S01.E07: Muse of Fire

[formerlyfreedom]

Oliver encounters a mysterious woman, Helena Bertinelli, daughter of mob boss Frank Bertinelli, who he can finally be himself with, but he soon comes to realize she’s hiding dangerous secrets of her own. Helena is on her own personal mission of vengeance and Oliver is caught in the middle. Meanwhile, Tommy is blindsided by an unfortunate turn of events and turns to Laurel for support.

 

 

[statsgirl]

When the motorcyclist shot and Oliver checked that Moira was okay before running after the cyclist, he told a specific person to call 911. Good to know the research on bystander apathy wasn't wasted.

 

Diggle:  Now I know how your family feels when  you lie to them.  (When Diggle has the only funny line in an episode, it's pretty bleak.)

 

I see the chemistry between Helena and Oliver but Diggle is right, she's a psychopath. And unstable. It's great Oliver took Thea's advice to talk to someone but this is not the woman to make yourself vulnerable to.  She's even more dangerous than Moira, who is also lying and keeping secrets.

 

Tahmoh Penikett is can play lead or vicious killer, but he's a lot more convincing as vicious killer.  Kelly Hu is wasted, she was much better used on Warehouse 13.

 

This is Laurel's best episode to this point.  She's understanding and supportive of Tommy, and.they are good for each other.

Maybe not so much later when Laurel tries to run his life too though.

   They vie with Moira and Walter for the Awwww vote.  I do like Walter and Moira together.

 

Poor Tommy.  Malcolm Merlyn is vying with Robert Queen as being the Most Negligent Rich Father of the Year.

 

In the Public Appearances thread, Stephen Amell and John Barrowman both talk about a cut scene from this episode.  Good call, having Malcolm show up at Moira's bedside is much creepier.  Speaking of which, if Moira wasn't hurt, why is she still in bed 2 days later?

[icandigit]

This was the first episode of the show I saw. I remembering hearing about the premises and being interested. I didn't know it was a superhero show. I'd never heard of the green arrow. Just knew the normal dude by day crimefighter by night thing. I was flipping channels and watched the scene where Thea gets on Oliver's case about leaving their mom in the street. I guess it wasn't enough to keep my attention so I didn't finish watching. I did feel bad for crimefighty guy I remembered that. If there was somebody trying to kill her it would be important to find out who it is. So they don't come back and try to finish the job.

 

I only tried to watch the show again because of this person I follow on tumblr for another show. The person kept posting Olicity gifs like their life and livelihood depended on it. I see a lot of shipper gifs on tumblr and never really cared to check the couples out. But the Olicity gifs were intriguing to me for some reason. And the person posting shipped another couple I liked. So some credibility. So gave the show another try. Then totally forgot about them because I was too obsessed with Oliver Queen until near the end of season one. Then I was like, oh that's what I started watching this.

Edited June 19, 2014 by icandigit

[formerlyfreedom]

I loved watching Thea and Moira bonding, it was so sweet! Moira: "We all have secrets. We all have things we want to keep to ourselves."

 

Finding out who Tommy's dad was, and how he cut him off, that bothered me, because while Tommy wasn't exactly presented as a responsible sorta guy, he didn't seem too crazy in his spending habits (aside from throwing CNRI a huge fundraiser, of course!). It was just really.. abrupt. (and before you all post responses, PM me or what not - Tommy was not GOOD with his money, he just didn't seem that BAD with his money. Hey, I like Tommy. A lot.)

 

Oliver (to Tommy re: Laurel): If you hurt her, I’ll snap your neck.  (pause.) Eh, I’m just kidding

 

Oliver: I know what I’m doing
Diggle: Now I know how your family feels when you lie to them.

[quarks]

Late to this, because I wanted to watch it paired with Vendetta, which...isn't going to happen. Oh well.

 

1. Outrunning a motorcycle on foot, even briefly? And we were going to be realistic, show. What happened?

 

2. Ok, so, this "Who has to stay with Mom," thing is all cute, but we've seen plenty of servants in this house. Also there is Diggle. I don't want to sound insensitive but if both Thea and Oliver have prior plans, surely someone can be found? Also, given that Thea just yelled at Oliver for not being around, why is she all I have to get to the club?

 

3. Thea, why are you even bothering to ask your mother what she might want to watch on TV when you know full well that the only show anyone in Starling City ever watches is the local news?

 

4.

Oooh, first use of the word crucible. But not, I sense, the last.

 

 

5. Oliver telling Helena that it's great to be with someone that he can really be himself with really does say a lot about Oliver and Laurel, doesn't it? But I anticipate.

 

6.

The little bit with Thea letting Malcolm into Moira's bedroom plays a bit differently now, doesn't it? 

 

7. "Oliver. You're supposed to be going undercover. Not speed dating." John Diggle, once again speaking for all of us.

 

8. "I know you can't be that crazy."  And maybe not. Diggle, speaking for just me, I kinda think that Oliver is that crazy.  But we can agree to disagree.

 

9. I dunno, show, I found Malcolm walking into Moira's bedroom a lot creepier and more evil than just cutting off someone's trust fund, but if you want to save the dark and evil music for the trust fund bit, who am I to argue?

 

10. I am amused that everyone - Diggle, Quentin, Helena - except for the mob guy is like, Uh, Oliver, this girl? Possibly not a great choice, and Oliver is like, BUT SHE GETS ME and plus the alternative rock songs keep coming on whenever we're together!

 

11. I love how everyone on this show is so quick to take the blame for the wrong stuff and not the stuff they are actually guilty of, like, in this case, YES you, mob  guy, not Helena, are to blame for killing Michael since you actually killed Michael.

 

12. How come it took Oliver so much longer to free his hands in this episode than in the pilot?

 

On an overall note, although the showrunners stated that they knew very early on that they wanted to bring the Huntress in, this is the first episode completely storyboarded, scripted and filmed not just after Comic-Con (the fan reaction) but the initial reviews of the first few episodes.

 

Which makes it very interesting that this episode goes out of its way to not just provide Oliver and Laurel with alternative love interests, but does something very significant here:

 

Laurel doesn't appear with Helena on screen during this episode at all, even though those two have a history in the comics. And Helena is very carefully set up to contrast and parallel Oliver, not Helena, although again, comic book history would suggest otherwise. So rather than a contrast between Laurel chasing mobsters legally while Helena just shoots them, the parallel is between Helena's vengeance and Oliver's My Book of Names Is Like, Serious Evil and All Justice Like. 

 

More than that, Laurel is sidelined into a plot where she's basically there to witness How Evil Tommy's Father Is. It's the second episode in a row where she has absolutely nothing to do with the main, crimefighting plot. And while seven episodes in, the show continues to give Laurel and Oliver dialogue in opposition ("I care about other people, Oliver. You should try it sometime," right after Oliver has just risked his life to save his family), and fails to have them connect as Laurel and Oliver, the show goes out of its way not just to have Helena instantly bond with Oliver, but also parallel his dialogue with the "No one can know my secret."

 

Also for what it's worth the final Helena/Oliver scene gets not just Ominous Music, but significant screentime,

more than any of Oliver's later onscreen hookups except for Laurel, which is only equal in time because the camera has to go down to look at Tommy

. It's an important moment, of course: the first person who guesses Oliver's secret (since Oliver chooses to tell Diggle)

onscreen, of course; I think we are now supposed to guess that ARGUS at least knew by this point.

, another person calling Oliver out on hypocrisy - this time with the added bonus that Helena has a point, apart from her being off the deep end, what exactly does distinguish her vendetta and Oliver's LIST IT IS EVIL TRUST ME.

 

It also may be slightly significant that Thea keeps driving Oliver to crappy relationships - first Laurel, now this, especially now that she's heading off with Malcolm.  Oliver, I may be shipping you with Felicity, but if Thea tells you to go out with Felicity BEFORE the two of you hook up, RUN OLIVER RUN. 

 

My guess is:

 

Possibly after the pilot, but certainly by the time the second episode was aired and this episode was storyboarded, the showrunners knew they had a significant problem with the Oliver/Laurel relationship, which was getting negative feedback from critics and fans alike, and getting some internal criticism from DC Comics. My guess is that by the time they sat down to storyboard/script this episode, they had already decided that although it could be teased in the future or used as a plot point, Oliver and Laurel would not be the show's endgame, or even a long term thing. This decision may have even been made, or at least discussed, a few episodes previously, thus the two episodes in a row where Oliver and Laurel do not have a single scene together, or even speak; and Laurel abruptly removed from her plot role as person who (kinda) solves crimes next to Oliver (not that she was doing a good job at it, but never mind) and instead just being a person who attended fundraising things and dinners which had the unfortunate effect

of giving Laurel very little to do for the rest of the show which is the issue we're discussing on other threads

.

 

At the same time, however, the show had a major problem: they didn't, at the time of storyboarding/writing this episode, have an alternative to Laurel, except very arguably Joanna - who hadn't interacted with Oliver at all on screen by this point. Thus, although Helena eventually became a Flavour of the Week, she gets a very careful introduction as a potential OTP: a crazier version of Oliver, with the instant connection, the bonding, the fighting together - all of the things Laurel had not had with Oliver so far. And thus the pairing and paralleling of Helena with Oliver.

 

Of course by the time they storyboarded/wrote the next episode they had an alternative.

 

And now, Laurel!

 

Actually I don't have much else to say about her this episode. It's hands down her best one so far, and

arguably her best one still

: She's not doing any lawyer stuff, so I have nothing to say about her failures there; her apartment doesn't get broken into; she's charming with Tommy and even supportive when he finds himself without any money. Really the only thing I can blame her for is apparently keeping that pizza in her fridge for, what, two days, instead of taking it in for a nice work lunch, but this is petty and mean of me and not worth bringing up.  Oh, and making Tommy eat overly hot Indian food. But these are minor matters. The Laurel of this episode is a Laurel I can deal with even if she doesn't seem to have anything to do with a comic book show. 

[Wayward Son]

I enjoyed this one. 

 

• Tommy and Laurel were definitely the highlight of the episode for this viewer. There’s a certain softness between them that I feel they lack with anyone else. Plus seeing Tommy open up to her about his money issues and her offer support was heartwarming ❣. This episode further cements my belief that Tommy/Laurel easily beats Oliver/Laurel. 

• I wasn’t as fond of the Oliver/Helena aspect of the episode. I don’t read comics to know the origin story, but on show the parallels between the two just felt overly forced. 

• The reveal of John Barrowman as Tommy’s father was great :D. I did not see that coming! Normally I wouldn’t care for the plight of a spoiled little rich boy, but Barrowman played him with such smugness that I really wished Tommy had gotten to punch him in the face. 

 

On to the next episode.

[tv echo]

Felicity did not appear in this episode - and it looks like I didn't transcribe much of anything from this episode...

107 (Muse of Fire) – 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."

But here's a deleted scene...

Arrow 1x07 Deleted Scene - The Hood menaces Hilton
Hermandat   Jan 25, 2020

 

Edited August 24, 2020 by tv echo

[tv echo]

Edited August 24, 2020 by tv echo

[tv echo]

Another 107 deleted scene...

Arrow 1x07 Deleted Scene - "You got to be kidding me"

(Hermandat)