Confessions

This shouldn't come as any sort of surprise, being that we're 20 episodes into what is undoubtedly the worst year of the show, but this episode did next to nothing for the movement of the plot. I get it, they changed up the structure of the episode and tried to throw curve balls at us a few times, but ultimately don't we end up in the same place we started? Emiko is the villain, and I guess 'big bad' and our heroes are not on the same side as the police. Did we need an entire episode stressing that to us once again? Why not actually showcase Emiko doing something akin to Slade in season 2? Maybe show the ramifications of her actions? Perhaps she actually hurts Oliver in some way emotionally or physically? Disappointingly this show has fallen into the trap of telling it's audience how bad and evil their villains are without actually showing us anything we haven't seen. If this was the middle of the season I wouldn't be complaining this much, but we have 2 episodes left! Even with the attempt at changing up structures, there's not much to cheer about this week.

6.5/10

This episode cracks me up. Every episode since day 1 innocent people get killed but this one they decide to notice and question the team when people die. All the other people didn't count ?

Seeing Roy Harper back in the present time was a great sight, he was and is my favorite sidekick to Oliver Queen and Arsenal really kicked ass in this episode, showing off his skills in parkour and in fighting. Green Arrow's fight sequences were also great, showing off new moves. It's amazing that the fight choreographer keeps bringing new moves and fight techniques for us to watch and enjoy.

The writing in this episode was actually pretty good and fresh take on the writing of an episode of Arrow, unpredictable and interesting. Tara Miele directed the episode with precision and created a well made episode with something new and something old.

For a moment I was thinking, "yet another average episode of Arrow". But boy was I wrong. This was perhaps the best episode of the season. There were even a couple of twists along the way, things I genuinely didn't predict. I wasn't sure Arrow was still capable of making an episode of this quality.

P.S. There were no flashforward scenes to Mia, William etc. Maybe that also factors into why it was so good.

I didn't expect that from Arrow, I mean there wasn't any episode after the mid season finale to be worthy to the show as in the beginning. Huge step forward. That ending blew my mind away.