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Arrow: Reversal

Felicity: You know, if this whole role reversal thing sticks around you’re really gonna have to adopt my saying of not saying: ‘I told you so.’

There are two guest stars in this episode that make this story more enjoyable for me, plus I like watching Oliver and Felicity together in several different settings.

Felicity’s friend Alena, once a member of Helix, shows up to tell Felicity that Cayden James is now a criminal mastermind. You remember – Alena and Felicity helped free Mr. James from ARGUS custody. Alena says that Mr. James was broken by terrible torture and now he’s going to hurt people, starting with the internet. More on that later on.

There’s an abundance of good scenes with Oliver and Felicity, I really like the way that Oliver’s supporting her. He’s not perfect and doesn’t know when to not bust in and save Felicity when she doesn’t need saving, but he’s still very sweet, here. There has been some debate on the internet about who/what is responsible for Arrow’s falling ratings, but I tend to agree with the people who say that breaking up Olicity was a mistake. Others say that making them a couple in the first place was the biggest mistake. Regardless, I’m more interested in this show now that they are together, not less. Opinions will differ on that, though.

The techno club that Felicity and Alena visits is appealing, in an unusual for Arrow sort of way. It made me miss Thea’s club, I’d almost forgotten about it. Another setting for this episode is Helix’s old lair, which Felicity and Alena visit in their quest to stop Cayden James. Mr. James is there, of course, and isn’t happy with what he sees as Alena’s betrayal. Just as the ladies are about to meet their doom, Team Arrow jumps into action and saves the day. That's a cool fight, but the internet vault scene’s a head-scratcher. For a top-secret vault, it’s very poorly guarded. It’s also fictional, right? The internet isn’t in one place where anyone with technical skills and a few goons can get in and ruin it, right? Please tell me it isn’t so.

Bits:

Michael Emerson, beloved actor, plays Cayden James. For a small, unassuming man – the guy’s powerful onscreen, isn’t he? It turns out that Mr. James is the one who rescued Black Canary from Arrow’s Island, which isn’t Lost’s Island…though who knows if they’re connected in the magical island zone in which they reside?

  

Kacey Rohl plays Alena and I like her a lot (the actress and character), so I’m hoping that she becomes a recurring member of the show. Felicity’s borrowing part of her organization’s name to create Helix Dynamics and did seem to say that Alena can work with her. I like the part where she tells Felicity that she is literally sitting on her best idea to develop – her spinal implant.


Yes, Black Canary’s in this episode and the team spends some time tracking her and fighting her as she steals fingerprints from (not so) random people she kills. I’m still waiting for her to bring anything interesting to the plotline.

My favorite part of this whole thing is Oliver behind the computer and Felicity in the field. She’s sliding all over the internet vault while Oliver’s trying to help her. Oliver’s using Felicity’s automated system, but we still get some fun “your right, my left” antics. I’m terrible at the whole right/left thing so I feel for you there, Oliver.

Quotes:

Felicity: “Oliver… hey, hi… what are you doing here?”
Oliver: “You invited me.”
Felicity: “That’s right."
Oliver: “What is she doing here?”
Alena: “Hi… I’m just gonna go over there.”
Felicity: “Okay, come in… I know how much you love to say – I told you so.”
Oliver: “No, that’s you.”

Curtis: “Laurel’s cry resonates in the terahertz range which can be triangulated according to geography.”
Dinah: “Was I supposed to understand a single word of that, or are you talking to yourself?”

Felicity: “Am I all right that I broke a genius madman out of prison who’s apparently working with the psychopath version of Laurel?”

Curtis: “The location is so classified that they don’t even have a word for how classified it is.”
Felicity: “Be that as it may, I have a hack running that will give us the location soon.” That’s not utterly too convenient and easy. (Okay, yes it is.)

Oliver: “Well, technically if I’m in this chair that makes me Overwatch.”
Felicity: “You’re in the bunker?”
Oliver: “I am – You okay with that?”
Felicity: “I am all right with that, I’m so all right with that, I’m epically all right with that.”

Oliver: “Did not understand a single word that you just said.”
Felicity: “Oh well, you understand blaring noises and really scary lights, right?”

If you are a fan of touchy/kissy Olicity scenes, banter, and compelling guest stars, then this’s probably a great episode for you. I had a good time watching this, even though my DVR only keeps the closed captioning up on the screen for ten seconds before it disappears. Transcribing my favorite quotes is tougher that way. Oh well.

Four and a half out of five appearances by Kacey Rohl.

Mallena’s reviewing Arrow with limited resources… like comic book knowledge, time, an appreciation for fighting scenes, etc. Mallena needs to stop whining about this, she’s getting annoying.

7 comments:

  1. No, "the Internet" doesn't have a secret vault where you can break in and shut down the whole system. Even if you're talking about the top-level domain name servers, there are 13 top-level servers, each with numerous duplicates spread across the Internet(for a total of over 600) to prevent exactly the kind of thing that the bad guys tried to do in this episode :)

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  2. Excellent, on target and entertaining review. I think their big mistake was breaking up Olicity, it really become the heart of the show. The breakup felt so forced, plot driven and made no sense. Somehow, even though they are back together, the magic is a little bit gone.

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  3. Thanks for your support, I'm glad to know that some people like a lighter and more romantic Arrow. The ratings for this show in the 18 to 34 demo is actually getting higher than most of the other superhero CW shows. I just know if they kept Oliver alone and moody, I would've stopped watching.

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  4. I laughed and laughed at the internet plot line and wondered how the writers kept a straight face pitching that idea. 🤣

    Totally lost vey Olicity and have just been waiting for them to get back together. Never bought the idea that you can't have a happy couple on tv. That just means you're not doing a good job as a writer.

    I also totally loved the gender/superhero swapping of roles. 👍🏼

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  5. Autocorrect, really??

    Meant: Totally love Olicity.

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  6. Fantastic to see Michael Emerson and in such a wink wink role which combines an island and being the top hacker in the world. Just tell me he;s trying to create Samaritan in Arrow and I'll be super happy. :D

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