Arrow 2.09 "Three Ghosts" Review: Letting Go of the Past

    This week’s episode of Arrow, “Three Ghosts,” contained some explosive twists and was a strong fall finale, setting up what looks to be a really strong second half to the season. The episode’s story was written by Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg with Geoff Johns and Ben Sokolowski writing the teleplay. The episode was directed by regular John Behring who also directed the season premiere. The episode was packed with action and drama.

    It’s almost difficult to know where to start discussing this episode, so I’ll start at the beginning with the title of the episode: “Three Ghosts.” In case we forgot, as Oliver (Stephen Amell) did, Moira (Susanna Thompson) decorating the Christmas tree reminds us that it is Christmas. The title certainly resonates with the holiday season and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. The moral of that story is that Scrooge needs to learn to be a better person. More applicably here though, Oliver needs to accept who he is and learn from his past, or as Diggle (David Ramsey) says, he needs to figure out what the ghosts are trying to tell him.

    There are two significant transformations in the episode, however. Roy (Colton Haynes) is captured and given the Mirakuru serum. For a few heart-stopping moments it looked like he might be dead, but Oliver manages to bring him back by telling him to fight. I really like how they’ve slowly shown Oliver develop a grudging fondness for Roy. While we don’t know for sure exactly what effects the serum is likely to have had on Roy, it obviously had some effect because when he wakes up in Thea’s (Willa Holland) bed, his knee is completely healed.

    We also see what will, no doubt, be the transformation of Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) into the Flash. I really liked how they brought the particle accelerator into the plot by simply having it malfunction (or blow up – not really sure what happened there!). That was then the catalyst for super-charging the chemicals in Allen’s lab and the lightening that strikes him as he holds the iron chain. I loved the special effects of the chemicals floating in the air. Again, we don’t know what, if any, special abilities Allen will have picked up because the last we see of him, Allen is simply lying unconscious on a tipped over shelving unit. Do we really have to wait until the Pilot for the Flash series to find out what happens next? And I thought it was going to be hard waiting until episode 20!

    The first of Oliver’s ghosts is Shado (Celina Jade). Sadly, this looks to be her last appearance. She offers Oliver peace, by encouraging him to let go and join her. We learn in flashbacks that she’s dead. Ivo (Dylan Neal) captures Shado, Sara, (Caity Lotz), and Oliver. Sara tried to get Ivo to let the others go, but instead, Ivo forces Oliver to choose between Sara and Shado. He can’t choose, but when it looks like Ivo will shoot, Oliver puts himself between Ivo and Sara, thus sealing Shado’s death. As Oliver’s teacher on the Island and perhaps the first woman he truly cared about – not as a play thing, Shado is perhaps Oliver’s past. Shado warns him that he’s going to lose everyone he loves if he doesn’t stop wearing the hood. If she is speaking to him about his own fears as Diggle suggests, this is evidence that he is starting to become attached to a lot of people who he now fears losing as he lost Tommy.

    The second ghost Oliver sees is Slade (Manu Bennett).  In flashbacks, we see Slade make a miraculous recovery from the mirakuru and take out all of Ivo’s men with super strength. Slade is devastated by Shado’s death. When Oliver first hallucinates Slade, it’s on the rooftop with Quentin (Paul Blackthorne) and Slade is in shadow, so you can’t see if he has both eyes or not, so I’m not sure whether that was really Slade or an hallucination. I thought when Slade’s “ghost” visited Oliver it made a bit too much corporeal mess for a ghost, but Slade has both eyes in this sequence, so he must be an hallucination. He tells Oliver all the things Oliver fears are true; he’s not a friend or a brother or a hero. He tells Oliver that a1000 deaths wouldn’t be good enough for him, which is close to what Slade tells Blood later in the episode. The Island didn’t make him strong, it revealed him to be weak because he couldn’t save Shado the same way he didn’t save the city.

    The hints up until the end of the episode were that Slade was dead. Such a great twist to have him being the one behind Brother Blood (Kevin Alejandro), but I’m disappointed that he’s going to be Oliver’s arch rival now and not his friend. Blood is now running for mayor, but Slade is clear that anyone can wear the mask – Blood is replaceable if he doesn’t toe the line and deliver results. I have to really give credit to the writer’s who really had us believing that we’d already dealt with Deathstroke. Having Cyrus’ (Graham Shiels) mask look suspiciously like Deathstroke’s last week and this week was also a nice tease by the writers. Keying off of the order of the ghosts in the Dickens’ classic, Slade should be Christmas present. He is, in fact, very much in Oliver’s present.

    This leaves the third ghost to be the ghost of Christmases yet to come. This may seem like an odd choice for Tommy (Colin Donnell) as Tommy is dead and was part of Oliver’s childhood, but Tommy represents the future for Arrow because he represents what Oliver can be: a hero. It was fantastic seeing Donnell again, if only for a very too brief scene. He still managed to steal the episode – at least for me. Tommy tells Oliver that he didn’t let him die – he fought to save him. He beat Tommy’s father and the Island. He tells Oliver that he’s a hero and he needs to fight.

    There were a LOT of great moments in this episode. I loved Oliver coming to at the beginning of the episode and being completely freaked out that Barry is there and now knows who he is. Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) assures Oliver that Barry is a good guy, but Oliver is still not completely on board. Most importantly, as he tells Felicity is that it is not her secret to tell. Oliver has already kept a number of people in the dark whom we can assume he’d really like to tell – Thea and Laurel (Katie Cassidy) probably being at the head of that list. The best part of that scene, however, was Barry telling Oliver that he was a jerk and that he should thank Felicity. Have I mentioned that I kind of like this guy? And that I’m kind of excited for the Flash series? Bring it! Because, Barry is right: Oliver is still extremely self-centered, and I think we are going to see that come sharply into focus when Slade starts exacting his revenge. Oliver is about to see just how much he now has to lose.

    I loved Barry fanboying the Vigilante and knowing exactly how many people they’d gone up again. It was great seeing Barry realize he was right about his speculations last week that the Vigilante had partners and trained in a jungle environment. AND we have the mask issue addressed! Barry points out that greasepaint is not good identity concealer – which is a fun play on words (anybody else think of makeup concealer?). Oliver says he needs one that conforms perfectly to his face and doesn’t move when he is running and trying to aim to shoot. Barry tells him to look into a compressible microfabric – which is what the Flash’s costume is made of!

    Barry sees clearly how Felicity feels about Oliver – even if she’s still denying it. Barry tells Felicity he has experience with liking someone who doesn’t feel the same way about you. Felicity clearly thinks he means her, but I suspect this is actually an allusion to whoever is going to be his love interest in Central City. Iris West perhaps? Felicity has a lot of great lines in the episode about the number of women on the Island – I loved it when she called it “Fantasy Island,” clearly referencing the old tv series. However, she still takes Barry’s call at the end of the episode, and seems pleased when he hints her wouldn’t be late if her were to ask her out on a date.

    Moira calls Oliver home because she’s worried about Thea. Oliver finds Roy in Thea’s bed, still with Oliver’s arrow still stuck in his knee. Oliver suggests that maybe the Vigilante did it to protect Roy – which, when you think about it, is a curious thing for him to say to his sister. He does try once again to warn Thea, Roy, and Sin (Bex Taylor-Klaus) from having anything to do with the Hood. I thought it interesting that Oliver once again used Thea’s old nickname – Speedy – who was an Arrow sidekick in the comic. Of course, in the comic, Speedy is Roy. Though Roy Harper is also known as Arsenal and Red Arrow too, depending on the source. However, the scene ends with Thea saying that she is taking control.

    Thea takes them to see Laurel to get information on Max. We see that Laurel has received flowers from Blood and they are growing closer. I’m curious as to why Blood is getting involved with Laurel. I’m assuming that Slade has directed him to as another means of taking everything away from Oliver. Blood is doing a good job of being the solicitous boyfriend that neither Tommy nor Oliver ever were.

    I was really sad to see them kill off Lucas (Roger Cross). I love Cross, but they really haven’t given him anything to do lately anyway. It does set up the scene between Quentin and the Arrow, however. Quentin takes responsibility for Lucas’ death, telling Oliver that not every death is on him – something Oliver needs to hear. Diggle explains it’s survivor’s guilt.

    My biggest quibble with this episode is how the fight scenes were shot. Please, don’t feel like you need to make the wonderful work of James Bamford’s team look better than it is – it’s magnificent! The fight between Diggle and Cyrus is pretty great but it’s chopped up by the camera. It was great to have Diggle in the field, but let’s really see him fight. The long shots of Diggle coming down the fire escape were terrific, as was the long shot of Arrow “walking” down the building. The final fight between Cyrus and Oliver is similarly a bit choppy, but better than the first.

    All in all this was a fantastic fall finale. We see Oliver weather a major crisis in his own mission and identity. Slade’s plans are going to test Oliver, and I’m already worried about what he’s going to do to those closest to Oliver. Slade tells Blood he knows exactly who Arrow is. He tells Blood he’s going to tear everything away from him and destroy those who follow him. I was particularly worried when the camera panned to Felicity when Slade vowed to corrupt his followers. Oliver tells Diggle that they are trying to build an army of soldiers, and they realize it’s to start a war. Barry leaves the Arrow a Christmas present before he leaves – the mask! Felicity is the one to put it on him, and she tells him he looks like a hero.

    What did you think of the episode? Who were you most upset to lose? Are you anxious to see the Flash again? Do you think that Roy is going to have super powers now? Will he actually be better than Oliver? Who do you think is going to be the biggest villain in the second half of the season? Slade? Malcolm? Isabel? Blood? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!