Arrow - Recap: Oliver Jonas Queen
Party at Queen Manor? Slade Wilson refused to leave without a tour of Oliver’s home and an introduction to his family on tonight’s new Arrow.
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To kick off the recap, things with Oliver and Slade were initially stiff and continued to unravel into straight-up rudeness on Ollie’s end. I guess having a Mirakuru-addled psycho carefully caressing your mother’s lower back and shoulders will do that to a vigilante. Under the guise of someone super interested in anything Moira had to do politically, Slade slowly explored what seemed like every hallway of Oliver’s family home, making sure to touch every delicate painting frame, slide his finger down the ropes of a model ship, etc. Basically, this was Slade coming into Oliver’s stomping ground to pee on the hydrant and twist the knife.
Most of the drama during Episode 15 took place on the island in an extended flashback sequence that finally had our trio making their move against Ivo and his men in an effort to finally get back home. We watched as Sara whipped up what seemed like some medical herbs that were certain to work their magic, though we didn’t quite know what she was talking about. Slade even whipped out a bottle of Australian rum, a brand he’d later gift to Moira Queen when we headed back to the future as another means of churning Ollie’s stomach. Slade had been saving this rum after the plane crash for a special occasion, and this looming assault on Ivo’s ship seemed to call for shots. It’s also important to note that the group, even Slade, it seemed, decided to burn the chest of Mirakuru in an effort to ensure that even if they failed in overthrowing the madman, they would prevent his nightmarish dreams from becoming a reality.
Much of the stress on the island surrounded keeping the truth behind Shado’s (Celina Jade) death a secret from Slade. Having witnessed the execution, we know that Oliver didn’t necessarily choose Sara over Shado. Rather, he elected to leap in front of Sara to protect her from Ivo’s blast, and Shado was more so sideswiped by that reactionary gesture. As Sara pointed out, however, Ivo is a wicked genius and a mad scientist. Oliver would have had to have been crazy to believe that Ivo would allow Slade to murder him in cold blood without first attempting to peg Shado’s death on Ollie, the man Slade had now begun referring to as his brother.
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Island Ollie had been practicing his archery skills to the point of becoming quite solid with a bow. It’s funny to go back in time to witness Oliver almost hitting the bull’s-eyes of his targets, especially when he failed to light an important signal fire on the beach from afar.There’s a breeze!It was great to watch our island trio here; Ollie, Slade, and Sara getting all chummy just before all hell would break lose at sundown.
The fire was ignited, and Ivo took the bait. A few of his armed crew members apprehended Oliver on the beach and dragged him back onboard the freight ship. Unfortunately for Oliver, we didn’t expect Ivo to strap him into a chair and inject him with “truth serum.” Oliver Jonas Queen became a regular chatterbox here, telling Ivo everything he needed to know in a drugged-out stupor. Eventually, he even sold out Slade and Sara, pointing Ivo’s men directly to the engine room. Luckily for Ollie, the mixture Sara had been concocting earlier that seemed like nothing more than some crushed berries acted as an preventative antidote to Ivo’s serum. Everything he revealed was a lie, and Sara and Slade were free to parachute onto the empty top of the ship from high on the island cliffs.
Initially, everything was going according to plan. As Sara freed the prisoners, including a new reverend, Thomas Flynn, and Oliver’s old Russian ally we’d previously become acquainted with, Slade, donning his Deathstroke mask, and Oliver, protected by his signature Arrow hood, began searching for Ivo and seizing control of the ship. The most badass part of all of this was probably that Slade actually didn’t have to do much fighting at all. The men were simply terrified of the look of him in the two-tone mask! Eventually, however, things changed.
Oliver found Ivo and was prepared to put him down quickly, as suggested prior by Sara. Unfortunately, Ivo knew all the right things to say to peg Shado’s death on Oliver as Slade listened in from the shadows. Eventually that snake Ivo slithered off to safety. Oliver, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. Quite the brawl broke out between the "brothers" with the twisting and turning freight ship acting as a third warrior in the mix. Eventually, Oliver made it out to the top deck to rendezvous with Sara and some of her prisoner buddies, though it seemed the mission had failed. They’d lost control of the ship when they lost Slade, and they’d have to swim back to the island if they were to survive another night. What happened next was probably the best part of Episode 15. As the survivors began jumping ship, Sara included, Slade popped up out of nowhere, grabbed Oliver by the ankles before his dive overboard could be completed, and swung his body like a minute hand, clockwise, back onto the deck.
Back in the present, Slade started to transfer some of his charming energy towards Thea, who was forced to take her mother’s new business buddy through each and every painting propped up on the walls of Queen Manor. Oliver, not amused, secretly phoned Felicity in the Arrow Cave in hopes of someone catching a red flag in the “butt dialed” conversation. I’ll give Arrow a pass here in that it was kind of stretch to assume that Felicity would put the call on speakerphone for the entire Arrow Cave to hear. I’m not complaining, though. It’s because of this that Sara pegged Slade’s signature voice and prepped Roy (Colton Haynes) and Diggle (David Ramsey) for a battle to the death.
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I’m not sure which moment I liked more; the moment Roy introduced himself with a handshake that was clearly powered by Mirakuru or the moment Sara descended from the staircase. I’m going to go with Sara’s reintroduction to Slade judging by his gif-worthy facial reaction. Slade, realizing that the odds had fallen out of his favor, bid the Queen’s adieu, though Ollie was happy to walk him out to his car… where Diggle waited in the bushes heavily armed and ready… for about a moment before one of Slade’s men disarmed and apprehended him. Yikes! Ollie’s team is certainly in trouble if Slade is that far ahead of the game. Now that they have Diggle alive, they have actual leverage beyond simple threats. That is, I’m assuming they didn’t simply leave Diggle unconscious next to some shrub. Slade drove off in a really nice car, reminding Oliver of the promise he’d made to him on the island, a promise he intends to fulfill.
The island flashback sequence this week ended with Sara washing ashore with a bunch of scallywags left over from the attack on the ship. Soon enough, she realized Oliver was missing. Aboard the freight ship, Slade had seized control, clearly out of his mind. Oliver was imprisoned, then subsequently forced to watch Slade harass Ivo in a reenactment of the death of Shado. The role of Shado went to none other than Oliver Queen. Ivo played himself. Slade, I’m guessing, played everybody's inner conscience. Once Ivo was forced to show Slade just how he held the gun pointed at Shado’s head, that was that. Cut! End scene! Literally, Slade cut the man’s arm off in one fell swoop of his sword and had him ushered away to the bowels of the ship. At this point, Slade also revealed that he'd saved a batch of the Mirakuru. Oliver had previously burned some dirt in a box. Oliver was promised a fate much worse than death. Slade, including the man in the present, has no intention of killing Oliver Queen until he destroys everything he’s ever loved. He wants Ollie to suffer.
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To close the recap of Episode 15, we were clued in to the fact that Slade bugged Oliver’s entire home with mini cameras, lenses he carefully hid as he pretended to fawn over Moira’s art collection. Moira, meanwhile, took Oliver’s frigid behavior as an indirect attack on herself and banned him from visiting the family home if that will be how he so chooses to behave towards her guests in the future.
What did you think of Arrow Season 2 Episode 15, “The Promise”? How will this all end? How do you think things will unfold on the island?
Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Arrow Season 2 Episode 15, “The Promise”!