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msbeccieboo · 6 years ago

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Arrow 7x21 Brain Dump

Late, late review…oops! This episode was SO GOOOOOD!!!! I’ve seen a real mix of reactions for 7x21, but personally I LOVED IT!! TOMMY MERLYN guys…nuff said!! Obviously, it was painfully Olicity-light, which is criminal given our time restrictions, but when an episode was this good, I can overlook some things haha! I’m going to take it as an episode in its own right, even if we should have had it earlier in the season, again. I actually thought that this would be a short review this week as, being a bottle episode, not a lot really happens. But with Tommy back in play, a whole boatload of emotions, and my flash-forward Olicity babies being back in play, it got long as usual. Sorrynotsorry.

Oliver and TOMMY!!!!

Oh Oliver. Poor Oliver went through it this week. The episode picks up where we left off last week with Oliver in a concrete sandwich (luckily dodging all the rebar), after sister-dearest dropped a building on him. Coming to, he calls for Overwatch and John (he knows who’s important) he looks up and we hear:

“Need some help?”

*Roll titles* Da da da da da da dah-da!!🏹

More beneath the cut

TOMMYTOMMYTOMMYTOMMYTOMMYTOMMY!!!!! Once more for the haters….TOMMY MERLYN!!!! YAAAAASSSSS!!!! In case it isn’t clear, I love me some Tommy Merlyn 😍😍 I will gladly accept any and every version of him that they can give us. Rat Poison Hallucination Tommy? Yup. Flashback Tommy? Sure. Earth 27.3 Evil Clown Tommy? Bring it! Any version, any time, anywhere, I’m there! So that is where I stand on the Tommy Merlyn debate haha! I loved how he was used in this episode. For me it didn’t feel like it had been overdone before, as I’ve seen some people say. We have actually had very little Tommy since he died. We have only had him as a ghost/hallucination for one tiny scene in 2x09 (I’m not counting the Alien dream as he didn’t even speak, and was just a really bad CGI job), since then he’s been back either in flashback, Earth X, or Human Target form, so the opportunity for a prolonged vision-Tommy, as the voice of Oliver’s morality?? Sign me the hell up!!

Colin still knows, and plays Tommy so damn well. He slips straight back into the character, and he is so like the character we knew from S1 conversationally, and in his mannerisms. How he has differentiated between the various versions we have seen over the seasons is just testament to Colin’s acting ability. Ugh, he’s fabulous.

So Oliver escapes from the rubble with help from Tommy and a trick arrow, and then a whole emotional rollercoaster ensues for a decent portion of the episode. I liked that straight off the bat, Oliver notes that he must have a concussion, he knows he’s dreaming, and he doesn’t care, he just goes along with it for the opportunity to ‘speak’ to his oldest friend again. I was living for the easy nostalgic conversations they had. They joked about the whole secret half-sister thing they now shared, with a cute little nod to Thea, Tommy’s beard 😂and a story of ‘Ollie’ hotwiring Malcolm’s car and getting grounded. This was so cute and light, given the dire circumstances.

Source: smoakmonster

The conversation eventually turns round to Serious Things, and a hashing out of Oliver’s duelling feelings on Emiko, on redemption, on killing for the right or wrong reasons. Oliver’s Daddy issues manifest, and it was emotional to see just how fucked up Oliver still is by the actions of Robert and Malcolm.

Tommy warns him that he needs to break free of his and Robert’s cycle of lies and hate that he is trapped in. He has a chance of a clean slate, to keep his past from hurting his kids, but Oliver won’t listen, convinced that he must kill Emiko to keep his family safe. He eventually breaks out of the room and joins the team. Not heeding Tommy or Dig’s words of caution, he leaves the team and pursues Emiko, intent on killing her. She tells him she knows about the baby, and the rage we saw on Oliver’s face was epic!

Despite Dig catching up with him and telling him not to, Oliver takes aim and shoots Emiko in the chest, killing her. However, when Oliver turns around he sees that Diggle has an arrow in his chest, and he falls down to his death, where we see the rest of the team, also all arrowed!! Then snap!! Back to Tommy…it was all a dream.

Source: arrowdaily

WRITERS, NEVER DO THAT TO ME AGAIN!!! I NEVER WANT TO SEE JOHN THOMAS DIGGLE DIE!! 😭😭😭

We get back to Oliver with Tommy, with Oliver crying over Dig’s ‘death’ 😭 no baby nooo!!! Tommy tells him his vision was a “reminder of what it feels like”. Oliver replies "Of seeing my loved ones die? Of seeing my family be threatened?" His voice breaking on the family part ended me 😭😭😭

Source: olivergifs

Tommy likens these feelings to how Robert must have felt; that fear leads to vengeance then to cruelty and abandonment. And that as long as Oliver keeps giving in to his worst impulses, he will never be free of Robert’s cycle. He advises him on what he needs to do regarding Emiko.

A lot of Tommy’s words to Oliver here and throughout the episode sounded more like Felicity in their nature, from the lighter parts:

Source: ebett

To the more supportive words he had for Oliver:

“Lean in to the best parts of yourself; your loyalty, your selflessness, your courage, your compassion, and show that side to Emiko. You are living proof that people can change, and you’ve got to find a way to see that in her too.” 😍

I can almost hear Felicity telling him ‘Tommy’s’ words. And this makes sense, with being a dream/hallucination and all. These are all voices in Oliver’s head; a mix of his own thoughts and the words of the two people who knew him best before (Tommy) and after (Felicity) the island. So, once more for the Tommy haters in the back…this wasn’t a conversation between ‘Tommy’ and Oliver, Oliver wasn’t asking for Tommy’s opinion; it was an internal dialogue between two conflicting desires within Oliver; it was Oliver’s conscience having a little tête-à-tête.

Oliver hears the team coming for him, and realises his time with Tommy is up. He says goodbye to his friend by telling him:

Source: misomeru

DEADED! Sobbing.like.a.baby. This felt like a true, final goodbye. Oliver took his realisation from ‘Tommy’. He knows what he has to do to stop Emiko and keep his soul and his family safe.

Anyway the team rescue Oliver and take him back to the lair, where they learn that Emiko and co. have stolen back the bioweapon from last week and are in the middle of slaughtering the SCPD, with Emiko dressed as Oliver *le sigh*. Oliver confronts her on the roof of the SCPD (ah, the memories…), has the opportunity to kill her, but doesn’t. He tries to reach her, offers her a chance at redemption once more “help me end our family’s cycle of violence”. Instead, half-sister-supervillain tells him she is going to kill him, his family and his city, then dares him to kill her. Oliver tells her no, and she actually looks…disappointed?? Then just zooms away on a zipwire arrow…see you next week Emiko!! The team arrive on the roof, just as an SCPD helicopter arrives to apprehend them….the end!

With regards to Oliver’s stance on not killing Emiko…I am totally ok with it. I don’t think its’s character regression on his part, it’s his choice to end a cycle of violence and guilt. I wrote a little more on redemption here, but my personal take is that redemption isn’t necessary for Emiko, just the opportunity of it. Oliver could easily detain her indefinitely and help her to redeem herself, or not, that is her choice. But it is important to Oliver that he tries his hardest to give that chance to her. I hope that he sees her choice in the matter by the end, and doesn’t continue beating the proverbial dead horse. (Or, you know, that someone else just kills her, or she falls off a cliff or something 😂)

Olicity

Ok, yes, I was hoping for more this week…a hug at least! We got the concern and the love, both separately and very briefly face-to-face 😡. Much as in my perfect world all episodes would be full of Olicity moments, this week, taken as a standalone, didn’t need a lot of Olicity in order to be a good episode. It was a great episode…on it’s own, in a vacuum. But it’s the penultimate Olicity episode ever. I would have liked more focus, that’s all.

Anyway, here’s the pretty:

Source: olicitygifs

Bonus: Cheeky bum grab 👀😏

Source: lucyyh 💗

Felicity

Felicity wasn’t the primary focus of the episode, this was definitely an Oliver episode, but given her dual storylines in the present and the FFs, we still got a lot of her on our screens. My gripe is that this would have been fine in any other episode, but this was her penultimate show!! But it is what it is…onwards and upwards and all that!

We first see her, back at Smoak Tech HQ, where Alena tells her that the SCPD are there with a warrant. All Felicity wants is some tech to help her locate Oliver (said tech is being manhandled by ‘Lieutenant Butterfingers’ LOVE HER 😂😂), but Sergeant Bingsley (ugh) has other ideas. Emiko has sent them the footage of Roy killing the guards, and they also linked the Ninth Circle bomb to Archer, and Archer back to Smoak Tech, and he is there to arrest Felicity…RUDE!!! Felicity and Alena escape, by taking out all the officers with a supercharged Canary Cry-esque burst from Felicity’s security system. YAAAASSSS GIRL!! 👑👑👑

I liked the focus on Alena and Felicity’s friendship in this episode; meant to mirror the ‘reveal’ in the FFs, and set up Felicity’s leaving, no doubt. Alena tells her that of course she will help her “I’m not letting you do this alone”, and they head to the bunker to find Oliver and the team. (Side thought: if the team are now working for the SCPD, why don’t they SCPD know where the lair is? Why don’t they go there to arrest Felicity/Roy/anyone else? Huh.) Felicity gets in touch with the team, but not Oliver, and helps to guide them through the building. Classic Overwatch. I loved how Alena was all of us when she asks Felicity how she breathes when she does this!

Then we see Emiko show up at the lair. Change. the. locks. people!

Source: felicitysmoakgifs

NOOOOOOO!!!! Save baby Mia!! But now Emiko knows agggghhhhhh!!!!! I loved Felicity’s attempt at reasoning with her; her baby is innocent, just as Emiko was, and it seemed to work, as Emiko left them unharmed. This was really a reality check moment for Felicity, of the direct danger that her baby would/could be put in if they continue this lifestyle as it is for much longer. I think Felicity is just so naturally positive, and has such faith in her own abilities, and in Oliver, that she had honestly believed that they would all be ok up until now.

Source: feilcityqueen

Felicity’s reality, her feelings, (and her hormones) all come crashing upon her at once, as she compares her situation to her own childhood experiences. And where she had always hoped that things would be different when she had her own children. Her whole speech about her comparing her childhood with her dreams for her own children, and her doubting her parenting ability was just heart-breaking:

“Growing up my parents made my life miserable, and I promised myself I would do better when I became a parent...I imagined this life and this is not it. Somehow I have done something worse...I can’t even keep my children safe.” 😭😭😭

NOOO!!! I just wanted to give her a hug! This leads into Alena suggesting that there’s ‘another way’ for Felicity. She tells Felicity that she can go off the grid, run the company remotely, but raise her family with Oliver in private, away from the SCPD and all the ungrateful fucks in Star City (I may have paraphrased slightly there!). This seed planted here is likely going to be how we see Felicity written out in the finale next week 😭

Source: ebett

Team Arrow

Roy Freaking Harper. The man. The legend. Love him. He’s the hero Team Arrow has deserved, and has been missing. NTA could never. And it was never more apparent than in this episode. After the blast, Felicity gets in touch with them and updates them with the SCPD developments.

As the generator kicks back in, they realise that the blast bringing the building down blew out a gas line and the whole of the lower level is filled with a toxic and flammable gas. Gas + generator = BOOM (hmmm this plot sound very familiar). Unfortunately the generator is on that same lower level, and needs turning off in order to save them all from going up in flames. So on one side we have Rene crying over his rep, Dinah bitching about losing her job and saying that Roy should give himself up to save the rest of the team. Then we have Roy, who just parkours straight into the toxic gas, sacrificing himself to turn off the generator and save the team. Eat it NTA. And they did! The overreaction by Rene, and especially Dinah, who sinks to the ground like the love of her life has just been killed (again 😬) is just ridiculous! Roy, being the badass parkour ninja bunny that he is, manages to jump back up and out of the gas. Yay Roy! Next thing, Dinah’s guilt clearly kicks in and she’s giving a still remorseful Roy a pep talk, telling him how the world and the team needs a hero like him. What the actual fuck Dinah? MAKE UP YOUR DAMN MIND! This woman could win the world yo-yo championships. Her weekly, or hourly, flip-flopping from one completely different viewpoint to another is tedious, exhausting and whiplash inducing. Go away. I beg of you. This pep-talk should have come from Dig. He’s Uncle Dig, pep-talks are his jam. And he would actually believe and stand by his words. Instead, Dig was sidelined again for more ridiculous bird action, because comics.

Roy’s guilt and apparent suicidal tendencies over the pit-rage-fuelled killings last week, combined with Dinah’s “dying is the coward’s way out, every day that you stay alive you try to redeem yourself” can only be leading to his exile on Lian Yu, surely? That will be where he seeks his redemption. But 20 years?? Man, I think he might have some more pit-mishaps coming up first!

FFs

My boy William is back!!! YAY!!! We got some overdue future family Clayton-Smoak-Queen feels this week. First off, just look at these little Olicity babies…those expressions!!!! 😍

Felicity says that in order to stop the Archer-powered Army, they need to take Archer down for good. William tries to help, with a ‘quick and dirty virus’, but Felicity denies him, insisting that he keeps safe. He rebuts with another plan to take Archer down by hacking Slimy Galaxy One Dude in proximity, employing a little flirty-flirt…Season 1 Felicity reference FTW!!!! Felicity again tells him no, that she wants him safe. This leads to him blowing up at being excluded, just like when he was a kid, and his anger at being left behind come up. Felicity apologises for not coming back for him, and tells him they just wanted him safe, and to have a normal life, but she is interrupted by a hacking emergency and Will walks off. This leads to him opening up to Mia about his feelings of abandonment, and this was another chance for us to see Mia’s softer, empathetic side, especially in her defence of Felicity. She reminds him that Felicity was still watching over him, that she backed his company and helped him to succeed, to which William replies “I didn’t need her money, Mia, I needed a mother” 😭😭 I just want to hug him!! Mia tells him that the only way to come to terms with it, and to find out their real reasons for ‘abandoning’ him is to confront her head on. This never gets to happen in the episode, but this conversation must surely mean that this will happen next week? And I’m guessing her answer will come with a surprise of some sort (hopefully of the Oliver-variety!!).

Will decides to ignore Felicity, and goes to hack Archer directly from Slimy Guy, who is still as cringe-inducing as ever. Not nearly as cringeworthy, however, as Rene’s terrible hair, as he is brought out as the man who ‘inspired’ the Zeta project?? Ugh, ratty rats must be killed. Squeak squeak Rene! Slimeball gets an alert and leaves them, only to return moments later with a gaggle of Zeta soldiers. They have detected William’s DNA, and Slimer announces that he knows who William really is, with “Such a pleasure to finally meet the son of Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak”!!!!! I adore hearing him be called both of theirs son soooo much!!

Meanwhile, back in the lair, we meet the “mad scientist that converted Archer into Frankenstein’s monster” (Felicity’s words haha), who turns out to be non-other than…Alena! Ok, so not the biggest reveal ever, but I still loved the scene. Felicity summoned her to help destroy Archer by freezing her bank accounts and passport (still got it!), and we get to see angry protective Mia confronting her, while Alena looks at her, rather softly, and laments:

Source: eloquence-of-felicities

She then goes on to apologise to Dinah for what happened to her Canaries. And she means it. She explains how she came to releasing Archer to Galaxy One. I liked here how they didn’t go with her being an outright evil mastermind...she tried to license out the program, then was subject to a hostile takeover, and had her loved ones threatened by Slimey Dude Kevin Dale. A shared look between them implied that maybe her 'loved ones' possibly included Felicity? Or maybe just that she was hoping Felicity would empathise with that choice? We never get to know, because the lair is suddenly swarmed with Zetas, as the remaining team (minus Connor and Zoe) are apprehended by Galaxy One.

To be continued…

Bonus: