Arrow
Episode Title: “Draw Back Your
Bow”
Channel: CW
Director: Rob Hardy
Writers: Wendy
Mericle and Beth Schwartz
Genre: Action,
Adventure, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Runtime: 42
min
Rated: TV-14
Original Air Date: November 19,
2014
“Draw
Back Your Bow” features an enemy obsessed with The Arrow. Not in
an “I'm going to find you and make your friends suffer as a I wear
you down, kill you and wear your skin” type of obsession; more of
an overly-obsessed girlfriend with murder in her eyes, writes her
first name and your last name in her notebook during homeroom kind of
way. It didn't work for me.
The
majority of the episode was spent examining the various relationships
between the characters. This is something that should be going on in
the background, around the narrative, not driving the narrative.
Oliver thinks he has to be alone, and Felicity isn't waiting. I've
been hoping to see Diggle given more to do, and instead of doing
something awesome he's reduced to playing go-between for Oliver and
Felicity. The previous homeroom analogy fits here too. Are these
adults or kids? If adult relationships can't be written for the
characters than the idea should be tabled until they can be.
Felicity
finally gives in to Ray and as they kiss who walks in to share is
true feelings? Yeah, we've never seen that before. Everything in
the episode not related to the villain was just one cliché after
another. This was after Felicity gives a rousing speech on Ray's
behalf, acting as if she's known him all her life, when in reality
she knows next to nothing about the guy. All of the relationship
stuff has seemed so forced that I'm glad to see the Flash
crossover episodes, just to take a break from the melodrama.
I'm
no champion of Roy by any means, but he gets his tail kicked again
this week, by an amateur off camera. When he's not getting beat up
he's sulking, saying even less about his situation than Oliver is.
If there's nothing for him to do during this period of the show,
maybe they should've let him run off for a few weeks and get his mind
right. That would have bought the writers some time to figure out
what they want to do with him, because right now he's adding nothing
to the show.
The
flashbacks this week were marginally better, and we finally got to
see Tatsu do her thing. I hope this is a sign that the flashbacks
are finally going somewhere, as they've seemed to be stuck in a rut
for most of the season. My main problem with the flashbacks has been
their lack of focus. In the previous two seasons the story in the
flashbacks had some bearing on the story in present day. Oliver was
learning a skill that we see him putting to use, or the struggle
between Oliver and Slade was eerily similar to things they had
already done. There seems to be few parallels between the stories
this season, which is frustrating.
Conclusion:
“Draw Back Your Bow” is a filler episode, in a place that they
probably shouldn't have one. The next episode is the crossover
event, and then the mid-season break, shouldn't the writers be
building to a climax for the mini-finale? Sure the Atom reveal was
something, but the rest of the highschool nonsense should have been
left on the editing room floor in favor of, oh I don't know,
addressing Sara's murder and finding those responsible? It seems
that the focus of this season has been lost.
Rating:
6/10
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