ARROW Season 4 Episode 12 Review: UNCHAINED - Warped Factor - Words in the Key of Geek.

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ARROW Season 4 Episode 12 Review: UNCHAINED

Look who's back! It's Margot Hitchcock with her review of this weeks superhero-stuffed episode of Arrow.


The latest Arrow definitely seemed to “unchain” all our favorite heroes upon Star City this week.

I mean, holy cow. This episode reads like its Avengers-esque sister show Legends of Tomorrow with all the good guys (and girls) that graced the camera lens in just an hour. Not that I’m entirely complaining, but it was a little difficult to keep up with who’s who & who’s where. Particularly with that surprise cameo from Shado (Okay, from a vision of Shado. What is this? A Christmas Carol?) during the flashback sequences. Anyone else feel like they’re seriously grasping for flashback material? Anyone?


This season’s writers also seem to struggle with keeping their plot line “straight as an arrow.”

… It’s okay; I’m shaking my head at that terrible pun, too. But not as much as I’m shaking my head each week Damien Darhk is NOT featured predominantly throughout the episode …

But seriously, where is our amazing bad guy? If he can make a cameo appearance in Legends last week, then he can certainly find time to grace the presence of Star City. They’ve created an incredible villain, only to attempt to taunt us by not including us in his latest schemes. While I understand this is probably an effort to create rising action towards one climactic, knockdown fight between Team Arrow and H.I.V.E., all it’s done for this writer is frustrate me to no end for almost a month.

Yes, I know the show is writing his absence off by saying he’s gone “underground.” Yes, I know we sort of see him via his wife’s presence in the political scenario. Yes, I know they’re building things up to some huge attack from H.I.V.E. via killer plants. No, I don’t think it’s going to be as big and impressive as we’re all hoping.

This season, while flashy, exciting and bordering the lines of qualifying as a soap opera w/it’s twists of dead-people-who-aren’t-dead (Sara, Ray, Felicity), people-we-love-going-into-a-coma (Felicity, Thea), and people-we-don’t-know-are-actually-bad-guys (Hey, Felicity’s dad!) has succeeded in being simply that: a spectacle. While I was excited to see where this more in-depth and focused Season 4 Oliver Queen would take us, I think the writers started with a good idea and aren’t quite sure how to finish it.

Their solution? Blow things up until they run out of time and figure something out last minute. And you know what? They blow stuff up pretty well. Especially in this episode.


Speaking of which, Stunt of the Season Award goes to Colton Haynes and his zip line escape from an exploding building! Congrats, Colton! And congrats on just being hot & adorable all at once. That last scene with Thea was just precious, & CW couldn’t have done a better job tying up loose ends between these two lovebirds. Yes, we like Alex, but we LOVE Thea & Roy.

So in honor of this awesome previous Power Couple, I offer your #throwbackThursday for the week:


Awwww.

Anyway, while I believe this episode fits in nicely with the past few – i.e. they all seem choppy & a little bit forced in plot progression – I am excited at the characters coming into play.

A quick overview of our major guest stars this week:


1. Arsenal
YAY! A keeper for sure. Please bring Arsenal back into all of our lives again before this season ends … please? A fun visit by Colton, even if he was trying to take out Team Arrow and steal dangerous weapons.


2. Katana
Holla! CW, yet again, showcases some serious Girl Power this week. Katana was a pleasant surprise. The fight between Katana & Nyssa was an even better surprise. Here’s hoping this metal-wielding badass shows up to assist Team Arrow in the near future.


3. Mr. Terrific? Almost.
No, Mr. Holt has yet to don anything even close to resembling a costume worthy of a Star City-style vigilante, but he did have a pretty stellar stunt sequence with Roy early on in this episode. Glad Curtis is back & thankful he reminded our girl, Overwatch/Felicity how to say, “Challenge accepted” no matter what role she’s playing.


4. Nyssa
“Nyssa’s back. Back again.” (In the style of Eminem, of course.)

But seriously. This chick is awesome & glad she’s jumped into our season. No one can keep Nyssa Al Ghul down for long, am I right? What an INCREDIBLE way to start the episode.



I think I’m going to watch that fight over and over until next week. Here’s hoping Arrow can get its act together and create a solid season within the next few weeks instead of just some really great “moments.”

Margot is a huge supporter of all things relating to "nerd culture," in particular those involving superheroes and Disney. She loves books, movies, music and working out, and currently lives in Athens, GA, with her rabbit, Gigi.

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