Hey There Evil Geeks!

We’re back in Starling City and this weeks episode picks up directly after last week’s “Identity.” If you recall, Oliver was in the DA’s office and the police had the drop on him, Batman Year One style. When all seems dire for our hero The Black Canary drops on the scene (literally, through a skylight) and gets our hero out of there. Canary’s power in the DCU is her super-sonic Canary Call and in the more-realistic world of Arrow she uses a sonic device that has the cops grabbing for their ears and her and Ollie hightail it out of there. He tells her she has a nice mask and wants to know why she’s helping him, but she disappears.





We move to Detective Lance…(er I mean Beat Cop Officer Lance) on the street grabbing a dog. He gets a report for a homicide and responds that he’s on his way when he’s told that it’s covered. He shows up to the crime scene anyway and finds a young woman that almost appears like a marionette. Lance seems very upset, saying things like “It can’t be.” and “But your locked up.” But then his boss shows up and let’s him know that he got out. The “he” they are referring to is Barton Mathis, otherwise known as The Dollmaker (from Detective Comics fame) and should been serving life in Iron Heights Penitentiary, but escaped during the quakes that destroyed The Glades. The Dollmaker was a serial killer that terrorized the city, so the police decided not to alert the public to his escape. The police and Lt. Pike don’t want Lance anywhere near this case, because Mathis got into his head and he became obsessed with him during his first crime spree. They tell Lance that if he gets involved, the will arrest him for obstruction of justice.

Lance knows the horror that Mathis is and that he needs to be stopped, soon. So he contacts Felicity to set up a meeting with the vigilante. He tells Ollie that he feels that he needs to go outside the law to get justice. He tells Ollie about Mathis and his methods; he pours a liquid polymer down the girls throats, it hardens, and they’re frozen solid in pristine shape. Ollie tells Lance that he will look into this. We move to a scene of a young woman walking to her car at night who seems a little shaken up. She hears a noise and looks behind her shoulder to see nothing, but when she gets in her car there is Mathis waiting for her with the line “You have such beautiful skin.”

Ollie visits Roy and tells him to get some info on the Canary and to find her. In the meantime, his team thinks that Mathis’ lawyer is the only one who might know where he is, so Lance goes to visit Laurel to try to get some info. She gives him some crap about not being able to work on the case because he’s not a detective anymore, he tells her that he feels responsible for Mathis and uses some of those detective skills to find the lawyer. We see a quick inset of Thea going to Moira before her initial hearing. She’s attempting to be supportive of her mother and Moira tells her that she is ready to accept the punishment. Back to the action, Lance goes to see Tony Daniel; Mathis’ lawyer, who refuses to give him any information without a Detective’s shield or a warrant. He tells him that he’s got a friend that might change his mind and Ollie gives the screws to him. When he tries to play tough, Ollie puts an arrow threw his shoulder and Daniel spills the beans about a place that Mathis always used to talk about. Lance and Ollie get there, but instead of finding our killer they find a phone. It rings and Lance picks up. Mathis is on the other end and is making a doll out of that young woman that he grabbed in the car. Ollie tries to get Felicity to do a trace, but it’s no use. Dollmaker tells them that”Everyone Loves a Pretty Doll” and hangs up.

Roy has his own adventure throughout the episode and goes to a swap meet to try to get some info on the Canary. One of his old buddies leads him a girl named Cindy and “Red Arrow” is on the case. Back to our team. They figure out that Dollmaker is going after girls with a certain complexion who are using a specific lotion called Mermaiden. They figure that there are only a handful of stores that sell it and use Felicity as bait to lure Mathis out. He takes the bait but Ollie and Lance get the drop on him and he runs into a warehouse. Dollmaker hits Lance and gets his gun but Ollie shoots it out of his house. Just then the cops come and Mathis gets away and Ollie has to hide. They arrest Lance for getting involved in the case even though e almost had him.

We move to Moira’s trial and the DA has decided to go after her with the death penalty, which shocks her lawyers and Ollie and Thea. The DA brought this up in court rather than having a conversation with the defense prior to the trial. After the hearing Laurel gets Lance out of jail and is upset with him for going outside the law and supposedly working with the Vigilante. He calls him The Arrow (and we have a name…YAY!) because it seems more appropriate that The Hood. She hates the Arrow for Tommy’s death, but he tells her that there must be something else. She tells him that she got him out of trouble and to stay away from the case and The Arrow!

Roy’s adventure starts to heat up when he finds Cindy, better known as Sin. He asks her about The Canary and she runs away, but Roy follows with what appears to be some parkour moves of his own and follows her to an abandoned clock tower where someone knocks him out. Next we see Lance in a parking garage. There is a man mumbling something next to a car and he goes to see if he needs any help, but it’s Mathis who uses a taser on Lance. As he stumbles to the ground we see that he’s already gotten his next victim… Laurel! Back to Roy, the Canary wants to know if he’s “one of them?” He gets a text from Thea asking where he is and that Laurel has been kidnapped. Canary tells Sin to let him go and disappears.

We move to Dollmaker’s lab and he has Lance tied up and Laurel in the machine. He tells Lance that this is the only way to truly torture him and Lance starts to beg him to stop, who h quickly turns to anger once Mathis begins the process. Ollie gets on the scene and saves Laurel with seconds to spare and Dollmaker begins to make a break for it. The Canary comes out of nowhere and gets the drop on Mathis but he quickly turns the tables on her. Ollie shows up and puts a couple arrows into Mathis and tells him that he’s going back to prison when a shaft flies outta nowhere right through his chest and Canary says “No, he’s not,” and then disappears.

Laurel is distraught at what has happened and finally tells her dad that she’s been blaming The Arrow for his death when it was her fault really. He came to save her even though both Ollie and her father said not to go into the Glades. Lance brings her home and makes sure she gets some rest. Ollie comes to check on her and Lance thanks him and says that he doesn’t always approve of his methods, but that he gets the job done.

At Iron Heights, Moira is meeting with her lawyer. The lawyer tells her that they are going to fight this, but Moira doesn’t want her kids to find out anything else. What other secrets is Mrs. queen keeping? Also, talk abut secrets. A dark archer visits Canary to tell her that Ras Al Ghul has ordered her return!!! WOW! She tells the archer to tell him that he couldn’t find her and when he disagrees, she kills him! Definitely interested with this plot thread.

I should mention that the island flashbacks were woven into the episode. Last week Slade told Ollie not to fall for Shado, and that it could ony make him weak and he tells him again this week. The group separates and leaves Shado at the plane to work on a communicator while Slade and Ollie go to search the island. They find a boat in port that begins to shoot missiles at the island. Ollie runs to the plane because Shado was left there and Slade follows. A bomb drops right in between them and we see Slade grabbing at his face (could he have lost his eye!) Ollie is knocked out and when he awakens he is in a cage aboard the freighter!

As I mentioned last week, I’m really digging this season. There seems to be a lot of knows to the comics while making the story their own. I enjoyed that Canary was in an old clock tower like the old Birds of Prey and got a kick out of the fact that Mathis’ lawyer was named Tony Daniel, after his creator. Plus the news channel is Channel 52, which is brilliant!





Later Internet!





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