Less than 5 – Skip it, 6 – OK, 7 – Good, 8 – Great, 9 – Phenomenal, 10 – You owe it to yourself to watch this episode!
With the Lazarus Pit waiting in the shadows injury or death fail to carry much weight in the world of Arrow. That all changes with Restoration. Well, not before Laurel makes more questionable decisions (but at least she can’t make anymore!). Thea goes off the rails with a little help from Malcolm, Oliver and Diggle get some bro time and Felicity takes her leadership role to a whole new level.
While it would be easy to attribute the title of Restoration to the resurrection of Sarah Lance almost every storyline in this episode involved restoring something to it’s former glory in one sense or another. Since it is the most obvious and momentous event thus far, we will start by talking Sarah coming back from the dead.
As seen in last week’s Arrow, Laurel learned of Thea’s dwindling sanity and thought that it would be a good idea to subject her sister’s corpse to the same treatment. With Thea in tow, Laurel makes her way to Nanda Parbat to ask Merlyn to use the pit. He, along with Nyssa and everyone else present tell her that restoring Sarah via the pit is a huge mistake. She doesn’t care. Willing to do anything to dig herself out of the hole the writers have put her in, Laurel NEEDS to bring Sarah back to convince her equally stubborn (read: dumb) father to accept her again. Malcolm, Thea and Nyssa all tell her that she will return as a bloodthirsty shell of herself (this was exemplified by Thea in very gruesome fashion). Laurel simply shuts off her brain and dunks her sister in the pit. Now we wait until next week to see what damage she has caused.
Her first thoughts upon her rebirth – “Laurel, you’re an idiot!”
In case it isn’t abundantly clear, I really dislike the Laurel character. To no fault of Katie Cassidy, the writers just did a terrible job with her (and her father).
I really liked how plainly Malcolm laid out Thea’s condition to her. The longer she goes without getting vengeance on the man that put her in her situation (Ra’s, who is now dead) the stronger her need to kill will become. It is an interesting situation for Thea, which will most likely end with her killing Malcolm (he was the catalyst for her involvement with the league) or Sarah killing her (Thea killed Sarah). Either way someone important is going to die and the journey to that potential end sounds like it will be filled with awesome.
Back in Central City Oliver and Diggle are left to defend the city themselves. Since they aren’t on the best of terms the city suffers. Cue Felicity. Unlike Laurel, Felicity is flourishing in her new role. Putting her foot down and threatening the two alpha males with violence (in a damn convincing fashion for such a small person), Felicity forces the former besties to put aside their differences and to work together.
While I never had an issue with Oliver and Diggle’s squabble I am glad it seems to be taken care of. They worked better as friends and if the feud was left lingering for too long fear of another Lance family situation may have kicked in.
Felicity is so badass she doesn’t need to see what she is shooting at. Those glasses are for show!
When Felicity isn’t helping mend vigilante friendships she is busy at Palmer Tech. Here we get to see more of What Curtis Holt (Echo Kellum) is up to, giving us the preliminary stages of what will become his Mr. Terrific gear. The two get caught up in a battle with villain of the week Double-Down (who can transform chunks of his flesh into playing cards which he then throws at people… gross). Both are incredibly inept at actual combat but Felicity steps up in a major way. If her damsel in distress image wasn’t shed before it sure as heck is now.
And amidst all of this action we get a few scenes featuring (my favorite) season villain, Damien Dahrk. Neal McDonough continues to impress with the intensity and intimidation he imbues the character with. Forget about his ability to stop careening object mid-flight, him talking to you is enough to soil ones undergarments (my attempt at language neutrality, enjoy). The way he shifts from charismatic leader to borderline psychotic killer is brilliant. The way he mowed down that woman without hesitation puts this guy on a level all his own (Slade could arguably be placed up there with him, but the saying still stands).
That time in every young girls life when her father tells her she is destined to become a murderous lunatic… classic!
All in all this was a very solid week for Arrow as well as the superhero genre in general. The three heavy hitters (Flash, AoS, Arrow) performed exceptionally well critically, hopefully this trend continues.
Overall Restoration gets a 7.5/10.
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