The Cheeky Recap
At the beginning of Arrow’s “Al Sah-him,” three weeks passed in not even quite three minutes via a montage showing us Oliver being physically and psychologically tortured by the League of Assassins as an off-camera voice continually commanded, “Oliver Queen is alive only in the past. He is forgotten. You are Al Sah-him.” All of this was framed around a sword fight training session between Oliver and Ra’s set in the present, culminating with a robot-like Oliver confirming his conditioning by emotionlessly repeating the line “Oliver Queen is alive only in the past. He is forgotten.” And then he killed someone he believed to be Diggle but was just some random guy offered up for the slaughter while Oliver hallucinated due to some … um, “magic plant” about covers it.
Whoa there, Arrow. Did you seriously just break Oliver down into a brainwashed cult member in less than 3 minutes?
Immediately after the Arrow title card flashed by, Nyssa schooled Laurel on the proper way of dispatching a knife-wielding bad guy, and after that Laurel schooled Nyssa on the proper way to eat a hamburger, fries and milk shake, a thoroughly 1950s-America kind of meal surely picked out by the show due that very association. As the very fish-out-of-water Nyssa held her newly milkshake-dipped French fry as a child might when encountering a bizarre new food, Laurel laughed, “I have to admit. It’s fun seeing you like this.” That set up a fun back-and-forth, Nyssa, “Like what?”, Laurel, “Like a normal person,” Nyssa, “I am a normal person,” Laurel, “[Laughs] I can’t believe you just said that.” This turned into a heart-to-heart in which Nyssa expressed genuine gratitude and fondness, “Thank you, Laurel. I was alone and adrift, and you have shown me kindness.” And then Laurel finally told Nyssa that Oliver had become the new Heir to the Demon. Instantly, the rest of the episode turned into Laurel trying to save Nyssa since Oliver’s ascension actually meant his first mission would be to kill the prior Heir to the Demon. For her part, Nyssa tried to save herself with honor while limiting any collateral damage.
Whoa there, Arrow. Did you just seriously jump straight to Laurel and Nyssa being “No way in hell will I let you die!” buddies when this is the first time we’ve actually seen them together since Nyssa first offered to train Laurel 3 episodes ago?
As per usual, the tactical and emotional fallout from this encounter shaped the rest of the episode, with everyone (other than Nyssa…and maybe, kind of Laurel) struggling to completely accept what Oliver had become. They were blindsided by his countermove (kidnapping Lyla so that she could be offered back in exchange for Nyssa) before banding together with their own countermove (pretending to play along until Lyla could get to the guns Felicity had hidden on her and let all hell break loose). It culminated in an Arrow specialty: a climactic fight in some abandoned warehouse/air hanger.
In the end, Team Arrow failed. Oliver would have likely killed Diggle if not for Thea’s speedy arrow (see what I did there?). Nyssa was taken back to the League. Oliver would have killed her if not for Ra’s suddenly deciding those two crazy kids would make a great couple. So, it’s decided: Nyssa is to marry Oliver. Where does one find a wedding planner in Nanda Parbat?
The Frustrated Review
Let’s ignore that ending because…well, we’ll have plenty of time to discuss that more next week, and there’s a lot to unpack. Nyssa is openly gay, yet she’s being forced into an arranged marriage to a man. She’s only ever loved Sara Lance, who is actually a former lover of the man she is to marry. Oliver now loves Felicity. Plus, what’s with the two-episode-in-a-row trend of Ra’s sparing a disgraced League member’s life out of nowhere?
It is simply far too jarring to see Oliver so easily broken down by the League, haphazardly communicated to us through a short montage which seems to completely lack the courage of its own convictions. He gets water thrown on his face and is left isolated in a room? Okay. That’s workable. But you’re barely even going to show us any of that? I know this isn’t Homeland, circa season 1. I am not expecting Arrow to do anything as awards-caliber as that show’s flashbacks revealing how the American war hero Brody (Damien Lewis) had actually been psychologically broken and turned into a sleeper agent for the terrorists (not a spoiler since that’s the entire premise of the show). I know that Arrow is on the CW, and it airs in what used to be known as the “family viewing hour” (7 PM Central, 8PM Eastern). However, the same is true of The Vampire Diaries, and that show has had multiple episodes in which characters have been tortured quite convincingly. Moreover, when it’s needed to it has slowed down to give a character an entire episode to deal with their psychological trauma.
Not down with Vampire Diaries? Then simply look back to earlier this season of Arrow in “Corto Maltese” when Thea got her own flashback episode showcasing exactly how Malcolm tore her down and built her back up again. The same people who made “El Sah-him” once recognized that we needed to be taken on a journey with a character to really connect with what had become of them.
The counter-argument is probably that they already did a Team Arrow-without-Arrow episode back around midseason when he was “dead.” Plus, wasn’t Oliver’s identity crisis already decided last week when he gave himself up to the League? Wouldn’t it feel redundant to see him still fighting them? I would argue that Felicity answers that question in this episode with her “Oliver never said anything about volunteering to be brainwashed!” comment. He had no idea that’s what he signed up for, and Nyssa’s “He wouldn’t even know it was happening to him” explanation is simply not good enough for me.
THE BOTTOM LINE
It is a testament to this show that I like these characters enough that I want to go on an emotional journey with them. It is to the show’s detriment when that journey is skipped over in favor of “too much, too soon” syndrome. There’s a crucial step in-between the events of “The Fallen” and “El Sah-him” which Arrow mostly sidestepped. I wish they hadn’t, and I watched most of “El Sah-him” simply feeling bad that Stephen Amell was being asked to become robo-Oliver this fast.
THE NOTES
2. Also, to be fair to Arrow, this could all turn out to be giant swerve. Maybe Oliver is just pretending to have been brainwashed.
3. The Canary Cry? Still a work in progress.
4. The following would have been a good note to give the actors, “Remember, your character was just sliced with a knife/stabbed with a sword/shot through the arm with an arrow in the last scene. You should still be in a little pain. Well, maybe not you, Amell. Your character’s like 95% robot now.”
5. So, is that thug Nyssa and Lyla tied up still lying in that alley waiting for someone, anyone to find him? Or did they call the cops to give them the heads up before going out for dinner?
6. “Were I so inclined I’d question why your first instinct is to always keep matters secret. Even after doing so cost you your relationship with your father.” – Nyssa’s insults are oddly elegant and insightful.
7. So, does this mean that Captain Picard is tougher than Oliver Queen?
Then again, when Picard was tortured he was moments away from giving in when they finally rescued him.
8. Katrina Law on playing an LGBT character (MTV):
There is always a fear — and I don’t necessarily feel that with these writers in particular, it is more of a generalized fear — to suddenly have her become straight because some man was able to sway her. That’s not how this world works. I don’t think I am going to suddenly become a lesbian, or some guy is suddenly going to become gay because he’s hanging out with other guys. It doesn’t really happen like that in the real world. So there was a fear, in order to placate audiences, or just give a storyline that they were going to do that… But so far, they haven’t and it doesn’t look like they are going to. And I love that.
NEXT TIME
SECOND OPINION
Collider – Now that we know how evil Ra’s al Ghul really is (I mean, who forces their daughter to marry in this day and age? Oh, you meant the bio-terrorism. Right, right.), I can’t imagine Oliver staying Al Sah-him much longer; in fact, I give him just slightly less than two episodes. Still, it’s fun to see Stephen Amell channeling his dark side without having to justify his actions or wrestle with those pesky interruptions from his conscience. While it’s a foregone conclusion that Oliver will come around to his true self before the season’s final moments, the question is, just how will that come about? Killing his best friend (imaginary or otherwise) didn’t change him, getting shot by his kid sister didn’t sway him, and being tasked with exterminating the citizens he’s been protecting for three seasons didn’t even make him blink. (The only time he looked nonplussed is when he was told he’d be marrying Nyssa!)
THE INTERVIEWS
Katrina Law talked about this episode with MTV, The Wrap, ETOnline and ComicBook, to name a few. In one of them, she indicated she thought Nyssa would be open to a romance with Laurel, but she didn’t know if Laurel would reciprocate.