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.