Arrow 'Left Behind' Review: Get Back in that Lazarus Pit Oliver!

The Arrow midseason fakeout last episode was commendable, but the show might be worse in spite of it. It’s disheartening to see the interior makeup to this season fall flat.

Watching how this show recovers and descends further into the supernatural is going to interesting, but will it make good television?

Spoilers for Arrow’s Left Behind:

Harper and Diggle fight street level crime.

Back on the Earth land that doesn’t involve Lazarus Pits or Ra’s Al Ghul, Detective Lance finds himself in the middle of a patrol. Felicity and company are continuing his crusade with Diggle suited up in the Arrow outfit with Roy still in gear as Arsenal. The changes work well and are going to give this supporting cast the time to shine. It would be nice to let go of Oliver Queen for as long as possible to enjoy this cast that has gotten the short end of the stick for so long. The group seems to be tackling the street level crime plaguing Starling City. Merlyn pays a visit to the Arrow cave, and is met with a hostile reaction from the rest of the group. He affirms to the group that the Demon’s Head doesn’t take prisoners. They found the sword that struck Ollie. The rest of the group still doesn’t believe him, and Felicity seems to be taking the news pretty hard. It’s interesting that Malcolm seems to walk into the Arrow cave expecting a warm welcome.

Three days later...nothing happens.
It’s seems this episode is picking up three days later, after Roy nails that point over the head repeatedly. When another day passes, you better believe that somebody mentions the words ‘four days,’ as many times as humanly possible.

 The flashbacks. *Sigh*
On the flashback Island land in Hong Kong, Ollie is continuing to help Yamashiro and company recover his estranged wife. Things are still utterly unremarkable in this plot thread, like they have been all season. The stakes just aren’t there. It seems that this is both a writing and plot issue here. It’s still amusing watching Oliver stumble into offices and waiting for things to go horribly wrong. It turns out Ollie had something else in mind for one of the men that he let get away earlier. He finds both Tatsu and Yamashiro safe. The way the show is trying to make this plot thread so important via the present day doesn’t feel entirely earned to me.

No Palmer, you can’t fight crime!
Palmer continues his superheroic tests as The Atom. Felicity tries to talk him out of it, as she doesn’t want two moonlighting superhero jobs. With an overstuffed supporting cast of superheroes already, it would be nice if he did continue to function in this separate role. Felicity takes the approach of lashing out at him emotionally. The episode tips into some pretty rocky melodrama here. In fact it’s a staple of the whole season that will be mentioned later. She apologizes later on, and Palmer heeds the call.

Laurel = She-Hulk?
Laurel is back in court, trying to put criminals back in jail. Her pursuits merit positive results, and to a certain degree it’s hard not to draw comparisons to the recent Charles Soule written She-Hulk title, as we know the character is going to be a superhero very soon. She’s almost like an evil version of Jennifer Walters. Laurel is trying to do the right thing, but finding herself at something of a crossroads. She is actually being useful for an episode or two, and when the rest of the group thinks that he’s dead, Laurel is even able to play the voice of reason for once. The heroine stares at all the gear on the table, and highly considers suiting up. Laurel suiting up takes place in the hour, and it’s once again hard to buy into. It just happens so fast. Ted Grant’s gym had been building up the character so nice and gradually.

Malcolm and Thea are True Detective season 2?
Malcolm and Thea are also continuing their deadly training. The choreography, on the fight scene is commendable. It’s good that there is more than just the club plot happening with Thea right now. She’s concerned about Ollie, and Malcolm offers to go investigate his location. Later on, he informs Thea that they are both in some kind of trouble and that they need to leave.

No Roy, you can’t have your own plot thread?
Roy gets the slightest bit of material from Thea. He’s really been underplayed in this episode. Their relationship is in serious jeopardy at the moment. His scene with Diggle is nice, but once again, it’s a shame that the two aren’t going to get the same amount of character development passed this episode.

In summary...I’m pissed!
I voiced my displeasure by now regarding how killing Oliver was a bad idea, but with no central theme, and nothing concrete being built, the structure of this season is really in jeopardy at this point. This episode has to do so much in so little time, and there are just so many plot threads in this season that just can’t be weaved together in the correct manner. Harper and Diggle fighting small time crime isn’t going to be a high selling point this late in the season, and knowing how this is going to be the status quo that is going to shift so fast is hard to get fully invested into. If this was the start of a season, it would be one thing. When Buffy died late in the show, something could build out of this fairly organically. Now, we are late into a season with no compelling ongoing plot thread.