Review: Arrow ‘Broken Dolls’

Last week on Arrow, Oliver was in a precarious position, betrayed by Laurel and surrounded by police.  Naturally, our hero can not escape on his own, so here comes Black Canary to the rescue.  By using a nifty sonic device (a tech adaptation of her usual super power), she stuns the cops and the two vigilantes prance away into the night.  Of course then she leaves abruptly, giving Oliver no clue as to who she is or what she actually wants.

Enter the bad guy of the week - The Dollmaker.  Escaped from prison when the earthquake hit The Glades, he has a bad habit of taking pretty girls and loading up their insides with some sort of plastic, thus turning them into human dolls (hence his moniker).  As it turns out, Detective Lance has a past with this guy and now wants to do anything to hunt him down.  When the police tell him to back off because of his personal history, he heads to the newly dubbed “Arrow” for help.

After much chasing and escaping, Oliver finally pins down The Dollmaker.  The baddie, however, has captured Detective Lance and Laurel and plans on taking his revenge.  So it’s Arrow and Black Canary to the rescue.  Meanwhile, in the past, baddies are searching the island, looking for the dead Japanese soldiers that Oliver and his crew found.  For what reason, nobody yet knows.

This episode definitely shined brighter than the previous two and is one of the high points in the series thus far.  The Dollmaker was a truly creepy villain, Black Canary is interesting and mysterious at the same time without the whole thing feeling forced and the action was actually back to par.  And while Oliver now has a policy of not killing people, at least he has retained much of the brutality that an angry vigilante should have.  Further, the reveal of who Black Canary happens to be associated with was a huge bonus.  I won’t spoil it, but let’s just say that Arrow is now tied in deeper with the rest of the DC universe, particularly Batman.

The biggest issue this week was, once again, the actress that plays Laurel.  I’m seriously hoping they decide to kill her off, because personally her acting is killing me and my enjoyment of the show.  But all-in-all, a good episode that redeems the series just enough that I shall continue watching.

For a look at next week’s episode ‘Crucible’, head to this site and check out the trailer and a bunch of pics.

Photo Credits -           

Black Canary courtesy of comicbook.com