WARNING: The following article contains spoilers from episode 11 of Arrow Season 7 titled “Past Sins.” Do not read if you have not seen the episode or read on at your own risk of being spoiled.
The seventh season of Arrow is one of the best in a very, very long time. In fact, it might be the best since its sophomore season back in 2013. The theme of the current season is all about redemption and Monday night’s show saw Oliver (Stephen Amell) and somewhat-evil-but-turning-into-good Laurel (Katie Cassidy) redeem themselves and right some wrongs.
The episode picks up with Oliver doing a television interview to discuss his new role with the SCPD. We see a flashback to Oliver’s meeting with Emiko (Sea Shimooka) from last week and viewers can tell that it is going to be a struggle for Oliver as Emiko feels he will be just how their father was.
Now, this is something I do not necessarily agree with. While I do understand Emiko’s anger, Oliver didn’t even know she existed until 12 hours earlier. So he really can’t be blamed for not reaching out or contacting her, can he?
Oliver is put to the test after someone kidnaps the reporter and threatens to kill people if Oliver does not quit the SCPD. Now at this time, I’m wondering who it could be and think it has to be someone that viewers have seen before. More on that in a moment.
It isn’t long before Oliver realizes that the kidnapper is saying some of the same words that Dr. Parker used while at Slabside. Thanks to some digging, Samuel Hackett (Luke Camilleri) is uncovered as the person at the center of the kidnappings after hacking the SCPD and reading some of Parker’s classified files. They search his home and find out that he has hope his father is still alive.
This causes Oliver to feel guilty because it is preventing Samuel from getting closure and Oliver realizes this. With that said, I’m not too sure how this ties in to where we currently are in the season; it would have made more sense to have this right after Oliver got out of prison to show his “changed” and “reformed” side. But well, here we are.
Samuel doesn’t stop there as he takes the SCPD hostage and straps three officers with electric shocking devices, telling the cops either they kill Oliver or he will kill them. Dinah (Juliana Harkavy) heads outside to disable the circuit box, leaving Oliver to confront Samuel and apologize. Oliver succeeds in disarming him and kept his promise that they would be safe. I hope that’s enough to make the SCPD cool with working with Oliver from here on out.
Oliver does another TV interview and reveals what happened on the raft with his father. With Emiko watching, she realizes she needs to give Oliver a chance.
Meanwhile, Laurel was dealing with some big issues this episode as well. Back on Earth-2, she used her powers on Brett Collins, the drunk driver who killed her father. She wanted revenge and her new found powers gave her exactly that. Now she is on Earth-1, aka “our” earth, and has gotten some pretty creepy notes. She assumes Brett has time traveled to Earth-1 and wants to kill her. But this isn’t The Flash. However, the truth is Earth-1 Brett just hates vigilantes and is locked away in the SCPD jail.
So that’s it, right? Nope, not so fast. At the end of the episode, Dinah gets in her car and gets a creepy note too. That means Brett was not the person who was sending them. So who is?
I think it’s Stan. Remember that guy who was supposed to be Oliver’s friend in prison but was actually a bucket of nuts? Yeah him. We all know he is coming back eventually and this might be that time.
Episode Notes:
- David Ramsey, who plays Diggle, directed the episode. He did a pretty good job and told the story in a really solid way.
- The other plot of the episode involved Diggle and Lyla’s (Audrey Marie Anderson) reinstated Suicide Squad of Diaz, Cupid, China White, and Lil Slade get put into action. This does not sit well with Curtis, who uses Diaz for a virtual reality simulation to find out Dante’s location. This only convinces John that the program is needed more than ever. Not a smart move, Curtis.
Who do you think is sending the notes? Let me know in the comments below!
Arrow airs Mondays at 8/7c on The CW.