S02.E12: Tremors

[Carrie Ann]

Arrow offers to train Roy so he can learn to control his newfound super-strength. However, Roy is a rebellious student and refuses to listen unless Arrow reveals his true identity, which Oliver refuses to do. Meanwhile, the Bronze Tiger (guest star Michael Jai White) escapes from prison and steals Malcolm’s earthquake machine to sell to the highest bidder. Oliver, Diggle and Felicity attempt to stop the transfer, but Roy gets in the way, putting everyone in danger. Laurel is disbarred and spirals out of control. Moira is thrilled when Walter (guest star Colin Salmon) asks her to dinner, but his reason surprises her. Thea encourages her mother to ask Walter to reconcile.

"Does this group have a name? Like Team Arrow or something?"

"We don't call ourselves that."

"I do! Occasionally."

"Stop."

"Whatever. Welcome aboard."

[Lisin]

I really liked this episode (full disclosure, I really like every episode of this show) BUT... BUT I thought we were getting some "problems" solved by getting the mask, I was willing to pretend that the eye makeup under the mask was magic or whatever but this week we get the freaking MASK magically disappearing and taking the makeup with it when Oliver needs Roy to realize who he is. AAAAGGGHH. It made me crazy.

[Carrie Ann]

I have to not care about the mask/eye makeup/silly non-identity concealing hood in order to enjoy this, Batman, etc. It's never going to be believable, and that's that. I miss the eyemakeup because it was kinda hot? Especially when there was just a little left? Hmmm. I may have revealed too much.

Anyway, this was a really strong episode. Just great moment after great moment. Starting with "Is that judgment I hear?" "Pride." That is a perfect Olicity moment, whether you ship them romantically or not (if not, what went wrong in your life?). The scene where Oliver revealed himself to Roy was excellent, and it's the most I've ever liked Colton Haynes. I really believed that moment, and it made their new partnership more compelling for me. Bronze Tiger and Amanda Waller, yay! Dinner date with Moira, Walter, and Krycek! Sara showing up for Laurel!

[Lisin]

That Olicity moment! I mean! The way she looked back at him? Squeee times a million.

I love this show a lot, but for some reason I also love to make fun of it. My husband and I have "bits" we do for each character. Laurel you just repeat her name but like you're clearing your throat, Sara you do duckface because seriously, she's always doing duckface, for Thea you make a sort of Shhh lisp noise because she does that, same for Laurel's dad... that's all we have right now. That and me constantly complaining about the mask, which at this point I just think is funny. 

[Monty]

It's not just the mask that's failing to protect Oliver's identity. At this point, Quentin Lance knows that Felicity is always in contact with the Arrow, and he ought to have noticed by now that Diggle also works with the Arrow. And he knows that Sara knows the Arrow. Eventually, he has to be purposely averting his eyes when he's talking to the Arrow to not know who he really is.

Of course, Quentin and Laurel are basically the last two people in town not to know who the Arrow really is. Even the bad guys will know who he is if Slade gets around to telling his minions.

[Actionmage]

First? I forgot how frakkin' gruesome the break-out scene was! *gah and shudder*  As mercenary as Turner is, at least his "Do what?" showed that there is a personal line, however buried, to what is acceptable, imo. Then again, I'm familiar with his comics-incarnation.

 

Roy:[frustrated, to The Arrow] "I can't wait to be attacked by a dog bowl." Cute. I also like that Oliver doesn't tell Roy that the someone was dead. It's been pointed out here, and other places, that apparently Oliver needs to brush up on his Red Cross courses. Unlike the college course he flunked out of, which was a lot.

 

Moira/Thea goodness! Thea still cheering for Walter/Mom. That relationship is one I'm going to miss in the next season.

 

Now, I am a big Quentin Lance-as-played-by-Paul Blackthorn fan. Yet, I really have a problem with Quentin wordlessly shouldering his way into Laurel's apartment, snarking on the mess and implying that her booze is the sole/main cause of that mess.  Laurel has tons of faults, reacts badly to confrontation with family members, but she is, at the end of the day, an adult female and is allowed to make crappy decisions as long as they aren't infringing on others.  Like later in the episode, Quentin ambushes Laurel with a bait-and-switch- dinner*psych!* AA meeting! Not cool in any way. That wasn't an intervention. It wasn't helpful. It was controlling and condescending and gross coming from a character who had been trusting a virtual stranger to help safeguard a city. (Yes, he has to have an inkling The Arrow is someone he knows, but that is another thread. Purely by dialogue, Quentin goes with a 'I don't know you' base.) Yet, not taking cues from his own recovery, he's trying to force Laurel into her recovery. She flat isn't there yet. What happens next isn't helpful for Laurel either( but there's a lot that goes weird with the Lance family in the following episodes anyway.) 

  It just makes me sad that to further Laurel's downward spiral that Quentin had to be made to look worse than when we first met him. Yes, it came from concern and love for Laurel, but! Still not cool, what he said and did.

 

Hey, Sally! And hello there, Abs!

 

Felicity: "Is that judgment I hear?" Oliver: "Pride."

 

Oliver dealing with the ups and downs of Mentoring. Be smarter, Oliver, not cryptic.

 

The garage fightlet: no tracking arrow? *sad face*

 

Felicity: "Uh-oh, you've got Angry Face." 

 

Ollie's need to right Slade by fixing/helping Roy makes my heart hurt for Oliver.

 

Hi, Joanna! Bye, Joanna!

 

Manson, Clinton, Spitzer, and Martha Stewart?  Oh show.  At least they didn't say Hitler, I guess.

 

I really noticed this episode that Oliver's arrows have varied shades of green; so are we to take that that is how Oliver knows which arrow he's drawing? That and how the fletching feels?

 

Roy: "You're..."  Oliver: "Yeah...yeah..."  Watch out Dig! Chatterboxes on board! I did enjoy the scene. Oliver needs to have positive reinforcement if he's going to reach Hero.

 

Almost forgot Waller was supposed to be there.

 

I'm kind of meh on the episode. It has nice bits, but it's Waller putting her band together, among other set-ups for later pay-offs. The flashbacks with Slade were still strong, and the "We're going to take the boat" just still gets me. It is not one of my favorite episodes, but I won't not re-watch.

[BkWurm1]

It just makes me sad that to further Laurel's downward spiral that Quentin had to be made to look worse than when we first met him. Yes, it came from concern and love for Laurel, but! Still not cool, what he said and did.

 

Yes, I think Quentin jumped the gun a bit but I can't blame him.  He knows where this is going.  He's been there and as her father, you know that he is blaming himself for her predilection for alcohol abuse.  I just get the feeling that he is desperately trying to save her from hitting rock bottom.  It didn't work but it felt very realistic and understandable.  It didn't diminish my impression of Quentin at all.  It made him seem very human. 

[Actionmage]

Yes, Paul Blackthorn wins all the Shiny Bits with his Quentin Lance. I am okay being  disappointed in a human reaction and still enjoying- nay, loving!- that character. (see: Oliver Queen *g*)

I just wish the writers, with the scene in Laurel's apartment, had not made Quentin so brusque. Quentin is blunt. He is direct. There are no spoons full of sugar to help the medicine go down with him. Yet, there could have been a less assy, more understanding way for the scene to be written. (Btw, when Quentin owns that he probably gave her the genetics that predispose her to addiction? *Oof!* So many feels.)

[BkWurm1]

Eek!

 

BTW sighting.  Felicity uses the expression after announcing that Bronze Tiger escaped Iron Heights. 

 

I'm not sure if the fact that Felicity is established as using the expression prior to her exposure to Ray makes her continued use of if better or worse. 

[BkWurm1]

Huh.

 

Per this episode all of MM holdings were in receivership.  Where did Thea's inheritance come from? 

 

Edited...and just learned that my understanding of what receivership was was flawed.  I was thinking it always meant bankruptcy.  It can mean just placed under someone's care. 

Edited December 30, 2015 by BkWurm1

[statsgirl]

But even if it was receivership, how did Thea get access to them?  Presumably there would have been a will that pre-dated Malcolm finding out that she was his daughter and there's no way he would have left money to the daughter of Moira and Robert out of the goodness of his heart.

 

I guess either Malcolm had hidden away enough money that he could give Thea a lot, or he produced a fake will that popped up after his "death" that made her his heir.

[BkWurm1]

Maybe he didn't have a will and his lawyers were charged with finding closest living relative or rather his will would have named Tommy as his heir but oops, no Tommy so they had to go look for an heir.

 

There's a second cousin in Topeka that Thea probably shouldn't turn her back on.  ;)

[statsgirl]

Only Robert, Moira, Isabel, Oliver, Walter, the doctor and Slade knew that Malcolm was Thea's biological father.  Robert, Moira and Isabel were dead and Slade was locked in the ARGUS prison, so who told the courts?  There had to be a reason that second cousin in Topeka didn't inherit.

 

Maybe it was Walter.  Or maybe Thea and that's why she couldn't be bothered to sign the papers to save the Queen fortune, she knew she had Malcolm's to play with.

[BkWurm1]

Had they gone with Evil!Thea, that would have been a good way to start. 

[tv echo]

212 (Tremors) – Oliver Queen’s voiceover intro:
Oliver (voiceover): "My name is Oliver Queen. After five years on a hellish island, I have come home with only one goal-- to save my city. But to do so, I can't be the killer I once was. To honor my friend's memory, I must be someone else. I must be something else."

212 (Tremors) – Oliver is proud of Felicity for hacking into a prison system network:
Diggle: "How's it going with Roy?"
Oliver (working on the salmon ladder): "Not well!"
Diggle: "I don't know the kid all too well, but he seems to be five kinds of angry."
Oliver: "You might be underestimating. Roy was mad at the world before he was injected with Mirakuru."
Diggle: "You say you've seen this before?" 
Oliver: "Slade Wilson. He was my friend." 
Felicity: "Troubling use of past tense there." 
Oliver: "I thought I could help him control it. I was wrong. But I know more now, and I'm not going to make the same mistake with Roy."
(Computer beeps.) 
Diggle: "What's that?"
Felicity: "Iron Heights. Due to their low security post-quake, I thought it would be a good idea to keep an eye on their internal communication for a while."
Oliver: "You hacked into a prison system network?"
Felicity: "Is that judgment I'm hearing?" 
Oliver: "Pride."
Felicity: "Iron Heights just put out a BOLO for Ben Turner, aka Bronze Tiger - which, btw, is a terrible nickname, because tigers are not bronze." 
Oliver: "Turner escaped?" 
Felicity: "Killed ten guards on his way out." 
Diggle: "You think that would have made the news."
Felicity: "Iron Heights is better at keeping secrets than they are at keeping prisoners."
Oliver: "Any idea where he's headed?"
Felicity: "No."
Oliver: "Get one."

212 (Tremors) – While Oliver is training Roy, Diggle and Felicity interrupt with fresh intel:
Oliver: "Go ahead."
Diggle (over comms): "SCPD's network just lit up with a fresh homicide. Multiple stab wounds. Like claw marks."
Felicity (over comms): "The victim was an architect. Turner ransacked his place. Took blueprints of his designs. One of the aforementioned designs - Malcolm Merlyn's house. I don't know much about architecture, but this can't be good. "
Oliver: "What would Turner want with Merlyn's house?"
Felicity (over comms): "Not sure yet. All of Malcolm's holdings, including the house, are in receivership."
Roy: "Who's that you're talking to? Oh, wait, let me guess, you can't tell me that, either."
Oliver: "A guy that I put in prison got out, and I have an idea where he's headed. Do you have one of your hoodies?"
Roy: "Do you seriously have to ask?"

212 (Tremors) – Oliver tells Diggle and Felicity about what happened with Slade Wilson:
Felicity: "Uh-oh. You got angry face."
Diggle: "What happened?" 
Oliver: "Roy Harper."
Diggle: "You took him out in the field?"
Oliver: "He wasn't listening to me, Diggle! I'm trying to reach him, but he lost control. Then he nearly killed somebody, which I obviously couldn't let happen, and in the process -"
Felicity: "Turner got away. What was he there to steal? Merlyn's art collection?"
Oliver: "Something much more dangerous. It's a prototype earthquake machine." 
Diggle: "Oh, holy God." 
Felicity: "Why would Turner want to destroy the city?" 
Oliver: "He doesn't. He's a mercenary, selling his services to the highest bidder. This watch belonged to one of the guys Turner was working with." 
Felicity: "Fingerprints."
Oliver: "Turner's a loner, which means that that guy works for his client." 
Felicity: "Fingerprints equals name, equals known associates. I'm on it."
Oliver: "It was the look in Roy's eyes. It was Slade all over again." 
Diggle: "Oliver, what happened with Slade?"
Oliver: "Me. Someone killed Shado. Slade loved Shado, and it was my fault. I wanted to tell him, because it would have been better coming from me, but I didn't."
Felicity: "And he found out another way."
Oliver: "If I had just told him the truth, I could have gotten through to him."
Diggle: "And that's why it's so important for you to get through to Roy."
Oliver: "I lived a five-year nightmare. But if I learn something that could help me reach Roy now, it'll all be worth it."

212 (Tremors) – Oliver refuses to give up on Roy; and a drunken Laurel tries to take Felicity’s job:
Felicity: "You both scoffed when I said we should invest in an X-ray machine for down here."
Diggle: "What do you want to do about Roy?"
Oliver: "Where are we with the fingerprint?"
Felicity: "I struck out on domestic agencies, but I'm checking Interpol, PRC public security and MVD databases now."
Diggle: "Oliver, I know you've taken Roy on, and why, but - Roy, Slade, a lot of guys I've served with - some people are just broken, man. And nobody can put them back together."
Oliver: "I refuse to believe that. I'm not letting what happened to Slade happen to Roy. I'm not."
(Oliver's cell phone beeps.)
Oliver: "Yeah."
Thea (on phone): "Are you near the club?"
Oliver (on phone): "I'm pretty close. Why?"
Thea (on phone): "Laurel's here. She doesn't look good."
Oliver (whispers to Felicity): "Hey. Laurel's upstairs."
(Felicity pulls up video surveillance on her computer monitor, and they see a drunk Laurel in Verdant.  Cut to Verdant.)
Laurel: "Ohh! Excuse me. Can I get something with olives? I don't care what it is, as long as there are a lot of olives."
Oliver: "How about coffee?"
Laurel: "Coffee and olives? Bad combination." 
Oliver: "What are you doing?"
Laurel: "This is where it's happening, right? The big club?"
Bartender: "Here you go. Martini. Triple olives." 
Laurel: "Thanks." 
Thea: "Laurel, go home." 
Laurel: "Thea Queen, telling me enough is enough. Now that is rich. (laughs) Fine. Bar me from your bar. That's today's theme, right? Disbarment."
Oliver: "Laurel, are you being disbarred?" 
Laurel: "Yeah, looks like my law career's over. But you know what? Maybe Thea here can hire me as a waitress. Or, Ollie, I could come be your secretary. But that would mean you would have to fire her.  (Looks over at Felicity, who's standing a few feet away)
Felicity: "Hi, Laurel. How are you?" 
(Oliver takes Laurel's car keys.)
Laurel (laughing): "Did you need to borrow my car? Did your limo break down?" (Hangs drunkenly on Oliver's shoulder)
Oliver (to Thea): "Get her a cab, please." 
Thea: "Yeah."
(Oliver walks over to Felicity)
Felicity: "The fingerprint was in Interpol's database. The guy worked for Milo Armitage. He's a black market arms merchant." 
Oliver: "He's trying to sell the device. I need you to search for any indication that Armitage is in Starling."
Felicity: "I already did. His ship filed a loading manifest at the Starling City docks. I'll get you the slip number."
(Oliver looks at Thea helping drunken Laurel gather her things.  He dials a number.)
Oliver (on phone): "Hi, it's Oliver. I just ran into Laurel, and something's wrong. She needs you."

212 (Tremors) – Original Team Arrow discusses the aftermath of Oliver revealing his secret identity to Roy:
Diggle: "So, the secret society gets a new member. Where is he now?"
Oliver: "Home. He's, uh, processing."
Felicity: "When I found out who you really were, I processed my way through a pint of mint chip. I stress eat. Speaking of stress, I'm not trying to 'Monday morning quarterback' here - it's Wednesday. Didn't this all start because you were worried that Roy's marble collection was on the short side?"
Diggle: "She has a point, Oliver. Roy's a loose cannon. Now he knows your secret." 
Oliver: "You're right, and I wasn't thinking about the consequences. I only knew that I needed his strength. His power. On the island, Sara told me that love is the most powerful emotion. Well, the Arrow couldn't get Roy to think about Thea. But I could."

212 (Tremors) – Oliver takes Roy to the Arrowcave, and Roy joins Team Arrow:
Roy: "Is this the part where you kill me 'cause I know your secret?"
Oliver: "Do you actually think that I'd kill my sister's boyfriend?"
Roy: "Well, you did shoot me in the leg. Forgiven, by the way."
Oliver: "Thea. She can never know."
Roy: "I get the feeling that, if I did tell her, that would be when you kill me."
Oliver: "Trust that instinct."
Roy: “Okay. Alright. How many people know what - who you are?” 
Oliver: “Too many. But these are the only two that matter. John Diggle and Felicity Smoak.”
Roy: “Does this group have a name? Like ‘Team Arrow’, or something?” 
Oliver: “We don't call ourselves that.” 
Felicity: “I do. Occasionally.” 
Oliver: “Stop.”
Diggle: “Whatever. (Shakes Roy’s hand) Welcome aboard.” 

Edited February 13, 2020 by tv echo

[tv echo]

212 deleted scene...

Arrow 2x12 Deleted Scene - "I'm doing this for you"

(Hermandat)