Confessions: Arrow 720 Review

         For me this episode  moved slowly, by this  time there should feel  a sense  of a pushing forward with rapid pace.  This  episode dragged on for  me.   The whole episode is set up to move Felicity  out of the  future episodes of Arrow, since  she  has  announced she's  leaving. Let's  get started.

 Oliver and Felicity:  For me the heart and soul of Arrow has always been Oliver and  Felicity together.  I know many  people expected a 720 similar to 320 and 520 however, I never did. My reason for this is because of just where we are  at.  Emiko and the Ninth  Circle want to release a biological weapon in Star City  that will harm thousands.  Oliver and the  team will  have to find her and disarm the weapon, and they don't know fully  what a  formidable  foe they face.  There  is no time for those kinds of moments with Oliver and Felicity, but we  did have  those special  moments that  show  how deep their love is.  Felicity's touches of Oliver  when  he's under stress, always  calm him down. You can see  it in  his face and his whole body seems to take  a deep breath.  Those  Olicity  moments are  just as needed and necessary as the love making ones.  I especially  loved Felicity's light moments  that way  she  gets  when  she's  nervous.  In the  beginning when she asked Dinah if they had information and she mentioned her typy-type hadn't gotten anywhere. Or when she meets  Roy and she hugs him, and starts  babbling again, and  talks  about her hormones, and why would her hormones  be acting  weird, and Oliver reigns her in a little.  Those  moments were cute and special, and since there are  only two more  episodes left,  this  reviewer seemed to enjoy them more.  Then  of course  Felicity's consuming  all that food during her interview with Dinah and Sgt. Bingley.  Who didn't love it when she sorted the gummy bears to eat her favorite flavors?  Those  are  the  moments  that Emily Bett Rickards does so  well.  My husband noticed how fast she talks  when she's nervous.  He has a difficult time  understanding it all.   :)   I felt for Oliver when  Emiko told him she could have warned their father about the bomb, and so she is to blame for the death of Robert and the all the  hard years  Oliver faced on Lian Yu.  You could  see the shocked look he had and the anger he felt.  who could blame him?  He  always held family  in high regard and would do  anything for anyone  in his family.  He would  lay down his life for his family, and  so there  was always a part of him  that wanted to restore  Emiko.  My heart grieved for him.

      Dinah:  I  know some  people also got very  frustrated with Dinah, and I  am  one  of them, but not for  the same reasons.  Some people believed Dinah  had turned on Oliver and the team.  I didn't think that  she  had, it was  believable  to so many because that's par for the  course  with Dinah.  She has always been reluctant, in my opinion, to  follow  Oliver's  lead.  What upset me was that even though  she  went along with the team, her  heart  was not in it.  You could see on her face she wanted to  say no, I  won't go along.  I think once  again she  was reluctant to  do this.  She  doesn't want to jeopardize  her job, and I suppose  who can  blame  her in some respects?  Dinah just never came across  as really  wanting to go along with it.  If you get a chance to rewatch the episode, watch  her  facial reactions and  her eyes.  They  just seemed to reveal reluctance  to me.

              Roy Harper:  I  found myself angry with Roy  Harper.  I understand  bringing  him on board, because as  Felicity tells Dinah, Emiko knew all their faces, so having Roy go in to help would help destabilize the Emiko and the Ninth Circle  because they wouldn't expect him.  I found myself angry at Roy for not letting Oliver know that he had  died and been  put into the Lazarus Pit.  I also  found myself not believing that either  Thea  or  Nyssa would have done it.  Thea  knew how bad it was to have been put in there.  After all she  out to destroy them all before the Thantos  Guild could get to them, yet she  put her husband in there, when  she herself wished she had not been?  Nyssa especially was  against the use  of the Pit, and yet they did it anyway?  Sorry,  I  didn't buy it.  I  felt the writers  were sloppy there.  They tried to excuse it by saying that even though they used that method that they  used on Thea to  stop the bloodlust, they didn't think about the reaction with the mirakru that must have changed Roy's body.  Nope, I didn't buy it. I found myself  frustrated with the whole  bloodlust stuff.  The other thing that bothered me is that most of the viewers had figured out early on when Roy showed up  on Lian Yu that he was probably there because he had been in the Pit and since Lian Yu means purgatory, he would be safe there  from  his the bloodlust rising up.  So that was really no surprise, was  it?  They will probably send  him there, in the next episodes, that's how Felicity knew where to put Oliver's  bow, and  where to send William.

                   Emiko:  I am  so tired of this character.  Yes, she had a horrible father who treated her like dirt. Yes, it was difficult for her when she  and her mother had to  survive living in the Glades, but she took things  to the extreme  by joining and leading the Ninth  Circle.   She  turned to terrorism?  I guess it is plausible.  People  usually join such groups for  their own  ideological reasons, not as a matter of revenge on one person.  Does  anyone  understand  her hatred of  Oliver?  He couldn't help the  father he had anymore thahe could.  I guess they want to show the contrast between Oliver and Emiko. Each one  chose a different path.  I like what Oliver tells Rene, "At some point you have to take  responsibility for your own  actions." Emiko blames everything on Robert.  She won't admit that her reactions to her  father's actions are totally on her. It's something Oliver has spent 7 years learning.  I also liked Felicity's response when she mentioned something about "no redemption then for Oliver's evil sister."  I found myself tired of the same storyline: the evil  character wants to destroy Oliver and everything he loves.  Surely there  must be other stories out there to tell.  This has been the running theme  of the villains in Arrow, and they are stale now.  I see why Stephen wanted the series to end  at seven. 

      Rene:  Rene's part of this story is important  too.  Rene still likes  Emiko.  He believed she wanted to make a difference in the Glades; he's always trying to help her. I think she might feel  she has some need for him, because clearly she could have killed with her arrow.  Even Oliver said in earlier episodes that Emiko didn't miss what she aimed at.  She got Rene's hand.  Will she be a reason  he's mayor in the future?  Those are questions I have.

The stage is set for 721:  The camera's  footage of the event in the subway was  missing.  Dinah  thought Felicity got to it,  and when  Dinah tells her she didn't the camera focuses on Felicity and she says, "No", with a very concerned look.  Later Emiko tells  Oliver that Bingley has it.  Somehow this must be twisted by Emiko to implicate Felicity. I only say this because the so called synopsis said that Felicity is wanted for arrest.

Final thoughts:

• This was not a  favorite  episode. I loved the small Olicity moments and Felicity's  babble, but overall it  was a  let down.  I  think  we  were supposed to be surprised about Roy, but I don't think many of us were.
• It's not that I don't trust Dinah, I don't think her heart was in saving Roy.  I think if she could have, she  would have turned him in.
• The building collapsing is not going  to hurt Oliver.  We know he takes Felicity to the cabin. Again that wasn't a big  moment.  
• Not sure about Rene and Emiko; are any of you wondering about them?
• Let's face  it,  we are all going to miss Felicity.  
• Sorry this was a short review.  For me  it was a so-so story, and I've had a hugely busy week. Sorry  it this  disappoints.

I  wrote a  fan fiction story  about Felicity at the cabin  with Mia when Mia is almost 5.  You can find it by searching Dragonslayer  on this site.  Hope you get a chance to read it and let me know your thoughts.