I have to apologize: turns out that Oliver’s last name is Queen, not McQueen. Unfortunately, that means instead of thinking about this, I think about this, so some of Stephen Amell’s hotness is lost.
The second episode of Arrow begins with—what else—a Serious Voiceover reiterating Oliver’s mission to make the people hurt Star City pay. Oliver beats up some random hoodlums, and the Green Arrow makes the headlines the next day. As the Queens gather to watch the news, Oliver tries to lighten the mood with jokes about the Kardashians. Moira, Walter and Thea don’t find the jokes funny, because they aren’t. Then the Queens head to court, because they need to retract Oliver’s death certificate.<
In court, Oliver talks about his difficult life on the island, cryptically adding, “In those five years, there was only one thought that kept me going.” (Somehow, nobody asks what that thought was.) Oliver, Tommy and Dig run into Laurel as they leave the courthouse. When Oliver introduces himself to Laurel’s client, Laurel bluntly tells the client that she used to date Oliver, that Oliver cheated on her with her sister Sarah, and that Sarah died in the shipwreck—all while maintaining icy eye contact with Oliver. I love Laurel.
Oliver takes advantage of the paparazzi outside to escape Dig and Tommy, back to his Secret Fortress of Brooding And Working Out Shirtless. Meanwhile, Laurel attempts to convict a rich person named Martin Summers of killing her client’s father. The structure of the series is obvious: Laurel attacks an Evil Rich Person legally, while Ollie goes after them as a vigilante.
Like in the premiere, Oliver attacks Summers and demands that he confess; and like in the premiere, Detective Lance shows up to make Robin Hood comments. Lance tells Summers he knows that the Green Arrow is after him, and makes it clear he doesn’t like Summers. Summers, in return, threatens Lance’s daughter—aka Laurel.
WHAT. I can’t believe I didn’t know that Laurel is Lance’s daughter. On the other hand, I don’t really listen to anything Lance says, because it’s either a clunky threat or a bad joke.
Thea and Oliver have a heart-to-heart about how much she missed him while he was gone, and the fact that he’s been distant ever since he got back. Inspired, Oliver shows up at Laurel’s apartment to apologize (again) and eat ice cream. They’re just starting to get comfortable with each other when a trio of assassins fly through the windows. Dig busts in and helps Oliver defeat them, but one escapes—a Lady Gaga named China White, who is apparently running a drug smuggling ring.
Oliver suits up and goes after Summers, who starts to confess that he’s being targeted by a group called the Triad. China cuts the confession short by challenging Oliver. Lance and the police arrive as well, but China and Oliver escape. Oliver leaves a gift for Lance: a tape recorder with Summers’s confession.
Moira wanted Oliver to announce his new leadership position at a ceremony for his dead father, but Oliver pretends to be drunk instead and tells everybody to “stop asking [him] to be the man [his] father was.” It’s a cliché, but it works. Moira and Walter leave disappointed.
Moira is then seen talking to a shadowy man about Oliver. “He doesn’t know we planned the boat sinking,” she says. Oliver’s mom, in a plot machination so obvious I called it last week, is evil.
The episode ends with a flashback to the island. Oliver is burying his dad when an arrow suddenly embeds itself in his back—shot by a man wearing the same green hood Oliver wears now! At least we know where Oliver got his not-at-all-identity-concealing idea for a costume.
The amount of plot Arrow goes through in forty minutes is amazing, and I love the mythology Arrow’s building, but at the same time, the storyline already feels rote two episodes in. But Amell actually used more than three expressions this time, so this episode is a good step forward.