Arrow #2-20 Recap | A True Mother

<p>This week’s episode of <em>Arrow<&sol;em>&comma; which the creators of the show have been calling the beginning of a four-episode season finale&comma; exemplified everything about the show that we have all grown to love this season&period; It was intense&comma; bold&comma; emotional&comma; and powerful&comma; and it delivered where it counted&comma; when it counted&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Seeing Red<&sol;em> picked up right where <em>The Man Under the Hood<&sol;em> left off&comma; and we rejoined Oliver&comma; Diggle&comma; Felicity&comma; and Sara as they attempted to find a cure for the Mirakuru that threatened to unravel Roy’s body&comma; and as we see later on in the episode&comma; his psyche&period; While having the Mirakuru send Roy on a rampage was an expected twist to be sure&comma; I think seeing him finally snap like that has been long overdue&comma; especially considering just how rough these past couple episodes have been for him and how the Mirakuru has only made it all worse&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While Roy&&num;8217&semi;s violent outbreak didn&&num;8217&semi;t quite reach the heights it could have&comma; primarily because he ended up exactly the same way he started&comma; the scenario did allow for some really great moments&comma; including several examples of just how violent the Mirakuru can make someone&comma; as Roy injured almost almost a dozen people and even killed a police officer in a particularly violent scene&period; He also managed to take down both Sara and Oliver in a fight at the same time when they came to confront him&comma; which was no small feat to be sure&period; Roy actually came dangerously close to paralyzing Oliver for good when he brutally stomped down on his knee after he had already won the fight&comma; and I know I wasn&&num;8217&semi;t the only who winced as Oliver screamed out in pain&period; It was a brutal moment&comma; but I appreciated the reminder that Oliver is far from invincible as we saw him struggle with the pain of the injury for the rest of the episode&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As Roy got increasingly more out of control&comma; however&comma; Oliver had to decide whether or not he could truly be saved&comma; or if he was doomed to leave a trail of bodies behind him&period; As it turns out&comma; however&comma; it was Sara who was the one willing to end it when the time came for it&comma; and as Roy held Thea in the air by her throat&comma; seemingly ready to kill her&comma; I almost thought that would be the end for him&period; Sara seemed awfully eager to put him down like the mad dog he seemed to be&comma; but as was expected&comma; Oliver came to the rescue and subdued Roy with the same powerful snake poison he used on Slade a couple episodes back&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;red1-e1398533538341&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-61271 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;05110545&sol;red1-e1398533857426&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Arrow-Canary" width&equals;"700" height&equals;"488" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All this acted as a nice way for Sara to finally confess that she was far from healed from her time on the island&comma; and while I rolled my eyes a little bit at her admittance that she wasn&&num;8217&semi;t safe for Oliver to be close to&comma; I appreciated the development for her character and really look forward to seeing where she goes from here&period; Especially if it includes bring Malcolm Merlyn or the League of Assassins back into the mix for the upcoming season finale&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; the real standout moment from <em>Seeing Red<&sol;em> was in its final minutes&period; While it&&num;8217&semi;s true that I&&num;8217&semi;ve had some mixed feelings for Moira throughout the show&comma;<em> Seeing Red<&sol;em> defined her character in a way that the show hasn&&num;8217&semi;t been able to do before&comma; and it perfectly married the selfish manipulator we know her to be with the devoted and caring mother she strives to be&period; The flashback involving her dealing with Oliver’s confession of having gotten a girl pregnant just emphasized this further&comma; as she literally went on to bribe the young girl to disappear forever and lie to Oliver about the baby’s survival&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This all came to an inevitable climax when&comma; after delivering a powerful speech at the final rally for her candidacy for Mayor of Starling City&comma; Moira&comma; along with Oliver and Thea&comma; were assaulted and subsequently kidnapped by Slade Wilson himself&comma; who had his own dark motives in mind&period; It was a powerful scene to see Oliver wake up and see his mother and sister being held at gunpoint in front of him&comma; in the same way Sara and Shado were back on the island&comma; and the anguish Oliver exhibited as he realized he had to chose for one to live&comma; and one to die was heartbreaking&period; This might just be one of the best episodes for actor Stephen Amell&comma; as he perfectly nailed the many different aspects of Oliver&&num;8217&semi;s character&comma; and it just goes to show how far he&&num;8217&semi;s come since the first episode&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The performances from everyone involved were truly spectacular&comma; and Moira&&num;8217&semi;s final words&comma; as she gained the courage to literally volunteer for death in order to save her children&comma; sent chills running down my spine and sent her character out on what was probably the highest note possible&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Moira&&num;8217&semi;s death was just as powerful and shocking as Tommy&&num;8217&semi;s was at the end of Season 1&comma; and I applaud the writers of the show for that bold&comma; yet rousing&comma; plot twist&period; The stage is now very much set for an explosive confrontation between Oliver and Slade that can only end badly&comma; and I cannot wait to see it unfold in next week&&num;8217&semi;s episode&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;