ARROW - Season 7.5

REVIEW:  ARROW - SEASON 7, EP. 5: "The Demon"

Things have certainly begun to heat up in the Emerald Archer's world, and this episode gave us some more insights into the mysterious Dr. Parker, we see more from Diggle & Curtis' current mission with ARGUS, Dinah, Laurel, and Felicity hooking up to help Ollie, and the identity of the mysterious Demon is.

Ollie certainly has had more than his fair share of trouble since being put into Slabside.  He's been beat up, beat down, and put through the psychological wringer.  Still, he keeps his head on his shoulders.  Last week was a true test of that when we meet the mysterious Dr. Parker, who's psychological methods seemed a bit suspicious at best, and he was trying to break Oliver down...get him to give up the violent vigilante life.  This week's installment sees him buried in Level Two, where we get a new guard with a tough guy attitude, where Ollie gets a shock bracelet put on his arm...just to keep him in line.  When inquiring about when he gets visitation hours, the guard was only to happy to inform him that his visitation rights were revoked.  This doesn't sit well with him, and neither does that fact that one of the other prisoners transferred down here he knows, and wants information from him about Level Two.  The guy refuses, and proceeds to attack Ollie, who allows him to push him to the ground.  Our favorite guard notices, shocks the other prisoner, and he gets carted off.  

Ollie heads back to his cell, only to be attacked by a figure from the dark.  After taking them down, we find out that it's been the supposedly dead Talia al Ghul.  Talia is apparently the "demon" for which some of the prisoners up top spoke of.  She managed to find her way off Lian Yu, and---thanks to some "medical assistance" from Diaz, but somehow got herself caught and stuck in Slabside.  She plans on getting out, and wants Ollie's help, but he's not having it.  Ollie later sees the guy that shoved him on a gurney coming out of the medical room....dead.  Talia later informs him that he's in danger, as well as everyone else in Level Two.  Ollie decides that he'll help her break out, and they stage a fight to get them both captured.  Once in the lab, we find out that the good Dr. Parker isn't quite the "healer" we expected him to be.  

Meanwhile, Felicity goes to see Ollie, only to find out through Stan that Ollie's visitation rights have been revoked.  Felicity wanted to get word to Ollie that she had a lead on Diaz, and that he'd be going down soon...with Laurel's help.  Laurel tried using her legal leverage, which went for naught.  By hacking into the system, Felicity finds out about Level Two, but realizes it's an "off the book" part of the prison.  With the help of Laurel and Dinah digging through Star City police records, they come across Dr. Parker's records, only to find out his methods to "cure" those who suffer from violent tendencies suffer memory loss.  Felicity realizes that Parker is out to erase Ollie's mind, and is desperate to save him.  At the end, we see that the info that Talia managed to get to Felicity could actually RELEASE Ollie from prison.  We'll see how that works out later.

Ollie and Talia manage to break free of Parker's control, and fight off everyone to escape.  Realizing that if he broke out, he'd be a fugitive, and then he'd never see Felicity again, he hands a flash drive to Talia, tells her to give it to Felicity, and he'd hold off the guards long enough for her to escape.  Ollie does, Talia takes off, and he's beaten down and put back into his cell.  We later see Stan let him know that Felicity has a lead on Diaz, and that they're going to try and take him down.  The good doctor, who managed to escape his ordeal, was about to take off from the prison when he's faced with Talia, who shows NO mercy in her approval of his "methods".

On the ARGUS end of things, we pick up from last week's mission, where Dig and Curtis are tracking down this biological weapon that was stolen.  They talk to their superior about how to obtain it....by having Curtis pose as a man called Santo, who had dealings with this bank guy named Byrd.  There's supposed to be a meet to obtain the weapon, but the deal goes south quickly when Byrd doesn't show up.  Despite Diggle telling Curtis to abort the mission, Curtis sets up the actual meet with Byrd instead.  Curtis is apprehensive about going back out into the field again...especially in the wake of Oliver being arrested.  Curtis feels that it's cost him too much, and doesn't want to put himself in the crosshairs anymore.  Diggle understands, but hands Curtis a pep talk nonetheless.  Apparently it works, because not only does he make the meet, but confronts Byrd and his henchmen in Mr. Terrific fashion...beating the bad guys, and managing to disarm the bomb Byrd had activated.  Despite the success of that mission, another mystery unfolds later back at ARGUS, when Curtis decrypts a file to discover a painting titled "Dante".  Him and Diggle realize there's more to that painting than what they see.

And at the tail end of this episode...we finally see Silencer meeting back up with Diaz, who---SURPRISE!---has Anatole with him, ready to kill him.  

Okay...so this episode had it's fair share of action in it---mostly from the prison fight scenes which were awesome.  Ollie can be brutal as hell when he wants to be.  It was cool to see Parker exposed---I never trusted the man---and his little experiment didn't last long thanks to  Ollie...AND Talia.  Talia showing up again throws a huge monkeywrech into this story.  I have no idea if her role will be expanded, or she was just a 'one-off' for the episode.  However, having Talia out there doing who knows what is just another headache Ollie is going to have to deal with down the road.  When asked how she got to the Slab...we get our nice little Easter Egg in the form of her "ran into an old friend in Gotham".  Uh huh...subtle..NOT!  How many more freakin' hints they gonna drop before we get the brooding bastard on the show, huh?  MAKE.  IT.  HAPPEN!

Laurel and Felicity working together is still a weird dynamic, but we're seeing Laurel make some effort into her redemption...but she's still a bitch.  It's also obvious that throwing Dinah into the mix is like adding oil, vinegar, and water into a solution...each are separate, but, stirred together, they mix for a little bit.  At least enough to find out about the good Dr. Parker and his machinitions.  Plus, now they feel they have an ace in the hole to get Ollie out.  

Curtis and John's working relationship has gotten better, and do enjoy the chemistry between the two.  While Curtis does provide some comic relief this episode, it was good to see him put his brain to use in the field...plus, showing that Mr. Terrific is still alive and well, and can kick some ass when needed.  Curtis might be warming up to that again...we will have to see.

Diaz about ready to kill Anatole for betrayal is nothing new---a plot point to drive the next episode.  We'll see how long a life span Anatole has.  

Well, I did enjoy the epsiode...I like it when they move the plot along, and there's not a lot of drag time.  We're close to getting Ollie free, where he can take down Diaz, and hopefully, help out with whatever the hell it is that Dig, Curtis, and Lila are facing.  I would like to see Diaz's story wrap up soon, so that they can kick off this arc with Lila, Dig, and Curtis into high gear, where Team Arrow will be needed.  Prison action scenes were good, and we'll probably see one or two more before Ollie's set free.  

That wraps it up for this week.  As always, thanks for checking me out.  Pass along the love, and leave a comment---would LOVE to hear from you guys!

Until next week...keep your sights on the bullseye!