We pick up moments after where we left off last week, with Thea hitching a ride with the esteemed Slade Wilson. Now, all things being equal, would YOU get in a car with this guy? I realize that we, as fans of the show, know considerably more about Mr. Wilson’s murderous proclivities, but isn’t his vibe just a little bit… intense? I know, it’s not good to judge a book by its cover, even when that book has elaborately groomed facial hair and a cool eyepatch, but in this case, the scowling, growling-voiced dude who has been throwing shade at your brother might not be the right fella to jump in the back seat with. Letting Thea run right into the arms of a waiting Brother Blood was a nice touch, though. Anyway, that subtle taunt felt like it carried even more weight as the episode progressed. Everyone has Oliver’s number and everyone is in the loop about the bad things that are about to go down…except him. For a guy who has successfully punched, kicked, and shot his way out of 41 episodes worth of tight spots, he sure does seem to be in checkmate right now, all before a single punch has been thrown. I’ve kinda had it with Roy, though. The post miraclo mirakuru rage issues have been wearing on me for quite some time, and now, his whole metrosexual (and kinda incompetent) Wolverine thing is pretty done. This isn’t a knock on Colton Haynes, who does a fine job with an inconsistent character. But is there a single viewer who didn’t know that Roy would blame Ollie for Thea’s kidnapping? At least the rest of the team has had it with him, too. “Of course you take his side, you’re screwing him,” he barks at Sara…and everyone rolls their eyes. Love it. It sounds like I’ve done an awful lot of complaining about this episode, doesn’t it? I’ll shift gears now that it’s all out of the way…because, actually, “Deathstroke” is a damn smart episode of Arrow. Considering that it’s named after Slade’s more famous supervillain name, “Deathstroke” didn’t go for buckets of fan service or cheap pops. Instead, Slade uses everything at his disposal other than that (really cool looking) costume and mask to dismantle Oliver’s life. It’s great. Cutting immediately to a physically broken Ollie on the island as the castaways are getting set to exchange a booby-trapped Hendrick for him was a nice touch. I’ll confess to being a little thrown by the island sequences lately. Maybe it’s still part of the comedown after “The Promise,” but I’m not exactly sure where they’re going at the moment. And who is the “voice of reason guy?” I feel like he should be significant, but I’m having trouble placing him. This, dear friends, is what the comments are for. But while we’re talking about the island, our friend Anatoli (the future KGBeast…I hope) gets the line of the night when he asks Sara “When did you become so scary?” No reason…just because she’s talking about booby-trapping a living human being in order to get her boyfriend back. She also threatens to put an arrow through the heart of a friend of hers, and a regular castmember at that! She means it. She won’t hesitate. Hey, remember last week? That was when people kept telling Sara, “No! You’re not a killer!” Wrong. She’s a killer, folks. Surprisingly little out and out action this week, and considering how much tension has been built up, and how much of the season absolutely pivots on this episode, the fact that it never really felt like it was slowing down is a testament to how good the writing was (Marc Guggenheim and Drew Greenberg, I doff my cowl to thee). But those few times when Ollie puts the hood on? Killer. The Roy/Ollie/Sara/Slade staredown was fun, if ultimately uneventful, and I did get a thrill just seeing those four characters squaring off on my TV screen. But Ollie’s final (and ultimately unnecessary) offensive on Slade was a highlight. Short but brutal. It doesn’t look like he broke his whole “no killing” rule, but he sure did make these poor bastards pay. Did he actually cut that one dude’s Achilles tendon to keep him from getting up? Harsh. Of course, in the end, Slade lets Thea go. He’s not all that interested in killing a 19 year old girl. He’d rather ruin her life so that she can go forth and ruin her brother’s life. I’m a little fuzzy on the whole “you’re free to go…or you can stay and learn your brother’s secret” thing, though. After all, she was still free to go. The fact that she stayed…girl, you don’t need to know ANYTHING that badly. But now Thea knows she’s a Merlyn, and all three surviving Queens are divided against each other. Where does this leave us? It leaves us with Slade, Isabel, and Sebastian conspiring with each other and getting ready to build an army of mirakuru enhanced convicts to take down Starling City. I suspect these final five episodes won’t exactly be quiet. DC Universe Watchtower – I do have to ask: where did Isabel learn to fight like that? Nanda Parbat, perhaps? – Has Manu Bennett earned the title of definitive DC Universe screen villain of the moment, or what? This guy IS Slade Wilson. They could throw him on the big screen in whatever the real title of Batman vs. Superman is, and I bet he’d hold his own. 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!
