Whether it’s super-heroic Emerald Archer action or the super-heroic abdominals of the preternaturally fit Stephen Amell that that’s got you programming your DVR for Season Two of Arrow, the CW Network’s action/drama based on the DC Comic Green Arrow, you’ve got a lot to get caught up on especially if you are jumping on late.
For the uninitiated, put simply Arrow is Smallville’s darker, moodier cousin. More mature than its televised superheroic predecessor, Arrow presents a hero whose trademark progressivism/populism is a byproduct of his own personal quest to rid himself, his family and his city of its demons. A quest that, at least at the beginning, he has no qualms about using lethal force to fulfill.
After the earth-shaking events of the Season One finale, the world of Arrow is primed to take a turn for the worse despite the efforts of our heroes, so it’s important to take a look back before the season premiere and see what is left to build upon. Note that if you are not yet through your box set of Season One Blu-Ray’s, be warned, spoilers ahead. We fully recommend you take the journey yourself for the full experience, and the blu-ray set (which also included standard DVDs and digital downloads) is available now, so go, watch, then come back and see what we think are the most important takeaways.
He’s not Green Arrow, at least not yet
Despite his (very dark) green leather outfit, complete with hood, not to mention actual green arrows in his green quiver, this vigilante archer Oliver Queen does not call himself nor is he ever earnestly called by anyone else “Green Arrow” (though the words are uttered once, as a little in-joke).
For Queen, his vigilante outfit is a relic of his time marooned on a (nearly) deserted and heavily forested island. There, the green was great day/night camouflage and quite durable since there wasn’t a J. Crew outlet in the middle of the China Sea.
When Oliver takes his skills to the streets of Starling City (small change from the comics, where it’s Star City), it’s his identity concealing headgear (and perhaps his Sherwood Forest-esque modus operandi) that grants him the moniker The Hood, rather than the color of his weapons.
This STILL isn’t The Island from LOST
Parallel to the serialized action of Oliver Queen: nigh-unstoppable vigilante in Starling City is the story of Oliver Queen: billionaire party-boy castaway.
Whenever he experiences a crisis, Oliver flashes back to a similar moment during his time on the island of Lian Yu, aka Purgatory, where his public story of years of solitude after the wreck of his father’s yacht gives way to the truth that he got caught up in an international conspiracy to destroy the Chinese economy.
On Lian Yu, Oliver encounters a number of DC Comics characters cast in important roles in his personal transformation including the enigmatic Yao Fei, his master archer daughter Shado, the villainous Eddie Fyers and a reluctant ally: the Australian Special Forcers trooper Slade Wilson, who’s uniform incudes a very distinctive orange and black facemask.
In the end, Oliver sacrifices an easy way off the island to do the right thing, but as much that has been revealed about how the island changed him, much hasn’t been. For instance how he became a capo in the Russian Mafia, where he learned toxicology, how to apply nerve pinches to simulate death and who the mysterious woman was behind Fyers’ plot.
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2012: Arrow
2013: When Calls the Heart
