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!