‘Arrow’ episode 17 review: Jessica de Gouw’s The Huntress returns … and rocks

Is there a more compelling villain on “Arrow” than The Huntress right now? We’re not so sure. While the character has not even appeared in a quarter of the show’s episodes, all of the ones featuring her have been among the strongest on the show. While some other villains are a bit more ambiguous in their intentions, her are more clearly defined: she’s a more violent and more ruthless Emily Thorne, and the only thing that could even cause her to hesitate when it comes to her plans for revenge is the idea of love. She loved Oliver Queen, understood him completely and his need to wear a hood; however, their differences of opinion simply because too much to bear.

Those “differences” shined again Wednesday night in the character’s return, as the woman known more commonly as Helena decided that she needed Oliver’s help to take out her father, and was willing to threaten the lives of Tommy (who was already anxious already about Oliver, and was seeing his relationship with Laurel crumble because of it) and Felicity in order to make it happen.

Ultimately, it was not much of a surprise to see this battle of bits end in a violent confrontation between the two characters, and you could even tell courtesy of some moments in here that Oliver did not want to hurt Helena unless he absolutely had to. That moment came just before she ended up shooting his new girlfriend in McKenna Hall, who we were pretty sure was going to die given that Janina Gavankar was only on the show for a limited arc. However, producers found a different way to writer her out of the show: to have her move away from Starling City to recover from her injuries.

So did Helena survive, as well? Surprisingly yes, but we don’t know if she will be back this season or not. Her father is still out there to be killed, but with Jessica de Gouw getting increasingly busy, the show’s schedulers will have their work cut out for them moving forward.

What did you think about this episode, and do you want to see The Huntress again this season? If you want to find out what “Arrow” actor has just been promoted to a series regular, be sure to head on over to the link here.

Photo: The CW