After Nyssa’s offer to Oliver last week, to save Thea’s life, this week’s Arrow was one of the most intense episodes of Season 4 as well as in the whole series.
While I was hoping for something more compelling with him this week, sadly, I didn’t get much out of Felicity’s interaction with her father this week. Knowing the shady side that this man has and what he is capable of, anything he would say to Felicity was predictable and didn’t give me that feeling of “Hmm, maybe she should give him a shot” at any point. The only good thing to come out of his role in this episode was that Felicity had him arrested, but something tells me that it’s going to bite her and Team Green Arrow in the butt later this season. I don’t know why he didn’t spark anything for me, but the fact that he got stabbed in the back by Felicity, might mean that his return later on, will have a bigger impact.
I had an incredibly difficult time with how to feel about Nyssa’s role in the whole episode. I still find her price for the lotus 100% out of character, especially as she kept playing the family card over and over, but yet kept refusing to give Thea the cure. You could almost have a drinking game with this episode due to how many times Nyssa kept bringing up that she and Oliver are still married. Also, it got more hilarious every time we got reminded that legally, Oliver is still married to Nyssa. While I don’t know what the divorce laws are like in Nanda Parbat, the fact that everyone seems so chill about it, is way too funny than it should be. Although I liked the twist of Oliver playing that card himself in taking Nyssa’s place in the duel against Malcolm. Weirdly, it made me realize how much I have missed seeing Oliver and Malcolm battle. I hope to see Nyssa again later this season and hopefully back as an ally instead of an obstacle because she is a favorite of mine.
As much as I love John Barrowman, whether it’s Malcolm or Jack Harkness, Merlyn hasn’t really had much to do this season. He kept checking in and out a lot in the first half of the season without really having a role to play, other than the occasional support system for the team. However, this episode really gave us a good dose of Malcolm as well as something for him to do for the rest of the season. While it was obvious that neither Malcolm nor Nyssa would die in this episode, Malcolm lost his title as Ra’s al Ghul and has now given him a reason to hate Oliver once again. So not only do we have Damien Darhk and Noah to worry about, but also Malcolm, especially as he is teaming up with Damien. It doesn’t stop there as he revealed to Damien at the end about Oliver’s son and has made him a target.
At this point, I think William is the one that may end up in the grave at the hands of Malcolm. The “He” that they keep referring to in those flash-forward scenes, can at this point be either Malcolm or Felicity’s dad and not necessarily Damien. William may be become a target, but he might still make it out alive. Therefore, the chance of someone like Diggle or Donna dying, maybe in trying to protect him still exists and that might explain Felicity’s anger in the limo, 4 months from now. Either way, no matter who dies and who the murderer is, it’s safe to say that Malcolm will play a huge role in it for sure.
Overall, despite some mixed feelings about it, “Sins of the Father” was a solid episode in many ways as the intensity worked better once the whole episode had played out and it did set up more things to look forward to. Malcolm became a bit more relevant again, even though he lost the title, the league as well as a hand (want to bet how many episodes it will take before he get some sort of cybernatic hand?), but at least now he has a bigger role to play again. The one thing that still remains irrelevant is those darn flashbacks.
Arrow airs on Wednesday nights, 8/7c on The CW.
[Photo: Dean Buscher/ The CW]
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