Intergalactic Comics: Arrow: Vigilante Review

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Arrow: Vigilante Review

By: Ashley Binion (@ashleybinion)

“Vigilante” is an exceptional example of how good Arrow can be while focusing heavily on their villain of the week and also throwing in a bit of Prometheus drama.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Well, that’s how you end an episode. Evelyn being a mole was a fantastic twist. It completely blindsided me. Arrow needs to go all-in with the mole storyline. If she is evil, make her full-on evil. I don’t want to see a story where she gets caught, apologizes, she takes down Prometheus as a triple agent, and everything goes back to normal. That would be so incredibly predictable and boring.

When you think about it, the twist makes sense. Oliver stopped her from avenging her parents’ death. Prometheus probably decided to give her what she wanted all along. And when we met her last season, she was a mini Black Canary, so she didn’t have archery skills. But, now all of a sudden this season, she does. I’m guessing that’s Prometheus’ doing. Or I could be just going down a rabbit hole.

Vigilante was fantastic. The best parts about his introduction were that his identity was never revealed and he continues to roam the streets. Sure, we all know that he is the new District Attorney, but Team Arrow doesn’t know that. I love it when the audience knows something that the characters on the show don’t know. He actually reminds me a little of the Huntress from season one. It’s refreshing for Team Arrow to not to always capture the villain of the week. I’m glad he will be popping up again in the future.

I love that Lance’s own suspicions about being Prometheus are out in the open. I’m glad that the show is not dealing with stall tactics and lies when it comes to this particular storyline.

Disappointingly, Curtis continues to be utterly useless. Last season when they introduced the character, I was excited about him eventually becoming Mr. Terrific. Now, I cringe every time I see him either trying to fight or even just putting on the vigilante suit. It’s a shame the character has gone so wrong. Right now his only place should be with Felicity as tech support in the Quiver.

Speaking of Felicity, I loved that she actually went out on a mission for once. In the early seasons, she went undercover for tech support once in awhile, but within the last two seasons, that has disappeared. It’s nice to see this aspect of Felicity’s usefulness comeback around. It should happen more often.

Arrow’s use of arrows has always bothered me. Throughout the series, they have never really embraced the use of trick arrows. It’s actually disappointed me. Last season, they did the cool boxing glove trick without it actually being a boxing glove arrow. It was quite clever. This season, they have fully embraced the trick arrow. I love it. SO far hey’ve brought in the parachute arrow and in this episode, they brought out the bulletproof net arrow. It was so much fun.

Random notes: The reporter lady can’t be trusted. It feels like an Isabel Rochev storyline. Dolph Lundgren is fantastic as an imposing and menacing villain. And, I’m all in on Diggle’s son.