While the The CW hopes to continue spinning off the success of Arrow, Detective Comics and Warner Bros rolled out their plans for a concurrently expanding cinematic DCU. This will obviously have an effect on the small-screen superheroes - especially The Flash, as the role was already (re)cast for the Justice League series and ensuing solo film - but to what extent remains unclear. And here we thought the new addition on last week's Arrow was big news, not to mention the sad bombshell the series dropped. Could any of the comic-book connections or easter eggs in "Sara" possibly put the spotlight back on DC's TV shows?
Hong Kong
After an easter egg-heavy season premiere, week two of Arrow was significantly lighter with some of the names ending up as nothing more than reference red herrings. That's right, I don't know everything about the DCU, so sometimes I have to turn to Google to track down the proper nouns the writers drop. And that can lead to dark and alien places. It's better than going back to that island. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the first two seasons' flashbacks, but it's nice to be somewhere new. Speaking of new, not much of it happened in Hong Kong with Maseo Yamashiro still trying to force Oliver to do Amanda Waller's bidding. What does the Mockingbird want from Oliver this week? Only for him to take out his best friend Tommy. It was a fun cameo and it reminded us how the flashback structure allows for all of our favorite deceased characters to return in the future of the past. Of course, there's also always a Lazarus Pit.
The time in Starling Star City this week was split between mourning the titular "Sara" and tracking down the Canary's killer. Diggle even returned from being a daddy to help, bringing with him an offer to have Lyla use A.R.G.U.S. to help find the one responsible. Arrow would rather handle things in house even though that means keeping Sara's dead body in a freezer at Verdant, not to mention leaving Captain Q. Lance in the dark. Did you catch Felicity's comment about how she always thought Sara was Amazonian? It was either while she was crying or being pursued by Ray Palmer (aka The Atom) to work for him at Queen Consolidated.
Felicity wasn't the only one who spent a large portion of "Sara" in tears, as Laurel also cried quite a bit over her sister's murder; that is, when she wasn't going all Jack Bauer on witnesses or eyeing that black leather jacket. I like how the dealer that Roy (aka Arsenal) and Arrow mentioned something about a Black Mask before the Qurac connection eventually led the team to Colonel Tom Weston and AmerTek. It's always about oil. Even when it was the bears. The villain of the week turned out to be Simon Lacroix (aka Komodo), but he wasn't responsible for killing our Canary. Nope, he was too busy getting drunk in Blüdhaven. And I was happy to hear it, because he seemed too small-time to take out a hero as formidable as Sara. So. I wonder who the actual killer is? Hm.
Despite Oliver's quick dismissal of the League of Assassins, I'm pretty sure that Sara was murdered by none other than Ra's al Ghul. Just going out on a limb, albeit a fairly study one going by the evidence. What better way to introduce the 'Demon' than having him kill off an important member of the team. But enough about Nanda Parbat; on to Corto Maltese, where Thea is undergoing some serious League of Assassins-style training. (The location made me think of Vicky Vale's intro in Tim Burton's Batman.) Malcolm Merlyn, mentioned several times in the installment that also featured a flashback with his now dead son, is putting our Speedy through the wringer in hopes of making her super-strong. I hope it's not too long before she's putting that training to good use. Although, Thea does look make being bad look good.
Arrow continues with Episode 3, “Corto Maltese,” next Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. ET on The CW. Created by Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti, the DC Comics inspired series stars Stephen Amell, Katie Cassidy, David Ramsey, Emily Bett Rickards, Willa Holland, Colton Haynes, Paul Blackthorne and John Barrowman.
Head to the next page for a look at Thea being bad in "Corto Maltese"...
