Written by Matt Kelly
So to start Arrow’s junior year, thing’s are going as swell as things can go on an episode of Arrow. Realistically, “The Calm” was kinda sickening. Every character is in pretty much the best place they’ve been since the series began (except Moira who is six feet under). Let’s go one by one through every character to see how uncharacteristically well some of the things are going. This will spoil everything for you. I’m gonna go from the characters who are having great days to the characters who are having the best day of their lives.
- Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) got to leave the League of Assassins, which doesn’t make any sense. Laurel even mentioned who it was strange that she got so many “League of Assassins vacation days.” Things changed later in the episode, but realistically her getting to leave the league at all is a big plus.
- Thea Queen (Willa Holland) is on some sort of vacation. We know it really isn’t a vacation but whatever. Hopefully she’s having fun.
- Detective Lance (Paul Blackthorne) is in charge of the police force now. That’s a big step up. Technically speaking most of the other police officers were murdered by Slade dudes, but a promotion is a promotion. Now he also just gets to call Arrow and have him solve his crimes whenever he wants, provided he helps a bit.
- Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) seems to have kicked her addiction. Time will tell, but last night’s Laurel seems together. She also got to see Sara again, which is nice considering the circumstances.
- Roy Harper (Colton Haynes) is finally a full member of Team Arrow! He even has a costume that looks like something that we will look back in on in ten years and go “What were we thinking?” but for now it looks great. He also gets to help solve crimes and save people from bombs. He can do sweet parkour and basically functions as a second Arrow which is really incredible considering he was able to pick that up in a couple of months. It took Oliver five years on a hellish island and apparently Hong Kong. I guess it’s a lot easier to focus when you aren’t falling in love with everyone you meet. Speaking of that, his only “issue” is that Thea isn’t around but really he’s so awesome that it seems like she was holding him back.
- Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) just acquired Queen Consolidated! He probably couldn’t have dreamed that Oliver was going to give such a pathetic speech compared to his belt buckle PowerPoint-powered speech. He also apparently acquired a city, which is pretty sweet. Beyond that he got to go to an electronics store without being harassed. Think about that for a second. The man mass produces smart watches! He has got to be on the level of Steve Jobs and he just walked into his local Best Buy and bought a router. That has to be huge for him.
- John Diggle (David Ramsey) is a father! Look out evil-doers, there’s a new Diggle in town and he’s adorable. Well he’s more adorable than the previous Diggle, and that’s saying something. Diggle’s relationship with Layla has always confused me but this should help to solidify it. Also Diggle got to argue with Oliver and showcase his incredible arms. He looks like The Rock with those things. I always assumed he was going to end up being Jon “The Green Lantern” Stewart but now he’s looking more like John Henry Irons aka Steel.
- Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) is firing on all cylinders. The crime fighting operation is running so well that Oliver can afford to send Diggle home and still be completely capable with just Felicity and Roy (and kinda Sara). He even gets to have a normal relationship with the police department who don’t hate him now. They held a “We love the Arrow” press conference that he was kinda in the background of. Word of advice, don’t be in the background of the commendation for the vigilante that you clearly are. Finally, Oliver is even also able to go on a nice date with Felicity. Besides being able to complete every fan’s dream OTP, with the addition of Felicity, Oliver has now officially dated every girl on the show that he isn’t related to or the ones that Diggle is with. Now that’s a stat.
- Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) gets to date Oliver! Clearly she is getting the best end of this deal possible. Yeah they didn’t end up together but she did get to go on a date with him and even get a kiss. She is also able to attract the advances of the new CEO of Queen Consolidated, Ray Palmer. Clearly Felicity is great but why is it that every time a new superhero shows up, they immediately flirt with Felicity? Sure, Ray seems to flirt with everyone (and that’s why he’s going to be the best new character) but Felicity also had a thing with Flash and now Arrow. Hell, there was even a moment when I thought Canary was going to try to start something. Thankfully that didn’t happen because if it did the Arrow fan community would have hit critical mass.
So yeah, it’s all downhill from here. Obviously Barry Allen, who was also on the show, had a phenomenal day but I feel bad including him considering he has his own show thing going on. Really with winners were Berlatini and Guggenheim and the rest of the creative team behind Arrow. This is gonna be a great season.
============================================================================================================================================
Matthew Nando Kelly is a contributing writer for Pop-Break. Aside from TV reviews, he also writes about films, music, and video games. Matthew also has a podcast called Mad Bracket Status where he discusses pop culture related brackets with fellow Pop-Break writer DJ Chapman. He loves U2, cats, and the New Orleans Saints. He can also occasionally be found writing lists on Topless Robot and his twitter handle is @NationofNando
Find him at NYCC. He’s the handsome StarLord.
===========================================================================================================================================
