Arrow "Al-Sah-Him" Review

"I will not fight an unarmed man" so don't pick up the sword then, problem solved. Also how many times can someone say the phrase "I don't understand" in one episode? So this was Al-Sah-Him, where Ollie has now been brainwashed by Ra's Al Ghul into becoming his perfect soldier, who's frst goal is to hunt down Nyssa and bring her to justice. What remains of Team Arrow tries to protect Nyssa but to no avail, as Ollie is still able to capture her and bring her back to the League of Assassins, where it is revealed she stole the alpha & omega, a chemical that can poison an entire city on it's release, and plans on having Ollie release it into Starling City. Oh and he proclaims Nyssa and Ollie are to get married...awkward.

This episode was okay, no major problems, no big story issues or annoying character moments, it was a very serviceable episode, which I know I shouldn't be happy about, but considering where Arrow has been going this season, serviceable is actually really good (depressingly). Though I will say I feel like the fact that it's been getting better near the end of the season gives me hope for an awesome season finale, Arrow always does awesome season finales. So let's talk about some things that actually stood out to me in this episode, the first one being kind of a small thing, but I could have sworn Roy was gonna show up in this episode because his name was in the opening credits. Maybe i just haven't been observant enough and his name has been there all along, but usually when an actor leaves a show, they take his name out of the credits. But this does make me realise i do genuinely miss having Roy around, even if he didn't do anything this season, but I imagine he'll be back for the finale (Or the Titans spin-off, fingers crossed).

As for Ollie's whole transformation sequence, I accept it, there was nothing shocking or unique about it, it's just sort of a brainwashing episode, the good guy has now gone bad and the remaining good guys have to convince him, we've seen it a dozen times before. In fact this is why I thought Roy was returning, as if to say the only person who could convince him to go back to normal is his former partner. But now with Felicity telling Thea that Roy's alive and where he lives, makes me think that she's going to be leaving the show too and joining him on the Titans spin-off (Again, fingers crossed). Which I understand because there's not very much they can do with Thea that they haven't already done with Laurel, they would just be retreading familiar territory. But then I wonder who could she be in the Titans spin-off, I mean they made up her character for the TV Show, well there are two people that I can think of, one is Speedy, who initially was Roy but eventually a girl named Mia Dearden took up that mantel, and Ollie has called Thea Speedy on several occasions, also Mia, Thea, the names sound alike. The other would be Artemis, another one of Green Arrow's sidekicks in the Young Justice cartoon series. But why would they have two archers in one series? Oh well, I'm sure they'll figure something out, again, that is if Thea is going to be in the Teen Titans show, and that is if Teen Titans is actually going to happen.

Apart from that, I only have small things to touch upon, the first is Laurel using her powers for the first time, well not technically her powers but a gadget that does it for her. This was built for her by Cisco in one of the crossovers with The Flash, only they never explain it here, even though the audiences are pretty much the exact same, they should still probably explain how she can do that for those people who don't watch Flash. Also why didn't they effect Diggle? He was standing right next to her! Did he have some sort of earplug? Explain Guys! Explain! And why does she only use it once!? Would have come in mighty handy during that final fight. Ah well, still looked cool though.

Also in flashback-land, half of Hong Kong is wiped out by the Alpha & Omega, and now Ollie has it again (Funny how things that happened to him in the past all seem to come back exactly 5 years later) and we see Akio is poisoned and this is most likely what will kill him. Firstly, how many times this season have they worried about Akio and when they run home to find him, he stays hidden for like a minute and then comes running out, I swear that's all this kid is good for. Also, while this may be dark, I'm glad he's finally gonna die, because be honest, what has he added to the show apart from being a burden? Yeah he's a kid but he doesn't even have a personality, he's literally an escort mission and nothing more.

Overall, I liked this episode, nothing major either positive or negative, and it is mostly here to set up things for the finale, but i still think it's good. 7/10.

-Danny