My Review of Arrow 1.18- Salvation

Roy gets himself into a load of trouble, there's a new vigilante in town and this vigilante does not have Oliver's sense of morality.  Also, Laurel's family continues to look for Sarah with interesting results and Moira makes a deadly choice....

Well, Roy and Thea are officially a sort-of item.  Well, they were making out anyway.  I think their becoming an item is dependent on how Oliver reacts to them being together.  It will also depend on Roy's willingness to leave his life of crime behind and try something new.  That will probably be quite a journey.  He is obviously reluctant to accept help, but hopefully the Arrow's actions this week are going to give him a different perspective and a new view on life.

I have to wonder if Thea is going to get suspicious of Oliver after this week's events.  First, he promises that Roy will be safe and then he is rescued by the Arrow.  Even if she doesn't realize that Oliver is the Arrow, she should realize that there is some connection between Oliver and the Arrow.  Notice I said "should".  Given the fact that she is a teenage girl and her pseudo-boyfriend was just rescued, she may not explore it much.  So, here's hoping.

Moira's choice this week was actually pretty obvious.  From the first conversation where she found out where the money came from, I knew she was planning something, particularly when she said that she "would do anything to protect [her] children."  Was there really another choice that even made sense?  No, not really.  I was wondering if the betrayal was going to possibly take place later, but it was pretty much inevitable after that line, particularly after Malcolm said that he had captured a member of the Triad and was getting information out of him.

Felt sorry for poor Felicity this week.  Watching someone die on a screen in front of you is bad enough, but to have tried (and failed) to prevent it is even worse.  Then, on top of that, Oliver yells at her.  Can't blame him given the stress of the moment, but still felt bad for her.  It was nice to see him comfort her at the end of the episode.  I do hope they don't go the love interest route there.  I think it would be nice to see the two of them as just friends and colleagues.

The island flashback was interesting.  Not sure how it tied into the theme of this episode though.  I do wonder if maybe the flashbacks are, at this point, more for information about Oliver's past and less about how his past is directly affecting the events of the episode.  I was impressed with Yao-Fei daughter's fighting ability.  That was impressive.  And what exactly is the plan for the missile and the mainland?  Starting a war seems the most obvious, but with whom?

I cannot wait to see how Oliver reacts to the prospect of Thea and Roy together.  Is he going to go the protective older brother route?  Or is he going to go with a more laidback, "my sister's an adult" type of approach?  I suspect the former, but I could be wrong.  I also wonder if he is going to take Roy under his wing.  That could be a very interesting situation seeing as Roy is not the easiest person to teach and Oliver is not exactly the most patient person.

That vigilante was just creepy.  Going after the landlord was not a bad thing, although the summary execution was not good.  But then going after the DA and Roy was just over the top.  What people don't seem to get about Arrow is that while he does kill people, it is a last resort, not the first choice.  They are acting like the Arrow hunts down his targets and then kills them rather than trying to punish them first and killing only as a last resort or on accident.  The other thing is that, as I've said before, Oliver doesn't go after people to settle personal scores.  Instead, he goes after them to help people in general.  This vigilante, much like Helena, went after people for personal reasons and then tried to claim that it is for the general good.  The worst part is that Roy had done nothing to him.  Instead, Roy represented a type of person that the vigilante wanted revenge on.  Not a good thing.

Until next week!

My Review of Vampire Diaries 4.17- Because the Night

Elena and Damon go on a road trip, Bonnie loses herself and then apparently gets it back, and Klaus puts the moves on Caroline.  Oh, and yes, Klaus meets Silas....

I am still enjoying emotionless Elena.  She is more fun and less psychotic than Katherine.  But she is equally devious and manipulative.  I so want to see what happens when the two of them meet.  Will Katherine's experience give her the edge over Elena?  That will be fun to watch.  I was surprised at how Elena managed to continually stay one step ahead of Damon.  That is impressive.  It might be because Damon simply underestimated her or thought of her as less devious than Katherine.  Or it could be that Damon was just blinded to what Elena would do to hold on to her emotionlessness.  I also liked how Elena and Rebekah bonded.  Not sure how long it will last, but it is fun.

So, the third massacre for the completion of the Expression triangle was one of witches.  I was a little surprised at that.  I assumed that the third would be vampires.  No particular reason other than the fact that Expression is a form of magic and I would have thought that witches would want to avoid killing each other.  I must admit though, that it does make a certain amount of sense.  Killing the humans and werewolves releases blood/death energy while killing witches would also release a certain amount of magical energy, so maybe that is why it had to be witches.  Poor Caroline.  I get that she wanted to save Bonnie from being killed, but was killing 12 witches and possibly countless others when Silas unleashes hell on earth worth it?  I have to agree with Klaus here.  No matter how much of a bastard he may be, he was right.  Allowing Bonnie to die would be, I think, ultimately the right thing to do.

No wonder Lexie hated Damon in the first season.  He left her on a rooftop to die and pretended to love her.  That is low even for him.  So there was a certain symmetry in what Elena and Rebekah did to him.  Not nice symmetry, but still symmetry.  And Damon was definitely getting sloppy in '77.  I do have to say though the the intercutting of the feeding scenes in the bar (back then and now) were pretty freaking hot.  Sort of disturbing, but still hot.

I am trying to figure out whether or not to feel bad for Klaus.  First, Caroline rejects him and calls him evil.  Then he looks like he is about to comfort her and then refuses to.  Then he confronts Silas and is stabbed in the back (literally) by the white ash stake.  Overall, not a good day to be him.  I wonder what (if anything) can kill Silas.  The guy is immortal and may be unkillable.  After all, if Qetsiyah wanted to punish him, making him actually immortal would definitely do that.

So next week, Elena catches up with Katherine.  I am foreseeing a brilliant catfight!

My Review of Arrow 1.17- The Huntress Returns

Helena returns and she is screwier than ever.  That spells bad news for Oliver and those he loves....

And when you thought she couldn't be any nuttier, she manages to achieve it.  I understand that she is upset about her dad having her fiance killed.  But she has seriously lost all perspective.  She kills anyone who gets in her way.  Tommy is right, Oliver has killed, but he does everything he can to avoid doing that.  Helena seems to almost revel in it.  I must say that I was hoping that Oliver would kill her, but I think I get why he didn't.  Helena knows who Oliver is and who is helping him and she is crazy enough to do whatever she wants to get him to help her.  And now that he won't help her anymore, she is going to want revenge.  Doctor, doctor!  She need a serious check-up from the neck up!

I am glad that Oliver finally stepped up to the plate where Helena is concerned.  I get that he has strong feelings for her and that is a large part of the reason he is reluctant to do anything permanent to stop her, but she is going to push him over the edge really soon.  She attacked Tommy and Felicity and killed several FBI agents (or were they police officers?).  He needs to do more and fast or else I am afraid that she is going to come at his family next.  That would be the logical next step in her revenge journey.  What would be even worse is if she were to team up with the Count or someone else to get Oliver.  That would be very, very nasty.

I thought that Tommy was ok with Oliver being the Arrow.  Apparently, I was wrong.  He was definitely freezing Oliver out because he felt that he didn't know Oliver anymore.  I was happy that he finally got things figured out, particularly after Oliver saved his arm from Helena.  I also wonder is Tommy will be of any help.  He doesn't seem to have any particular skills, so I don't see how he could help there.  But I guess maybe he could help use the bar to hide people if needed.

Roy has a fairly large chip on his shoulder.  I do get wanting to do things yourself, but if someone offers you a job, you'd be crazy not to take it, pride be damned.  It was nice to see him rescue Thea, although I do have to wonder if maybe he set the whole thing up.  Except for maybe the stabbing, although the stabbing could have been done on purpose.  The point?  To ingratiate himself with the Queens for some criminal purpose.  I hope that is not what is going on, but it is certainly possible.

McKenna is gone now.  She was shot in the lower torso by Helena with a shotgun and is going to be in rehab for a year or so.  Yet another reason for Oliver to want to get Helena.  It was definitely nice of Oliver to offer to move with her, but I understand why she didn't accept.  I am confused why he didn't offer to lend her a helicopter or something to shuttle her back and forth from rehab, which would allow them to stay together while letting her get to the best rehab facility in the country.

Is Sarah Lance still alive?  Oliver saw her sink into the ocean, but we never saw a body, so it is possible.  If so, I am betting she will be massively pissed at Oliver.  I suspect that she is dead, but I have been wrong before, so I'll withhold judgment for the moment.

Until next week!

Time Travel in Continuum

Continuum is a great show and it relies on time travel as its central conceit.  Since the season finale is Monday, I wanted to look (briefly) at time travel in the show and some interesting thoughts I had.

First off, as Alec said in the pilot, there are a few schools of thought on time travel.  One is that time travel is impossible (we'll ignore this one for purposes of this).  The others contend that time travel is possible, but vary on whether or not a person traveling back in time can in fact affect the future.  One maintains that it is impossible to change the future because there are too many variables to effect an actual change.  The other contends that it is possible to effect a change by changing certain events.

Continuum has not come down on either side yet, but given the events we have seen thus far, I would hypothesize that the show would come down on the side of not being able to change the future.  In the pilot, future Alec seems to know Keira when she is introduced to him for the first time, which would really only make sense if he had already met her in the past.  And in the last episode, Kagame said that the events at the farm would shape his future and make him who he was to become.

Taking this line of thought a bit further, I would hypothesize that future Alec was working with Liber8 tosend them back to the past.  Given the fact that his step-father was killed by the police and that his step-brother is the leader of Liber8, it would make sense that Alec would work with them.  Also, by sending them and Keira back, Alec would ensure that the future would unfold the way it already had.

Now, there have been hints that the future could be changed when Kiera and the members of Liber8 were talking about eliminating each other's ancestors.  However, when Kellogg's ancestor was killed, nothing happened to him, leading me to think even more that the show is saying that the future is immutable.

If the future is immutable, I wonder what the point of the show is then.  Normally, you would think that this type of show is about changing the future for the better.  But can that be done?  Or is the show merely a commentary on contemporary events?  If so, it is fairly dark for a sci-fi show.

Thoughts?

My Review of the Vampire Diaries 4.16- Bring It On

We get our first look at emotion-free Elena, and man, is it interesting!

Emotion-free Elena is part creepy and part flat-out fun.  It was nice to see her let loose and be like early Damon, but not so nice to see her as the Mean Girl of a high school.  The problem seems to be that Elena recognizes what is right or wrong, but she flat-out doesn't care.  She is running on her id.  To quote Faith (from Buffy) "Want.  Take.  Have."  She fed without caring about who did or did not see her, allowed Caroline to fall flat on her back during a cheerleading routine, attacked Sherriff Forbes, attacked and almost killed Caroline, and changed in front of whoever she wanted.  This girl is shameless.  I am enjoying it, even if it is more than a little creepy.  While she is not quite like Catherine, I do wonder if she could slip into that mode.  If she does, that would be really, really bad for everyone.

Damon is in an interesting pickle.  Since he got Elena to turn off her emotions, his sire bond no longer works because the sire bond appears to have been rooted in her feelings for Damon.  No feelings= no sire bond.  So now she is free to choose Damon if she wants to.  But somehow I don't think she will.  I also think she won't choose Stefan.  I honestly think she would prefer to remain alone and just enjoy whichever brother she wants at the current moment.  Nice?  No, but I think that fits in with what she is doing at the moment.  So he wants to get her the cure to get "his" Elena back.  Problem?  If he gives her the cure; as Rebekah noted; then she may very well choose Stefan.  So what is he going to do?  I think this is what is referred to as a no-win (or for the Trekkie in me, a Kobyashi Maru) scenario.

I find it interesting that Stefan is so unwilling to give up on Elena.  It makes sense because of how he feels about her, but it is still interesting.  I wonder how far he is willing to go in giving her the benefit of the doubt.  So far, she has been far more reckless than Damon ever was and there were several times when he tried to stop Damon.  Will he do the same thing to Elena?  Will he be *ABLE* to do the same thing to Elena?

Apparently Tyler is gone for the long haul since he deeded his house to Matt.  The nice thing is that now Tyler's house can be a refuge for people looking to hide from Klaus.  Matt will be staying there and I wonder if Caroline will be there now too.  Poor Caroline though, she won't be seeing Tyler soon.  Sucks to be her.

So Klaus has hooked up with Hayley and is protecting her from Katherine.  Not sure if this is a good thing or not.  After all, Hayley is part of the reason Klaus doesn't have the cure.  Then again, she is his best bet to find Katherine soon.  Is Hayley's family being from New Orleans what will take him there for the backdoor pilot to The Originals?

Until next week!

My Review of Arrow 1.12- Vertigo

Finally got to watch the episode when it was reshown last night, and man, was it good.  So, here it is (a month and a half later!), my review of Vertigo...

First, I have to say that I loved how Seth Gabel played the Count.  He was on the verge of being completely insane and over the top, but didn't quite go there.  I don't read comics, so I don't know about the character from there, but I did appreciate how fine a line Seth had to walk here.  Had he gone just a little too far, he would have had an epic fail on his hands.  Instead, he managed to keep the Count grounded.  I so hope he comes back because now that he has apparently gone off the deep end (thanks to the drugs the Arrow injected into him), he could be a wonderfully insane enemy for the Arrow to deal with.

Thea was just being stupid.  I get that she is upset at her mom for various reasons, but I am totally failing to see how having herself thrown in jail is going to (in any way, shape, or form) get back at her mom.  Rather, it is just going to ruin her life.  If anyone can figure out this logic, please enlighten me.  I know Thea is a teenager and is wounded by everything that has happened, but this particular decision was so stupid and so out there, that I cannot figure it out.  I am glad that she came to her senses and accepted the help that Laurel and Oliver offered.

Detective Lance was someone else who went a little off the deep end.  I have complained about his hypocrisy before (hunting the Arrow and then using him as needed), but tonight he showed a different side: utterly vindictive and almost cruel.  He has apparently turned everything around in his mind so that his daughter (Laurel's sister) was a perfect angel who was corrupted by the evil Oliver Queen and then died.  We've always known that Lance has hated Oliver for what happened, but to use that as an excuse to rewrite history and then to justify not helping a teenage girl is just...wow.  I know that Thea did the wrong thing.  But can I say (in her defense), that she has had a hard life in many ways as well and is messed up because of it?  Granted, her life has been no harder than other peoples, but she lost her dad and brother and then got her brother back and he has been distant.  Then she saw her mom supposedly cheating on her step-father right before she took the drugs.  Good decisions?  No.  But neither she (nor Oliver) are irredeemable.  Detective Lance needs to get over this obsessive hate.  It is not a good thing for a cop to have.

I would love to know how that little strangulation trick of Oliver's works.  I assume it has something to do with pressure points, but I am not sure.  It was really cool.  I was wondering if he might be willing to kill a criminal in order to save Thea, but I am glad that he did not have to make the choice.  As for what he did to the Count, while it might not have been the most moral thing, the Count did need to be stopped.  The Arrow is a vigilante and a hero in equal measures.  He has stepped in because the law has failed to stop certain things from happening for one reason or another.  Vigilantism is always a grey area and I think that, for the most part, Oliver walks that line well.  He doesn't kill unless it is absolutely needed, but he does what he must.  He also helps out the police if he can.

Next week, the Huntress returns.

My Review of Arrow 1.16- Dead to Rights

I apologize that this has taken so long, but my life has been a wee bit crazy and I haven't really had computer access.  But here it is.

On this episode of Arrow, someone new finds out Oliver's secret, Oliver saves someone interesting, and someone interesting is tasked to find out why Oliver had to save who he saved....

So, Tommy now knows that Oliver is the Arrow.  And the reason he found out?  Oliver was trying to save his dad who had been shot with a poisoned bullet by Deadshot.  In order to help Malcolm, Oliver had to show Tommy that the Arrow could be trusted.  Hence, the revelation.  Just find that interesting.  Also nice for Oliver, because now maybe he can get more help.  Also, given that Laurel has been close to the Arrow, maybe Tommy will be a little more understanding.

On the downside is the fact that there will almost inevitably be a confrontation between the Dark Archer and the Arrow.  And in that confrontation, there is a good possibility that one or the other could die.  If the Arrow were to kill the Dark Archer, I do not know it Tommy would ever forgive Oliver.  If, on the other hand, the Dark Archer were to kill the Arrow, Tommy would be seriously hurt.  I wonder if such a confrontation could be in the offing and give the Arrow a major villain to work against.  But this villain would know his identity and weak points, giving him a huge advantage.  That would make for some epic television.

Please tell me that I was not the only one to be amused by the fact that the Arrow had to save Malcolm from Moira, even if he didn't know that Moira had made the contract on Malcolm or that Malcolm is the Dark Archer.  The irony inherent is this situation is palpable and quite amusing.  He saves his enemy from his mother.  <snerk>

Speaking of Malcolm, I wonder if those missing two years that Tommy mentioned were when Malcolm learned how to become the Dark Archer and came up with the Undertaking.  Given that his wife was shot and killed in the area that the Undertaking is targeting, it makes sense.  And I still want to know what the Undertaking is exactly.  It is rather obviously not good, but I do wonder how bad it is.  Again, I suspect that the Undertaking will either be a multi-year arc or will be the cause of the aforementioned confrontation between the Dark Archer and the Arrow.

I also have to say that given the givens, Diggle took the news that Deadshot is still alive really well.  Wonder if there is any revenge planned.....

Until the 20th!