Hey youtubers it’s Charlie and this week on Arrow we found out when you tell people
the truth, they get struck by lightning.
Especially if you’re Felicity.
Seriously though I was making my list of top moments and ended up with 10, so there’s
going to be a ton of extra stuff in this video because we just learned what Slade’s end
game is for this season.
If anyone caught it too, Stephen Amell tweeted that Miley Cyrus line.
Slade came in like a wrecking ball.
The way he wrote it, you have to imagine him singing it in his trailer.
If you’re finding me for the first time I do Arrow videos every week with Q&As on
thursday, it’s kind of like my DC time during the week.
Be sure to subscribe to get everything.
Since there’s so much awesome to talk about let’s just plow through top 10 moments.
Then I’ll mention as many comic book references as possible and do my review.
Careful for spoilers if you haven’t seen the episode yet.
Here we go, Number 10 - Slade Recruits and Army
He’s going to turn all those prisoners into super soldiers and let Brother Blood use them
to take over the city.
This also tied back into what Diggle said at the beginning.
There’s too many prisoners since Oliver stopped killing them.
Thus Slade’s army is born.
They were all headed to Starling City’s version of Arkham too, so they’re all grade
A psychos.
Here’s an image of them in full on Deathstroke gear that someone captured from City of Blood.
They’re all dressed up like Slade.
Pretty freaking sweet right?
Number 9 - Sara Tries to Suicide Bomb Slade
This was really important foreshadowing for a future WTF moment I think.
First off, Sara is super dark.
There was even that line, when did you get so bad?
David Nykl from stargate goes all WTF on her.
It failed, but I think she’s going to use that idea again in present day.
Only what if she turns herself into a bomb.
Let me know if you agree.
Please don’t die Caity Lotz, Suicide Bombing Deathstroke probably wouldn’t work anyway.
Mirakuru can heal anything.
except this!
Number 8 - Oliver’s fight montage en route to Slade
Stephen Amell actually posted a behind the scenes video of this when they were practicing
it, like the day in a life videos he does on facebook.
It was months ago at the time he couldn’t say anything about it.
First off, Arrow’s stunts are awesome and this in his own words was one of the biggest
and most well choreographed montages all season long.
And I agree.
It’s also interesting to note the time jump between production and episodes dropping.
Just this week he did another post saying they only had about 12 days left of shooting
in the season.
And it takes a little over a week to shoot an episode.
So really they’re filming the finale right now.
More on that later.
Number 7 - Oliver And Slade In the Police Station
This was their first real moment together since the island.
I don’t consider that scene outside his car during The Promise to be a full moment.
Just because he was basically bitch slapping Oliver.
This time in the police station was their first real moment.
They’re not just spitting threats at each other and flexing their muscles.
Let me know if you thought this too, but when Slade was chained up it reminded me of Leoben
on Battlestar Galactica.
When Starbuck was interrogating him and called him out about being a cylon.
She didn’t believe him and to prove it he snapped the metal cuffs and crushed the table.
Slade is using Thea and Laurel and yoinking the company to create distractions for him
while he builds the army.
Number 6 - Slade Hallucinates Shado
When they announced the episode, Marc Guggenheim said we’d learn what the mirakuru had done
to his brain and what had been going on in his head for the last 5 years.
And we literally got a picture of what’s going on.
The Shado we saw isn’t someone with superpowers, she’s not secretly a meta human.
It’s just him talking to himself.
Like his mind created an evil imaginary friend that’s telling him what to do and say.
Remember how he was speaking the words Shado was speaking.
We’ll call that Shado hallucination Slade 2, and nice normal sane Slade, Slade Prime.
Now after we saw her, don’t you feel like Slade Prime is still in there somewhere and
before the end of the season, we’ll see him again.
In the police station he said he hasn’t been able to get “the island” out of his
head in the last 5 years.
So in all the current day scenes, you have to picture a shado telling him what to say
to Thea, Laurel, and everyone else.
It’s like this revenge plot against Oliver was conceived and is being carried out by
Shado and Slade is just another puppet.
Number 5 - Slade Tells Thea About Merlyn
He did it just to drive a wedge between Oliver and his family.
He’s trying to isolate him.
I actually expected to see Merlyn appear out of the shadows when she left the police station.
I think we’re meant to take away that she and Roy just split town temporarily.
That doesn’t mean that Merlyn won’t come back soon.
In the Q&A he posted before the episode Stephen Amell said the person he’d like to fight
again would be the Dark Archer, because they still have unfinished business.
And he also talked in a different post about seeing lots of ‘old faces’ on the set
while they were filming the finale.
Obviously after this episode I think we have to assume he was talking about Shado being
back again for more Slade hallucination scenes and I also think he was saying that John Barrowman
was back on set.
Unconfirmed though.
Number 4 - Slade Reveals Oliver’s Identity To Laurel
Just another distraction as he put it, but I liked Laurel’s reaction.
You saw her eyes darting around as if she was suddenly putting a lot of pieces together.
I think she’ll end up being an asset to Team Arrow in a twist to what Thea’s reaction
was.
Laurel already spent most of the season self-destructing, so I think she’s going to become the next
honorary member of team arrow before the end of the season.
There was this really ominous thing the producers said at Comic Con 2012.
Laurel will become the black canary, later than you hope, but sooner than you expect.
Which is not good news for Sara.
Also refer back to my number 9 top moment about Sara potentially suicide bombing Slade.
Number 3 - Roy Quits Team Arrow
I flipped just a little when Roy lost his shit all over Diggle and Sara pulled the arrow
on him.
I felt like he would explode at some point this season and I think this was it.
He didn’t join Team Deathstroke, but he did skip town with Thea.
I fully expect him to be back in time to help Oliver defeat Slade.
But he wasn’t in the trailer for the next episode.
Oliver’s friends and family are deserting him one by one, which is Slade’s plan.
And it’s only going to get worse.
Episode 19 will feature Killer frost, one of the villains from The Flash tv show and
Vibe.
Vibe was a good character in the comics, so hopefully he’ll help Team Arrow somehow.
Number 2 - Oliver Versus Isabel or Rose Wilson Whatever you want to call her.
Let’s just all say what we’re thinking here.
Ravager.
Even if they’re sticking with the Isabel Rochev name, she has the fighting skills of
Ravager and dropped all these references about sins of the father.
She was mostly referring to Oliver’s father, because her name Isabel was on his list.
The list from season 1.
But I also think it could have been a subtle reference to Slade being Ravager’s father.
If she puts battle gear on that looks remotely like Slade’s I’m going to lose my shit.
She has a history with Slade that predates Starling City and she knows all about the
Island.
I don’t remember, but did Slade know all about that list Oliver’s father gave to
him.
If Isabel isn’t his daughter, he’d only have known her connection with the Queens
if he’d seen her name on the list.
Which is just more evidence that she really is Rose Wilson.
In the Russia episode she talked about growing up without real father, so it’s possible
that Isabel Rochev is just her adopted name.
Let me know if you agree.
and my number one moment - The evil Trinity becomes Team Deathstroke
It’s like Slade is evil superman, Isabel is evil Wonder Woman and Brother Blood is
evil Batman.
Evil Trinity for the win.
I’m just going to refer to them as Team Deathstroke from here on out.
I love how Brother Blood is basically on a need to know basis with Slade and Isabel seems
to know everything.
That makes me wonder if Slade with double cross Brother Blood at some point.
Or use him as a metaphorical human shield.
There are still a few huge questions I have, namely when did Slade start working with Isabel?
And after Slade uses his super soldier army to take Starling City, what is he going to
do with it?
and what is he going to do with all the soldiers?
The super soldiers just seem like a means to an end, as does taking the city.
I don’t think he cares about ruling a city.
So is he planning on just destroying everything after he’s done breaking Oliver?
Like in the comics when Hal Jordan as Parallax destroyed Coastal City, literally wiped it
from the face of the planet.
Let me know what you think.
What is Slade going to do with the City and the soldiers after he’s done and what was
your favorite moment?
Overall the episode was a solid A plus.
There were so many big moments I had to change my video to make room.
The rest of the season is just going to be them jamming on the accelerator towards the
final confrontation and hopefully an appearance by Ra’s Al Ghul.
I love what Manu Bennett and the writers have done for Slade’s character this season.
He derserves his own spinoff show.
It would be like Dexter with more action.
Told from the perspective of Slade as the protagonist.
To add to all that, there’s the new added dimension of his crazy mind - shado telling
him what to do, like an evil tinkerbell.
I can’t wait to see it all play out.
That last end teaser, Oliver’s comment.
We go to war. is all about them going on the offensive.
I have no idea how those Flash characters figure into that, but we’ll find out next
week.
Here’s a couple of comic book references I picked up that were pretty awesome.
First off was Felicity’s line about telling someone the truth and them getting struck
by lightning.
Just a nice joke about Barry Allen.
There was another giant Thea Speedy namedrop.
There was a reference to Brother Eye when Oliver mentioned people in their orbit getting
hurt.
Brother Eye was Batman’s crazy satellite that stores the weaknesses of all super humans
on the planet.
It also could have been a reference to the Watchtower.
So many WTF moments though, one of the best episodes yet.
Next week Arrow is on break, so I’ll be doing a bonus video.
Be sure to subscribe to get it.
I’m posting my regular Q&A video tomorrow.
So be sure to write any big questions in the comments.
Right now click here to get that video.
I’ll add the annotation as soon as I post it, and click here for last week’s birds
of prey video.
Thanks for watching, see you guys tomorrow.
High Fives!