1.18 Salvation Starting with Team Arrow, then, the trio of Oliver, Diggle and Felicity is still working really nicely. While it annoys me on principle when it’s the female character who wants to talk about their feelings all of the time, she’s at least capable enough to genuinely help on missions, and her naivety can be explained by the fact that she’s the newest, and least war-torn member of the team. Freaked out by the fact that her inability to solve a puzzle inadvertently led to a man’s death, she laments the fact that she’ll probably never be able to tell someone about her work day, but Ollie later assures her that he’s there if she needs to talk. And isolation was the big theme this week, as Diggle warns Oliver that he’s been spending more time in the hood than usual. With two sidekicks now hanging out in the Hood Cave, it is a little disconcerting for Oliver to still be shunning human contact whenever it’s not strictly necessary and, but the end of the episode, he’s reaching out to more people. The awkward scene between him and Laurel outside of the club was brilliantly acted and written, with Laurel’s investigation into Sarah’s death and Oliver’s reluctance to make any new connections hanging over them like a big, uncomfortable cloud. The most emotional, but least productive, storyline this week was the search for Sarah. Laurel, hoping her dad would have convinced Dinah that she was inventing fantasies, does some digging and finds the lookalike living in the United States. Is it just me or was it a mean trick to play on her parents, confirming to them that their daughter is, in fact, dead right there in public? I’m still not convinced that Sarah is gone for good, since the show wouldn’t have introduced the prospect of her being alive if they weren’t going to use it, but for now the storyline simply served to bring the Lances back together. I haven’t talked about the action on the island for a few weeks simply because nothing much has been going on, and I’m starting to think that the weekly flashback structure is demanding too much of the story. I realise that we have five years of island time to get through, but there doesn’t seem to be enough to go around from week to week. This episode wasn’t too bad, as we finally meet Shado, and I guess her inclusion will liven things up a little. We see she’s a capable fighter and can definitely hold her own, so it’ll be fun to have a kick-ass female on the show. Read Caroline’s review of last week’s episode, The Huntress Returns, here. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
