Arrow
Episode 11: Trust But
Verify
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!
It
can be very entertaining to see two friends who have a disagreement
and are forced to work against each other. Their relationship will
usually be salvaged after the arc is done as this experience usually
bonds them closer. It makes them realize just how valuable they are
to each other. When done right, it can serve the characters while
exploring the show's themes. This week's case promises to pit Oliver
against Diggle but then it never really does much with it. They have
a couple of disagreements and their partnership is tested to it's
limits. The two make up at the end of the episode as they realize
that both of their claims were right. Oliver was correct about who
the bad guy really was but Diggle was right that Queen didn't trust
him. This is all very fine and all but it all feels very shallow for
three reasons. The first is that the show is too busy with other
plot-lines to truly make the story work. The one time the two are
really at odds is a scene where Oliver and Diggle aim weapons at each
other. It's a tense scene that the show quickly gets away from
because it had to rush the narrative. They might disagree for the
rest of the episode but that's basically it. The writers made it
clear that their motivations were conflicting with each other but it
really never came to anything. The one time it came close was before
they even realized they disagreed on a fundamental issue that was
going to get in their way. That's the second problem: it simply
promises they're going to be working against each other when in
reality they just use words. That might be fine for dramatic scenes
but narratives survive on the actions of characters. If the writers
really want them to disagree on what needs to be done then show them
constantly butting heads in accomplishing their mission. What should
have happened is Oliver and Diggle working the mission in such a way
that they at the same time trying to stop the other. What happened is
that they run their investigations separate from each other that
didn't really put them at odds. The third problem is the most
important one.
That
is Diggle and Oliver's partnership is most superficial at this stage.
Don't get me wrong: I like the idea of Diggle and the guy in the hood
working together. It has allowed the writers to give Oliver a voice
of conscience while it gives Diggle a sense of purpose. This makes
sense. What also makes sense is that it would take a while for their
partnership to form into being actual friends. The two might have
started to create that bond but they largely professional towards
each other at this point. Making two friends work against each other
works best when the two are actually close. At this moment, it's too
early in the series. It's not that the idea behind it was bad but
rather the timing of it. Trust But Verify is an episode that could
have worked in the second season or beyond but only after the
characters feel like they're more than just partners. The ending of
the two realizing what the two counteract the weakness of the other
might makes sense from where the characters are but it doesn't
completely work. This is because the characters might be at the point
for the story to work but their partnership and how it works simply
isn't. As for the actual weekly case? It's about as boilerplate
vanilla as you can possibly get. Some veterans from the wars come
back only to find it difficult to make money so they turn to a life
of crime. This would have been a good thing if Diggle and Oliver were
actually working against each other since a real villain would have
distracted from that. It's just that since their fight didn't really
work that it calls into attention how two-dimensional the weekly
villains are.
In
other news, we get a LOT of personal drama this week. Tommy is busy
running the construction of the night club when he gets a call from
his father. Malcolm sets up a date with his son and new girlfriend,
Laurel. At this date, Malcolm uses this to try and conduct some
business in an attempt to close down his dead wife's medical clinic.
Tommy gets upset and there's a huge fight. Tommy leaves the night
thinking his father doesn't love him and that he'll never change.
This inter-cut of a scene of Malcolm showing he does love his son by
using a picture of him when he was a little kid. This entire plot
seems to serve two purposes. The first is to add some human into a
character that has largely been a two-dimension villain up to this
point. The second is that it allows Tommy to relay his daddy issues
to the audience. The former feels more forced than anything and
somehow serves to make him more of a cliché. It wouldn't surprise me
if the reason the father is enacting his plan where a lot of people
die is actually for his son. It might have worked better if the
father's motivations were more clear and if the show spent some time
developing him as an actual human being rather than trying to add a
scene to try and establish that in one broad stroke. The idea of the
villain who really loves a family member despite being a total bad
guy has been done before. It really only works when the concentration
is more on the humanity than the villainy. The latter works fine as
it actually does allow Tommy to be defined by more than just his
wallet-which is basically what he's been trying to do for the whole
show so far. So that's a win.
In
Queen family drama, Thea turns eighteen while harboring suspicions
that her mother has been cheating on Walter. This leads to family
drama where she lashes out against her mother before crashing the car
she got for her birthday while high on drugs. She gets arrested at
the end because the police run a blood test for when she was
hospitalized. This is fine and all but I do have a few nitpicks. The
first is that it had been a while since Thea's rebellious actions
have been referenced. There have been so many family tragedies in the
Queen family recently along with Oliver's reintegration into the fold
that it was kind of swept under the rug. To have them pop up so
conveniently seemed a bit odd and disruptive to the narrative
momentum. The second is that it jumps up a bit. The episode highly
suggests that Moira went back to work because Malcolm had kidnapped
Walter and he forced her to take over. The viewer didn't see this
happen which feels like a bit of an odd way to develop the narrative.
It honestly does feel like there was a scene cut that sets up Moira's
conversations with Malcolm. I know she knew he had been taken to
protect the plan but why then was she bedridden or why did she take
over if it was connected to his kidnapping? Or was there such a scene
and I simply forgot about it? I doubt that because it would mean
forgetting an important plot development.
Trust
But Verify is not necessarily a bad episode of Arrow but it's one
that has so many problems that it's not really a very good one. The
weekly case seemed like the writers wanted to do the kind of story
where two allies quickly become opponents because other shows had
done it without actually waiting for the base to naturally develop.
The personal drama had it's strengths but there were also times where
it wasn't properly done. This was an episode of Arrow that was
definably average that could have used a lot of work.
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