Arrow - Recap: Yin and Yang, Killer and Hero

Episode 2 of Season 2 of Arrow, “Identity,” continued to depict the utter destruction brought forth by last season’s finale's Undertaking. While Oliver (Stephen Amell) and his team continued to find a new path for his vigilante alter ego, Roy Harper (Colton Haynes) remained relentless in his desire to prove his worth to the man formerly known as Hood Guy by taking brutal beating after brutal beating. Meanwhile, Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy) has an awful new mission that seemed to prove to be a thorn in everyone’s side, and newcomer Sebastian Blood (Kevin Alejandro) was just as irksome in his crusade. Nobody tells Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) to brew anything, Oliver. Here is the Recap and Review of Season 2 Episode 2 of Arrow, “Identity”!

Episode 2 opened in classic Arrow fashion. A government truck attempted to carry medical supplies to a hospital in The Glades. Unfortunately, someone else clearly had alternative plans. A group of armed bikers would swarm the vehicle, leaving only a Fast and the Furious-inspired Roy Harper to foolishly attempt to put a road block in their scheme. As usual, Roy came off looking more like a normal person who’s maybe taken a few martial arts classes playing super hero. While he might have put a minor dent in the attack, the team of bikers would inevitably be successful in their hijacking plot, sending Roy’s snazzy stolen car flying through the air in a scene that looked like a clip of Fear Factor lost footage. Roy would be arrested, yet again, as a possible accomplice to the crime.Ugh. You lose some, you lose some, Roy.

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We’ve seen this visual before. At this point, it seems Laurel is handing Harper time-outs as opposed to actual arrests. Laurel, if you recall, is hell-bent on catching the vigilante, and she refused to buy into Roy’s defense of the man she still holds responsible for the death of Tommy Merlyn. I appreciated Roy’s “half of the city fell into a hole, imbecile” retort. Okay, I threw in the “imbecile” because I’m still somewhat unclear as to why Laurel has such a chip on her shoulder regarding Hood Guy. You would think that, just maybe, she’d be a little ticked off when it comes to the Queens, funny enough, as their company was responsible for funding the earthquake machine that swallowed up over five hundred folks in The Glades and killed Tommy. I’d be even more confused by the episode’s end. Keep in mind that I've always liked Laurel, even if she's always been slightly polarizing. More to come!

Thea (Willa Holland), meanwhile, decided that she’d had enough of Roy and his (almost) crime fighting ways. Later, she’d give Harper and ultimatum; two weeks severance and a breakup or quit playing do-or-die jank alley warrior, even going as far as to offer Roy her Buddhist reconnection rock as a symbol of her affection for him. Remember, Ollie gifted Thea the object he’d found on the island last season to symbolizes movement forward in their relationship. For what it’s worth, I really enjoy Roy as a character, and I admire his incredibly plucky nature. I appreciate that Arrow has him consistently falling short of actually accomplishing any sort of true victory on his own, mostly because Colton Haynes’ forte is giving great “angry face.”

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This is probably a good place to review what happened during the island flashback this week. Episode 2 revealed the aftermath of Ollie’s brutal bludgeoning of the enemy mercenary last week. Shado (Celina Jade) attempted to quell his pain, the feeling of absolute emotional consumption by the darkness of the island, with a bit of a steamy session while the pair cleaned off in the water. The island does, as she put it, bring out the yin and the yang, the killer and the hero, in all of them. Slade (Manu Bennett), meanwhile, appears to be developing a love for Shado as well. From a distance, he watched in pain as the two connected and started Oliver’s healing process with a little romance. In the end, he would give Oliver the advice to quit allowing himself to be distracted while they attempt to fight their way out of their tropical death trap. This made enough sense, although it was clear to us that Slade had ulterior personal motives. Slade's heart! It's real and not entirely stone! Please tell me Arrow will eventually transfer this character to present day Starling City. By the close of the flashback, the group had located a secret cave that seemed to be of some importance to their enemies. Inside, deformed skeletons of Japanese soldiers from decades back seemed to hold the key to the puzzle. Oliver, upon doing some snooping, discovered the Buddhist reconnection stone around the neck of one of the dead. I hope Thea sanitized that thing! Who wants to touch something that a corpse decomposed on?

Oliver attempted to reason with Roy outside of the interrogation room, but Harper’s insistence that The Glades remained completely helpless and hopeless following the devastation that took place seemed to strike a deeper chord with Queen. Roy clued Oliver into the issue with the medical supplies, prompting Ollie and Diggle (David Ramsey) to eventually make a trip down to the hospital to witness the chaos for themselves. Outside, Alderman Sebastian Blood spoke to the press regarding Starling City’s elite and their lack of support for the fallen poor. Ollie walked straight into a trap, as the press and protestors hounded the party boy socialite with the Queen family name for answers. I guess the alleged several-month-long “European ski trip” didn’t really do Oliver any favors either.

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There was also a bit of a shakeup at Queen Consolidated this week, as Oliver insisted that Diggle and Felicity maintain alternative identities in order to work more closely together. Felicity, fuming mad that she’d graduated with flying colors from MIT only to be forced into wearing the mantle of, *sigh*, “secretary,” completely refused to answer to Ollie’s beck and call. Diggle shut down the situation pretty quickly, though, as “black driver” can’t really be topped. I love Ollie's right-hand man lets his humor shine through, even if Diggle’s arc this week mainly threw some more emotional weight behind the character we all already know and love. Alas, Diggle and Carly are no more. Oliver would initially remain oblivious to the breakup, though as Felicity would come to point out in a moment of utter frustration, the sadness was written all over Diggle’s face any time Carly's name was brought up. Again, Felicity would eventually channel all of her secretarial-based anger into ripping Oliver a new one over his lack of empathy and self-centered tunnel vision. Diggle, unable to separate his love for Carly with his hate for Deadshot, again echoed the common theme this week in yin and yang, killer and hero.

Eventually, the crew would manage to pinpoint the upcoming delivery of medical supplies, tipping them off to the next attack by the group of mystery bikers. See, I found it strange that those teamsters were so eager to continue on working after realizing that none of these shipments were actually being delivered by living drivers. Well, they weren’t delivered at all! I was so ready to begin referring to him as Green Arrow this week, but the ridiculous China White (Kelly Hu) returned just in time to redub the vigilante on her own! The Emerald Archer has a nice ring of royalty to it. Eh, it also brings up unfortunate visions of The Wizard of Oz, which don't necessarily go hand-in-hand with a modern-day super hero. Nice try, though, China. The Chinese Triad was, of course, behind the heists, creating more turmoil within Starling City for whatever reason. Do they need a reason for China White to behave like a platinum she-beast at this point? During “Identity,” White brought a friend in Bronze Tiger (Michael Jai White), another assassin with a knack for using makeshift claws to slice and dice whomever he sees fit. Oliver would come to blows with the latest villain for just a few moments before Laurel and her team of obnoxious cops would raid the scene, obstructing Oliver’s chance to gift-wrap them two awesome catches. The police were never so much of a nuisance when Detective Lance was behind the chases. I guess a personal vendetta will do that to you, Laurel. As Roy had put so well prior, the police have been so preoccupied with their own highbrow battles that they have no desire to focus on fighting for the people suffering in The Glades.

Ollie would eventually attempt to reconcile matters with Sebastian Blood, inviting the man to his office in order to negotiate some sort of a settlement to contribute to the recuperation projects in The Glades. A check wouldn’t cut it, though, and Oliver would eventually decide to host a benefit in his company’s office building, complete with all of his awful elitist buddies and their fat wallets, to prove that Starling City could come together in a time of dire need. The evening of the benefit, Oliver would suit up quite nicely, albeit he showed up late. Well, he made it to the elevator bank, unbeknownst to anyone else inside. Felicity, from the depths of the Arrow Cave, alerted Oliver to an unfortunate overlapping in his schedule. He’d unknowingly double-booked the charity benefit, the incredibly important event with his name and face attached, with the next hospital shipment. Electing to skip out on his own party in order to put an end to China White and her cronies, Oliver would need to wear another kind of suit that evening.

The final battle with China White and Bronze Tiger was, as expected, exhilarating. This time, Ollie brought his own friend, Diggle, to the showdown, and the two would eventually break apart to tackle one enemy each. I enjoyed watching Oliver maneuver through crates and tarps and whatnot, doused in orange light, as Bronze Tiger snuck around doling out stabs through the maze of nonsense. In the end, Ollie simply needed to land one shock arrow in the shoulder of the cocky criminal to render him useless to White’s cause. Diggle, meanwhile, managed to fend off a clinger-on in China White as he attempted to drive the truck out of harm’s way. I found it fitting that he inevitably brought the truck of supplies to a screeching stop in just the right location to knock White into a massive pile of garbage. Now, an obviously smellier China White would need to deal with both men if she wished to escape. Sorry, China, every dastardly dame has her day, even one as seemingly untouchable as you. Ollie and Diggle managed to capture the Triad leader this week, and a news flash later would alert us to her subsequent arrest. Unfortunately, Oliver’s own crucifixion by a very peeved Sebastian Blood would follow. I thought Blood’s reminder that crucifixion was a noble form of punishment was bold and represented his mysterious nature as a new character well, but I don’t think drawing comparisons between your enemy and Jesus in any way will ever really do you favors, Alderman. As a one time deal, Felicity would brew Ollie some consolation coffee. It was a truly rough night.

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Fed up with Roy Harper’s agonizing attempts to match him in the field, Oliver would pay the dude a visit in the alley behind his club. Suited in costume (How did Harper not see Thea's brother as he stood in plain sight? The magic of eye makeup?), Ollie seemed to strike a deal with Roy, who can hold is own in a street fight yet is quite obviously way too sloppy to play sidekick just yet. Instead, Roy will act as his eyes and ears in The Glades, leaving his favorite memento, the arrow the vigilante had dropped that he’d now painted red, in the wall of the alley to alert the true Starling City hero of a new tip. Roy was elated, clearly, and ran straight back into the club to return Thea’s reconnection rock. He’s had a revelation! He needs Thea Queen in his life! Ooh, this is certainly going to come back to bite Harper in the ass.

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To close out the recap and review, Oliver had paid two visits to Laurel as the vigilante this week. First, he’d visit Laurel with a plea for her to drop her quest for revenge, arguing on his own behalf that he’d tried his hardest to prevent the fall of The Glades. Laurel, reminding us via flashback, cited the fact that she’d caught a mere glimpse of Hood Guy leaving the scene of Tommy’s death as reason enough to take him down. Laurel, I understand that you’re grieving, but that’s simply too much of a stretch. The second time The Hood would visit Laurel, it seemed he came with his own mission. Oliver spoke more so as himself, confessing to Lance that he too had lost a friend that night. It began to seem clearer that this could be the moment Queen exposed his true identity to his former flame, but just as he began to show that vulnerability, she activated a system that alerter her team to his unwanted yet totally expected presence. Episode 2 closed with our future Green Arrow surrounded by armed men.

What did you think of Arrow Season 2 Episode 2, “Identity”? Is Laurel’s vendetta making perfect sense to you? When will we get an official name for the vigilante turned hero? Are you happy that China White has finally been apprehended? Will Sebastian Blood be a friend or a foe (… for now)? Will Diggle get his shot at Deadshot this season? Will Roy’s new job eventually put an end to his romance with Speedy?

Thanks for reading my Recap and Review of Arrow Season 2 Episode 2, “Identity”!