Hey YouTubers, it's Charlie.
This is going to be my Arrow Episode 10 video. SO many new questions, even though we got a whole bunch of big answers.
So, I'll try to answer everything as well as explain who the new characters we saw were.
Thank you everyone for all the nice comments during my "CW FanTalk" appearance.
We actually got to meet the writer of last night's Flash episode, and Emily Bett recorded a special message.
So if I ever do something like that again, I'll totally let you guys know in one of my videos.
Just so you can watch it.
So just, careful for spoilers.
I'm going to do a quick rundown of all the new storylines that they teed-up, just because those are really important.
So we have like, character arcs that we need to talk about. We have big moments from the episode, and then we have to talk about the big, running storylines.
So in present day, we have Storyline No. 1 with 'Team Brick' in the Glades.
That's going to be part of the 'Canary Trilogy' that's happening. Brick is going to be like, the final boss that Team Arrow (or the new* Team Arrow) has to defeat.
Think of him as like a final boss fight -- so they have to fight a bunch of smaller bosses before they get to him.
No. 2: We have 'Flash Back' Oliver with the China White bio-weapon.
No. 3: There's "Team Merlyn" supposedly on the run now (or that's what they're teasing).
No. 4: Ray Palmer finishing his A.T.O.M. Suit and testing it out.
And then, No. 5: Oliver, in present day, being healed by Katana & Maseo.
Felicity is kind of floating around in the wind right now, but I think she's just going to bounce back and forth between Team Arrow and Ray Palmer; just like she's been [doing].
Ok so here we go, Top 5 Moments:
So much to talk about in this episode.
No. 5: The "New" Team Arrow.
That opening scene explained everything about what you need to know about the new Team Arrow.
"I thought he was green?"
"I thought he was supposed to be good?"
I love that everyone always asks about Diggle putting on a costume (and they stuck him in Oliver's costume).
He's worn it before. If you remember back in Season 1.
When [Oliver] needed to throw someone off his scent, he would have Diggle dress-up as the Arrow so that he could stand
next to 'said person' and they would see he couldn't be the vigilante, "[...] because he's right there and I'm right here".
And I know everyone wants to know if he's ever going to get a costume of his own.
No, I don't think that Diggle is ever going to wear his own costume.
I don't think he's going to be Green Lantern.
I think he'll just be "Diggle"; like, he's already kind of a superhero.
But I do think they'll have a little bit of fun with it like they did in this episode (where they stick him in other people's costumes).
So just for the next couple of episodes, it's just going to be Roy, Diggle, and Black Canary.
But for the meantime, those three people are just going to be pursuing all those enforcers
that got away. Until* they get to that final boss fight and have to take down Brickwell, himself.
No. 4: Merlyn and Thea need to 'GTFO'.
This was actually one of the more confusing parts of the episode. Merlyn said they need to, "GET OUT".
Obviously because the League of Assassins is still coming for 'em. Because Oliver's death meant that
Merlyn is still marked for death.
So it's really not Thea that's in danger -- it's just Merlyn -- and Merlyn wants to keep her close.
There was something really important that John Barrowman said in one of the promos that they were posting last week:
"Family is more important than anything"
And when Thea was talking about Oliver, Merlyn said, "He's family". So, that makes me wonder if Merlyn is going to
get involved with the Oliver-plot at some point.
One of the funniest lines in the episode though is when Thea said, "I could have killed you!"
...and Merlyn smirks, and says, "It's cute that you think that would be possible."
Mostly it's just him being a badass, but you could build a lot of double-meanings in to that.
But, If Oliver is coming back, if he's getting healed back to health, obviously they have some sort of special-methods inside the
League of Assassins and Katana has some special skills.
So, maybe Merlyn also has those special skills -- which means he's almost* unkillable.
No. 3: Meet Danny Brickwell (a.k.a. "Brick" from the comics).
His backstory in the comics is really mysterious. Not a lot is known about him before he showed up in Star City.
Yes, he is a metahuman in the comics. He has like, super-strong skin, so he's almost indestructible.
I don't* think that Arrow is going to go that direction.
I think they'll just explain that he has like metal-plating in his head; something to just make him tougher.
I don't think he's going to be a full-blown metahuman on Arrow (even though Arrow IS open to doing powers).
On the show he's going to be taking over The Glades, becoming like the new big crimeboss of Star City.
In the comics he kind of did the same thing.
So after this big event, called the "Amsterdam Avenue Disaster" (it's like the comicbook-version of the Undertaking from Season 1)
Malcom Merlyn and Doctor Light just blow up a bunch of bombs all over Star City.
Now that's the comics. Obviously on Arrow they did that in Season 1 with the Undertaking.
Just think of him as rising from the ashes of the Undertaking, and just grabbing all the territory he could.
The way he's explained in the comics is that his rise to power, isn't* tied to his abilities as a metahuman.
They just put him forth as this REALLY smart criminal.
But you can't put Vinnie Jones in a TV show, without letting him punch someone in the face.
So there will be a lot of him fighting people.
No. 2: Laurel takes the mantle of the "Black Canary".
I've seen a lot of questions from you guys about 'powers'. You know, how they're going to express [them]. How they're going to deal with her character.
How they're going to show her, evolving, as a fighter.
They haven't said anything about metahuman abilities. But I think them showing the 'Canary Cry' bombs on the table, kind of answers that question.
So she's not going to get her "Canary Cry" like she has in the comics.
This Canary Trilogy is meant to address her getting better as a hero. So she's going to get her butt kicked, a lot, in these next couple of episodes.
Eventually she'll get a little bit better.
It's the same deal with Roy. If you remember, in the beginning of the episode
when he was chasing the criminals, and they were like, "Isn't he supposed to be good?"
Roy is going to mess a LOT of stuff up (and so is Black Canary).
So it's not like she's going to be a superhero right away.
She's going to be more like, a 'cosplay'-vigilante.
I think there's a little bit of confusion about that.
Just because she gets a superhero costume, doesn't mean that the writers want you to think that she's a superhero.
The really funny thing from behind the scenes though, is that Caity Lotz was actually talking about her
taking the mantle -- about Laurel taking the mantle -- she said that Katie Cassidy's wig was way better than hers.
She called her "Sarah-Wig" more of like a 'Dolly Parton'-wig (which I think is kind of funny).
So every time I watch old episodes from Season 2 and see Black Canary, I think of Dolly Parton fighting crime.
For those of you that are huge Sarah fans and are really sad to see her go, she will be back this season in the "Canaries" episode.
I think it's either Episode 12 or 13
(in a flashback).
She also goes to a ton of conventions so you can still totally get her autograph and talk to her about how much you loved her.
I think it's interesting though that Laurel is the one who kind of kicks everyone in the butt and says, "ARE you coming back" you know, [to] Diggle.
"We have ALL these people we need to catch...we can't let them get away"
So she* is going to be the driving force for these next couple of episodes in catching these people.
And that person she took down at the end of the episode: that was the person from the trial earlier.
And, my No. 1 moment, of course: WTF? Oliver wakes up.
This was like the biggest surprise of the episode, for a number of different reasons.
One, that they answered the 'dead/not dead' question so fast. I thought they were going to leave that question
hanging for a little bit longer.
I'm glad they answered it, but now they have to answer why he's not going back right away.
As for the Katana-thing, I'll explain this in my 'Thumbs Down' a little bit.
I feel like she's a bit of a Deus Ex Machina, right now.
I think* they had other plans for the character in the first-half of the season, but then the actress that was going to play her dropped out
[and] they had to recast her.
So I think they had to rewrite a lot of the story.
I think there were a lot of Katana scenes earlier on, that got written out.
It's just, we barely spent any time with her the first half of the season...and all of a sudden, now, she's like the most important person in the world.
For example, the character that played Ted Grant:
(Wildcat) he was cast on another show, so they might not be able to bring him back, at all, this season.
And originally it seemed like they had bigger plans for the Wildcat character.
Either way, Oliver's alive, and now we get to find out why he doesn't go back right away.
That's going to be the most fun thing about that -- it's going to be like, 'how long is he going to sit there and stew in that cabin?'
'How much longer before he let's his friends know that he's alive?'
Here's my big question for you guys:
How much time do you think is going to go by, before Oliver let's his friends know that he's still alive?
There's a couple of ways that could go down.
He could surprise everyone in like a big "hero" moment (like in a big fight with Brick or some other big villain.
Or, two, someone else could let them know that Oliver's still alive.
Okay, so here are the really big character arcs that I think are going to be happening (because some of the characters WILL be changing, quite a bit):
Starting off with Roy.
So, Roy -- obviously, we saw him with a drink in that hand -- I think he's totally going to go alcoholic.
If you remember in the comics, he became a heroine addict. I feel like that* is going to be what this storyline is.
It's going to be his downward slope.
It's even like the Laurel storyline in Season 2, where Laurel started popping pills and started drinking too much.
I'm hoping that Laurel will actually help save him.
It just seems like her being a recovering alcoholic, will [allow her to] recognize that happening in someone else, and she'll help them.
Laurel of course, pretty easy to see where her character arc is going. She's going to take the mantle of the Black Canary; learn to be a superhero over 'x' amount of time.
It's going to be an ongoing process. I mean Oliver is still learning to be a superhero, and he's been at it for five years longer than any of the other characters.
Diggle is going to take more of a leadership role.
I mean, he's like the old man on the team now, so, naturally he has more experience than all of them.
Felicity, kind of blowing in the wind...still waiting to see where she lands.
But, I do think she'll come back and she'll start helping.
And Ray Palmer of course, going to finish his A.T.O.M. suit and test it out.
Merlyn & Thea are actually pretty interesting.
There've been some pictures of her with like that 'Mystery DJ' character, so it sounds like she* might not be leaving Starling City
(regardless of what Merlyn does).
I'm really curious to see where their plot will intersect with Team Arrow, and the Oliver plot (like Oliver off in Nanda Parbat).
"Family is more important than anything."
Just, think of that whenever you're thinking of Merlyn.
And then we have Oliver in present day.
Obviously he's going to heal himself...get better...come back.
During that CW FanTalk, one of the writers actually said that he might be having some dreams too.
So we might get a lot of Oliver-dream-sequences as he's healing.
They also said, not all those dreams are going to be good, so he's probably going to be having some crazy nightmares.
All the stunts were great. Totally Amazing.
They really gave all the good stunts, [that] they would normally give to Stephen Amell, to Colton Haynes.
So, Colton is like the new "Stephen Amell" on the show (at least until Oliver comes back).
There were a couple thumbs down I had.
So first was the courtroom scenes.
I feel like they don't really need to do courtroom scenes. They could have done those in the police station
and just saved time. They wouldn't have had to cast all those extras.
They just wanted to set up that moment for the end, where Black Canary could take down that criminal from the courtroom scene.
And then the 'Katana' plot, which I kind of mentioned.
She doesn't really feel like a full character right now.
It just feels like they didn't spend enough time with her in the first-half of the season.
I think a lot of that is just due to logistical problems.
It's always interesting to see the plans producers make at the beginning of the season, and then see what finally ends up getting shot.
Like what ends up turning into the actual episodes.
All in all, great episode. Strong opener. I like the way they opened this episode, and The Flash.
Both with people, like, screaming through the frame right as the episode starts.
So you have the Flash, running right through the frame, and then you have the car just running right through at the beginning of Arrow.
So I'll be posting next week's episodes right after the episodes air. I don't have any podcasts planned
or anything like that. So it'll be more like my normal schedule.
Be sure to subscribe to get everything.
I will be posting a Q&A for this on Thursday though.
So if you have any specific questions you want me to answer, just leave them in the comments.
I also saw some news about "Suicide Squad":
Supposedly Jake Gyllenhaal has turned down the role
that Tom Hardy dropped out of. That was the "Rick Flag" character.
So any of you who hated the idea of Jake Gyllenhaal in Suicide Squad -- it sounds like you won't have to worry.
People asking about my latest Last Airbender episode:
Actually, because I had to go on the CW FanTalk today, I had a little less time to get it out.
So I'll just push that out as soon as possible.
Right after this.
And thank you again, everyone that came on and said really nice things in the chat.
I saw a lot of like,
"Emergency Awesome" tags, like in the CW FanCast chat. It was really cool.
Speaking of that, if you guys want to, you can now submit fansubs on this video.
All you have to do is just go into the Subs menu and you can click, "Add [subtitles/CC]"
You can add your native language.
In case you haven't seen it yet, you can click here* for my "Flash Episode" from last night.
And, click here* to learn more about what's going to be happening on Arrow this season.
Thank you so much for watching. So let's all high-five.
I'll see you guys tonight.