Arrow: Spartan (7x19)

Any episode focusing on John Diggle is going to get props from me!

Cons:

The flash-forward stuff is still moving at this really annoying glacial pace. We obviously haven't seen John and Lyla adopt a son, but we now know that Mia's love interest Connor is supposed to be JJ's brother. And yet, we don't actually get to see much of anything here. I want the flash-forward plots to feel relevant and engaging, but everything is moving so slowly, and I just want the pieces to be connected already. We got a lot of father/son dynamics in the main plot with John and his step-father, so I wish I could have felt a stronger connection to this future Diggle family drama. Where is John? Is he dead? Would be nice to have answers to these basic questions at this point.

Pros:

I really liked the stuff with Diggle and his stepfather. It was nice to see some family drama separate from the Queen stuff. All of the family angst is really what drew me to this show in the first place. I like that Oliver was there for John, and helped out however he was able, but was also willing to respect how his friend was feeling. I feel like the script didn't give Oliver and the others a lot of space to be worried when John was taken hostage, but Stephen Amell's performance did a lot of heavy lifting. He was terse and tense and I appreciated the weight of his fear.

I also liked the development with Emiko and Dante, actually. I've had my complaints about Dante as a villain, but I thought his devotion to Emiko was really well illustrated here. It would have been stupid and unrealistic for Emiko to listen to Oliver's words and just instantly run off with him. Instead, she waits for her opportunity to exact revenge for her mother's death. That was a good little twist, because at first I thought maybe Emiko wouldn't believe Oliver at all. We later see that she does believe him, but that belief doesn't mean she'll drop everything and join his side. That's a good blend.

I don't often stop to compliment the action sequences on this show, but I really noticed the awesomeness this week so I thought I'd say something. I think the Emiko and Oliver fights this season have been particularly cool, and I liked Felicity and the General calling the shots during the infiltration scene. Lots of good tension, gunfire, running, and fighting and all that good stuff.

The news that Felicity will be leaving the show at the end of this season has made me view her character development in a very different way. She wants to carve out a legacy of her own, one separate from Team Arrow. I like that motivation for her. Obviously Archer is incredibly dangerous, and by the end of this episode, Felicity seems to realize that on her own. That doesn't mean that her mad scientist instincts won't get her into trouble, though. In some ways I feel like this is the Felicity story-line I've been waiting for all along, and I hope they can stick the landing with it before she's gone.

Sorry this review is so short - my mind is a little scrambled today. The point is, this was a good episode, in a season of Arrow that has felt a little unbalanced for me. I hope we can bring things back home again in time for the end of the season!

8/10