Last month I posted my review of the first season of CW's cult hit TV
series, Arrow. About a week after that, the second season came out on
Netflix, and I started watching it. And by about another week later, I
had finished the second season finale.
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| Cover of the Blu-Ray for the second season of Arrow |
I've come to the conclusion that either I have a lot of free time on
my hands, I'm obsessed with this show, or Arrow is really just that
good! I know I don't have that much free time on my hands, and though
there is a possibility that I am obsessed, I would lean more toward
it just being that good.
If you haven't watched the first season and don't want any spoilers,
don't read any farther until you've watched it. While I will keep
spoilers for the second season to a minimum, in order to do justice
to this review, I'll need to reference a number of the events from
Season One.
So with that disclaimer out of the way, on to the review...
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| The logo used for the first two seasons of Arrow |
The second season starts a couple of months after the end of the
first season. Many of the characters are still feeling the
consequences of the events in the first season finale. Moira is in
prison awaiting trial for the part she played in the Undertaking.
Thea resents her mother for what she's done and has been avoiding
her. Laurel has started working for the district attorney's office
and is dealing with her grief for Tommy's death by trying to bring
down the vigilante. Oliver has gone back to the island to escape
Starling City and the guilt he feels for failing to save Tommy and
the Glades. Roy is trying to follow in the vigilante's footsteps by
taking down criminals when he can. And Quentin Lance has been demoted
for supporting the vigilante and has developed a grudging respect for
Oliver's alter ego.
Diggle and Felicty go to the island to convince Oliver to come home.
And though he reluctantly does, he is hesitant to putiting the hood
back on, as he feels he failed the city. And after Tommy's death, he
is not willing to go back to being a killer. Evnetually, with some
help from Diggle and Felicity, he decides he can still fight to save
his city.
In the opening monologue for most of the second season, Oliver says,
“but to do so, I can't be the killer I once was. To honor my
friend's memory, I must be someone else. I must be something else.”
There is a scene that I love in which Oliver tells Felicity and
Diggle that he doesn't want to be called the Hood anymore, and as
Diggle asks Oliver what he does want to be called, they show a
close-up of Oliver holding up an arrow. Throughout the rest of the
season, the other characters transition from referring to him as the
vigilante or the Hood to calling him the Arrow.
And a new masked vigilante, this one a blond woman dressed in black,
has shown up in Starling City.
And all of this happens in just the season premiere.
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| The Arrow starts wearing a mask during the second season |
The second season is very much a transition of Oliver transitioning
from being a vigilante to being a hero. It is not an easy journey for
him, and his resolve to save his city without killing is tested
repeatedly over the course of the season.
I mentioned in my review of the first season that I was bothered that
Oliver didn't have the morals about not taking lives that the heroes
that I followed most closely did. I was excited to see the changes in
Oliver's character as he goes through the transition.
We also see the other characters grow and develop. Even after the
amazing character development of the first season, many of the
characters prove to be more complex than I could imagine.
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| Others have joined the Arrow in his crusade |
Some of the other characters are a contrast to Oliver. The Canary is
almost a reluctant hero. She feels guilt and shame about her past,
and while she admires the hero that the Arrow is becoming, she has
difficulty believing that she will ever be more than what she has
done in the past.
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| The Canary |
The Huntress and her vendetta show what Oliver could have become.
Helena started out as someone just wanting to do the right thing. But
tragedy in her life twisted her goal from justice to vengance, even to the
point that she is willing to take innocent lives to achieve her
goals.
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| The Huntress |
Deathstroke is an example even more extreme than that of the
Huntress. He is not only willing to kill innocents to acheive his
goals, he is willing to take down an entire city to get his own
twisted form of justice.
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| Deathstroke |
More than anything else, the message of this season is that
individuals have the freedom to make their own choices and decide
what kind of person they want to be. Oliver had his crucible from the
five years he spent on the island. Others' crucibles included losing
loved ones. Some are broken by their crucibles. Others become dark
and turn into villans. While still others come through it stronger
and become heroes. Each person has the choice of how they respond to
their circumstances.
In this season, we also see new antagonists develop, one of whom is
someone from Oliver's past that he thought dead. There also continue
to be Easter eggs for lovers of DC Comics, with more characters from
the DC Universe being introduced throughout the season, including a
voice cameo of Harley Quinn. But the one I loved the most was Barry
Allen, and how his introduction was used as a back-door pilot for
the new Flash TV series.
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| Barry Allen introduces himself to Oliver and Felicity |
This season, much like the first, had me captivated from start to
finish with rarely a dull moment.
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| The main cast of Season Two of Arrow |
I am now looking forward to watching Season Three. Although only four
episodes have aired so far, I am already hooked, and look forward to
seeing where they take the series next. As I will now have to wait
each week for a new episode, it may be great practice of patience for
me.
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