Arrow - 'Spectre of the Gun', 'The Sin-Eater' and 'Fighting Fire with Fire'

This scene has basically no heroic shenanigans. It's a cold bit of brutal
near-realism.

Full disclosure in advance: Despite Arrow sharing a universe with Constantine, and thus with Jim Corrigan, The Spectre does not appear in the episode 'Spectre of the Gun'. I'm sad too. 

Instead, it's a political issues episode about gun crime, in which Oliver Queen resolves the tension between gun control (as represented by Curtis) and gun owners' rights (as represented by Rene, who lost his wife in a home invasion while trying to get his gun from the safe,) by talking down a despairing father who lost his own family to gun crime and appears to be seeking revenge on the city officials who didn't pass stricter gun ordnance by shooting up public buildings, and by creating a piece of civic legislation which satisfies all parties by being incredibly vaguely described.

"Oliver Queen doesn't have a patent on flashbacks, you know."

Also, Vigilante turns up and is 'Hi, I'm still here. This may be important at some stage.'

In 'The Sin Eater', Thea asks Felicity to discredit Oliver's reporter girlfriend after she asks if he's the Green Arrow, on account of… well, having seen him naked and not being an idiot, aside from anything else. There's probably a villain of the week, but honestly, we watched these three episodes over a week or so and I'm tired and hazy on the specifics of each episode to the point that I'm glad I'm not doing this professionally. Seriously, my major takeaway is that Curtis resolves to help Rene get custody of his daughter back, having lost it because he was dishonourably discharged from the Marines and after the home invasion his junkie wife's stash and his temper convinced CPS that he was an unfit parent(1).

But that wasn't in this episode.

Right! China White, Cupid and that female SCPD cop who went rogue(2) bust out of prison and go looking for Church's rainy day fund. Everyone feels responsible for shit, although mostly Oliver and Quentin, and someone tips off the SCPD that Oliver and the DA covered up the fact that the Green Arrow killed Billy Malone. Oliver is able to persuade the police that the Green Arrow was set up and still does good work, but then someone tips off the press and people start talking about impeachment.

 

Dinah Drake proves herself a natural at the vital skill of rooftop posing.

Thus to 'Fighting Fire with Fire', in which Vigilante targets Oliver for his corrupt defence of murderous vigilantes (what?) and more importantly, Curtis gets his T-spheres working. Vigilante schools the team, although he is ultimately forced to flee, and also goes toe to toe with Prometheus, or as he is revealed to be DA Chase! (Hanna called this one. If I'm honest, I thought Chase was going to turn out to be Vigilante.) Denied the chance to testify and explain his actions, Oliver holds a press conference and throws the Green Arrow identity to the wolves along with the Hood and the Arrow. I have no idea where he's going to go next. Just 'the Green' perhaps?

Thea gets Felicity to dig up dirt on political opponents and finally opts to quit before her political savagery gets as bad as her Lazarus bloodlust. Diggle has a heart to heart with Felicity about the consequences of fighting fire with fire, but although she un-frames Oliver's girlfriend (I want to say Susan,) ultimately Felicity goes the other way and throws in with Helix (or seems to; might be a trick.)

 

"I had to become someone else. Something else. I am... The Green Mayor."

This season of Arrow is determined to go just as dark as possible, although occasionally this is at the cost of sense or consistency. It's really unclear why Vigilante's reaction to Oliver's actions is to put him on a hit list instead of looking to make an arrangement, although it might make sense if we ever see beneath that mask. I don't really know. Also… I kind of miss Rory, and part of me wonders if they wrote him out because he'd built up too much rapport with Felicity for her to be able to go the way she's going if he was still around to look woobie at her.

Also flashbacks. Anatoly calls out the Bratva boss and Oliver presents evidence that Dolph Lundgren gave him an extra personal bribe to make peace, leading to a Bratva boss shootout.

(1) On the other hand, we were terrified the daughter was going to get shot.

(2) I don't remember her name because it's a real people name. Aliases are easier to remember.