Arrow
Episode 8: Vendetta
By: Carlos Uribe
Arrow
is a show about the Green Arrow, a vigilante who seeks justice. It is
based on the DC comic superhero Green Arrow.
Spoilers
Ahoy!
Vendetta
has a pretty great main plot. Oliver is trying to save Helena by
trying to make seek justice in a way that doesn't hurt anyone. In
order to accomplish this goal, he not only needs to get closer to her
as a vigilante but emotionally as well. This means having to train
her how to use a bow and arrow while at the same time using Laurel's
sister's grave to get close to her. He succeeds at first. She starts
to let him in and she goes on a mission with him. They bring down one
of her father's men by turning him into the police. This capture led
to her father losing a lot of money and it was a different experience
for Helena. She didn't have to kill anyone but she still managed to
hurt her father. She managed to seek justice in a non-lethal way. It
really wasn't until their third date that it fell apart. Oliver and
Helena happen to run into Laurel and Tommy at a restaurant and their
date quickly becomes a double date. This double date makes Helena
realize that not only did Oliver used to date Laurel but that he's
still in love with her. Helena jumps to the conclusion that Oliver
doesn't really care about her and that he used Laurel's sister's
grave to manipulate her. She turns her back not only on Oliver but
also his method of justice. She starts a mob war between the Triad
and her father. Oliver is able to save her dad from being killed at
the hands of his daughter and the father is sent to prison. Helena
finally admits that she was never seeking justice but revenge. She's
not happy that her father survived and she ends up leaving the city.
She'll be back but her relationship with Oliver has crumbled.
What's
great about this plot is just how messed up it really is. Helena is a
character who completely changed when her fiance was killed by her
father. She became consumed with the desire to take his world away
from him because that's what he had done to her. Helena is really a
character who has never allowed herself to emotionally move on from
the death of her fiance. That he had only died because they had
mistaken who the laptop belonged simply complicates the character's
emotions. Diggle believes that Oliver can't save Helena because she
has become completely unhinged. The series didn't decide to potray
this during one of the missions she goes with Oliver. She could have
easily gone too far in her desire to seek justice and killed someone
when she didn't have to. This is what other shows would have done but
it wouldn't have made for such a strong impact based on what the
character has gone through. This is a person who loved so much but
got hurt so badly when her own family took it away. It isn't until
she believes that Oliver had cruelly played with her feelings that
she reveals just how lost she is. That she actually thinks that
Oliver is manipulating herself is evidence but that she allows this
one date to ruin what they have helps to really show the state of the
character. What makes Helena so great is just how similar to Oliver
she really is.
What
do the two want? They want justice. Oliver is trying to take down the
elements of Sterling City that are abusing the people. He's crossing
the names off the list in the notebook. Oliver uses his bow and arrow
to force people to confess and to capture them. What he seeks is to
bring these people to justice. What is motivating him? His father's
wishes that his sins be reedemed. Oliver is a character that was
emotionally broken on the island. It has isolated him from all the
people he cares about and he believes that wearing the hood is the
way to redeem his father. He is growing as he's letting more people
into his heart but he's still an individual that has been phsyically
and emotionally scared by his experiences of the island. It has
changed him into a selfish man to a selfless one. He went from one
extreme to the other. Helena is a character who claims to want
justice but really wants revenge. She tries to achieve this by taking
down her father's illegal business. The only difference is that
she's willing to kill people to get her goal. She used a gun but
she's been trained by Oliver to now use a crossbow and to dress up in
a costume that makes her look like her comic book counterpart. What's
motivating her? Her father's sins. The two are acting based on what
their father had done but there's a huge difference. Helena wants to
make her father pay while Oliver is acting on his father's dying
request.
There's
also other things going on. Walter is trying to uncover the
mysterious organization that his wife belongs to. This comes from the
help of Felicity, who is quickly becoming my favorite character on
the show. This search could potentially lead to Felicity's death so
there are stakes for this recurring character. The question becomes
if the show is willing to kill a recurring character. It has been
building up a universe of characters to draw from but so far there
really haven't been any siginificant casualties. The other thing
going on is that Tommy is afraid that losing his fortune means he has
nothing to offer Laurel. He has always seen himself as a billionaire
and he isn't sure who he is without that identity. He does need a job
in order to sustain himself but he's afraid of asking Tommy because
of his insecurity on how people will percieve him. In the end,
Oliver. does give him the job. Tommy also ends up getting closer to
Laurel as she tries to make him understand that she'll be there for
him.
Vendetta
is a pretty great episode of Arrow simply because of the whole
Helena-Oliver plot. It simply had so much meat to it and the series
managed to sell it really well. The Tommy-Laurel drama is good as
well and it's interesting to see Tommy deal with the loss of his
fortune and how that affects how he acts around Laurel. The plot
Walter is involved in deals with the general mystery of who sabotaged
the yacht but it's very slowly developing.
Other Notes:
Next
week is the Arrow Christmas special where Oliver gets to fight a
copy-cat! Assuming it's a copy-cat and not the Asian guy from the
island.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please be respectful of people's opinions. Remember these reviews are MY opinion and you may disagree with them. These are just TV shows.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.