Arrow Review: “The Huntress Returns”

Jethro’s back in charge of the Arrow reviews, and he writes:

In a shocking and completely unpredictable turn of events, The Huntress returns.

Information for this episode may be found at TVRage and IMDb.

Title: “Arrow” Review: The Huntress Returns

Cast and Crew Director: Guy Norman Bee
Writers: Jake Coburn and Lana Cho
Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow
Katie Cassidy as Dinah “Laurel”
Lance David Ramsay as John “Dig” Diggle
Willa Holland as Thea “Speedy” Queen
Paul Blackthorne as Quentin
Lance Colin Salmon as Walter Steele
Susanna Thompson as Moira Queen
Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak
Alex Kingston as Dinah Lance
Janina Gavankar as McKenna Hall
Jessica De Gouw as Helena Bertinelli / The Huntress

Full cast and crew can be found here.

Premise

The Huntress returns (have I mentioned that yet?) to Starling City, intent on… something… which for some reason involves threatening and blackmailing Oliver, who for some reason doesn’t kill her. Something to do with cell phones, I think. On and apparently relationships are rough. Oh and if one of you people who actually read the comics can tell me who Speedy’s boyfriend is that’d be cool.

High Points

  • Hello Kitty pumps.
  • I thought the episode was going to end at a fairly pointless point, but it went on for another 10 minutes, which was nice.

Low Points

  • I’m still a bit underwhelmed with Jessica De Gouw.
  • I also think Alex Kingston is kind of under-utilised.
  • I didn’t really like McKenna as a character/love interest, but I think Janina Gavankar did a very good job portraying her. It makes me sad that all that character ended up being is another failed relationship.

The Scores:

Originality: Not really a lot new here, or really anything I didn’t see coming. Apart MAYBE from the Island bits which are somewhat less predictable. 4/6.

Effects: The action was good, as always. 5/6

Story: There was really not a lot going on this week that made any real impact. Yeah, Oliver did have a talk with Tommy but they really didn’t GO anywhere with it. Huntress showed up, made zero impact, and left. We might’ve had an introduction to another superhero-type person but I don’t even know. 4/6.

Acting: As mentioned before, still underwhelmed by Jessica De Gouw, but Janina Gavankar compensates for that. 5/6.

Emotional Response: Meh. 4/6

Production: This show has consistently good production values. 5/6

Overall: You know, I’m not sure. This wasn’t a super-strong episode, but it was actually a lot better than I thought it would be based on how it started. That said, again, not a super strong episode. I think this might be the lowest total score I’ve given an episode of “Arrow” so far, but maybe I’m just expecting more from them.4/6.

In total, Arrow: The Huntress Returns receives 31/42 points.

What do you guys think? Was I too harsh? Are my expectations too high?

3 replies on “Arrow Review: “The Huntress Returns””

  1. I think it was fairly close to what you said. Not a lot happened, except for the removal of McKenna which could only have ended badly no matter how it ended anyhow.

    I think, but I’m not sure, that they’re saying that Jackson whats-his-name is going to be Red Arrow, especially given his choice of hoodie. Not exactly subtle especially given the preview for next week.

    As always, very underwhelmed with De Gouw, she’s just … not good. She was slightly less annoying this time than before, but not by much.

    The discussion with Tommy did move forward a little, he did come to realize how difficult the secrets are to keep, but I felt that part was a little heavy handed. I half expected him to drop a hint to Laurel.

    I have a feeling Alex Kingston will be used more, they’re just coming to it slowly. Whether or not her suspicions are true, it’s something that could ultimately tie the Island plotline to the current timeline if the two stories intersect, which seems likely.

  2. They have a habit of having the main characters get pissed off at each other in big ways and then kissing and making up in the next episode, so the “talk with Tommy” was completely expected. I did like that he pointed out the reason he was pissed wasn’t that he wasn’t told but that he thought Oliver was a murderer, but given that, the makeup reason should have been him realizing that sometimes Oliver had to kill bad guys. Empathizing with Oliver because he had to lie to Laurel just like Oliver, instead of getting even madder because it was screwing up his own relationship is about 180 from what Tommy’s character is supposed to be, at least before he started getting serious about Laurel.

    I don’t have the problem with De Gouw that others seem to, but I would like them to giver her a little more to work with than a simple revenge plot – if they want to go that route, they should take some lessons from Revenge and really develop it.

  3. I’m hoping the island story goes somewhere that relates to what is happening in Starling City as at the moment it seems to never end. It gets close to a resolution then is rebooted. You had Mr Miagi who could teach Oliver to use a bow but now he has been replaced with Crixus and still not learning to be an archer.

Comments are closed.