Arrow Season 1 Countdown Finale: Top 3 Episodes

Opinion Recaps & Reviews October 8, 2013 Matt Tucker

It’s premiere week for the heavily-anticipated Season 2 of Arrow, and as we get anxious for “City of Heroes,” which our webmaster and editor-in-chief...

It’s premiere week for the heavily-anticipated Season 2 of Arrow, and as we get anxious for “City of Heroes,” which our webmaster and editor-in-chief Craig Byrne has seen and shares some advance insights on, we thought we’d offer fun little coverage of the freshman year in recap. In addition to the results of our 2013 GreenArrowTV Awards celebrating the first season, over the past week GATV reviewer Matt Tucker has offered his countdown ranking of each of the 23 episodes of the inaugural season.

Today, we bring the list to a close with the Top 3 episodes of Season 1.

Your “Arrow: Year One” countdown:

Agree or disagree? Have your own rankings? As always, we welcome your feedback and discussion. Tell us what you think in the comment section below or over on the forums.

Number 3: “The Odyssey”

Episode: 1.14
Original Airdate: February 13, 2013
Synopsis: Oliver confronts Moira as the vigilante, trying to get answers about her involvement in the group of names on his list. A moment’s hesitation on his threat allows for Moira to pull a gun and shoot him. Making his way to Felicity’s car, Oliver reveals his identity as the Hood and he has her drive him to the Arrowcave so that Diggle can perform emergency field surgery. While Diggle tries to save his life, Oliver flashes back to the island as Slade tries to train him to prepare for their run at the airstrip to catch the supply airplane. At the airstrip, Oliver is supposed to take out the sniper guard on a watch tower so that Slade can take out the others. The guard gets the best of Oliver but just before he shoots, Slade bursts in and takes him out. When the approaching plane radios in, Oliver is able to solve their security riddle because he once read The Odyssey in school. When the plane lands and they leave, Slade plans to order an air strike on the island. Oliver refuses to leave Yao Fei to die and runs off to Fyers’ camp to save him. Oliver is captured when Yao refuses to leave and forced to fight Billy Wintergreen. Slade intervenes and fights Wintergreen until he kills former partner. When Slade is shot, Oliver pulls him out of the camp, skillfully taking out a guard in their way. The supply plane leaves the island before they can get to it. It’s revealed Yao stayed because Fyers has his daughter, Shado, in captivity. In the present, Diggle is able to save Oliver. Felicity asks why Diggle works with a murderer and he explains that Oliver is doing some good. With Oliver recovering, Felicity offers to hack the police system and have a sample of his blood pulled at Moira’s office destroyed. She then offers to help find Walter.

The reversal of format — the episode takes place primarily during the earlier island time period with occasional flashes forward to the present — is an ingenious gimmick that deepens the island storyline and offers one of the strongest episodes of the series to date. It goes without saying that the island story got much better when Oliver was introduced to Manu Bennett’s Slade Wilson. Not only did it cause us to question everything about the “Deathstroke” we had been witness to previously, but present many new questions about just what happened on Lian Yu in those five years. Giving Oliver a partner and a trainer to mold him into the accomplished martial artist he is in the present was essential and focusing on this tale of the two connecting while trying to find a way off the island brought a much needed emotional relevancy to the past. Bennett proves a perfect addition to the show.

For more on “The Odyssey”: Derek B. Gayle’s Review • Episode Guide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aDyqs94OE8

Number 2: “Sacrifice”

Episode: 1.23
Original Airdate: May 15, 2013
Synopsis: Oliver is captured by Malcolm rather than killed but escapes. Felicity is taken into the station by Quentin Lance and questioned about activities that appear to have aided the vigilante. Oliver calls Lance as the Hood and warns him of the coming danger to the Glades. Lance relays the information to his superior and is subsequently relieved of duty. After a confrontation with Tommy where he reveals the truth about Malcolm, Oliver speaks with his mother to find out where the Markov device will be used during the Undertaking. Oliver asks Laurel to stay out of the Glades, as Tommy gets confirmation from Malcolm that everything Oliver said was true. Shaken by her conversation with Oliver, Moira calls a press conference and warns the city about the Undertaking. Oliver and Diggle go to confront Malcolm, as Felicity enlists Lance to diffuse the Markov Device. Thea is afraid for Roy and runs to the Glades to get him to safety. Diggle is injured and Oliver has to face Malcolm alone for a third time. As Lance disables the Markov device, Oliver finally overcomes Malcolm after a brutal battle, stabbing him through the heart with an arrow. As he appears to die, Malcolm reveals there is another Markov device, which activates and carries on the Undertaking. With the Glades collapsing in earthquakes, Roy gets Thea to flee as he stays to help out other residents. Laurel is at CNRI to save important documents and files and gets trapped by building debris. She’s rescued by Tommy, who confesses how much he loves her. Though Laurel gets free, Tommy is caught in the collapsing building. Oliver races to CNRI after Felicity explains it is in the heart of the destruction. Instead of Laurel, Oliver finds Tommy and is with him as his best friend takes his last breath. The majority of the Glades is revealed to be destroyed.

Everything one could hope for in a season finale. High stakes, emotions pushed to the edge, a race against time, a heart-stopping and heartbreaking conclusion. This episode brought a fitting end to the quality run of the second half of the season, raised the bar for the series going forward, exemplified the trademark risk-taking of the showrunners and writing staff, and solidified the show as the leading action drama on the air. Things had played well so far, but kind of safe, including Felicity and Lance partnering to disable the Markov device before it could go off. Coupled with the somewhat lackluster conclusion to the first act of the island story — though Oliver ending Fyers with an arrow had a perverse thrill — one was left with a sense of them pulling their punches, and it was the perfect set-up for Malcolm’s “final” twist: “Redundancy.” They actually followed through and destroyed the Glades, changing everything. Oliver failed, and what’s worse, he lost Tommy as a result. Tommy’s death wasn’t shocking, per se, but that didn’t lessen the emotional wallop any less. I still say Malcolm and the Dark Archer haven’t breathed their last breath, and Tommy’s death will only serve to solidify his hatred, anger, and resolve, just as it will cause Oliver to rise and become the hero he has the potential to be.

For more on “Sacrifice”: Derek’s Review • Matt’s Review • Episode Guide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyqWn-Eb0rU

Number 1: “Dead to Rights”

Episode: 1.16
Original Airdate: February 27, 2013
Synopsis: Oliver takes out a world-class assassin when he arrives in the city. He has Felicity hack the assassin’s phone to find out who he was in town to kill. With the assassin lost, China White finds Floyd Lawton to help carry out Moira’s ordered hit on Malcolm, and provides him with a new cybernetic target reticle to replace his lost eye. Malcolm is to be presented with a humanitarian award and wants Tommy to go to the ceremony. Tommy is reticent to go until he talks with Oliver. Oliver learns the Triad is behind the hit and Felicity and Diggle are able to piece together that Malcolm is the target. At the ceremony, Triad members dressed as waiters attack. Malcolm and Tommy make their way upstairs, where Malcolm takes down and kills three Triad members, shocking Tommy. The Merlyns get to Malcolm’s office, which is a secure location, but he gets shot by Deadshot. He was wearing a bulletproof vest but one of the bullets nicks him and curare poisons his system. Oliver faces off with China White, now the head of the Triad and gets away from her. Getting to Malcolm’s office, he tries to convince Tommy to perform a blood transfusion to help stabilize his father to get him to the hospital. When Tommy won’t trust him, Oliver reveals his identity. At the hospital, Tommy asks a recovering Malcolm to tell him the truth. Malcolm tells him he met a man who helped with his anger following his wife’s death and showed him a better path, a plan to make the city better. Moira visits Malcolm and he enlists her to find the traitor in their midst who tried to have him killed. Tommy tells Oliver he remembers seeing him kill their captors back in “Pilot” and asks his best friend if he was ever going to tell him the truth about being the vigilante. Oliver honestly replies no, and Tommy leaves. On the island, Oliver gets a radio working and he and Slade overhear Fyers’ and his men communicating. They hear reference to something called Scylla, a beast from The Odyssey, and investigate. They find Fyers has an anti-aircraft missile launcher.

Some might question why I would choose this episode over the excellence that is “Sacrifice.” For me, this is the turning point of the final run of Season 1 that sets up all of the emotional stakes that play out in the finale. Tommy finally starts to open up to his father and see him for the person behind the father, something both touching and sad, given what we know of Malcolm. Malcolm appears to want to groom his son to take his place, finally connecting with him in a way he hasn’t been able to since the death of his wife and Tommy’s mother. This would eventually lead Tommy to go to work for his father and blindly start down the same path as the elder Merlyn. On the island, we get further teases of Fyers’ employer(s) and the endgame of his plan starts to take shape in the reveal of the missile launcher. Lawton is revealed alive and his new eyepiece brings him closer to the Deadshot known from the comics. His return throws Diggle for a loop that will reverberate throughout the rest of the season (and perhaps further into the show). The failed hit on Malcolm ordered by Moira sets up a mystery for him and an adversarial relationship for her that will bear out in her public admittance of the Undertaking. Oliver opening up and being accepting of a relationship with McKenna Hall sets up his willingness to pursue things with Laurel later and the desire to have this normal aspect in his decidedly abnormal life. Oliver unknowingly saving his biggest adversary’s life, all but ensure that the Undertaking would occur. But most important, Tommy finally learns the truth, something he’d really known since the pilot but had denied. This is the most pivotal point of the first season, and the implications lead to everything that occurs between Tommy and Oliver in the finale, which is the event that forever alters Oliver. The scene where Tommy asks Oliver if he was ever going to tell him, his best friend and closest confidante from childhood on, the truth and Oliver has to admit that he wasn’t was the single best scene and moment of the first season and the epitome of its best episode. Geoff Johns writes one hell of an episode and director Glen Winter knocks it out of the park.

If you had to show someone four episodes and only four episodes to give them an overview of the first season, Pilot, Year’s End, Dead to Rights, and Sacrifice would offer the best summary.

For more on “Dead to Rights”: Matt’s Review • Episode Guide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi9pRd5DGW0

Now that we’re caught up on Season 1, tune in tomorrow night at 8pm/7pm Central for the season premiere of Arrow. And make sure to stay with GreenArrowTV for more on the premiere and full coverage of Season 2 as it unfolds!