull Mask and when he comes to, sitting up Undertaker style, he finds Laurel has been abducted. Luckily, the Man in the Skull Mask was thoughtful enough to leave graffiti on Laurel's wall telling the Arrow where to find her. And again, credit Laurel for being much tougher than expected and facing down the Man in the Skull Mask until the Arrow arrives to rescue her. Thus begins an awesome superhero vs. super villain smackdown: The Arrow vs. Brother Blood in The Battle of the Voice Modulators. And Brother Blood would have killed the Arrow, too, if Laurel didn't go Dirty Harry on the Man in the Skull Mask, shooting him in the back and emptying the clip! That was amazing. When they relieve the Man of his Skull Mask they find it isn't Sebastian Blood at all! It's Officer Daily! (You might call him the Daily Double if this were Jeopardy!) Oliver can't call it a win, despite Felicity's urging, because a part of him knows it's B.S. But Oliver is too caught up with feeling like a fool for believing Laurel, noting he has a blind spot when it comes to her. But he feels differently now that she is a known drug addict who has been officially shit canned from her job.

Not to put too fine a point to it, but Slade puts the fine point of his sword to Sebastian's men while wearing his full Deathstroke the Terminator costume to tell the audience that yes, indeed, Officer Daily was the Daily Double and not the real Man in the Skull Mask. There's only one Brother Blood, and that's Sebastian Blood, the guy cowering from fear of Slade. Slade is a scary dude.

Since Slade's scenes this week were all in present day Starling, he was noticeably absent from the Island five years ago, having absconded with the Mirakuru to go off and kill Ivo. Oliver and Sara return to the plane to regroup as Sara seriously considers Ivo's offer to turn over Slade and the Mirakuru in exchange for their freedom. Oliver's steadfastly against it because if there's one thing the Island taught him, it's the same lesson Stone Cold Steve Austin holds dear: D.T.A.: Don't Trust Anybody. Sara makes contact with Ivo and we explore the extent of her Stockholm Syndrome as Ivo tries to sweet talk her into coming back and giving him the Mirakuru. But Quentin Lance didn't raise his daughters to be dummies and when Sara calls back to reject Ivo's offer, Ivo turns on her and says only slightly less nice things to her than Walter White did when he called Skyler right before he left for New Hampshire towards the end of Breaking Bad. Well, that tears it, Sara and Oliver are going to find Slade, who might be only slightly less mean to them, what with the Mirakuru making him crazy and all.

Perhaps the most intriguing development of "Blind Spot" is what's going on with Roy Harper, or, as he might be dubbed, MiROYkuru. Roy's always been a sullen, secretive, moody asshole, but he's getting even worse, according to Thea. Oliver even visited him in an alley to check up on him and found him quick to run away from a conversation. Roy does recruit Sin's help, revealing his new Mirakuru-injected super strength to her. When she urges him to tell Thea, he scoffs that it could lead to her getting hurt. Sin correctly chastises him that he doesn't care if she gets hurt, however. Why do people hang out with Roy? Anyway, Roy wants to use his new superpowers to fight crime. Conveniently, there's a serial killer running around, a lawyer who kidnaps prostitutes and carves them up. Roy asks Thea to loan Sin something "slutty" to wear so she can dress like a prostitute, and Thea was hilariously all over it. Soon, Sin is walking the streets and finds herself in the serial killer's car. He takes her to an empty parking garage, showing that whoever wrote this has picked up a prostitute or two in Grand Theft Auto and probably killed her with a samurai sword to get his money back afterwards. But in seconds, Roy is on the scene to savagely toss the lawyer around and beat him to a pulp, smacking Sin in the face inadvertently for good measure. MirROYkuru rears his ugly head. The lawyer is hospitalized and Thea is aghast at what Roy did, so Roy does what he normally does: He tells Thea to "drop it," runs away, and cries. All of this is disturbing enough for Oliver to finally take action: the Arrow visits Roy in their special place, an alley, and makes MiROYkuru an offer he can't refuse: the Arrow will train him.

"When do we start?" asks Roy. How's next week sound? Yes? Great!

Nice to see Starling City mass transit on board the #Arrow train. @ARROWwriters @amellywood pic.twitter.com/RXIcVLkvdE
— John Orquiola (@BackoftheHead) January 23, 2014