Arrow
Episode Title: “The Magician”
Channel: CW
Director: John Behring
Writers: Marc
Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle
Genre: Action,
Adventure, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Runtime: 45
min
Rated: TV-14
Original Air Date: October
29, 2014
Malcolm Merlyn was pretty famous in
Starling City, right? How can he walk around all over the city
without someone raising a fuss and the news outlets being all over
it? It's writing like this that sometimes makes Starling City seem
more like a playground for Oliver, his associates and his enemies;
rather than a teeming metropolitan area with millions of inhabitants.
It would have taken less than a minute to establish a way by which
Merlyn could come and go without being recognized for the mass
murderer that he is.
OK, got that off my chest. Overall,
this “The Magician” was a decent episode. I enjoyed Katrina
Law's performance as Nyssa, especially at the end. She reports
what's happened to Ra's al Ghul, and conveys her anger, and her doubt
very well. The seeds of suspicion that Malcolm planted in her
thinking can be seen to take hold during that scene. Speaking of
that scene; Matt Nable sounded great, his accent and inflection
sounded like the leader of a group of assassins, I'm just not sure he
has the look to back it up. I hope they can convince me going
forward that he's as scary a man as we've been led to believe, but
that first glimpse didn't match at all what I had imagined. Seeing
him in action, and near other characters to give a sense of his
physical presence, will play a large part in my feelings towards the
character.
The three-way battle between the Arrow,
Nyssa and Merlyn was very well done, the action was furious and each
got to show off in parts. This sequence also served to wash the foul
taste out of my mouth from Nyssa's encounter with Roy. There was a
lot wrong with that scene. First, they appeared to be in a parking
lot, so where was Nyssa's extra long silk scarf tied off? Second,
and most importantly, what the heck was Roy thinking? That silly
flip off of the hood of a vehicle, just ridiculous. The only saving
grace was that Nyssa took it as seriously as the audience must have
and contemptuously took him out of action without missing a beat.
I find it funny that Oliver and Thea
have told each other that there will be no more lies, and their every
conversation consists of almost exclusively lies and omissions. It
will make for an interesting confrontation when one discovers the
truth. How much indignation could one of them feign while being
guilty of the exact same thing? Knowing the Queen family it will be
quite a bit. The most interesting story arc so far this season
involves Thea and Malcolm Merlyn, they obviously have something
planned, but it's not apparent to me what their game is, and I enjoy
not knowing
Conclusion:
“The Magician” sets up a lot of what must be the overall plot
for this season. We're introduced to Ra's al Ghul, who seems
unlikely to take the ultimatum Oliver delivered very well, and we
know that there's more going on with Merlyn than they're letting on.
If the writers can avoid some of the nonsensical things we saw in
this episode they may yet recapture the excitement of season two.
Rating:
7.25/10
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