At the beginning of Arrow’s seventh season, the powers that be stated that this season’s theme was redemption. We saw that idea explored in the first half of the season through Oliver’s prison stay, Laurel trying her best to do good, and Rene figuring out what to do with his life without being a vigilante. But just because Oliver is out of prison doesn’t mean the show’s done with that topic. In fact, tonight’s episode “Past Sins,” which was directed by David Ramsey, returned to that idea with a vengeance as both Oliver and Laurel were forced to confront old choices.
We begin with Oliver and Laurel giving an interview about their vigilante pasts and vowing to always be on the side of the law. As the interview unfolds, the action flashes back to Oliver’s conversation with Emiko from the end of last week’s episode. Needless to say, it didn’t go as planned and Emiko rejects Oliver no matter how much he begs her to give him a chance to prove that he’s nothing like his father. While it makes sense from a character perspective that she wouldn’t want anything to do with him, Oliver didn’t know she existed, so he can’t really be blamed for not reaching out until now. On the other hand, it’s easy to understand why she passed her anger toward Robert Queen onto his son, because that’s just a natural thing to do, especially for someone who’s been traumatized like she has. Back in the present, Oliver promises that he’ll no longer hide in the shadows because he believes transparency will help create trust.
That promise of transparency is immediately tested when someone kidnaps the reporter who interviewed Oliver and threatens to hurt people if Oliver doesn’t quit SCPD. Thankfully, the kidnapper is an amateur and it doesn’t take too long for Green Arrow and the SCPD to catch him. Unfortunately, the kidnapper pulls the old “distract the hero with someone in peril so I can escape” card, and it works. But before he leaves, the hooded kidnapper says that Oliver needs to learn that people without the last name Queen are human, too.
That last part sits with Oliver and it doesn’t take long for him to realize that’s what Dr. Parker, a.k.a. Wannabe Hugo Strange, told him after Oliver revealed that his father murdered his bodyguard before committing suicide to ensure Oliver’s safety. From there, it doesn’t take them too long to realize that the man behind the kidnapping and threats is none other than the bodyguard’s son Samuel Hackett, who somehow managed to hack the SCPD to read Parker’s unredacted leaked files. Oliver and Dinah realize the extent of Samuel’s anger, however, when they search his home and realize that he never gave up hope that his father was alive because Oliver lived.
Of course, Oliver feels loads of guilt after this discovery. Yes, he wasn’t the one who pulled the trigger; however, by not telling Samuel what actually happened to his father, he prevented him from getting closure. Oliver does bare some of the responsibility in this instance, and he acknowledges that. And I definitely understand why the writers wanted to go down this route given the season’s theme and I applaud them for still finding unexplored nuggets from the pilot so many years later. That being said, I think this storyline would’ve carried a bit more weight had it occurred earlier in the show’s run. Like, we’re so far removed from what was depicted in the pilot that relitigating this tiny detail feels insignificant compared to the Emiko Queen of it all.
NEXT: Curtis vs. the Ghost Initiative
Billionaire Oliver Queen — under the vigilante persona of Arrow — tries to right the wrongs of his family and fight the ills of society.
from Update News Zone http://bit.ly/2sUYeFc
0 Comments