Someone on this show is going to end up in that grave at the end of the season, and Oliver is going to pledge vengeance, backed by Felicity’s hearty endorsement. However, at this rate whoever ends up in that grave will probably have told Oliver at some point that he should stop feeling responsible because regardless of what happens to them it’s their life and their choice.
In “Unchained,” both Thea and Roy say the exact line, “It’s my choice. It’s my life,” echoing what Felicity told Oliver last week. Laurel has also used that same basic line, both with Oliver and her dad. In short, everyone on the show seems to be in a rush to claim their own agency lately. Not only that, they’re also quick to criticize Oliver for his tendency to put the weight of the world on his shoulders. In fact, Roy accuses him of exactly that in “Unchained,” one of three instances in the episode where Oliver was told to refrain from taking on the responsibility of the world. Diggle said that was Oliver’s superpower, joking that he should really be called “Guilt Arrow.” Thea, weak and dying from her un-satiated blood lust, claimed that she loved that part of Oliver, but that he needed to stop blaming himself for her condition. In Roy’s case, he marveled that after all this time Oliver still deeply blames himself for how Roy took the fall him.
If it all felt familiar it’s probably because both Laurel AND Felicity had similar conversations with Oliver last week, chastising him for feeling so guilty over Felicity’s injury when in fact he should respect her ability to make her choices and take her own risks.
Welcome to season 4 Oliver Queen. On some level, he’s still who he’s always been, but season 4 Oliver is continually more aware of what he would have normally done in past seasons and that he needs to try and break that cycle. We know someone dies, but he doesn’t. His efforts to resist his natural inclination to indulge his hero complex and over-protective nature are ostensibly signs of growth and maturity, but they’re also warning signs that his reluctance to follow his natural impulses might ultimately end in tragedy.
It’s all been remarkably more interesting to behold than I expected, and bravo to Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle for bringing this new element to the series. Granted, it hasn’t exactly been subtle, and having not one but two characters repeat the same exact message to Oliver in “Unchained” was just lazy and annoying. Still, I like watching a hero who is trying to become the type of person who actually listens to his loved ones rather than always rushing to take the blame and save them at all cost, even if in the latter scenario his heart was in the right place.
Well, gosh, that’s swell, Kelly, but you haven’t really talked about “Unchained” yet. Isn’t this supposed to be a review of that episode?
Uh-uh. Don’t wanna.
What do you mean, “Don’t wanna”? Just stop dancing around everything and get to it already: did you like the episode or not?
Oh, not. So very, very not. You could say that “Unchained”…
Screw it. I’m not even going to make a “chain” pun here. I’m just going to say that “Unchained” wasn’t so much bad as it was dumb. Let me count the ways:
Mayoral candidate Oliver Queen actually engaged in some nighttime vigilantism without a mask or any kind of costume.
Roy came back, reunited with the team after having some tracking tech removed from his eye and then he was mostly off-screen until the final act of the episode.
Oliver had a pain-induced vision of Shado in the flashbacks, and once she announced that she was just a vision they then meditated together. With the aid of Shado-vision he directed all of his guilt toward a rock which he clutched onto once he woke up and finally told island flashback girl that he killed her brother. He hopes that she can love him and rescue him from the darkness inside of him just, you know, once she gets over the whole “killed your brother” thing.
Thea hasn’t killed anyone in so long that she lost all strength, nearly collapsed off a building and then slowly withered away back in her apartment, freaking out at one point when Ra’s al Ghul’s sword wound re-opened on her chest. By the end, she slipped into a coma.
Nyssa led an uprising at the League, and then popped over to a Japanese temple where Katana now stands as a guard and member of, um, some ancient sisterhood of whatever. They fought to a draw, but Nyssa struck a deal with her.
There was a sprinkling of disability discrimination from a Palmer Tech board member who didn’t think Felicity should deliver a make-or-break presentation since she is now consigned to that wheelchair. That actually kind of works, but it’s also kind of serious material which feels trivialized when placed next to Oliver’s idiotic meditating flashbacks and Nyssa being winded after 1 minute of sword fighting with Katana.
The villain of the piece had a silly, self-assigned code name (“Calculator”), and he wanted to destroy the town for…some reason.
Parts of all that craziness worked. The episode did, after all, open with a pretty fun ninja-on-ninja brawl at Nanda Parbat. The speech Curtis gave Felicity about how she’s a force of nature was lovely and a reminder that Echo Kellum needs to be in this show as often as his schedule will allow. Felicity’s annoyance with the idiotic bad guy name “Calculator” was consistently amusing, and her computer hacker stand-off with him was about as cinematic as possible. Tom Amandes was nicely arrogant and cold as Calculator, who is, as widely predicted, actually Felicity’s dad. If you want to say that perhaps the Calculator’s plan the whole time was to merely test Felicity (instead of actually intending to kill thousands of innocents) then this entire episode suddenly seems more interesting.
It is pretty rich for me to be calling “Unchained” dumb when so much of Arrow is now at some level kind of dumb, just enjoyably so. Maybe in this case I was more inclined to think that because there was just so much going on, and all of it seemed to be happening in a different version of Arrow, the assassins and their ancient traditions in Nanda Parbat, the worthless flashbacks getting oddly spiritual, Thea preaching to Oliver about respecting her decisions while a gaping chest wound re-opens and closes on her body, Felicity going firewall e firewall with a rival hacker and Roy opening things up with some of his classic parkour. Last week’s episode and its dual plots of Felicity’s hallucinations and Diggle’s flashbacks and reconciliation with his brother was about as restrained as Arrow gets, and “Unchained” was just about as undisciplined as Arrow gets. When it happens it’s not pretty.
Here’s what Twitter had to say:
IN GENERAL
Seriously, this episode is all over the place. It's like a supporting role reunion episode. 😞 #Arrow
— ChasingSunny16 (@chasingsunny16) February 4, 2016
EVERYONE WITH THIER CHOICES AND THEIR LIVES #Arrow
— ariel (@ahhrielll) February 4, 2016
@RillaCuthbert This episode has WAY too much going on and none of the cohesiveness of last week. So frustrating! Oh #Arrow
— procrastinatingfan (@SMummert) February 4, 2016
It's been great seeing old friends, but tonight's #Arrow is pretty rough.
— Dustin Dean (@Dustin_Dean) February 4, 2016
NYSSA’S UPRISING & CHAT WITH KATANA
This episode is off to a crazy start #Unchained #Arrow @CW_Arrow @ARROWwriters pic.twitter.com/ajAtugBjyw
— lee travis (@lostthenumbers) February 4, 2016
Wow, Katana's costume looks dope…but where the HELL did this subplot come from? @_@ #DemBows #Arrow
— D[TV]Halliday (@DTVHalliday) February 4, 2016
THEA’S DOWNFALL
Ummm. What the heck? Is Thea just falling to sleep cause she can't feed the Blood Lust #arrow
— JPNLiveEvents (@jpnliveevents) February 4, 2016
Why are all these people in Thea's room?#Arrow🎯
— Cammien Ray (@CammienRay) February 4, 2016
I'd pay seeing Laurel and Malcolm in her apartment with small talk, tbh. #Arrow
— ᴍɪᴄʜᴇʟʟᴇ (@wolfrmadden) February 4, 2016
FELICITY’S HUMBLING
"We have to put our best foot forward" "well that's not exactly something I am able to do right now" baby 😩 #Arrow
— (julia) (@HaleftBush) February 4, 2016
Felicity got millions… Someone please get an electric wheelchair 😭 #Arrow
— Twin Two✨ (@GemmaGenGen) February 4, 2016
Are you sure we can't consult Cisco about a better Felicity code name? #Arrow
— Kandis Seaver (@queenkandis) February 4, 2016
"This is what happens when the bad guys name themselves," Felicity Smoak says of the name 'The Calculator.' #Arrow #Olicity
— Smoak & Arrow (@SmoaknArrow) February 4, 2016
Felicity IS a brilliant force of nature. #Arrow @CW_Arrow
— Mjolnir MK86 (@MjolnirMK86) February 4, 2016
So right now he's Mr. Inspirational! He'll become Mr. Terrific later #Arrow #DemBows
— X-Wing @Aliciousness (@infinitespeech) February 4, 2016
OLIVER & ROY
Why would Oliver chase a criminal without a mask? This show has gone so far downhill that it doesn't even try to make sense so dumb. #arrow
— Men InTights (@men_in_tightsYT) February 4, 2016
Phase 1: Train in Parkour
Phase 2:
Phase 3: profit #Arrow
— Kakarot Urameshi (@Action_Figga) February 4, 2016
"Man, I cannot believe you shot me." "… really?" I've missed the Roy/Oliver dynamic SO MUCH. #arrow
— Sammy (@Sammykinz) February 4, 2016
"Sorry I can't stay. I like this show, but Teen Wolf pays more money." ~Roy, basically. #Arrow #DemBows
— Black Nerd Problems (@blknrdproblems) February 4, 2016
SHADO-VISION
#Arrow *gasp* It already happened! IT JUST HAPPENED!!! @celinajade on #Arrow ! I repeat– Celina Jade ON ARROW! #Shado #Mei #Awesome
— Jeff Harris (@JeffHarris7) February 4, 2016
She's not real but the arrows she shot into the chest of the soldiers were real? #Arrow
— Claymores R Us (@cloneposter) February 4, 2016
the characters on #Arrow can carry on entire conversations with hallucinations for days at a time.
— Eddie Steak (@EddieSteak) February 4, 2016
Oh Lord! Oliver's having visions of Shado again?#Arrow #Olicity
— GirlWednesday (@GurlWednesday) February 4, 2016
The flashbacks make absolutely nofa King sense 🙄🙄 #Arrow https://t.co/zSGXFfspVA
— k ♕ (@MyFutureQueen) February 4, 2016
Meditation? Really? Didn't think Flashbacks could get more boring #Arrow #DemBows
— Sass-Al-Ghul (@TriniLiz1983) February 4, 2016
Side note? Why the hell would Oliver be in love with island chick? She's just there taking up space for no reason. #arrow
— Christina (@MtnLoveGirl) February 4, 2016
Wait so what did we learn this week on "Irrelevant Island?" I tuned out during all the scenes #DemBows #Arrow
— Krystal, not Kay (@KSpencePhotos) February 4, 2016
HOW MANY CHARACTERS ARE GOING TO RETURN IN THIS EPISODE?
"Who's unexpected return is next?" Oh Felicity. You just seriously jinxed everbody! #Arrow @ARROWwriters #Unchained
— Erin Nixon (@ErinNix71) February 4, 2016
This is like the #Arrow reunion episode. Bring back Tommy and Moira, next!
— Pink Ranger (@Meow0814) February 4, 2016
NICE CALLBACK
Foreshadowing back to S2. #Arrow pic.twitter.com/A5OK36hteM
— Tiffany (@Tiff_Z) February 4, 2016
RANDOM JOKES
it must be really awkward if Diggle sneezes while on a mission. Just a thought. #DemBows #Arrow
— Krystal, not Kay (@KSpencePhotos) February 4, 2016
I love it when they rush out like it doesnt take Buckles an hour to put that face on. Her lipstick & lashes alone taken 30 mins #Arrow
— Menna (@MennaEZahra) February 4, 2016
FAVORITE LINE OF THE EPISODE
"Just because you're wearing red doesn't make you the Flash, Roy" 😂 #Arrow
— carmen (@phoeniixsky) February 4, 2016
