‘Arrow’ season 2, episode 11 review: ‘Unmasking’ Brother Blood
Here is the good news that comes out of “Arrow’s” new episode “Blind Spot” Wednesday night: Roy Harper has finally decided to enlist in the Arrow Boot Camp to try and understand how he can properly use his powers for good rather than for evil. Unfortunately, that is where most of the good news in this episode ends.
The pretty brilliant twist within “Blind Spot” is that it successfully threw Laurel Lance down a rabbit hole where everyone doubted her; not only that, but she started to doubt herself at the very end of it. While there was evidence out there that Sebastian Blood was really the man in the mask building an army, Sebastian did a brilliant job covering his tracks, using everything from a decoy in his team to the trust of so many around him. Seeing one of his main cohorts die in his place was also a perfect sacrifice, and a reminder that he is a much smarter villain than we have perhaps given him credit for.
The problem that comes with him staying alive now is finding a way to ensure that nobody doubts him ever again. Laurel is clearly still a threat to him, but he has to be smart about taking her out … if he chooses to. The biggest thing that he has going for him is that there is no real need to take her out. Her drug arrest, orchestrated by him, ensures that she doesn’t have a job. She has no power at all, and very few who believe in her. As someone who has been very hard on Katie Cassidy at times during the show, it is fair to say that this is her strongest episode in a very long time.
The other big reveal in here is something that diehard fans have long been hoping to see: The big reveal of Deathstroke 2.0. Slade Wilson is obviously a bad man, and someone with the potential to destroy almost anything and anyone. He only let Sebastian live this time around out of faith that he can turn it around. This is the guy that Oliver really needs to be worried about, but his biggest problem for the time being is that he may not even know that he is alive.
While “Blind Spot” may have been missing much in the way of Diggle or Felicity, it did at least do a nice job of getting us closer to where we need to be. It re-established Oliver and Laurel for the time being, and leaves the door almost open for a new sort of villain moving forward. Next week’s episode “Tremors” (watch a preview for it here) features the return of Bronze Tiger, so the writers may be buying a little bit of time while waiting for Sebastian to make his next move. Grade: B+.
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Photo: The CW