TV Review: Arrow Season 8 Episode 1

Arrow Season 8 Episode 1 “Starling City”

Director: James Bamford

Starring: Stephen Amell, David Ramsey, Rick Gonzalez, Juliana Harkavy, Katherine McNamara, Ben Lewis, Joseph David-Jones, LaMonica Garrett, Katie Cassidy, Susanna Thompson, John Barrowman, Josh Segarra, Andrea Sixtos, Charlie Barnett, Colin Donnell

Rating: TV-14

Runtime: 42 minutes

There’s a quiet dialogue scene in this episode, the first in Arrow‘s abbreviated final run, that’s a testament to everything the show has achieved, both in terms of its commercial success and its storytelling.  Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) asks the Earth-2 version of his mother, Moira (Susanna Thompson) if she would leave her children if she knew that doing so was the only way to protect them (which, unbeknownst to Moira is precisely what Oliver has done).  This conversation is only possible because The Flash, the first of Arrow‘s multiple spin-offs and sibling series, has already established both the general concept of the multiverse and the world of Earth-2 specifically, a world in which characters Oliver knows to be long dead, such as Moira and the episode’s other returning guest stars, Tommy and Malcolm Merlyn (Colin Donnel and John Barrowman, respectively) and Adrian Chase (Josh Segarra) are all still among the living. Oliver himself is only on Earth-2 as part of his ongoing effort to prevent the destruction of the multiverse by carrying out missions for the Monitor (LaMonica Garrett), which in turn is really the in-story rationale for the final season devoting itself to setting up the plot of the upcoming Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, which will span the entire Arrowverse franchise and beyond.

The fact that the show is in the position to be focusing on the kind of material it is is a powerful testament to the work the creators of all The CW superhero series have done in setting up an interconnected world as massive and full of possibility as the DC Comics one it is based on.  But beyond the recognition of all the meta aspects that go into making that scene between Oliver and Moira possible, it also represents a powerful encapsulation of the story the show has told about Oliver over so many years.  Despite the emotional experience of seeing Moira and Tommy again, Oliver is neither overwhelmed with joy just to be with them nor with grief for all he has lost, both of which would be understandable reactions to such a bizarre reunion.  Instead, he takes the opportunity to ask his mom for advice about parenting.  Rather than getting lost in the pain of the past as he has so often, Oliver is thinking about the future, and the fact that he’s finally gotten to a place where that’s his first priority is a testament to how much he’s grown over the course of the series.  This is just one of the many indications that “Starling City” gives that this final season will be something special, an epic tour through Arrow‘s history that uses nostalgia and self-reference in the right ways to end Oliver’s journey inappropriately moving fashion.

Oliver’s on Earth-2 because apparently its the only place in the multiverse where a dwarf-star alloy device the Monitor needs can be found.  Of course, the plot is just thinly-veiled pretense to allow for an episode that’s mostly a reconfigured combination of the pilot and later the Season 1 finale “Sacrifice”.  “Starling City” is packed to the brim with references and in-jokes to both of those episodes, and the rest of the first season, but it’s still decidedly different from a Season 1 episode because of the more outlandishly fantastical elements, bigger action, and a different emotional arc.  Many of the returning doppelganger characters are also very different than their Earth-1 counterparts, with Moira being the major exception (although this one doesn’t seem to be up to anything nefarious, so I guess that’s something).  Malcolm is not villainous but remains a rich snob.  Adrian Chase is not a psychopath but the Green Arrow (still technically known as the Hood, until Oliver suggests he change the moniker), and was trained by none other than Bruce Wayne.  And, finally delivering on one of the most popular fan theories from Season 1, Tommy is the Dark Archer, hell-bent on using the dwarf-star to destroy the Glades in his own Undertaking, forcing Oliver and Dig (David Ramsey)  (the Earth-1 version, sent by Felicity to help Oliver) to team up with Adrian and Laurel (Katie Cassidy) (who’s now fully stepped into the Black Canary role) to stop him.

Due to how frequently most of these guest characters have appeared even after being written out, this isn’t necessarily as heart-wrenching a story as it could have been otherwise, but luckily the creators seem aware of this.  Oliver’s not as shaken as he has been when seeing Moira or Tommy in the past after their deaths.  Indeed, there are aspects of Amell’s performance that make it seem like this is almost a welcome experience for Oliver, who gets to get some closure regarding his family’s tragic history as he moves toward his own impending death with resigned acceptance.

Arrow has done this kind of “walk down memory lane” episode several times before, and “Starling City” bears particular resemblance to “Invasion!”, the hundredth episode, in which Oliver, Thea, and some others awakened in a fantasy world in which many of their dead loved ones (Moira and Malcolm appeared there too, but scheduling conflicts prevented Donnell from reprising Tommy) were alive and Oliver had never gone on the Queen’s Gambit trip.  The trip to Earth 2 is a more mixed emotional experience and “Starling City” focuses more on Oliver’s legacy, rather than tempting him with a life free of tragedy.  Ollie’s happiness upon returning to the Queen mansion and seeing everyone is quickly cut short when Moira tells him that Thea died of an overdose sometime in the years he was away (this is Tommy’s motivation for his heel turn).

“Starling City” differentiates itself from past hours of reflection by celebrating Oliver and the impact he has on those around him rather than critiquing it.  It’s clearly implied that the reason Earth-2 Thea wasn’t able to overcome her substance abuse problem as the Earth-1 version did is that the former never got her Ollie back.  Likewise, Oliver would have likely been able to turn Tommy away from the dark path he was on, and the Earth-1 Oliver does so at the last possible second, right before Tommy can activate his doomsday device.  Arrow‘s gotten a lot of mileage out of considering the problems Oliver’s presence, and especially his crime-fighting crusade, cause, so its refreshing to see it highlighting how positive an impact he can have on people and doing so at this point in the show’s run indicates that this final season has its heart in precisely the right place.  As I said, the Oliver we see here is, the most emotionally mature and healthy in his thinking and actions than has ever been presented so it’s fitting that he would succeed where he has failed in the past and receive praise where in the past he only got criticism.

Beyond its emotional and thematic strengths, “Starling City” is also a strong showing technically, especially in terms of the action.  This is the very best of Arrow as a superhero blockbuster.  Long-time stunt coordinator and frequent director James Bamford is back behind the camera so some memorable scrapes were always going to be expected but the cast and crew clearly went above and beyond here.  There are plenty of the tracking take fights that have become a staple of the show, in which the camera roves around a battle to show multiple characters’ fisticuffs but the most striking sequences are the duels between Oliver and Adrian before they realize they’re on the same side and Oliver and Tommy before the former discovers the latter is the Dark Archer.  For these bouts Bamford takes an approach similar to that used to film the memorable martial arts scenes in the Matrix trilogy, holding the camera back and steady for long wide shots that allow the exquisite choreography to be fully appreciated.

All of this would be more than enough to put “Starling City” on the list of all-time great Arrow episodes but then there’s the truly insane ending as the cherry on top.  After Oliver says goodbye to Moira, something he never got to do with his real mother, he’s readying to leave with Diggle when a terrified Laurel walks into the police station as a wave of anti-matter washes over the city, destroying everything and everyone.  Oliver must-watch Tommy and Moira die before his eyes once more before he, Dig, and Laurel are able to open a breach and escape.  In terms of sheer scale this has to be the biggest surprise in the show’s history, another example of how paving the road to Crisis is not going to be a hindrance to this season, but a blessing, one that lends the show a propulsive energy and genuine unpredictability matched only by the Season 2 glory days.

Other Notes:

• Katie Cassidy really deserves a ton of credit for how well she differentiates Laurel-2 from the original.  Even when the former is in a more upbeat, healthy headspace that recalls her doppelganger at her best as she is until the end of this episode there’s still an edge to Laurel-2 that makes her own unique character.
• Tommy and Moira might bring out the waterworks, but Adrian Chase might have had the best return appearance here simply because of how fundamentally different the Earth-2 version is than the one we knew.  Josh Segarra also hasn’t returned as frequently as Donnel, Thompson, and Barrowman and his oddball charisma is still a great addition to the show.
•  All of the humor was on point tonight but Oliver throwing the “ten steps ahead” line back in the face of an Adrian who has no idea what he’s talking about and Amell’s perfectly petty delivery was amazing.
• It’s incredible that it took until the eighth season of a Green Arrow show for Black Canary to be referred to as “pretty bird”.

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