TV Review: Arrow Season 8 Episode 3

Arrow Season 8 Episode 3 “Leap of Faith”

Director: Katie Cassidy

Starring: Stephen Amell, David Ramsey, Rick Gonzalez, Juliana Harkavy, Katherine McNamara, Ben Lewis, Joseph David-Jones, LaMonica Garrett, Katie Cassidy, Audrey Marie Anderson, Andrea Sixtos

Rating: TV-MA

Runtime: 42 minutes

This is a decidedly odd season of television.  It’s mostly odd in good ways, displaying a go big or go home mentality that will hopefully allow the show to end in fine fashion, but it’s odd nonetheless.  That inherent weirdness becomes the most obvious here, in an episode in which the returns of the show’s best supporting character, Thea (Willa Holland) and another scene-stealer, Talia (Lexa Doig), are overshadowed by a twist involving the flashforward team of all people.

Before that stunning moment when Ollie finds himself back in the bunker face to face with his grown-up children, however, there’s a whole episode of television and it’s a rather uneven one, not up to the high standard set by the proceeding two installments.  The biggest problem with “Leap of Faith” is unfortunately in how it accomplishes (or fails to accomplish, really) its most important purpose, namely in serving as a send-off for Thea Queen.  The relationship between Oliver and his sister was always one of the strongest aspects of the show, even in its most creatively desolate eras, so it’s an unexpected disappointment that the writing here isn’t able to appropriately depict their dynamic.  Stephen Amell and Willa Holland still have their same easy, affecting chemistry but even that isn’t enough to elevate the material they’re given, which fails to convey believable emotional reactions to the situations the Queen siblings find themselves in.  Oliver’s confusion at Thea’s mellow reaction to the news of his impending death winds up being unintentionally meta as it’s the same reaction I had, and I imagine many other viewers did as well.  The episode seems to be setting up Thea to offer some particularly groundbreaking reflection or advice, as that’s the only way her modest emotions make any sense, but neither of those things ever come.  The other big emotional dialogue the two have is a bit better, mainly because it’s always interesting to see them grapple with the complicated legacies of their parents, but the conclusions Thea reaches still feel out of character.  By the end of her time as a regular member of the cast, the younger Queen was one of the show’s consistently optimistic voices so having her tell her brother that she doubts there’s any way he can change his fate is odd.  This points to a possibly larger problem with the season’s story.  So far we haven’t seen Oliver grapple too much with the knowledge that he’ll die in Crisis but this episode raises concerns about how the show will depict that struggle when it comes into greater focus.  Oliver’s resigned attitude towards death could be contextualized as acceptance and recognition of the fullness of his life but if the show doesn’t have that grace it risks having its hero, who has been defined again and again by his refusal to give up doing precisely that.

The Ollie and Thea material might be rather disappointing but the rest of “Leap of Faith” works decently enough.  Oliver meets up with Thea because he’s looking for Nyssa al Ghul to ask her for any information the League of Assassins had on the Monitor, but Thea informs her brother that her partner in Lazarus Pit hunting is off handling other business (in reality Nyssa isn’t around because Katrina Law is now on Hawaii Five-0).  Fortunately, Oliver also knows the other daughter of Ra’s al Ghul, even if he’s not on nearly as good terms with Talia as he is with her sister.  Talia is much better served than Thea, with an arc that makes her untrustworthy as usual before ultimately leaving her hoping for redemption, agreeing to work with Thea to transform the remnants of the League of Assassins into a force for good in the world.  Doig proves once again why she’s one of the best additions to the cast made by the latter seasons, delivering high doses of both the sharp wit and the ancient, mysterious poise that make Talia such an enthralling character.  Hopefully when Arrow ends one of the other Arrowverse shows (maybe Batwoman?) can find a place for her, at least occasionally.

Elsewhere Diggle and Lyla are on their own mission, looking to rescue Ben Turner/Bronze Tiger’s (Michael Jai White) wife and son, who have been kidnapped.  While it does serve to introduce the child version of  Connor Hawke and set up the earliest foundations of a relationship between him, Dig, and Lyla it’s clear this subplot was meant mostly to serve as a way to briefly remove Dig from the main action so that we can see more of how he’s reacting to the ongoing drama.  David Ramsey does some nice haunting work that establishes how the destruction of Earth-2 traumatized Dig but because he lacks the tight emotional connections to that world that Laurel had and Oliver quickly established it doesn’t hit that hard.  Still, it helps to continue driving home the point that the threat the team faces this year is unlike any they’ve dealt with before. The new lens through which one views Lyla in wake of last episode’s revelation also lends these scenes an extra layer of intrigue.

Katie Cassidy sat in the director’s chair for the first time this episode, which explains why Laurel is a no-show.  She acquits herself very well in the new position, taking advantage of a script that requires more outdoor shooting in different locations than usual to compose some understated but stylish visuals.  Particularly striking is the image of Oliver and Thea sitting on a small ledge on the side of a mountain for their second talk, even if the content of the conversation is disappointing.

But whatever one thinks of the rest of it, it’s likely the only thing one will be thinking about after watching “Leap of Faith” is its ending.  As I mentioned in my last review it was always fairly obvious Mia at the very least was going to end up in the present but I didn’t expect it to be so soon, or for it to be under such dire circumstances.  Motivated by the fact that this latest development likely means their end the flashforwards finally go for broke and the result is easily their strongest showing to date.  When Mia, Connor, and Zoe headed off for their latest confrontation with John Jr. I expected it to be just another superfluous flashforward mission which left me even more floored when the black sheep of the Diggle family ran his sword through Zoe’s chest.  But that’s just the appetizer, before that white light (which Cassidy does an excellent job rendering both eerie and beautiful) shows up and Mia, Connor, and William find themselves in the bunker, facing their parents.  Katherine McNamara hasn’t been asked to do that much throughout her time on Arrow other than being tough and snarky but that changes tonight as Mia is finally given more depth and humanity.  McNamara shows a vulnerability and emotional range that has as yet gone almost completely untapped.  The dialogue in which Mia explains to William why she’s so overprotective of him highlights the excellent sibling dynamic McNamara and Ben Lewis have established and the former does even more impressive work in both Zoe’s death scene and that final moment when a heartbroken and confused Mia looks at Oliver and utters with a powerful mixture of pain and hope that one word that carries so much weight “Dad?”

Notes:

• Sure, the saving the Hawkes subplot was really more about Dig and Lyla but it feels weird that Turner is completely absent from the effort to save his family.  Was Michael Jai White not available for this season? That would just make this “Dig adopts Connor and JJ becomes a supervillain” storyline even stranger.
•  The fact that Thea, once nothing more than Oliver’s somewhat bratty younger sister could believably defeat Talia al Ghul in single combat is a testament to how thoroughly Arrow can develop its characters at its best.
• Willa Holland is listed as a recurring cast member this season so Thea must be back for at least Crisis and or the finale.  At least this wasn’t the absolute last we’ll see of her.
• Thea and Talia agree to build the League remnants into a “League of Heroes”… Maybe they should add “Justice” to the name somewhere?

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