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Tonight’s episode of Arrow started out a little slow and I have to admit I was not exactly psyched about Seth Gabel’s return as The Joker Count. He seems like an interesting actor (who reminds me so much of Sebastian Stan), but the villain is a little too over the top to take seriously. However, this episode had something else going for it. Bryan Q. Miller (along with Lindsey Allen) wrote it and the man is very talented, especially when it comes to preventing dialogue from being ridiculously cheesy.
But that wasn’t the only thing that made “Unfinished Business” standout from recent episodes. The supporting characters got decent screen time in this episode and it was kind of awesome, especially my personal favorite, Tommy. We got to see a new side to Mr. Merlyn tonight and it was downright fantastic. We also got to know Shado a little better (she’s fun) and Felicity was around so that’s an automatic one for the win column.
The episode began with a girl partying at the club and then wandering out into traffic and getting run over by a car. Vertigo was back in Starling City, which immediately sent Oliver to the asylum to pay a visit to The Count. He was as crazy as ever and very little help, but Detective Lance quickly came up with a new suspect after he traced the last call on the dead girl’s phone to Tommy. The detective was a little hesitant to go after his daughter’s boyfriend, but he wanted to do it himself instead of sending another cop.
Tommy denied knowing the girl and insisted that they were not selling drugs in the club. Laurel came to his defense and advised him not to say anything else. Detective Lance wanted to look around, but Tommy wouldn’t let him without a search warrant. The detective was able to get one once the police discovered $10,000 missing from the club’s books and the detective figured out that Tommy had bribed an official to help the club pass inspection.
Oliver wasn’t happy when the police showed up and Tommy was even less thrilled with the looks that his judgmental, ‘I kill people in my spare time’ friend was shooting his way. Detective Lance wanted to see the sublevel and Oliver hesitated for obvious reasons, but Lance wasn’t backing down. Oliver let him in and everyone made their way into the Arrow Cave, except it was gone and replaced with storage items and boxes of liquor (Laurel had a great quip about prohibition). Since Tommy is the best, the reason he made them get a warrant was so he had time to clean up Oliver’s mess (TEAM TOMMY).
After that, Oliver tried to be grateful, but it was too little too late for Tommy. He reminded Oliver that he killed people and Tommy still covered for him, but Oliver automatically assumed the worst about him. He quit on the spot and then he went and asked his father for a job. Malcolm was very pleased and even hugged his son. While I don’t trust this guy or like him, I’m surprisingly okay with this development. Seriously, even if Tommy turns bad, I’m still going to side with him.
Elsewhere in the episode, Dig was trying to track down Deadshot and he and Oliver had a fight when Dig didn’t show up when Oliver needed him. But then Dig made up for it after Oliver was kidnapped by the doctor from the mental institution (turns out he was the one who engineered the new, stronger Vertigo). Dig showed up and in the process of saving Oliver, he killed a guy with a defibrillator and then said, “Clear.” It was pretty much the best. Oliver was a little out of it from the drugs, but he still managed to load three arrows into his bow and hit the doctor with one.
But he stopped short of killing The Count. I think he felt sorry for him since his mind is gone or maybe Felicity got to him since she’s been playing the role of his conscience or maybe it has something to do with the fact that they want to keep the character alive for future episodes. Either way, he survived and Oliver decided he would help Dig with Deadshot since it was important to him.
As for the island, the scenes were actually interesting this week now that Shado is in the mix. She and Slade tag-teamed whiny Oliver and mocked his weakness while she made him slap water with his hand. It seemed weird, but there was a method to her madness. The exercise gave him the strength to use the bow. In the meantime, she talked about her father and his training and she did not like it when Oliver suggested that he might be a bad guy.
There was also a nice father-daughter moment with Detective Lance and Laurel. He’s still not happy about her dating choices, but he wants her to know that he’s there for her even if he can’t always let things go. Of course this scene happened right before Tommy went to meet with his dad so it was probably supposed to be foreshadowing. I don’t care. I’m still Team Tommy.
We’ve got a small hiatus before the next episode in three weeks. When the show returns, the vigilante rescues Tommy and Laurel and Oliver makes it clear that he doesn’t want his ex to know the truth about him. Also, Deadshot returns and Dig is out for revenge. See you in a few weeks…
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