The Flash recently blew up its entire universe, using a single, stunning episode to reveal the true identity of Tom Cavanagh’s Harrison Wells, dramatically kill off wise-cracking sidekick Cisco, permanently sideline Barry Allen’s police captain boss, and finally let Iris know that Barry is The Flash. A week later, Flash used time travel to hit the magic reset button and undo all of that, leaving Barry as the only one who remembers the lost day. I was able to enjoy all of it by freely accepting the inevitable conclusion, but a lot of fans were nowhere near as forgiving, feeling cheated. I can relate, I thought of it pragmatically, surprised anyone truly believed the show would have Wells ascend to full-on villainy in just its 15th episode or Cisco had really been written out of the show. Haven’t we watched enough geek TV at this point to sense when certain things are going to stick and when the writers are going to bend over backwards to make them go away? So many weekly TV shows are forever trying to revert back to their default setting, and the major shake-ups that actually stick don’t normally happen until mid-season or season finales.
That’s probably why some people absolutely adored Arrow’s “Public Enemy.” This was some season finale-level shit. The AV Club’s Alasdair Wilkins was positively gitty, arguing, “If ‘Public Enemy’ isn’t the best episode Arrow has ever done, it’s damn close. It has the outsize scale and storytelling of a season finale, yet its placement a few episodes before the end of the current run means that the show can’t delay dealing with the consequences of what unfolds here.” ScreenCrush deadpanned, “Arrow’s ‘Public Enemy’ Completely Blew Up the Show, We Should Probably Talk About That.”
Picking up immediately from the moment Maseo framed the Arrow for the Mayor’s murder at the end of the last episode, “Public Enemy” was an episode-long city-wide manhunt for the Arrow and his sidekicks. Captain Lance was informed along the way by Ra’s al Ghul that Oliver Queen is the Arrow, information he used to publicly out Oliver through a TV press conference, accurately reasoning that even if he really is being framed for the mayor’s murder it’s still indirectly his fault.
This is a moment two and half seasons in the making. Lance FINALLY! knows Oliver’s secret, leaving nobody in the dark on the subject anymore. It’s kind of weird that Ray Palmer figured it out in less than a season, but with Lance they did at least offer the explanation last season that he no longer really wanted to know because he didn’t want to humanize the Arrow. That was back when he trusted him. Learning that you’ve been lied to about the whereabouts of your daughter for half a year and that you’re other daughter is now in league with said liar has a way of changing someone’s mind.
Quick. Crack a joke about how Roy is clearly much shorter than the real Arrow the citizens of the city have seen multiple times.
Oliver is ultimately left with no choice but to turn himself in, still declining to opt out and accept Ra’s al Ghul peculiar job offer. Roy refuses to let his mentor go down like that, ending the episode by ambushing a police convoy transporting Oliver to prison and having a “I am Spartacus” moment by announcing that he is actually the Arrow.
This all recalls “Over the Edge,” an episode of The New Batman Adventures in which Commissioner Gordon only learns that his daughter Barbara is Batgirl after she falls to her death from a rooftop during a fight with the Scarecrow. Immensely hurt that his supposed ally Batman would put his daughter in such danger, Gordon uses absolutely everything at his disposal to bring Batman to justice, discovering and broadcasting his secret identity and arresting Alfred and Dick “Nightwing” Grayson along the way. By the end, both Batman and Gordon are seen to fall to their deaths from a rooftop when suddenly Barbara wakes up, revealing everything had simply been a Scarecrow fear toxin-induced dream. It’s a remarkably effective episode, but you know from the moment that Batgirl dies you’re heading for “It was all just a dream!”
That’s a bit of an awkward moment for Batman in “Over the Edge”
It’s that thing again about shows wanting to revert back to their default setting, and what you think about “Public Enemy” might have a lot to do with how much you think Arrow will simply revert back to business as normal. After all, this is a show of big ideas and stunning cliffhangers which very rarely pay off as much as you want, either due to their creative reach exceeding their budgetary grasp or simply because they can’t get out of their own way. It was earlier this season that the internet went insane when Oliver appeared to die in the mid-season finale, yet he was back to normal three episodes later, his recovery not magical or mystical in nature, insteady lazily chalked up to “his will to live.” “Public Enemy” used “the newscaster lady” (as Diggle humorously called her) to remind us that Oliver had previously been accused and found innocent in the cop’s on-going game of “Who is the Arrow?” thus re-introducing a legal loophole. We never did see Oliver actually sign any kind of confession while he was in custody, and though they have solid evidence that Arrow committed the recent murders I don’t think the cops actually have any evidence to connect that to Oliver. Presumably, “A terrorist told me he’s the Arrow” won’t hold up in court. Then it all ended with Roy taking the fall for Oliver, crucially showing up in the green hood and brandishing the signature bow and arrow whereas Oliver had none of that incriminating evidence on him when he peacefully walked into the police precinct to turn himself in.
Now I’m starting to sound like a lawyer, and maybe I’m inclined to lean that direction in this case because I know Arrow’s Marc Guggenheim used to be a practicing lawyer. However, if not for the odd Arrow spoilers in the big recent Flash trailer I’d assume that the only parts of “Public Enemy” which will really stick is that Roy will be in prison and Lance will continue hating and knowing Oliver’s secret.
And right after Roy had finally gotten back together with Thea.
Instead, we know that Oliver will some point soon start dressing like a member of the League of Assassins, suggesting he will ultimately accept Ra’s offer, although it’s unclear if that’s because the public being suspicious of him after “Public Enemy” will render impossible any attempts to continue living as Oliver Queen. We could also ultimately be headed toward an Iron Man situation in which the show does away with secret identities, but I find that really hard to believe, mostly because Tony Stark having a super suit makes that open lifestyle far more palatable than Oliver merely having a bow and arrow.
We’ll get those answers when Arrow returns to kick off the final 5 episodes of the season in two week. Wasn’t the actual journey of watching Oliver’s entire world crumble in “Public Enemy” kind of exhilarating? Wasn’t it fascinating watching Lance finally confront Oliver, “You spent a year making me look like a fool. You spent a year making me your accomplice. Do you have any idea what you’ve done? What you’ve done to all of us, to the people you claim to care so much about? You’ve made us criminals, you’ve made us liars and victims! You, Mr. Queen, are not a hero. You’re a villain.”? Wasn’t it compelling to realize that Lance was actually right about all the people Oliver has failed to save and collateral damage he’s caused? It was like when the Doctor was put in his place on Doctor Who when someone sternly asked, “If you hadn’t visited us, if you hadn’t chosen this place on a whim, would anyone have died?”
In theory, everything about “Public Enemy” was amazing, and as I argued in my last review I am trying really hard to just embrace the mess that is Arrow, remembering how to merely sit back and enjoy the show. However, all I kept seeing in “Public Enemy” were things that didn’t make sense. Lance puts out arrest warrants for the Arrow and his accomplices, yet he full well knows that Laurel is Black Canary, Roy is Arsenal, and Felicity is the computer whiz. The only member of the operation unknown to him is Diggle. Showing leniency to Laurel I get; that’s his daughter. But the whole time that Felicity was waltzing through her tacked-on drama with Ray in the hospital I kept expecting cops to show up and arrest her. Lance was simultaneously going all-in on capturing the Arrow and holding back, and though the argument is it’s because all he really wants is revenge against the Arrow for Sara if he was serious about it wouldn’t he use all resources available to him, such as bringing Felicity in as leverage?
Maybe he has no real legal way to bring Felicity in, but what about Thea and Roy? When Lance’s squadrons raided Verdant looking for Oliver I was stunned to later see both Thea and Roy walking free. Surely they would have at least both been brought in for questioning, Roy possibly arrested if Lance could find a way to prove he’s Arsenal. Moreover, if they had a warrant to search the club why didn’t they also try and look in the basement, something Lance would likely again be suspicious about after Tommy tricked him in the first season?
Perhaps more damning than all of that, has the show actually done enough to make us believe and understand why exactly Ra’s al Ghul is so determined that Oliver become his replacement? If the second half of last season could be summarized as “She Just Wasn’t That Into You” to mock Slade Wilson’s obsession with Shado might the latter half of the current season be written off as “Dude, Oliver’s just not that into you. Take a hint, Ra’s.” Or maybe, “Oliver wasn’t nearly as impressive in that mountaintop fight as you seem to think he was.” Or, “You seriously don’t have any other worthy candidates? What about Maseo?” It is at least a welcome departure from the mad men with bombs and super soldiers of season’s past, but if you aren’t fully on board with Ghul’s decision to court Oliver doesn’t it kind of undercut everything that’s being done in its name, such as trying to turn Starling City against the Arrow?
THE BOTTOM LINE
As a “What If?’ scenario, “Public Enemy” was an astonishingly ballsy take on the “What if the entire city discovered the superheroes’ secret identity?” story. Sadly, it was riddled with glaring logical flaws that were only sometimes papered over by an inspired line-reading or speech from Paul Blackthorne. However, unless Barry Allen shows up time travel won’t give the writers an easy out to get everything back to normal. Do you trust this show enough to believe that the rest of the season will follow through on the promise of “Public Enemy”? Has Arrow really just torn up its whole universe, or are we mostly just set up for Roy to be in prison for a while?
THE NOTES
2. I don’t have much to say about Felicity, Ray, and Felicity’s mom, as it existed mostly in the periphery of the things and served as an excuse to begin the inevitable break-up process for Felicity and Ray as well as getting Ray closer to the incredibly shrinking man of the comics (now that he has those nanobots in him). Like I said earlier, I kept waiting for the cops to show up and bring Felicity in for questioning about the Arrow, not for her to have a heart-to-heart with her mom about how she loves Oliver, not Ray.
3. Ra’s al Ghul looked slightly older this episode, right? As in the lazarus waters are wearing off, and he’s finally starting to age thus re-emphasizing his desperation for Oliver to take his place.
4. That was some kind of trust fall when Oliver, Roy, and Laurel jumped off the side of the building, Laurel lacking any weapon to help break her fall and trusting Oliver would catch her.
5. Instead of saying, “Who is she?” when she saw Shado’s twin sister, I wanted Katana to stop, look around, and observe, “Wait, this place looks exactly like my old apartment” because that was clearly just a barely re-dressed version of the same set.
6. And why was Shado’s twin sister just randomly walking by the bathroom after she’d promised to entertain the little kid while Oliver showered? Perhaps she somehow sensed a Stephen Amell shirtless moment.
7. They really tried this week with his scenes with Thea, but it’s hard to buy Roy as a character this show cares about when it completely forgot about him after being shot, potentially fatally, by Ray’s ATOM suit last week.
NEXT TIME
SECOND OPINIONS
AVClub – “If ‘Public Enemy’ isn’t the best episode Arrow has ever done, it’s damn close. It has the outsize scale and storytelling of a season finale, yet its placement a few episodes before the end of the current run means that the show can’t delay dealing with the consequences of what unfolds here”
