S07.E12: Emerald Archer

[Lady Calypso]

Quote

ARROW FILMS THEIR 150TH EPISODE AS A DOCUMENTARY ENTITLED “THE HOOD AND THE RISE OF VIGILANTES” NARRATED BY KELSEY GRAMMER — The 150th episode of “Arrow” showcases a documentary entitled “The Hood and the rise of vigilantism” starring Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell), Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards), and the rest of Team Arrow. As a camera crew follows Oliver and team around to talk about their past as vigilantes and what the Green Arrow means to Star City, Oliver must also deal with William’s (guest star Jack Moore) return from boarding school as well as a new threat to the city. The episode will feature “documentary footage” captured by the BTS crew and interviews from those who have worked alongside the Green Arrow. The documentary is narrated by Kelsey Grammer. Glen Winter directed the episode written by Marc Guggenheim & Emilio Ortega Aldrich (#712). Original airdate 2/4/2019.
 

[bettername2come]

This needed more documentary and more Kelsey Grammar. And possibly Kelsey Grammar discussing his role in the X-Men films and comparing fictional mutant issues to current "real world" meta issues.

[mtlchick]

Good concept, fair execution and too much time wasted on the newbies.

Can someone explain the ending to me though?  I was pretty lost. 

[insomniadreams88]

Good concept, and the documentary worked but that documentary starred Oliver and Dinah, not Oliver and Felicity. Thanks for lying to me, episode description. 

Way too little Felicity. Zero acknowledgement that she, too, is a hero. Even her brief return as Overwatch was disappointing because we didn't get any Green Arrow/Overwatch interactions like we should have. 

Not one Olicity scene? (Not counting Olicity+William because that was all about him.) Really? I don't even know why I'm shocked, but Oliver had more screen time with every other female character on the show than with his own wife. Including the mayor. WTF. Olicity is the show's main (romantic) relationship, and we get nothing? UGH.

And Felicity felt very isolated – to the apartment, then to ARGUS when NO ONE ELSE was there. 

I've had it with Oliver/Dinah scenes. That's all.

Don't even get me started on Diggle. Still mad at him. I feel like he's not even acknowledging that Felicity exists as a person. Did he really say they all had each other's backs when Oliver was in prison? Huh. Guess they all did, except when it came to Felicity because … she's not a mask? I don't know. I don't know this Diggle. And that makes me sad. He didn't even have Oliver's back because having Oliver's back would mean having his family's backs and, ugh.

But sure, let's give all this screen time and attention to characters that just joined a couple seasons ago, not to someone who's been there since episode 3. I don't know why I'm surprised. Why does Felicity always lose out in these milestone episodes?

That being said, the action scenes were good, and it is good to see Oliver back out there as the Green Arrow. Just wish it wasn't with the SCPD. I hate that stupid storyline, and now the entire team is deputized? Oh, joy. 

Edited February 5, 2019 by insomniadreams88

[BkWurm1]

Well Felicity was pretty much screwed over in another milestone episode.  They shouldn't have had WIllam back at all if all it was going to do is stick Felicity on an island for most of the episode.  

[jay741982]

If Maya is Olicity baby I'm going with she doesnt know they are her parents and was taken from them at a very young age OR she thinks they are dead CAUSE of Vilgantes. They weren't kidding saying the Character would hate Vigilantes

Edited February 5, 2019 by jay741982

[apinknightmare]

I really, really loved the documentary parts of this. I wish they'd shown more of that and chopped about 3/4ths of NTA's storyline out. As usual, a solid start with a crap ending.

I wonder why William got expelled and what on earth has he been doing ever since that happened? I do like that he faked his school website, LMAO.

[calliope1975]

Those first 15 minutes or so were really interesting and could have turned into a great episode. And then the next 45 minutes happened. And that ending was so meh. Well, I loved the returning characters. It made me wish for the show this could have been. Imagine NTA with Rory, Thea, and Roy. I would have liked to have heard from some defeated villains. Sigh. I liked Mama Felicity even though I'm not a William fan. I hate that she is the only parent this kid has because she can't have a freaking scene with her husband for more than 5 seconds. 
Dinah can go rot. I hate her so much. 

[BkWurm1]

Is it because Felicity got so much attention in 7a that she's just not being used now?   What the hell is going on?  

[apinknightmare]

Oh I forgot to express my pure disappointment that the whole team is now deputized. I hate Oliver being a cop, and I don't really care for any of the others when they aren't cops, so I'm sure I won't like them badged up either. 

[calliope1975]

2 minutes ago, jay741982 said:

she thinks they are dead CAUSE of Vilgantes 

I like this idea. More of they aren't actually dead but she thinks they are, and my wish, hope, dream is it's due to the Canaries. 

[BkWurm1]

Just now, apinknightmare said:

Oh I forgot to express my pure disappointment that the whole team is now deputized. I hate Oliver being a cop, and I don't really care for any of the others when they aren't cops, so I'm sure I won't like them badged up either. 

I'm still waiting to find out if Felicity is even in on that since the Mayor didn't know about her.  

[Primal Slayer]

Episode started off strong, was bringing me the feels with all the guest stars though some were wasted. Talk about perfect time to bring Roy back into the present but nah. It quickly went downhill as NTA took over with Lauricity, esp Laurel taking back seats. Dinah gets to save TAs asses from jail by outting herself as the BC. 

For a 150th I of course expected more but this is Arrow and thsi is MG and they just always bring skyrocketing back down to Earth.

[jay741982]

I DO NOT GET the Obession with the Newbs!!! Huge reason this show reached 150 Episodes is OTA! Olicity is the popular ship but No writers cant get enough Newbies!! Its FUCKING BULLSHIT!! I'm sick of Oliver always with Dinah and Rene!!

[BkWurm1]

4 minutes ago, jay741982 said:

If Maya is Olicity baby I'm going with she doesnt know they are her parents and was taken from them at a very young age OR she thinks they are dead CAUSE of Vilgantes 

I dearly hope it's the latter.   

[jay741982]

1 minute ago, calliope1975 said:

I like this idea. More of they aren't actually dead but she thinks they are, and my wish, hope, dream is it's due to the Canaries. 

See that's what I'm hoping too! The Canaries are the main Vilgantes and Maya hates them for not being there for her Parents or something like that! 

[apinknightmare]

Just now, BkWurm1 said:

I dearly hope it's the latter.   

If it's true can't wait for no explanation at all for why she's been referring to them by their first names, haha

[Morrigan2575]

I didn't think that the format would work but, it did. Although, I did say it would work best if they had FF peeps watching the documentary and they ended it like that.

I never wanted Oliver to come out as a Vigilante and I really don't like it. I also hate that the answer is to make TA all cops in order to get TA back together.

I'm guessing next move is SHIELD/JL/X-Factor with them working for the Federal Government. Honestly putting them under Argus makes way more sense. Don't know why they bothered with another Suicide Squad.

I liked all the cameos for the documentary, opening on Lance was bittersweet.

Curtis is very annoying. JH can't act, KC can only do bitchy and, 2 minutes worth so way to limit her.

Good episode for Diggle and for the Dig/Oliver Bromance.

Felicity back being Overwatch was good, I always thought Felicity working for Argus would be interesting.

The Flash Forward stuff was interesting. I remember GATV or someone pulling  publicity still of Maya and It was called Mia. Guess Maya was always a code name. Although now I'm wondering if The Diggles and Olicity out their kids in WitSec. Maya being Mia (which is the void Thea filled, even using that name in S3 when living with Malcolm). has me convinced of 2 things, Mia/Blackstar will take Speedy and Connor/JJ will be nuGA and, that Mia is Olicity's kid (and no, I don't buy Theroy's kid theory)

Edited February 5, 2019 by Morrigan2575

[Primal Slayer]

I dont get why Curtis and Diggle have to be part of the police crew when they are part of a much bigger branch...it's called Argus. That should give them their get out of jail free card.

[JJ928]

I need MG to be gone for real. He keeps writing these special eps and ruining them. And at this point it's expected for him to sideline Felicity, I was hopeful the 150th would be differnt but it wasn't. Honestly, after so many crappy seasons Felicity is why I still watch, and they're not delivering. 

[statsgirl]

It was an MG signature episode, interesting premise, good start,, failing ending.

What's the point in splitting up Team Arrow only to bring them back as Team SCPD Arrow.  But if it gets fewer Oliver-Dinah scenes, I'll take it.

Far, far too much Dinah. Far too much of all the newbies.  I would much rather have had more Quentin, Thea,  Sin and Rory.

I did like the in-jokes though, like the parking garage at Winter and Nutter.

[Morrigan2575]

I wonder how much Kelsey Grammar got paid for this? Did he do more than thw opening sentence?

[jay741982]

5 minutes ago, apinknightmare said:

If it's true can't wait for no explanation at all for why she's been referring to them by their first names, haha

Yeah this is where I think she doesnt know Oliver and Felicity are her mom and Dad OR shes keeping that from JJ from some reason lol. They are calling each other Connor and Mia 

[BkWurm1]

I was a good episode for Diggle, I'll give them that.  But I felt that they were selling a history that didn't completely happen in order to set up the reset Team Arrow.

Like Oliver not being any good as a leader.  He's not perfect but the reasons his team fell apart last year had nothing to do with his leadership skills.  And OMG Diggle, you did NOT have Felicity's back at a very crucial time.  You probably did in getting her into Witness protection but when that failed, you abdicated all responsibility in her further protection or in helping her carry out the goals she needed accomplished to do the basic thing called staying alive.  So you having her back came with a distinct time limit.  And Oliver probably will never know.  

But Diggle at least admitted Oliver going to prison for them was messed up.  They all let it happen but at least he finally said it wasn't right.   

[BunsenBurner]

So, did #Arrow150 trend?  It may have been a different tag but my question still stands. 

[apinknightmare]

1 minute ago, BunsenBurner said:

So, did #Arrow150 trend?  It may have been a different tag but my question still stands. 

Yes - it's still trending. 

[jay741982]

8 minutes ago, Morrigan2575 said:

I didn't think that the format would work but, it did. Although, I did say it would work best if they had FF peeps watching the documentary and they ended it like that.

I never wanted Oliver to come out as a Vigilante and I really don't like it. I also hate that the answer is to make TA all cops in order to get TA back together.

I'm guessing next move is SHIELD/JL/X-Factor with them working for the Federal Government. Honestly putting them under Argus makes way more sense. Don't know why they bothered with another Suicide Squad.

I liked all the cameos for the documentary, opening on Lance was bittersweet.

Curtis is very annoying. JH can't act, KC can only do bitchy and, 2 minutes worth so way to limit her.

Good episode for Diggle and for the Dig/Oliver Bromance.

Felicity back being Overwatch was good, I always thought Felicity working for Argus would be interesting.

The Flash Forward stuff was interesting. I remember GATV or someone pulling  publicity still of Maya and It was called Mia. Guess Maya was always a code name. Although now I'm wondering if The Diggles and Olicity out their kids in WitSec. Maya being Mia (which is the void Thea filled, even using that name in S3 when living with Malcolm). has me convinced of 2 things, Mia/Blackstar will take Speedy and Connor/JJ will be nuGA and, that Mia is Olicity's kid (and no, I don't buy Theroy's kid theory)

I think Mia is the code name. She called JJ Connor so that makes me think they probably dont know each others real name. Agreed that if they are setting up NTA in the Future she will probably be Speedy even though I'd love to see her be GA in honor of her father. JJ can be Spartan like his dad 

[Morrigan2575]

5 minutes ago, jay741982 said:

Yeah this is where I think she doesnt know Oliver and Felicity are her mom and Dad OR shes keeping that from JJ from some reason lol. They are calling each other Connor and Mia 

WitSec. 

 

1 minute ago, BunsenBurner said:

So, did #Arrow150 trend?  It may have been a different tag but my question still stands. 

Yes, from the start of the episode

[jay741982]

Just now, Morrigan2575 said:

WitSec. 

 

Yes, from the start of the episode

WitSec? Witness and what else lol?

[Morrigan2575]

1 minute ago, jay741982 said:

WitSec? Witness and what else lol?

Witness Security Program, Witness Protection. Like Felicity and William, different names, different town, etc. Although, apparently Glades vs Star City

[insomniadreams88]

I will say I liked the cameos: Lance, Sara, Sin, Rory, Barry

The only problem? Felicity felt like a cameo just like them in the documentary since we never saw her with the team. 

[tennisgurl]

The first about twenty minutes of this episode were great, loved the documentary vibe, loved Kelsey Grammar, LOVED seeing so many bits of old favorite characters (Sin! Rory! Thea!) showing up again, it was going along so well.

Then, the show remembers that this isnt actually a fun retrospective of a show that has lasted for 150 episodes and launched an entire franchise and created many wonderful characters, its actually about his most horrible and awful characters that I hate and have no idea why we are spending time with them, focusing on awful NTA, and not OTA, the people who made this show work in the first place! If the writers are so in love with NTA, why dont they just spin them off into their own show, so we can all just ignore it and have our show here back?

Seriously, not ONE FUCKING SCENE of Olicity celebrating their relationship? SERIOUSLY?! 

So Connor and Maya are up to something in the future, where we apparently really have found ourselves in that ARGUS dystopia we saw in LOT (good one, Diggle!), and Maya has a major hate on for vigilantes. Does she think that vigilantes killed her parents (WHO ARE OLICITY?!!?) or are responsible for separating them from her? Are we seeing the future Team Arrow? 

[BkWurm1]

I'm trying to tell myself that Felicity's limited time in the episode is because they are keeping Overwatch still secret from the public.  Maybe because of the dumb "Felicity is a villian in the future" thing still hanging around.  I don't know. 

I was so ready to love this episode to pieces and it started off excellent.  But William's story went no where, it's all set up either for next week or the future and Felicity and Oliver didn't have time to connect.  Oliver and William really didn't even have any time to connect.  It just feels off.  The cameos of past people were the only realy heartfelt moments.  They tried with Diggle and Oliver but it honestly fell a bit flat to me.  I wanted to like that Diggle was willing to go to jail to have Oliver's back (finally not just caring about himself) but with him AND Curtis working for Argus, it made no sense why he was at any kind of risk.  Temporarily sign up Rene and they all could have peaced out when they were done, no problem.  

Felicity being Overwatch again was incredibly soothing after so very long and she came up with the key to defeating the random dude but she then was left out of the rest of the team stuff. It sounds like she was part of it somehow offscreen but nope, none of that made it into the episode.  

It just ended up lacking heart to me by the end.  And giving them all badges (maybe not Felicity) means headquarters is now the SCPD?  Sigh.  

[Trisha]

I actually quite liked that. They should have done the whole thing as a documentary/bts because those were the best bits. All the cameos were great (god I miss Sin and Rory) but weirdly I think my fave was Barry. He was just so fun! 

Not a lot of Felicity but I wasn’t really expecting much. We were promised two scenes of her with Will and that’s what we got. I would have loved more of her interview with the doc crew about her time on the team instead of her just talking about the others, but I guess her involvement is still under wraps?

So they are rebuilding the bunker and basically putting everything back to the way it was, except now they don’t have to hide from the police? Lame, but if it reduces the amount of scenes in the police station by 90% I’ll take it!

Was it just me or was KC especially bad in her few scenes? I usually think she does the bitchy snark well but man, that enema line reading was a disaster.

ETA: I forgot - I also really liked that they had Oliver say “I discussed it with my family and I’m prepared to go back to jail.” Such a small thing, but growth!

Edited February 5, 2019 by Trisha

[BkWurm1]

2 minutes ago, Trisha said:

So they are rebuilding the bunker and basically putting everything back to the way it was, except now they don’t have to hide from the police? Lame, but if it reduces the amount of scenes in the police station by 90% I’ll take it!

I hope you are right but the Bunker looked way worse than the last time Oliver was back down there.  Like the ceiling had only recently caved in making it less likely to return there.  

[statsgirl]

I really wish the LoT writers would write just one Arrow episode. Just one where we could have fun all the way through.

[jay741982]

8 minutes ago, Morrigan2575 said:

Witness Security Program, Witness Protection. Like Felicity and William, different names, different town, etc. Although, apparently Glades vs Star City

LOL got ya! I thought like Witness Protection 

[Primal Slayer]

As usual with episodes like these I am sitting here thinking of all the simple ways they could've improved it and it just annoys me more. 

[Morrigan2575]

3 minutes ago, jay741982 said:

LOL got ya! I thought like Witness Protection 

Same thing. I just watch too many cop shows, they call it WITSEC

[insomniadreams88]

10 minutes ago, BkWurm1 said:

I'm trying to tell myself that Felicity's limited time in the episode is because they are keeping Overwatch still secret from the public.

Nice thought but I think it’s simply that she’s not a mask, and masks are what matter. Just ask the anti-vigilante vigilante. He was collecting masks. 

[BkWurm1]

Just now, Morrigan2575 said:

Same thing. I just watch too many cop shows, they call it WITSEC

I miss In Plain Sight.  Though she's pretty funny on The Kids Are Alright.  

Olicity and Dyla's kids being in witsec only works for me if their parents were able to join them most of the time.  I'm begging the universe not to make their childhoods dumpster fires.  

[Chaser]

I’m watching it now. Smh.

I hate getting my hopes up. 

[BkWurm1]

6 minutes ago, insomniadreams88 said:

Nice thought but I think it’s simply that she’s not a mask, and masks are what matter. Just ask the anti-vigilante vigilante. He was collecting masks. 

It's beyond me how any episode "celebrating" the show could forget to celebrate such a huge part of it's buzz.  They didn't even highlight OTA.  It's like they want us to erase the OTA from our mind.  Was that the purpose of last year?  I mean, it's a freaking fail and they only dropped a divide that's never going to go away now but was that maybe what they intended to happen?   

1 minute ago, Chaser said:

I’m watching it now. Smh.

I hate getting my hopes up. 

I really enjoyed the first half.  I still had hope.  I think I would be less disappointed if parts of the episode weren't so excellent.  

Edited February 5, 2019 by BkWurm1

[Lantern7]

Hey, Sin still exists! And Rory! Well, not the fun one. And a reminder that Sara Lance has roots in Star City. The bad news is that she probably went on an adventure way more fun than this. But she doesn't have Kelsey Grammar narrating. And I thought he sounded familiar.

Interesting way to commemorate the 150th episode. Really liked Felicity getting spooked by the director's . . . tool? What is that called? But then she got outdorked by Barry.

Yeah, Team Arrow getting deputized seems a bit . . . much. Not easy, per se, but convenient. Doesn't help that the bulk of the team doesn't inspire confidence. Also, the image of Oliver Queen attending a debate in his "uniform" is even more ludacrious. With a quiver full of arrows. And then when shit started hitting the fan, he used the growly voice to move the audience out.

For all of its flaws, at least the episode gave us something I never thought possible: Ricardo Diaz, articulate. No mumbling, no growling. He probably did it for the camera, but I liked it.

Didn't realize that was Conner Hawke at the end.It's been three years since we saw him on LoT, right?

[Morrigan2575]

1 minute ago, Lantern7 said:

For all of its flaws, at least the episode gave us something I never thought possible: Ricardo Diaz, articulate. No mumbling, no growling. He probably did it for the camera, but I liked it.

I actually liked what he had to say. It was Arrogant, egotistical and self-centered but, in a way it makes sense. 

[JamieLynn832002]

Parts of this episode worked for me and parts really didn't. I liked getting real Diggle back but hate that to get him back we basically have to pretend that nothing Diggle did from Brothers in Arms on happened. I could even accept that if it weren't for the "secret plan that could lead to the release of the guy who's been trying to kill his best friends and their son for months" thing. How did Oliver and Felicity not know William was expelled? Wouldn't the school have called them? I do love that William set up a fake school website though. Too bad for him it wasn't Oliver who checked the site, he'd have probably been fooled. If Mayor Pollard joins the long list of dead SC mayors, I won't be devastated. And I guess the crew got in to interview Diaz in the week or so before ARGUS took him.

 

Needed way more of Felicity and way less Dinah/NTA. Stop celebrating the show's success by ignoring the characters/relationships that got you there! 

[statsgirl]

I feel bad for the documentary people. They've been working on this for years and all the copies were supposed to be destroyed.

So Blackstar hates vigilantes.  What is Connor doing these days?

13 minutes ago, BkWurm1 said:

 It just ended up lacking heart to me by the end.

I don't think MG knows how to write heart.

He also doesn't value the people who don't wear masks.

[tennisgurl]

So the bad guy is a stand in for MG, because he’s obsessed with masks, and not the people underneath or that don’t wear them? Makes sense. 

[Chaser]

I can’t believe I rushed home to watch a homage to NTA. 

[BunsenBurner]

If I rewatch this episode it will only be about the first 20 minutes and will fast forward through parts of it.

Way too much NTA because I will never be interested in any of them. 

Not enough Olicity. 

Making them all cops is just stupid. 

I’m beginning to wonder if OTA dies in the next crossover and NTA takes over. Yuck. At least then I’ll be able to quit this mess of a show.