‘Arrow’ season 3, episode 13 review: Oliver Queen can go home again (and again)

What is somewhat interesting about watching “Arrow” season 3 so far is that at this very moment, we actually feel closer to the first season of the show than we have in a rather long time. Malcolm Merlyn is a major presence again, we’ve found out so much more about the past, and judging from the tail end of tonight’s “Canaries,” we are going to be seeing Oliver Queen back in Starling City before he actually returned to Starling City in the pilot episode of the series.

The flashback stuff was some of the better content of the episode, given that this brought us more of the always-terrifying Amanda Waller and the friendship between Oliver and Maseo. Still, we have no clue how Tatsu managed to actually revive Oliver after being knocked off the side of a mountain, but at least this story was altogether pretty fun.

Where the story started to fumble a little was trying to understand every emotion inside Thea’s head. She is fine with knowing that Oliver is the Arrow. However, she’s furious at Malcolm for not telling him about it. Then, she doesn’t pick up on much of DJ Chase’s intentions beyond just the cyanide, and that he works with Ra’s al Ghul. There are a lot of things with her that are a little nebulous, almost like there is an endpoint the producers want the show to get to, and they have to stretch things here and there to get to that point. Shipping Thea and his sister to Lian Yu is a part of Malcolm’s training, and a potentially terrible part of their journey. Even going back to the island should invoke some great season 1 stuff (and also memories of “Lost”).

Then, the Vertigo storyline. We’ve never liked that this show has basically taken Scarecrow and made Count Vertigo into something so similar, even if we understand that the purpose here was to get Laurel to realize that she doesn’t need to be Sara anymore. The fight scenes between Katie Cassidy and Caity Lotz were super-awesome, and our heart broke for Captain Lance when he found out the truth about his daughter.

“Canaries” had great moments; we just wish that it didn’t always feel like the show had to try so hard to make us buy into certain emotional situations. Grade: B-.

We just posted the podcast for this episode over at the link here, so be sure to check that out! Also, sign up to score some additional TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: The CW.)