S01.E17: The Huntress Returns

[formerlyfreedom]

With his nightclub set to open and a new romance brewing with McKenna, Oliver is as happy as he’s been since returning to Starling City. But when Oliver’s ex, The Huntress, suddenly returns to town, she threatens to destroy everything and everyone he cares about. Meanwhile, Laurel and her father struggle with the return of Dinah Lance who claims she has proof Sara is still alive. Thea gets Roy Harper a job at Oliver’s club, but he’s not too inclined to stop his life of crime. Oliver and Tommy are thrilled they were able to get Steve Aoki to play at the opening of their new nightclub, Verdant. 

 

[calliope1975]

Oliver and Tommy are thrilled they were able to get Steve Aoki to play at the opening of their new nightclub, Verdant.

 

Best description ever.

[slayer2]

I love the Huntress. Omg. So much. That.is.all.

[Luckylyn]

So, this is the episode that made me a Felicity/Oliver shipper against my will.  I was trying to resist the Olicity ship because I figured Laurel/Oliver as end game was inevitable but dammit I could not resist

   The thing that really hit me was that when Tommy was threatened, Oliver still wanted to try to reason with Helena but when Felicity was threatened Oliver decided Helena should die.  I thought it send a signal of how strongly Felicity and Oliver had bonded by that point and the Olicity shipper in me was born.

 

Plus, I'm amused by the scene where Diggle and Oliver kick Felicity out of the Arrow Lair to try to protect her from Helena's crazy.

[icandigit]

panda flats!!!

[Password]

It really highlights how important it is to him to keep his promise to Dig about protecting her. He brought her in, he has to keep her safe. Drastic decisions are made.

[quarks]

This might surprise everyone, but no, this episode didn't make me into a major Oliver/Felicity shipper. I liked them together more than I liked Oliver with Laurel, but at this point I was mostly shipping Oliver with no one other than maybe Oscar the Grouch.  It's a fun episode, though, with more solid moments than I remembered, given that Helena's not a major favorite of mine. And given that Laurel is in it, backsliding MASSIVELY from the previous episode.

 

But first!

 

1. Helena has great legs. Ok, yes, she's a complete whack-job, but, you know, legs.

 

2. Ever get the impression that this show really, really believes lawyers are useless? I mean, Bertinelli's lawyer is so useless even the Feds won't tell him about his own client. And then there is Laurel. But I anticipate.

 

3. Steve Aoki. "I dated his sister."

Hmm. Show, I told you I wanted to have at least ONE Bird of Prey who hadn't dated Oliver!

 

4. "Didn't know purse snatchers took coffee breaks." Thea, this is exactly why you are supposedly "working." To broaden your horizons a bit.  Scientific studies have PROVEN that purse snatchers actually need higher inputs of caffeine than rich spoiled brats in order to keep their focus and be able to run quickly.

 

5. Or as I like to call her, "your psycho ex girlfriend."  It's the sort of nickname that sticks :)

 

6. This is my all time favorite Tommy scene:

 

Tommy: "Do you think that's what I care about? That my feelings are hurt?  You're a murderer. A killer. You were my best friend in life and now it's like I don't even know you...."

 

(Oliver offers to explain.)

 

Tommy: "What would be the point. I wouldn't believe a word of it anyway."

 

This is great on so many levels. One, so far, the slightly slimy "I haven't actually worked or done anything up til the age of 28" former trust fund billionaire Tommy is about the last person on this show that I expected to have moral issues with a vigilante, especially since Tommy isn't a billionaire anymore, so presumably not a target.  That immediately gave this more impact. Two, Tommy doesn't care about the impact on him, but on everyone else (TAKE LESSONS LAUREL). Three, it gives Oliver an added incentive not to tell McKenna anything, which is important on a plot level. Four, I loved that this show didn't follow the standard "Best friend finds out and thinks it's TOTALLY AWESOME" especially given what Oliver has been doing.  Another nice twist of expectations there. And five, this is a case of Oliver facing actual consequences: Tommy won't believe him after this. You go, Tommy.

 

7. Slade, Oliver, I don't mean to sound critical, but it looks as if it rains a LOT on that island and also it's an island, which by definition means it's surrounded by water. Why are your faces so muddy?

 

8. Seriously, poor Tommy.

 

9. And one of Diggle's great lines: "Do you want me to kill her?"  "I think you would have a long time ago if she looked like me instead of the T-Mobile girl."  

 

10. "And here I thought you didn't care much for me." "Still don't."  Diggle = awesome.

 

11. I love Oliver's ongoing attempts to seize control of the conversation and Diggle, Helena and Felicity continuing to derail it. 

 

12.

I know there's been some discussion of whether of not Roy is ready to be Arsenal, given his not exactly intensive second season training, but that street fight there is another indication that he has had some pre-Oliver training.

 

13. "We want to know about the Hood, not Oliver Queen." Show, really, there's no need for this sort of anvil tossing.

 

14. I actually feel Helena's being, in her own way, kinda sweet here by warning McKenna about Oliver.

 

15. Hey, that's the doctor that helps Oliver in the second season, right? The one coming back in the third season? What is he, a vigilante specialist?

 

16. Hey, island Oliver is almost getting competent! You go, island Oliver!

 

17. Oliver, heading to your current girlfriend the night after a successful club opening to tell her that you feel that you're letting everyone down is not the world's best way to keep your secret. I'm just saying.

 

18. ....and the camera pans to a phone call from Felicity right after the sex scene.

 See, Oliver, it's not being with Felicity that's the distraction. It's not paying attention to Felicity that's the distraction.

 

19. "This morning."  Wait. The whole motorcycle chase, police thing, fake passport and plane tickets all happened in one day and Felicity is still at work? Does she now work the evening shift at Queen Consolidated after stopping by for a morning visit at the club?  Not to mention she's the only character other than Quentin not at the club opening? I see why you all keep telling me that she has no life. Moving on!

 

21.  Coast City! I still have hopes that McKenna will become a Green Lantern. It could happen, right?

 

22. I also like the twist that having to lie to Laurel shows Tommy a bit of what Oliver is going through. 

 

23. "Except if you're alone, you're never going to be happy." "Maybe not, but me being happy isn't what's important right now."

 I expect this is going to get revisited.

 

24.  Oh, Fyers. We both know that you're not afraid of Oliver and Slade ongoing slow tortured deaths. It's your thing.

 

And, auugh, Laurel.

 

Once again she has no involvement in the main plot, although this time she has a side plot of her own about Sara and slightly more screentime than in previous episodes. Which is perhaps why she fails more here, sigh.

 

Number of times Laurel fails as a human being this episode, six: 1. Admitting that she hasn't talked to her father in a couple of months. Ok, granted he did use her as bait, but, Laurel, you've been telling Tommy to stay in touch with his father who has pulled even worse shit and you've been telling Oliver to be nicer to his mother who had him kidnapped and then shot him (ok, granted, she doesn't actually know this but given this episode I am not inclined to be fair) so, you know, TALK TO YOUR FATHER, LAUREL. 2. Setting her father up to meet his ex-wife with no warning. 3. After that scene, having her very next words to him be "What did the stapler ever do to you?"  4. Also, Laurel, many of us have issues with staplers. STOP JUDGING. 5.Tommy. Where do we begin? With the fact that when she sees him depressed and upset, with an injured wrist, her first response is to snap at him? 6. Or, with how, after seeing that her boyfriend is in physical and emotional pain, her response is all hey, but WHAT ABOUT MY PROBLEMS?

I feel sorry for Ted Grant. Really, I do.

 

 

Number of negative comments on the Oliver/Laurel relationship, two:   1, Helena (countering her "that sort of love never ends" from her previous episode) noting that Oliver used both of the Lance sisters, 2, This is subtle, but although they are in the same location at the club, once again, Oliver and Laurel go an entire episode without once interacting or appearing on screen together.  

 

That's interesting, because to borrow a comment from Helena:

 

"How many girlfriends do you have, exactly?"

 

This is the first and last episode to bring all

but one

of Oliver's potential romantic interests into the same episode including,

by sheer coincidence, Katana,

and Sara by dialogue.  

 

By this time, as I've noted, the show was already carefully laying the groundwork for Oliver/Felicity, and continues to do so here, by:

 

1. After setting Helena up in her first appearance as the other main potential love interest, completely undercutting it here by having Helena cross a moral event horizon.

This later gets backtracked a little in the second season, and then backtracked on the backtracking at ComicCon, though it's noticeable that Helena is the one other major potential love interest who wasn't eliminated by name.

 

2. Kicking McKenna off the show, after using her to drop the various anvils of how Oliver can only be with someone he can be honest with. Which at this point is only Helena and Felicity. (Although it's both sad and sweet that he wants to keep trying with McKenna despite the dishonesty anyway.)

 

3. Showing that Laurel, when shown a physical injury, will be less concerned about what happened to that person and more concerned with how this impacts her, which given Oliver's night job, is more than a bit of a problem.

 

4. Helena immediately identifying Felicity as a romantic interest - the first time the show has stated this explicitly.

 

5. Felicity and Oliver - the hand cradling!

 

Granted, there's a bit of fuzziness here, since this episode is also starting to play with the cracks in the Laurel/Tommy relationship, suggesting that Laurel might soon be available again.

Alas

. But signs are pointing elsewhere.  

Edited August 2, 2014 by quarks

[TanyaKay]

And, auugh, Laurel.

 

Once again she has no involvement in the main plot, although this time she has a side plot of her own about Sara and slightly more screentime than in previous episodes. Which is perhaps why she fails more here, sigh.

 

Number of times Laurel fails as a human being this episode, six: 1. Admitting that she hasn't talked to her father in a couple of months. Ok, granted he did use her as bait, but, Laurel, you've been telling Tommy to stay in touch with his father who has pulled even worse shit and you've been telling Oliver to be nicer to his mother who had him kidnapped and then shot him (ok, granted, she doesn't actually know this but given this episode I am not inclined to be fair) so, you know, TALK TO YOUR FATHER, LAUREL. 2. Setting her father up to meet his ex-wife with no warning. 3. After that scene, having her very next words to him be "What did the stapler ever do to you?"  4. Also, Laurel, many of us have issues with staplers. STOP JUDGING. 5.Tommy. Where do we begin? With the fact that when she sees him depressed and upset, with an injured wrist, her first response is to snap at him? 6. Or, with how, after seeing that her boyfriend is in physical and emotional pain, her response is all hey, but WHAT ABOUT MY PROBLEMS?

I feel sorry for Ted Grant. Really, I do.

 

 

Number of negative comments on the Oliver/Laurel relationship, two:   1, Helena (countering her "that sort of love never ends" from her previous episode) noting that Oliver used both of the Lance sisters, 2, This is subtle, but although they are in the same location at the club, once again, Oliver and Laurel go an entire episode without once interacting or appearing on screen together.  

 

loved your analysis as I recently re watched the episode.

 

One thing that stood out majorly was how utterly selfish Laurel was. Poor Tommy, lost like a puppy because of the revelations that Ollie dumped on him and then Helena breaking/straining his wrist and general despondency because best friend is a liar and murderer and dad almost died in last episode but all she can think about ... my parents are here and you are not here for me. I mean the world should revolve around her or it should stop spinning. God how I hated her in that episode, probably because I was very very protective of Tommy.

[quarks]

What's astonishing to me is that even Helena, who is running around shooting people and threatening to harm innocent nightclubbers and Oliver's family if Oliver doesn't help her kill her father, comes across as less selfish and self-absorbed than Laurel in this episode. Which is really saying something.

[statsgirl]

Jimmy Choos are all well and good but

I miss Felicity's panda flats.

Edited August 2, 2014 by statsgirl

[quarks]

That scene is actually in the next episode. And I shall be ranting about it :)

[statsgirl]

Whoops. taking it out now.

[TanyaKay]

Nops, panda flats were in the Huntress episode. She left her tied in IT department when Oliver came to the rescue and we saw her shoes.

The episode after this one was remembered for Oliver hanging onto the beam and Felicity unashamedly ogling at him. Felicity was every woman that day.

[quarks]

Panda flats were in this episode, but the scene Statsgirl is discussing - which doesn't include the panda flats - is in the next episode.

 

In one of the two scenes cut from this episode Dinah Lance says that leaving Laurel was the hardest thing she ever had to do, and with all due respect to Alex Kingston I did find myself questioning that statement.

[TanyaKay]

Panda flats were in this episode, but the scene Statsgirl is discussing - which doesn't include the panda flats - is in the next episode.

 

In one of the two scenes cut from this episode Dinah Lance says that leaving Laurel was the hardest thing she ever had to do, and with all due respect to Alex Kingston I did find myself questioning that statement.

 

oh okay, my bad.

And yes, missing Laurel is like missing a session at the dentist.

[statsgirl]

In one of the two scenes cut from this episode Dinah Lance says that leaving Laurel was the hardest thing she ever had to do, and with all due respect to Alex Kingston I did find myself questioning that statement.

My feelings about Laurel (which pretty much echo yours) aside, it was kind of a weird statement since Laurel was already in university and living in her own because Oliver said earlier her apartment hadn't changed since he had left.  

Which may not have been a continuity error since they never said Laurel was actually living at home when the boat went down.

 And Quentin had buried himself in his work and various bottles.  Maybe she felt guilty at leaving a job undone?

[twoods]

Laurel was such a selfish bitch making everything all about her when she knew that Tommy had something on his mind. Didn't his father almost die recently? Man, I hate her.

Helena was pretty annoying, but she's so badass. I really liked Oliver and McKenna- too bad they were short lived.

[bijoux]

Seeing this episode reminds me how bad Colton was when he started. The scene where Roy's sassing Thea on his doorstep never fails to make me laugh. The tough guy act is hilarious. I wonder if he and Felicity bonded over their distaste for needles. They're the worst.

[tv echo]

117 (The Huntress) – Oliver Queen’s voiceover intro:
Oliver (voiceover): "My name is Oliver Queen. For five years I was stranded on an island with only one goal... survive. Now I will fulfill my father's dying wish... to use a list of names he left me, to bring down those who are poisoning my city. To do this, I must become someone else. I must become something else."

117 (The Huntress) – Oliver tells Felicity to “get out” when she enters the Arrowcave while Helena is there with Oliver and Diggle:
Helena: "Sorry, am I interrupting something?"
Oliver: "We were just talking about you."
Helena: "And here I thought you didn't care much for me." 
Diggle: "Still don't."
Oliver: "I haven't been able to locate the safe house where the FBI is keeping your father."
Felicity (entering): "I can help with that. I've been dying to hack into the FBI security system."
Oliver: "Get out. Get out. This is a private thing, Felicity. Please." 
Felicity: "Oh. Ok. See ya, I guess," (Leaves) 
Helena: "How many girlfriends do you have, exactly?"

117 (The Huntress) – Felicity is confronted by Helena, and later Oliver finds Felicity after she's been tied up by Helena:
Felicity (on phone to Oliver): “Hey, it's me. I was multitasking, and intercepted a police report. A local sporting goods store just got robbed of one high powered cross bow. Now - could be a crazy coincidence or your psycho ex-girlfriend - Dig's words, not mine - is still in town. I'll let you know if I learn anything more. In the meantime, just watch your back.”
Helena: “Hi. I don't think we had a chance to be properly introduced this morning.”
(Cut to later. Oliver finds a tied-up Felicity in her office.)
Oliver: “Felicity?” 
Felicity: “Oliver. Oliver.”
Oliver: "I'm here. You okay? Hey, hey. You okay?”
Diggle: “I got your call. What happened?”
Oliver: “Helena.”
Felicity: “She wanted the address to the safe house where her father's being kept. She made me hack the FBI database. Sorry, Oliver.” 
Oliver: “Hey. It's not your fault.”
Diggle: “Oliver, what are you going to do?”
Oliver: “What I should have done in the first place.”

Edited February 8, 2020 by tv echo