Intergalactic Comics: Arrow: “Fallout” Review

Monday, October 16, 2017

Arrow: “Fallout” Review

By: Ashley Binion (@ashleybinion)

In its sixth season premiere, “Fallout,” Arrow continued giving the audience more of the same.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Honestly, I’m not sure what I expected from Arrow’s return, but I’m not sure “Fallout” is what I wanted.The writers literally blew up the series in the final scene of season five. They had the creative freedom to do anything they wanted. Instead, they decided to kill off the most obvious character, make the most complex female character practically invisible by putting her in a coma, and had Lance question his sobriety. All of these are plots that have happened over and over again on Arrow. I just wish they would have done something different.

I know I just said that I disliked how Arrow was retreading their steps. However, the one plot I will never get tired of is Oliver wiggling out of his identity being exposed as the Green Arrow. So when I saw that this was the main cliffhanger of the episode, I was thrilled. This is something I didn’t expect to happen. Sure, he can get out of this spot by just saying it was a doctored photo, but I’m excited to see where this particular story goes.

How old is William supposed to be? When they first introduced him, I thought he was around 8, but the actor looked about 13. I’m thoroughly confused. Also, the writers are writing him as if he is 4. For example, he keeps referring to the ‘bad man.’ It needs to stop immediately. I know how teenagers talk, and that’s not it at all. Maybe the writers are having William regress to a younger age due to trauma, but Arrow isn’t that deep or complex a show.

Oliver is handling becoming a dad overnight pretty well considering the situation. His character has undergone so much growth that this would have been a complete disaster in an earlier season. Also, his schedule is so ridiculous that I always wondered when he slept. He works as mayor during the day and is a superhero at night and that was before he became a full-time father, so I understand how he has little time with William that he needed to enlist Raisa.

I’ve watched the pilot a handful of times since the inception of the series so when I saw Raisa, I instantly knew who she was. For a large majority of the audience, though, I’m sure they had no clue who she was or even that she has been on the series before. I always found it odd that she completely disappeared from the series. Her relationship with Oliver was one of the things I wish they could have spent time expanding. Clearly he had a much more maternal relationship with her than he did Moira.

Lance’s storyline in this episode was too contrived. He’s been messed with so much on the show that I understand his guilt at shooting someone who looks like his daughter. But it’s not that hard to understand that this Laurel is not his daughter. She is a villain who actively taunts him. His daughter never did anything remotely like that so I don’t understand the internal strife and confusion seeing her brings him. To be fair, I’ve never had one daughter be resurrected and an evil doppelgänger of another walking around, so really, what do I know? I do wish the writers would find another aspect of Lance to focus on besides his daughters and alcoholism.

I absolutely love Katie Cassidy playing Black Siren. She’s doing an incredible job. You can tell she’s having a blast. Laurel was a very polarizing character within the Arrow fandom. The writers never really knew how to approach the character and it showed. She was handcuffed by the writing. This change in character is giving Cassidy the freedom to show her acting chops and have some fun playing a villain.