Arrow 1.22 Review, "Darkness on the Edge of Town"

rating: 4.5

Finally, in what is the first of a two part finale for the first season of Arrow, the different story lines are coming to a head, including Fyer's plans on the Island, the confrontation between Merlyn as the Black Arrow and Oliver as the Green Arrow. While many questions still remain, some questions have been spectacularly answered. This episode certainly picked up on the steam from last weeks episode as the series well and truly draws to a close. Many issues that this episode deals with is Walter's return from captivity, Diggle returning to the team, the Laurel, Oliver and Tommy love triangle finally seems to be sorted out, and another look at the Roy and Thea story line which is surely not going to end, despite the events of the most recent episode. Firstly, the first major issue on the Island, with Fyer's plan to attack a commercial jet seems in order, Oliver's escape from Fyer's captivity will be interesting to see whether or not the writing staff have managed to keep it fresh, as Oliver has managed to escape and avoid captivity from a group of supposedly well trained henchman, considering Oliver began on the Island as not knowing any survival skills, having been waited hand and foot by others for his entire life. However, the wrapping of the first season is clearly focused on the anti-aircraft missile system Fyer's has on the Island and what the greater plot is. While much of this has been revealed in Fyer's monologue about taking down China's economy, there is still a shadowy hand that has, as yet has not been revealed to us. Glimpses of a slender high heeled leg have given us a glimpse of the person Fyer's continuously refers to as his "employer", but more of this reveal will come out in the next season of the show, giving us a taste of things to come. The scenes with Fyer's, Yao Fei, Slade and Oliver are fantastic as the characters tend to bounce off each other. Fyer's manages to re-route a commercial airline flight going from Berlin to Hong Kong and plans to shoot it down, filming Yao Fei take responsibility for it. Back in Starling City, Merlyn is again playing the part of the Black Archer, killing scientists which are later revealed to be a part of the secret Unidack team to create the weapon that will carry out the Undertaking. This heightens the pace of the series even more, as Oliver has a conversation with his mother, before they get "kidnapped" by the "vigilante", as Diggle once again gets to don the Hood, beating up Oliver in front of Moira in order to get her to confess the details of Merlyn's plans to level the Glades. After hacking into the central system at Merlyn Towers, they finally locate the device and co-ordinate an attack taking out both the device and Malcolm Merlyn. However, both of these fail, as Merlyn had discovered the trojan in the Merlyn system placed by Felicity and moved the device, as well as Olivers attempt at killing Oliver failing, getting beaten up by the elder Merlyn and Malcolm removes Oliver's hood to reveal him to be the Starling City Vigilante. Finally, after all of the sexual tension between Oliver and Laurel, the ice is shattered in this episode, which also seems to be truly shutting the door on any hope of Tommy and Laurel reconciling. This is made even worse when Tommy goes to talk to Laurel, but sees Oliver and Laurel through the window of Laurel's apartment. Tommy's path towards his father and away from Oliver and Laurel, is surely complete and no chance of being repaired. While this will kill the love triangle between the three but will create more tension between Tommy and Oliver, which could lead to Laurel developing into the Black Canary character with Tommy joining his father as the Black Arrow. Two minor points from the episode that were developed further was Walter's return from captivity and Thea's relationship with Roy while he continues to track down the Vigilante. Walter's return was unexpected, as he was certainly expected to slide back in to the Queen family on his return. However, the writers decided to retain the tension between Moira and Walter prior to Walter's abduction, which is heightened as Moira appears to have forgotten the tension between the two, which was not lost on Walter, especially considering the timing of his abduction. At the same time, there appears to be a breakdown between the relationship between Thea and Roy, who is determined to track down the vigilante, despite being discouraged by the police, and Oliver Queen, and is going to any lengths to try and meet him again. This causes Thea to give up on him, and they break up, but like many of the relationships scene in the series, the relationship is too important to stay broken for too long, and the pair are likely to get back together, possibly in next week's season finale.