Unmasked Arrow 708 Review

                      Unmasked left this reviewer with mixed feelings; what directions will the writers take us, and will we ever get back  all that was  lost while Oliver spent time in prison?  This episode left this  reviewer feeling a bit frustrated and  somewhat empty, because the writers didn't deliver  on expectations.

               Oliver and  Felicity:  Stephen Amell said that we would know  early on how prison had  affected Oliver, and the shower  scene  in the beginning showed us how vulnerable  he felt.  The viewer sat there almost as anxious as  Oliver.  The water streaming down his face gave us the same feeling  we had in Slabside  before  he  was attacked.  You  could see the fear on his  face when he  opened  the shower curtain.  Clear signs  of PTSD.  Oliver's been  through this before and  knows how to deal with it.  We all looked  forward to Oliver and Felicity being back  together and of  course everyone anticipated hot love scenes, however,  I'm guessing  most viewers felt let down.  It was sweet to see him  zip Felicity's dress, and  for them to linger a bit.  Felicity saying she missed these moments with Oliver, and reminding him how much  she missed William.  It  was tender to see Oliver's fingers  brush his fingers  over Felicity's wedding ring, and then repeating  the vows he  said to her and wishing her a happy anniversary, they fall upon the bed and  the camera  moves.  We segue to the  party to honor Oliver and raise money  for prison  reform.

It is at the  party  we  catch glimpses of the lighter Felicity.  She protects  Oliver and clings  to  his arm as  if she were  afraid he would be gone  again.  She's  funny when she tells  Max Fuller that she's the freakin Green Arrow's  wife. Even  Oliver gives a little smile, and says, "This  is why I  love this woman."  When  he  meets  up with those who once upon a time  comprised his team, he  seems nervous.  Everyone  asks  what  he's  going to do, and he  says that he wants to  try and find a different way  to fight crime  like the others  had learned to do.  Then they ask Felicity what  her plans  are and she says she's trying to develop  a  stronger security system. Then  up pops BS, and says, "If Felicity is doing it,it will be good.  Then she tells Oliver and the others how Felicity got Diaz and "she's  ruthless."  Oliver winces. He doesn't want to hear this.

Arrow  has always been  for this reviewer anyway,  about the contrast between light and dark.  By darkness,  I  don't mean evil.  In season one, Oliver was pretty  dark, he killed to cross names off his  father's  list.  He had done through some gruesome years on  Lian Yu, and that certainly affected him, but in his heart, he was  not evil.   He struggled  with his humanity. Felicity by contrast was light.  She  had the desire  to see  good in everyone,  and she didn't see  the  necessity of  putting an arrow in everyone.  She  helped draw Oliver out  of  the  darker path  and into the light.  Oliver's time in prison, as horrific as  it was has  helped him  to understand  something of  importance.  When John  Diggle brings him his  arrow suit  he asks Oliver about breaking cycle of violence, and Oliver says, "It's  not about the cycle  of violence,  it's about  accountability".   It  seems that Oliver  is wanting to take a step as  a  hero in the light.  No more  need of  a mask since everyone knows  who he is, and it's not  about putting arrows in people, but about holding people  accountable for their actions.

All that being said, I am frustrated with the  writers not knowing how to  handle PTSD, which clearly both Oliver and Felicity suffer from.  As I said previously Oliver has had this problem before, and Diggle even talked to him about it,  so I think  Oliver's aware of it in himself, so it frustrates  me to see  him not recognize it in Felicity.  He's clearly shocked  when Felicity pulls  a  gun, but when she  pulls the trigger and  shoots the intruder, Oliver looks  at her in  disbelief.  After the police leave,  he  questions her by  asking her a  stupid  question, "Why  are you so  obsessed  with security?"   I wanted to throw something at the television.  Felicity has always  been  there for Oliver, even when she  disagreed with his methods, she always stood  by him.  Then she lets him have it and rightly so, that it was his  choice that left her vulnerable. Everything she tells him was truth, but his reaction really irritated me.  "How many times am I to say I'm sorry?"  Honey, you better tell her everyday!  Shouldn't he  have been questioning her when  he  saw  that the curtains could  stop bullets let alone arrows?  Shouldn't he  have  thought something's wrong with my wife and I need to be there for her  as she  has stood by me  a thousand times over without being  judgmental?  Felicity has always struggled with abandonment issues.  When Oliver made  that decision without  telling her, he  essentially abandoned her.  She did turn to Diggle for help, but he abandoned her  as  well, so  she  had to keep  William safe and sent him away, essentially leaving herself totally alone. This too  contributes to her PTSD.  So when Anatoly  offers her  a gun, she  takes  it.  This brings another point, Oliver has worked with Anatoly and Slade Wilson, and that's fine, but when she  does  it,  he  questions  her  morality? That's a bit disingenuous, don't you think?

       Felicity  isn't dark  because she has  a gun.  She had a right to protect herself, and some  might say she should have had one sooner.  She was wrong to shoot the intruder especially when Oliver had  things under control.  Felicity would have been  wrong to shoot Diaz when  he  was  handcuffed to the table in the police  station.  That was not self  defense that would have been murder.  Felicity's dark  path right now is  because she's struggling with her humanity. She feels the girl with red pen did  not know how to be strong.   This  shocks Oliver, because he's always viewed Felicity as the strongest person he knows. He feels Felicity's strength lies  in her  goodness,  the light he always  sees, the light that drew the humanity to  himself.  Felicity in her inner struggle questions  what does it mean to be strong.  She couldn't protect William, so she thinks she's  weak. She can't rely on anyone  so she will rely on herself.  All heroes struggle with humanity issues.  That's what Oliver's done for 6  years  now.  It was Felicity and Diggle who helped him, and  now it's Oliver's turn to help Felicity, but in order to do so, Oliver will have to harness his  own  light himself, so  he can help Felicity find  hers again.

Oliver seems  to have placed  Felicity on a  pedestal, because he clearly forgets when Felicity went her own way to do  things on her own in season 5. Felicity has used sticks as  weapons, her computer once, I think when she flung it at one of  the league members.  But Felicity is  totally  different from the other many  women  Oliver's been  with.  She's not like  any of  them.  She had  an inner  light none of the  others had, and perhaps that's what is  pulling  at Oliver.  He made this version  of Felicity, the  one  who  questions  her humanity.  I'm frustrated at the  writers for just dropping it with Felicity's line, "I don't know if  what's good for me  is good  for us."  They  needed  to answer that instead of  making us  wait until January  21.  Oliver  will be her light.  I don't know how the writers will  work that out, whether it will be finished in 710 or later, but I have no doubt that Oliver and Felicity will be together.  It's not even a concern.  I just feel this episode had some sloppy writing.  After seven long  months they give us  a total of  what ten minutes with Oliver and Felicity, when really they could have  given them at least half the  episode, because it is just that important.

The Flash-forwards: Okay, I know people  were disappointed that Black Star doesn't appear  to be Oliver and  Felicity's daughter.  I'm not convinced.  Just because William or Dinah doesn't recognize her means nothing on these shows. There could  lots of explanations as  to why they wouldn't.  I'm going share my thoughts. I could be totally wrong, but I think  they are giving us little clues as to  why  she is.  First she has a Queen  Bee tattoo, she fights a lot like Oliver, and looks a lot like Felicity.  She had some kind of key under her arm, reminding me of the key Oliver gave Felicity, she drinks scotch, and they went out of their way to let us know that Oliver likes scotch. How many times in the one scene with Max Fuller did they  discuss  scotch.  They want  us to  remember that. Then right before  Oliver and Felicity's love scene, Felicity says she  misses William can't wait for Christmas what does Oliver say, "Seems  like twenty  years away.  All  these things could be massive misdirects, or they could be clues. I'm not willing to  let go  yet  that she won't be their daughter.  Some think that Black Star is Roy and Thea's daughter, and  that's why Roy wasn't with them.  That would be interesting  too.  The flash-forwards  only  prove  to me how annoying Dinah  is.  I'm not sure she's  telling William the truth.  The flash-forwards are confusing because sometimes they  lead one  to think Dinah doesn't like Oliver anymore, and then in another moment she gives the opposite impression.

The future  is too  bleak and it makes one feel that all the sacrifices that Oliver and Felicity have  made  and suffered for were all  for nothing.  I think they are  trying  to too hard to make  us believe that Felicity loses her  humanity and becomes evil. I don't buy this at all. By the  way Kat McNamara can  really nail  a scene.

The Mark  of  Four:  Oliver made the team get the Mark of  Four.  It looked  like a compass with arrow end points. There  was a star pointing due north.  I'm really guessing and I usually don't like giving speculations, but I'm tossing it out there or what its' worth.  Mark of Four stands for Courage, Compassion, Selflessness, and  Loyalty.  If you  look at all four of those,  don't they  describe Oliver and Felicity and Oliver, but especially Felicity?  .   I wonder  if  the  North Star stands  for a  person? In the saying  having true north, it  means have the sense  of  being  headed in the  right direction.  Could that star represent a person, if it is  a person, could it   be Felicity? I am wondering if  Felicity will have that tattoo, the Mark  of Four?  She was the one who lead  William  to find Oliver's  bow and to find the  paper with the Mark of Four on  it.

As to Dinah, It seemed  that Dinah may  have lost her loyalty
 John and Lyla Diggle: The writers  are  developing  a  new story-line for  John and  Lyla and I had thought that Lyla might  die,but John has put  those  fears aside saying theydid  consider  going that way, but decided not too.  What are they doing  working with Diaz?  Not only using Diaz,  but doing so without Oliver and Felicity's knowledge.  What will  this  cost them?

Final Thoughts:

• We all knew that Robert Queen's daughter would be the Green  Arrow, so  no  surprise there.  This will impact Oliver and probably  Felicity as well.
• There  there were some  sweet Olicity minutes, the writing was  sloppy and  left us hanging.
• John and Lyla will pay a  high price for using Diaz.
• Intrigued  by the  Mark  of  Four
• Black Star is definitely a skilled  fighter.
• Not a fan  of the lines the writers gave Oliver.
• Please  let Oliver and Felicity have a  happy  day, just one is all  I ask.
• Hoping the writers shed more  positive light on  the future or else this all  seems pointless.
• BS was only in the episode for a  millisecond, but she hardly  seems  "redeemed "  to me.  She may be struggling with her humanity too.  She may  always  struggle  with it.
• Missed  the romantic  moments with Olicity.  The writers could have done better there.
• Mayor  Pollard can't be trusted.  I think she may be the one that leads to the Star City twenty  years  from now.
• Now that Oliver is "Unmasked" he can be the hero  in the light.