Slabside Redemption: Arrow 707 Review

                James Bamford, director of this episode, should receive an Emmy as best director.  This episode focused solely on Slabside and the men inside. No other story line occurred to distract from the intensity of this episode.  In fact there was very little dialogue, we just saw brute force.  Diaz and Oliver finally face off.  There actually was a lot that happened in this episode.  Slabside Redemption dealt with not only the redemption of Oliver from prison, but also with the redemption of Ben Turner, played superbly by Michael Jai White. This episode  was so unique that I won't be using the same  type of  format. I'm going to highlight the points that stood  out most to me.

                Oliver knows that by the end of the day he can be freed from this prison. When the guard goes to Oliver and says, "Good Morning 5487" Oliver responds "Fine day, isn't it."  This is how things began 7 months ago, but seems a lifetime ago as we watched the very long prison sentence carried out. Well, it seemed long to me, and I think reviewers rejoiced that the end of the prison story was at an end.  It was a risk Arrow took to leave it's hero in prison for nearly a third of the season.  Oliver's told he has a visitor and one imagines he hopes it's Felicity, but it turns out it is Diaz.  He taunts Oliver and threatens to finish off the the job of killing Felicity.  You could see the visible tension arise in Oliver, and he takes the phone and breaks the glass with all the force and power within him.  He even tosses the guard, who had tried to restrain him, to the ground as if he had been but a feather.

      Stanley was far more terrifying than Diaz.  He was downright creepy.  He's a psychopath in the same vein as Adrian  Chase, if  not more scary.  Chase had moments  of sanity  and Stanley clearly  doesn't, so the  fact that he has  escaped his chilling.  Will he  be a  threat?

                 A particularly poignant moment between Oliver and Ben Turner, is  when Oliver goes to the  solitary and tell  Ben that he knows he was innocent and he would work to  help  him get out, and maybe even go back to ARGUS.  I think it was a turning  point for Ben  Turner as  well, because in the end it is Ben  Turner who helps Oliver to  fight nearly every prisoner in Slabside.  Later Ben tell tells Oliver that, "You used to see everything  as  back and white, but now you see shades  of grey, and that makes you a true hero."  In that line, I  think  we shall see a different Oliver Queen as  leaves  prison.  He does know that not everything is black  and white, and he will perhaps  be  willing  to  view situations in a different way.

Oliver comes face  to face  with  Diaz and  for  a  moment it looks like Diaz will win, until Diaz picks  up the picture of William  and Felicity.  This picture has gotten Oliver through the nightmare of Slabside.  The picture anchors him to hope that at  the end  of this nightmare, he  has his family. But Diaz picks  up the picture and  taunts Oliver, telling  him that Felicity  is a lot like  Oliver. That she  had  a gun pointed at him and would have shot him, if she hadn't been  stopped.  Oliver doesn't want to believe that, because that's not the Felicity he left behind seven months ago. Then Diaz tears the  picture, and Oliver's rage is  released and finally he defeats Diaz.  He leaves him there in the prison cell.  The one thing Diaz feared the most, life in  prison, has  happened.  Do we  wish he had killed  him? Yes, but then we  also understand  why Oliver doesn't.  He's  doesn't want violence  for the sake of violence.  Will this be a mistake later down the road?  Perhaps, but Oliver's been changed by prison, and he has grown as  person through all of  this.  Oliver picks  up the pieces  of  his picture takes his book, The Count of Monte Cristo, and  leaves.  Does the torn picture of his family represent a  possible fracture of he and  Felicity?  Will they  put the pieces  of their lives back together? These  are questions the viewer asks.

            The Count of  Monte Cristo has significance and the writers creatively used this book in  the Slabside part of the story.  I love this book.  It's the story of a man, Dantes, who was wrongly  accused of  a crime (sort  of, long story there) and sent to prison for life.  While there he meets a priest who was a political prisoner.  The priest educates Dantes  on many things and then tells him of  a the money he has hidden on the island  of Monte Cristo, and  should Dantes ever  escape  the  money is his.  Dantes  finds a way to escape and uses the money to exact revenge  on the people who put him in prison.  But he does so without ever using violence.  Dantes understands, thanks to the priest, that God is the final judge and on Judgement Day, everyone receives their reward. So each one of the men who turned on Dantes and caused his imprisonment, end up where they belong, but not at Dantes' hand.  It's the story of love and redemption. Its the story of Hope.   On the way out of  prison Oliver throws this book in Turner's cell.  Turner comes back  to his  cell, sees the book, and picks  it up.  The guard then calls Turner by name, not a number  any more  and thanks  him for saving them all. Turner  glances down  at the book.  Turner will find his redemption.  I'm hoping we shall see more of Turner and Oliver.

     

            The end of the episode was very poignant and very tender.  Oliver stops and looks up as if he's seeing a different kind of sky.  Then he sees Felicity and John standing outside waiting.  He walks toward them then stops as if he can't quite grasp the reality of the moment.  Felicity rushes to him.  There's no glass, no bars, no Watson, no Diaz to stand between them.  She tenderly touches his face as if she can't quite grasp the reality either.  Each of them shyly begins to embrace the other, as if they are but phantoms of the other and not real.  Then they kiss, and the camera pans out and you see how massive Slabside is and how small they both seem.  Then you see how closely Oliver pulls Felicity towards him. Prison hasn't engulfed them.  They can find a way forward.

Final Thoughts:

• This episode was reminded me of Die Hard
• Oliver with Turner's help take down nearly every prisoner in Slabside, which was a huge place. So explain to me why he needs Curtis, Dinah, and Rene? Don't get me wrong, I like Rene, but just sayin.
• How will Stanley affect the future? He's creepy.
• I enjoyed the interaction between Oliver and Turner
• So the prison doors are opened and few decide to escape?
• I have a new view of coke in a pillowcase now!
• For seven months Oliver was tortured in prison, and Felicity was tortured by Diaz.  Plus there's been a lot piling on Felicity.  From season 4 on she's had a lot of trauma to deal with, so all this has affected her as well. What is ahead of these two people we've grown to love?  Look for a new blogpost on this coming soon.