1.17 The Huntress Returns In the last episode, Tommy found out about Oliver’s dual identity, and wasn’t too happy about his best friend keeping such a huge secret from him. I’m glad that this wasn’t the whole story, since I sat through more than a couple of seasons of Smallville in which Clark and Lex skirted around his secret identity, as Tommy is actually more upset about his friend being a murderer. It all makes perfect sense once he says it, because it’s how normal human beings might react, but I didn’t expect that extra layer to be brought up at all. But we couldn’t dwell on the messy relationships already in Ollie’s life, as Helena was back to seek vengeance on her father all over again. Despite him going to prison, apparently a deal he’d cut with the police meant that he was going to witness protection instead, and the rest of the episode sees Oliver repeatedly trying to thwart The Huntress’ plans. It’s not too thrilling, since all the exchanges between them are just re-heated versions of the ones we heard a couple of weeks ago. Put it this way, if you were blasting through the season one box set, The Huntress Returns would be a filler episode. Now he and Laurel will have to investigate whether Sarah really did get off the island. Who will turn out to be Black Canary, should the super heroine turn up at all? We have three Lance women to choose from and, although the show wanted us to assume Laurel would eventually turn to late-night crime fighting with Ollie, we may be in for a bigger surprise. Having Sarah don the cape would certainly speed up the process should the series want more hero-esque characters, but we just met Roy Harper, so they might want to deal with him before assembling any other potential heroes. Meanwhile, Oliver is having a pretty bad day, as his burgeoning relationship with McKenna is stopped abruptly by a broken femur and a quick escape to Coast City. You can’t blame her, really, since her dreams of being a cop have literally been shattered, and Oliver’s promises to visit her at the rehab centre aren’t what she wants to hear. Not many fans will be upset about her leaving, but you do wonder what the point of it all was. If it was to make us feel sorry for Ollie, then a few more weeks of him happy and in love would have done that better. I might sound overly negative about this episode, but it’s still great to have Arrow back on our telly screens. We’re back next week as a new vigilante with a penchant for social media starts stepping on Ollie’s toes. See you there. Read Caroline’s review of the previous episode, Dead To Rights, here. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
