Arrow: Level Two review S7 E4
Level Two didn’t do a whole lot to advance the main story, which is weird for the fourth episode in the season.
Oliver managed to make it to Level Two, but he’s got to contend with the therapist Dr. Jarrett Parker (Jason E. Kelley) before getting the scoop on Diaz. We don’t get enough hints yet if Parker is on Team Diaz so for now, let’s take him at face value.
Parker wants a therapy win by getting Oliver to admit being a vigilante is wrong. If not for his sake, than for William’s. Instead of playing along so he can resume his actual purpose for getting on this level, Oliver decides to be a tough guy. You’d think someone stuck in prison would be able to size up the situation and be more strategic. Tell Parker what he wants to hear and move on.
Since Oliver wants to be the man, Parker dopes him up and resorts to psychotherapy. Oliver stops seeing the conversation he had with his father and now sees himself having this conversation with William. Hold up, did Parker just Inception Oliver? After the latest session, Oliver refers to himself as Inmate 4587 instead of Oliver Queen. Who said shock therapy doesn’t have a purpose?
Felicity also has her Bad Girl hat on, but she’s failing miserably trying to get any intel out of The Silencer. Rene has to talk Felicity off the torture ledge so she goes to Laurel for help. Like most mere mortals on this show, Laurel is super impressed with Felicity and misjudged her. Back on Laurel’s Earth, Felicity ran her own empire, but Laurel doesn’t want Felicity to become that ruthless.
MORE:
- 10 Best and 10 Worst Couples in the Arrowverse
- Marvel Legends Spider-Punk figure review
- Titans S1 E2 Hawk and Dove review
- The Walking Dead The Bridge review S9 E2
Watching Felicity and Laurel interact had me thinking the writers might want to put them together. That’s how non-fans ship characters, right? Eventually, Felicity suckers Silencer into escaping with a hidden tracker. Dumb question. The moment Silencer activates her powers this tracker will lose the signal, right?
Rene and Dinah’s subplot also is in tread water mode. There’s some arsonists causing trouble in The Glades and the new Green Arrow is trying to track them down. Dinah isn’t interested in finding the arsonist since the mayor wants Green Arrow. I really loathe the storyline where the vigilante is clearly doing good and helping the city, but the cops and officials prioritize stopping the hero instead of the crooks.
Rene convinces Dinah to give the new Green Arrow a chance and they stop the arsonists from igniting a movie theater. Why does Diaz care about these random shock tactics now that he has super powers? Better yet, why didn’t Dinah just unmask Green Arrow III while Rene was helping pull him out of the wreckage?
The episodes are starting to feel disconnected. Outside of Silencer’s ‘escape’ there really wasn’t much of anything that happened on the main timeline.
Not much more occurred in the flash forwards either. Roy and William are back in Star City, which is largely in shambles, including Smoak Tech. William inherited Felicity’s Snarky Super Hacker skills apparently while Roy looks on in amazement. Sigh. Nothing ever changes in the Arrowverse!
Future Dinah arrives to help them stop a couple of security guards. Is Roy actually ever going to do anything cool this season? Dinah is back in a costume and assured William the guards would have killed her and Roy for being former vigilantes. Star City fell when The Glades rose and now there’s a small vigilante resistance fighting to save it. And one of their members is an adult Zoe (Andrea Sixtos). The present day scene with Dinah giving Zoe a canary pin felt way too on the nose. Subtlety isn’t a bad thing Arrow writers.
After triggering a digital map encoded in a Rubik’s Cube, William can’t wait to find Felicity. But Dinah has some bad news. Felicity is dead. Take me to this future ASAP!
Level Two is the kind of episode in a 13-episode season would warrant about 15 minutes. Instead, it’s a full 45-minute episode that already feels like it’s being stretched out.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Photo Credit: The CW