Arrow S2 Ep21 – City of Blood

Following the tragic events of “Seeing Red”, “City of Blood” strikes its audience with a particularly somber mood. While much of the first act deals with the aftermath of Moira Queen’s death, the episode also plants a lot of seeds that that will be addressed in the final two episodes of season two.

The new mayor of Starling City

The episode opens up with Moira Queen’s funeral. Adding to the dark tone of the events laid out, Sebastian Blood is seen giving his mayoral acceptance speech. Those scenes are effectively inter-cut between the funeral scenes, further establishing the repercussions of Moira’s death. With Moira now deceased Blood has become Mayor. The funeral plays out like a typical one, but surprisingly Ollie is missing. Diggle and Felicity decide to use Amanda Waller’s resources at A.R.G.U.S. to find Ollie, while Thea Queen still struggles with the fact that Slade has a grudge against Ollie for reasons she doesn’t know.

By the time Diggle and Felicity find Ollie he’s in a very dark place. Feeling responsible for the death of his mother, he attempts to turn himself in to Slade to avoid any further bloodshed. He even calls Isabel Rochev to set up a meeting. Fortunately, Diggle and Felicity are able to get him back to the Arrow Cave with a big surprise waiting for him: Laurel.

Laurel once again proves that she is one of the smarter characters on the show, coming to the conclusion that Blood had something to do with Moira’s death. She bugs Blood’s computer, and with help from her father finds out that Blood had a statement written about the death of Moira already prepared before Slade ever killed her. She brings this information to Team Arrow, simultaneously revealing that she knows Ollie’s secret. It was nice seeing Laurel finally enter the fold, and her information helps Ollie get out of his rut.

Eventually, Team Arrow gets back in action and tries to take down Sebastian Blood and Slade’s Mirakuru-infused army by collapsing their building on top of them. Unfortunately, their plans fall through due to the appearance of Isabel Rochev in her full Ravager costume, and the fact that some of Slade’s army are already at different points in Starling City ready to cause some chaos. The episode ends with Slade’s army marching into the city.

“City of Blood” had a lot of great moments, but definitely felt rushed by the time it got to the final act. The first act was great. I enjoyed the somber mood it had and was saddened to see how Ollie was dealing with his mother’s death. The parts where Felicity and Diggle were trying to find Ollie lightened up the mood a bit, due to Felicity being in awe of the high tech equipment at A.R.G.U.S. Felicity also has a great moment where she successfully interrogates Blood’s bodyguard by hacking into his bank account and slowly donating his funds to different charities. It’s always nice to see Felicity get in on the action.

Laurel saves Ollie

I really enjoyed seeing Laurel technically join Team Arrow. While Ollie tells her not to join them on their mission, she ends up going anyway and saves his life at one point. Not only does Laurel still prove she’s smart with her detective skills, but we also see she still has a little fight in her.

The rushed moments came at the end. The show threw a lot of things out there in such a small amount of time. Ollie and Laurel get trapped under some rubble. Diggle’s life is threatened by Isabel Rochev. Thea, on her way out of Starling City, gets held up in a train station overrun by Slade’s soldiers. Lastly, Detective Lance’s life is left in danger when one of Slade’s soldiers infiltrates the police department. I realize these are all seeds the writers are planting that will have resolutions in the next episode, but the way they were jumbled together felt off.

On top of all that the flashback scenes in “City of Blood” were once again pointless. Ollie, Sara, and the rest of the stranded try and drive a submarine and shoot a missile at Slade’s boat. It backfires and the missile turns around and hits them. By the time they get the submarine back in order Ollie tries to get in touch with Sara, who ended up staying out of submarine by Ollie’s request. He gets in touch with her but all we hear on her end is her screaming. I just can’t feel any tension or suspense watching these flashback scenes sometimes. We all know Sara and Ollie are going to turn out just fine since they both make it back to Starling City in the present day. The flashback scenes in “City of Blood” were just filler scenes and could’ve been left out of the episode or at least cut down.

Overall, “City of Blood” was a mixed bag. I enjoyed the opening act a lot but thought it fell apart towards the end. That being said, I do appreciate all the cliffhangers they ended with. I just think they could’ve been strung together better. I am still definitely looking forward to seeing what happens next and really, really hope know one else dies. It seems everyone’s life was in danger in some way by the conclusion of the episode.

The next episode of Arrow will see the return of Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman). Check out the promo for next week’s “Streets of Fire” below and feel free to let us know what you thought about “City of Blood” in the comments.