Arrow "The Return" Review

I've always said, the best thing about Arrow is without a doubt Stephen Amell as Ollie, and here, we get an entire episode of him being in every single scene, with no stupid love subplot or any subplot actually, this was a very focused episode on this one story. Speaking of, in this episode of Arrow, Oliver & Thea are training on the island when they learn that Slade has been let loose from his prison by Merlyn as a training exercise for the two. Meanwhile in the flashbacks, Ollie gets to spend the day back in Starling City where we get to see what everyone has been up to in the time that Ollie has been away.

So positives of having a focused episode: the plot is a lot more clear, well paced and better developer for both the plot and characters in it. Negatives: I don't have a whole lot to talk about.

I liked the concept of Ollie and Thea having to train on the island, though there wasn't much of a physical challenge involved, it was mostly emotional, Ollie needs to trust Thea and she needs to learn of a horrible act she's commited and accept it. The physical challenge came from Slade, who though it's great to see him again, I feel like he should have been given more to do, also is it me or did the fight end a little too quickly? I mean Slade is Ollie's greatest rival, especially physically, not to mention being in prison for nearly a year would have built up some anger, the fight should have been tougher for them. As for the flashbacks, these were probably my favourite flashbacks in the entire show, seeing Ollie get so close to his friends & family yet can't actually reach out to them was very well handled, and also he killed a drug dealer that Thea used, because he still killed people at this point, and hey, what brother wouldn't kill a drug dealer with their ninja skills to protect their sister even though they think they're dead...

Also a few side notes, Willa Holland, Thea's actress gave an amazing performance, especially her anger towards Merlyn in the end where she gives the big speech, i loved that. Though Merlyn thinking Ollie was never going to tell Thea the truth about Sara, especially when he's trying to be as truthful as possible...yeah that was fucking stupid of him. Also Detective Lance is pissed at Laurel, rightly so, i'm interested in seeing where that's going.

But really that's it, i loved the smaller scale story and the focus given on Ollie and Thea, the flashbacks were really good and it was nice to see Slade again even if he was underused. This was a very good episode and i'm giving it a 9/10.

-Danny