- Title: Arrow – Blast Radius
- wiki: link
As Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) continues to search for Brother Blood (Kevin Alejandro) unaware the man recreating the super-soldier experiments is the same man Oliver is championing for mayor, Laurel (Katie Cassidy) begins digging into the would-be mayor’s past, and a new threat arrives in Starling City in the form of a psychotic bomber named Sharpnel (Sean Maher). When Green Arrow is slowed down by the bomber’s trap it falls on Diggle (David Ramsey) and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) to find the bomb and prevent it from going off.
As we see flashbacks of Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett) loosing control after being exposed to the serum on the island, Roy (Colton Haynes) continues to deal with his own consequences of his exposure to Blood’s version which includes Thea (Willa Holland) witnessing a pair of impossible acts committed by her increasingly secretive boyfriend. And after spending time in Central City with an unconscious Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) following his accident, Felicity return causes some serious tension and unresolved feelings between Oliver and his partner.
“Blast Radius” isn’t a bad episode by any means, but given the strength of the mid-season finale the first episode back is somewhat underwhelming. The island flashbacks offer a farewell to Shado (Celina Jade) but only marginally move that storyline forward. It may be fun for Firefly fans to see Maher but as a villain of the week Shrapnel is one of the show’s least memorable (although it continues the show’s trend to play Suicide Squad bingo). And Laurel’s big discovery to end the episode doesn’t have much of an impact as we’ve known for months just what kind of man Blood truly is. However, with Laurel’s knowledge it will be interesting to see what turn the would-be hero and would-be mayor of the city’s new found friendship takes and how long it will take before Roy begins his own heroic journey.
