As my name does indeed end in a vowel, I got a chuckle out of Officer Lance referring to trying to book somebody on “the goombah trifecta.” Felicity, however, should know that the plural of mafioso is mafiosi. Oh, who am I kidding? She rules. In fact, Arrow displayed more of that slowly burgeoning sense of humor again this week, with two gags that either hinged on or were delivered outright by Felicity. The first was her description of the Huntress and her crimes, which included the magic words “ex-girlfriend,” prompting a smirky reaction from Sara, and a perfectly timed, “That’s what you took from that sentence?” from Ollie. The other was her suggestion to Sara that “if the Huntress shows up, you should totally kick her ass.” The enthusiastic nod from Diggle (who had about one line of dialogue this week) was gold. Also, Ollie’s “I was a frat boy.” Of course he was. This was a fairly Black Canary heavy episode, which makes sense given who else was involved and the fact that the episode was entitled “Birds of Prey.” Caity Lotz has grown into the role quite well (although now she’s adopted one of those irritating voice-modifiers to fool her apparently quite gullible sister), and can kick ass with the best of them. The thing is, she wants to kill folks who take shots at her Dad (understandable), which means she wants to kill the Huntress since she will conceivably put her Dad in danger (also understandable). The thing is, Ollie is on his “no killing” kick, which is cool and all, but clearly that extends to his crimefighting and romantic partner. He keeps telling her “You’re not a killer!” Even Laurel, after knowing her for about fifteen minutes, gives her the “You’re not a killer” line. I’m sorry…wasn’t Canary in the League of Assassins? What was she? A nurse? There’s always a danger when we focus on Laurel this season. Several dangers, really. In fact, the more I think about it, the more dangers there are. The first danger is that Laurel has not been the most sympathetic character this year. The second is that a focus on Laurel also means a focus on her addiction issues, which have never particularly rung true and have always felt like they were just shoehorned in to give her something else to chew on since she wouldn’t be Ollie’s primary love interest this season. The third is that they’re really doing their damndest to make us think Laurel isn’t too bright, aren’t they? I mean, how much time in extraordinarily close proximity with a non-hooded vigilante who is her sister does she need to spend in order to put two and two together? Speaking of the Starling City legal system: let’s not forget that Starling City is located in a death penalty state. Which means that instead of getting the chair or whatever it is they do in Starling, Helena is probably headed for a big, incompetently prosecuted show trial, where she will surely be exonerated and can then pursue a career in politics. ahem…sorry. What I mean is, Helena is in serious legal trouble, and won’t be walking out of Iron Heights any time soon. Unless somebody (like Amanda Waller, perhaps?) breaks her out or offers her a deal. Unless some angry paisan from all the dudes she iced in Palermo decides to just put the hit on her behind bars. They can do that, you know. All in all, there’s nothing terribly wrong with “Birds of Prey” (although I suppose I could be a snot and say that this one had a bit of a misleading title), but it does nothing to really distinguish it as a particularly great episode of Arrow. Plenty of action, though. But after the great one-two punch of “The Promise” and “Suicide Squad” the return to an explicitly Starling City focused, kind of relationship-y episode of Arrow felt, not exactly like a step down…more like it was a little overcooked. They really tried to do a lot this week, and I’m not sure everything quite connected. DC Universe Watchtower: – More non-lethal arrows! Bring on the boxing glove arrow! Alright, maybe not. – Yes, that was indeed the corner of Gail and Simone we heard over the police band. It’s great to hear Gail get a shout, and I really hope to see more episodes inspired by her work. You could do a whole season on the Secret Six, for example… – Calling Roy “Speedy” in the heat of the moment was a little forced, but, eh, I’ll take it. – The target of the opening raid was Hugo Mannheim. I wonder if he’s any relation to Bruno? I don’t see any reason that an Intergang subplot couldn’t work in a future Arrow season, but I’m getting ahead of myself, as I tend to do. Look, if Lois and Clark could do it… – By the way, does the absence of Sin on an episode entitled “Birds of Prey” annoy anyone other than me? – I wonder if there’s even a remote chance that Kate Spencer is going to do the vigilante thing at any point in this show. You know the drill, boys and girls! Drop by in the comments and let me know what I missed. I’m sure there was something (there usually is), and I’m a little pressed for time this week. Don’t worry, I’ll be fighting fit in time for “Deathstroke” next week. You’ve been warned. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing!
