So the other shoe slammed down at the end of the Arrow episode two weeks ago, and I’m going to be honest when I say I wasn’t shocked. Moira was hanging onto a big bad secret and her reveal that she’d had an affair with Malcolm wasn’t a big enough bang.
That came later when she got off in her murder trial and then Malcolm revealed at the end of the hour that he’s alive and well (and no doubt raising hell) and he’d pulled the strings to free her–which nobody expected and everybody doubted. The big, big reveal was that he knows Thea is his daughter. I gotta say I kind of saw that coming because Moira was so twitchy. We also found out that Malcolm has someone in the DA’s office. I vote for the DA herself, played by Canadian character actress Chelah Horsdal (most recently in Hell on Wheels).
Elsewhere, the Count makes a reappearance and starts slow feeding people an infection that only Vertigo can cure, and Diggle and the ADA are two of the afflicted. Oliver tries to go the high road in battling him, but when the Count kidnaps Felicity (again with the damsel in distress–sheesh!) Oliver has no choice but to kill him. Felicity is distraught that she forced Oliver’s hand but he tells her it wasn’t her fault and then they have a MOMENT.
And Blood finally doesn’t kill somebody with his concoction, so he’s had some progress in his super soldier dabbling.
In the flashbacks, Oliver takes the barge crew to the island and Shado and Slade see them coming and fight them off and Oliver rejoins them with Sarah in tow.
And that’s our set up for tonight’s two-part winter finale that will introduce the Flash. After next week’s episode, we have a big hiatus with a side of cliffhanger (I’m guessing).
I’m glad we’ve wrapped the trial up and that it didn’t drag on and on. I remain neutral on the return of Malcolm. That was leaked a little while back/or announced via press–pick your semantics–so it was just a matter of when. I’m curious to see if he’s all vengeance mode now because of Tommy or if he diverts all his shitty dadness over to making amends with Thea.
I’m also neutral on whatever they’re doing with Felicity and Oliver. I don’t mind the idea of them as a a couple at all, but I do mind them making her an easy target over and over again. I don’t want them to come together from a place where she’s the weaker party.
TPTB seem to have tabled Laurel’s possible pill and booze dependency and I hope that stays tabled and doesn’t pop back up when they need to put her in peril. I’d much rather see Laurel go toe to toe with her boss if her boss is indeed in Malcolm’s pocket.
Here are a couple of sneak peeks of “The Scientist,” which airs tonight on CTV and The CW.
Photo courtesy of Jack Rowand/The CW.