Arrow Review: “Tremors”

Blind Tiger escapes, and his employers hope to get charge of a weapon from the show’s first season. The Arrow, meanwhile, begins to train his partner. Roy has an arsenal of potential, but is he proceeding at too speedy a pace?

Title: “Tremors”

Cast and Crew
Director: Guy Bee
Writers: Marc Guggenheim and Drew Z. Greenburg.

Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow
Katie Cassidy as Dinah “Laurel” Lance
Colton Haynes as Roy Harper
Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak
David Ramsay as John “Dig” Diggle
Alex Kingston as Dinah Lance
Paul Blackthorne as Quentin Lance
Willa Holland as Thea Queen
Caity Lotz as Sara Lance
Susanna Thompson as Moira Queen
Michael Jal White as Turner / Bronze Tiger
Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Amanda Waller / White Queen

Full cast and crew may be found here.

Premise

A disturbingly dedicated individual helps Bronze Tiger escape so he can help in the theft of a weapon Starling City has encountered before.

Arrow begins to train Roy, but the training may be moving too quickly.

Moira considers running against Sebastian Blood—but how much of own her sinister side remains?

Laurel gets disbarred.

The island plot takes a new, and perhaps final, direction.

In the episode’s final moments, we get a reference to the Suicide Squad.

High Points

This episode tries hard to showcase the characters, while still giving us the expected superhero plot. Roy and Ollie’s relationship grows slightly. Katie Kennedy as Dinah “Laurel” Lance gets less screen time this week, but she continues to develop this role. Michael Jal White gives ferocious energy to Bronze Tiger, and they obviously plan to do more with the character.

We see more of Arrow‘s version of Amanda Waller; we’ll see how she works out as a character, but they’re certainly opening up the larger DC ‘verse.

Low Point

I know I’m beating a dead horse here, but Ollie’s dramatic revelation of his identity to Roy just doesn’t work. His costume barely disguises him, he wasn’t wearing his special mask, and Roy knows Ollie fairly well. It’s a convention inherited from the comics, but it can be made slightly less ridiculous. It is especially important that the scene not look ridiculous, as Ollie’s premature revelation serves an important plot and character point.

The Scores:

Originality: 3/6 The hero trains his partner, and the path proves uneasy. The show has a fairly original take on Roy—but did anyone else get just the faintest trace of Brat Pack here (minus the creepiness)?

The actor does a good job, but Bronze Tiger feels like Wolverine Lite. In particular, he heals very quickly from his beating.

Effects: 6/6 This episode has fewer effects than certain recent ones, but they have been handled well.

Acting: 5/6

Story: 5/6 This holds together, though I’m worried Arrow may have a few too many plots for its quiver.

Emotional Response: 4/6

Production: 5/6 I love how much those bird’s-eye pans reveal Vancouver, once again playing an American city in a genre series.

Overall: 5/6

In total, “Tremors” receives 33/42

Lingering Questions

Will Roy become Speedy, Arsenal, or Red Arrow?

“Guy Bee” directed this episode. Which superhero team do you think the Amazing Guy Bee should join?

5 replies on “Arrow Review: “Tremors””

  1. The reveal was a bit ridiculous, but only because Roy didn’t catch on sooner. Maybe it’s a case of denial or just not looking close, or he was showing respect by not prying. For whatever reason, however, it was obvious early in the episode that Roy would find out. Maybe now that he’s part of Team Arrow (“stop.” — one of my high points) he’ll have more respect for the training. Not holding my breath, though.

    As for who/what he turns into, as long as it’s not a Kanima, I’m OK with it. (Sidebar: Teen Wolf, despite being on MTV, is actually pretty good)

    Oddly, my biggest pet peeve is how much the supposedly bomb-proof container was affected by the bomb inside it. But that’s a hollywood-style all-flash explosion for you…

    I got sort of a backdoor pilot vibe off the Suicide Squad reference. Did anyone else? Or maybe they’re setting them up to move to the Flash spin-off. Either way, the setup didn’t feel like it was meant to continue on this show.

    • I like the idea that the Squad will continue on the Flash (though I have no inside knowledge). A team of villains (even if they’re supposed to be doing good) might pose too much of a challenge for Ollie, and they’re going to need some more powerful adversaries for the Flash show. Of course, a Suicide Squad show also has potential.

      Please…. Spin the JLA universe out of the TV one…. DC-TV’s actually getting a lot right here.

    • I didn’t mind the reveal, Roy has been working with the Arrow for a while and it was kind of ridiculous for Oliver to personally train him without revealing his identity. I expected them to wait another episode but that just made the actual reveal a bit of a surprise. I also thought it worked well in context, the Arrow can’t show the empathy necessary to get through to Roy, but Oliver is able to be sincere enough to get Roy to listen.

      • It’s not the fact of the revelation that’s at issue though, but the execution. This is live action, with tendencies towards realism; they need to do more to disguise Ollie.

  2. The reveal worked for me.

    Yeah, it’s not much of a disguise, but neither are glasses and parting your hair on the opposite side and that worked for Clark Kent for like 50 years. If that doesn’t work for you, go with Superhero World Reality Distortion Field.

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