ARROW 2.01 'City of Heroes'

Episode Title: “City of Heroes”

Writer: Andrew Kreisberg & Marc Guggenheim (teleplay) and Greg Berlanti (story)

Director: John Behring

Previously on “Arrow”:

Welcome back, “Arrow,” to the world of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” You may have noticed that budgets for superhero TV shows went up in your absence. You may have also noticed that high-key lighting is in, ensemble casts are all supposed to be buddy-buddy with each other and the tone is almost entirely family oriented.

You may have also noticed that, for now at least, you’re still the best superhero series on television, especially now that “Green Lantern: The Animated Series” and “Young Justice” got the axe. And I would like to personally thank you for a season premiere that proves you’re still hitting your marks and even learning from your mistakes. Come to think of it, you’re learning from Man of Steel’s mistakes too. So good on ya.

The death of Tommy Merlyn last season has forced Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) to rethink his crimefighting methods. After a summer vacation at the island where he developed his crimefighting skills, he’s called back into action by John Diggle (David Ramsey) and Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards), who arrive via skydive and promptly step on a landmine before Oliver saves him via some kind of Tarzan move. As he lay on top of a freshly saved Felicity, she says, “You’re all sweaty.” That’s not quite the level of Freudian flirtatious brilliance we’ve come to expect from the frequently twitterpated Ms. Smoak, but it will do.

Oliver returns to Starling City, now nicknamed “Scar City” after the earthquake that destroyed The Glades – the ghetto of this affluent Metropolis – and took hundreds of citizens out with it. Oliver’s mother Moira (Susanna Thompson) is in jail for her crimes against the city, and his sister Thea (Willa Holland) now runs Oliver’s nightclub with Roy Harper (Colton Haynes), who idolizes “The Hood” and fights crime nightly, to Thea’s dismay.

In “City of Heroes” Oliver has to regain control of Queen Consolidated from a corporate takeover by Isabel Rochev (Summer Glau) and take down a group of copycat vigilantes called “The Hoods,” who assassinate the Mayor of Starling City, leaving room for prospective candidate Sebastian Blood (whose name really should raise some red flags, whether you’re familiar with the comics or not).

What’s more, he now has to take down his quarry without killing anybody. This never used to be a problem for “The Hood,” but Tommy’s death has led to a change of heart. Tommy, you will recall, accused his best friend of being a “serial killer” in Season One after he found out Oliver was also “The Hood.” While, clinically speaking, the term is inaccurate, Oliver has decided to treat the accusation seriously, and spends most of “City of Heroes” shooting guns out of peoples’ hands.

Many defended “Arrow” for allowing its vigilante to kill throughout the series, but there’s no denying that murdering a villain’s security detail – who presumably are just in it for the money and have families of their own to take care of – isn’t technically “heroic.” After the summer-long debate about whether Superman should be allowed to kill in blockbuster movies, “Arrow” is taking a firm stance that no, a real hero shouldn’t. But it’s an easy way to solve a superhero’s problems, and one motivated by vengeance – as Oliver was in Season One – would understandably resort to murder to solve his problems.

With his father avenged, and a friend dead in the process, it stands to reason that Oliver has killing out of his system. What’s more, on a purely dramatic level this new vow should make his job harder in the coming episodes, which promise more vigilantes and villains than ever before. “Arrow” had its killing, now it’s going to show how not killing is more noble and yes, more difficult. But as “City of Heroes” shows, Oliver’s murdering days have already been a terrible example for one vigilante group, and presumably for many more. Putting the genie back in the bottle will, one hopes, be even harder than leaving all his enemies alive week in and week out.

“Arrow” also had its flashbacks, and surprisingly, they’re still here. “City of Heroes” frequently cuts back to the island where Oliver, Shado (Celina Jade) and Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) are now dealing with an incursion from unknown gun-toters looking for some very important graves. At the end of the episode, we see them arrive by a ship that, at the beginning of the episode, in the present day, we see has since been blown to pieces. So although the flashbacks’ thematic tie to “City of Heroes” is thin (Oliver killed one of the new villains when he really didn’t have to, but that’s hardly great drama), at least it promises a big action sequence at some point in the future.

Still, can “Arrow” keep this narrative device going forever? “Lost” ran out of decent flashback material after a few seasons, and that series at least had the freedom to flash back to different characters and locations. “Arrow” isn’t so fortunate, and it’s entirely possible that these mid-episode island getaways will wear out their welcome sooner or later.

“City of Heroes” is a strong episode overall, introducing new characters as well as old ones in unexpected status quos. Not everything works though. Thea isn’t old enough to drink but now owns a business (ugh). Oliver and Laurel are once again stuck having one emotional conversation after another about how they can never be together (double ugh). And the big story on the news, after the Mayor of Starling City is assassinated, is Oliver Queen’s return, which is so mindbogglingly stupid that the villains even comment on it as they pick up on some important yet very clumsy exposition.

But if nothing else, the conclusion of “City of Heroes” promises a name change for our hero – presumably to “Green Arrow,” since that’s what he’s looking at as the episode ends – and a curiously highlighted news report promises that a S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator will come online by Christmas… just in time for the highly anticipated appearance of The Flash.

“Arrow” found its way over the course of Season One and it’s starting Season Two off just about right, with a nice mixture of action, comedy and drama. Here is a superhero series that takes itself just seriously enough to be fun, as opposed to one that has so much fun that you can’t quite take it seriously. Until the merely promising “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” gets its act together and piles on some real drama (and maybe some decent dramatic lighting once in a while), “Arrow” would seem to be the only superhero show on TV that – usually – hits the bullseye.*

*For this I am ashamed.