The Centurion Circle Catch-up Part 3: "Arrow" (Season 4, Episodes 17 & 18)

Arrow, buddy, you OK man? 

"Beacon of Hope" (Season 4, Episode 18)

This was a dumb episode. 

Now, dumb can be a positive or negative adjective depending on who you talk to. For some, it can mean this was a silly episode that knew it was silly, and silly shenanigans ensued. For me, it means this episode was outright stupid and a chore to watch.

I'm fine with Arrow's recent efforts to bring in a lot more outlandish, comic booky elements into its stories, just as long as they make sense storywise and are fit into Arrow's tone. This...this did not do either. 

I'm not a fan of Brie Larson, nor am I a fan of Emily Kinney's horribly over-the-top performance. I loathed the whole "the bees come together and morph into a man" thing. That was infuriatingly dumb. And then every other character has to make a quip about what a bizarre situation this is, so the writers appear smarter than they really are! How about some BEE puns on top of that? "BEE-have!" HA HA HA. And Donna's in this! WHY IS DONNA IN EVERY OTHER EPISODE NOW?! I could stand her in Season 3 when she only appeared in, like, two episodes, and I can stand her when she's not comic relief. Now? Now I just want her off this show for good. 

I'm losing my mind aren't I? OK, I'll talk about the one thing I liked, and that was Curtis. I've kind of been indifferent to Curtis since he first appeared. I haven't liked him, nor have I hated him. He's just been kinda there. But in this episode, he stole the show, which was kind of easy to do considering the rampant absurdity. Sure, him finding the Arrowcave so quickly and easily was too convenient, but he was freaking hilarious for the rest of the episode, which makes up for it. Curtis was the light in the stupid darkness that was "Beacon of Hope."

Rating: 5.8/10 Die Hard movies with bees (I admit it, I actually kind of liked that joke. Kind of.)

"Eleven Fifty-Nine" (Season 4, Episode 18)

Look, I could write an entire 12-page article on my complicated feelings toward the "Olicity" story arc, its shippers, Arrow's obvious pandering to those shippers, the writers' gross denial of it, the character of Felicity, the character of Laurel, Laurel's death, etc. Instead, I''l just limit myself to talking about my feelings on Laurel's death.

Laurel's death was, for lack of a better word, inappropriate. By that I mean in regards to her story arc over the past four seasons. Nearly three were spent setting her up to be the Black Canary, she doesn't get anything big to do for most of the fourth, and then she's killed off. All of that character development, all that potential. Trash. I usually don't want this after a character's death, but I want her death to be some sort of fake-out, thus undoing this horrible decision. Is this ironic, considering she was almost unlikable during the first two seasons? You betchya. Oh, and the writers need to work on their subtlety, pronto. When Laurel was holding her mask and she says "One last time," I knew she was dead.

Other than that, "Eleven Fifty-Nine" was actually a very good episode. It reminded me of Season 1/2 era Arrow. The grittiness, the constant guessing over Andy's allegiances, the prison riot, Darhk, having Merlyn as a villain again. It all reminded me of a far better time in Arrow's history, not that I've been hating this season so far. And even though I'm not big on the decision to kill Laurel, seeing the effects it will have on the characters should be quite compelling.

Poor Lance. This is like the third time he has to hear that one of his daughters died. Not cool. 

Rating: 8.0/10 hollowed-out books.

Next up, Legends of Tomorrow.

Noah