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At this point in the season, it feels a bit like Timeless is checking off boxes on what the show has left hanging while giving their characters something of a sendoff before launching into the finale. For anyone following the ratings, it's very likely the show knows it has limited time left (no pun intended) but it also wants to do the job of servicing most of the characters it has left in some way. In "Delta Blues", the show does what it can in some ways to give Connor Mason a happy ending of sorts.
Connor Mason has always been an interesting character, but in some ways relegated to the sidelines as part of the format of Timeless for a large part of it. His buildup and arc over the first season as a part of Rittenhouse (largely due to their funding of this Mothership/Lifeboat project) constantly had him bouncing back and forth as an ally or villain when needed. At the end of it, he showed everyone he was playing the long game and ultimately helped with the government in apprehending a good chunk of Rittenhouse. In the second season however, there was not much for Connor Mason to do after his company was literally scuttled away by Rittenhouse.
In some ways, early on in the second season, the show did not shy away from reminding us that Connor Mason was but a figurehead and long past his prime in some ways, and the explosion at Mason Industries was there to further disgrace him. Connor didn't have much involvement whereas Rufus and Jiya continued to remain instrumental in the fight against Rittenhouse by being involved in all the operations of the Lifeboat and he was left to really just mope around.
Luckily the story of the week is something that is entirely in Connor Mason's wheelhouse. "Delta Blues" is a fascinating episode because it helps frame and give Connor Mason some extra depth and complexity beyond being an Elon Musk facsimile. Perhaps the initial intent of having a Black Brit contrast with Rufus' sense of race different was but a passing blurb and a reference to Mason's actor - this was referenced way back in the pilot - though it never truly went beyond that. With "Delta Blues", it provides an interesting depth by proving him with the appreciation and expertise in Depression-era blues music, right down to the minutiae of it. It's through Mason that he explains how the birth of the blues is how rock and roll came to be, and Lucy is able to see how it helps explain much of the counterculture that comes through in the twentieth century, and why Rittenhouse might care to stymie the rise of it.
For obvious reasons, Connor starts to see himself through the musician Robert Johnson that they're there to save. As the story goes, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil to help find his way to achieve success, but now with Rittenhouse's intervention, he starts to feel like it was more of a monkey's paw type of deal. It doesn't take long for Connor Mason to feel like he's met a kindred spirit (that he's also a fan of), but it takes a bit of coaxing and reminder from Rufus that he used to be an inspirational figure himself. It's great to see the show hasn't forgotten about the student/mentor relationship the two men share, even though it was twisted and perverted at times back in the first season; the scene between the two in the juke joint is telling enough that there's plenty of history between the two, and Joseph and Barrett do a fantastic job conveying it. It's an nice bookend to someone like Connor Mason, who was deathly afraid of his own invention after making a deal with the devil to usher it into creation. At the end of the hour, he's the one who needs to save history as we know it, while ending up leaving his own mark on it. The final expression from Connor Mason as he hears himself on the record sells the entire struggle of his character.
Meanwhile, the show moves to bring Lucy and Flynn closer together now that he's been flying more missions with the team. I don't think the show is trying to move them into a romantic angle, but the two are connected by personal losses that they believe can be rectified with some proper application of time travel. Flynn tries to bond with the Lucy from the future and through the journal he's read over and over, though Lucy still can't come to terms with it. It's only when he decides to connect with the Lucy in the present do they establish the bond he thinks he's found in her writings.
As for Wyatt, getting the chance to take down Rittenhouse proves to be an interesting mission for him to tackle solo; at least he got to handle modern equipment and weaponry for once, as he reminds us. The show does not do a great job of showing us the scale of what Rittenhouse is this season. I assume the arrests made in season one mostly hampered the organization to say, a tenth of their current size and they're fighting to come back, and it's supposedly being led by Carol and Emma. It just seems odd because Rittenhouse right now is mostly a bunch of faceless background extras flanking Carol (who's joined their ranks in the weeks prior) along with Emma and Nicholas. They don't seem as menacing as the evil cabal that seemed to control a good portion of America in season one. Even the sleeper agents that our heroes run into in their adventures don't really make much of an impression unfortunately. Adding on to that, the fairly glacial pace with what Timeless wants to do with Carol makes for a relatively uninteresting watch when Rittenhouse is on screen. Luckily, their presence is fairly unneeded to make an episode of Timeless feel magical.
Miscellaneous thoughts:
- Flynn finally getting a gun is incredibly funny, as he cannot contain his excitement, even though I'm sure he's had to acquire a gun or two in his last trip.
- Rufus admonishing Connor for trying to turn their time travel missions into life counselling sessions is a little funny considering most times our heroes end up taking cues and asking for life advice from historical figures they come across all the time.
- I was tempted, but I felt like fitting in a groove pun (both music and vinyl record) would've been a little too much.
- The episode ends with Jiya foretelling Rufus' supposed death, but it's detailed enough that it's just as easy for him to possibly avoid leaving the Lifeboat, unless it's absolutely necessary. Just a tease, really, for the finale probably, so it's hard to see where it goes until then.
For someone who has been wondering exactly when they might focus more of the big bad of the season, Ricardo Diaz, "The Dragon" comes at just the right time to pique some interest in the show's interpretation of the character, but it ends up coming off as a little unsatisfactory for those who hoped they might get a deeper dive into the villain or perhaps allow the audience to sympathize with him somehow. Don't get me wrong, the focus on Diaz's side of his operations was a breath of fresh air in a season of Arrow by breaking the traditional point-of-view of the show. The only problems is that it feels a little late, and doesn't really offer a particularly interesting story to explain Diaz who he is, unless you mean to present him simply as a force of nature with some patience behind him, but also a short fuse.
Now that Diaz has completed his takeover of Star City, he and Black Siren head to Bludhaven to meet with a member of The Quadrant, a supposed criminal enterprise that spans the entire country. He wants to sell them on the idea that Star City is basically completely taken over, and safe to operate in; he just wants a seat at the table in exchange. I suppose the fact that it's also helmed at the top by four people is something the show deliberately obfuscates until the very end, when it's revealed that four people (who are not really identified) are in charge of pretty much all organized crime in America.
The show wants us to show us who Diaz is, and where he came from, but it's limited to a small scene of a young Diaz being bullied by an older boy with a lighter. It's in some way a sort of rags-to-riches story for Ricardo Diaz, as he comes from nothing, but rejoices when he gets his seat in The Quadrant and is titled "crime lord" by Laurel by the end of the hour. All of that is driven by a fear of powerlessness that the bully Jesse had instilled in Diaz as a young boy. Becoming part of The Quadrant isn't merely the next step in Diaz's plans for his criminal enterprise, it's the last rung on the ladder he needs to climb to finally shed the fear of the young boy that he's carried with him since then, the show argues.
It's an interesting idea to have Diaz driven solely by this fear that he'll be remembered (or rather forgotten) as a nobody. The word "loser" is a strong motif in this episode, as it's the label that Diaz wants to shed. The Cartiers Sr. and Jr., who Diaz want to win over, see him as nothing but an uncouth street thug. By getting that seat on The Quadrant, he feels as if he's finally earned the respect that he's deserved, and he's able to get his payback on Jesse, decades after Jesse has moved on and has forgotten about Diaz. He didn't make much of an impression, Diaz says. In some ways, therein lies the rub: Diaz in many ways hasn't made a big impression, both in a textual sense (he wants to manipulate and control Star City in the background) and the metatextual sense (it's not really until "The Dragon" where Arrow gives us more than an inkling of what or who Ricardo Diaz is) but the episode is all about Diaz doing all he can to be noticed.
With that final moment to work with though, Diaz is drawn sufficiently enough to give the audience some understanding of who he is. He's a man with one hell of a chip on his shoulder who just happens to have an idea of planning long term. Unfortunately the show doesn't really explain just exactly how Diaz is also such a physical presence, though it could be explained that his earlier defeats at the hand of Team Arrow were just to downplay his abilities. Regardless, "The Dragon" shows us that Ricardo Diaz is basically John Wick, except with one hell of a brutal mean streak, even if we don't know exactly the pedigree of his training (this is one of the few seasons where the villain has little to no connection to the League of Assassins) considering it's rather doubtful a street thug with some aspirations to something greater didn't at least enlist in the armed forces or was taught by someone who was. But either way, at least the episode allows us to understand that Diaz is a competent physical threat to our heroes, something that I had remained doubtful of up until last week.
The episode also does a very obvious job of showing us that Diaz's level of brutality is definitely not for Laurel's tastes, as it constantly cuts away to show her wincing at or questioning many of Diaz's over-the-top uses of excessive force. It will likely work somehow into some redemption arc for Laurel, as the show constantly shows us she's either getting squeamish about the criminal way of life, or maybe Diaz is just too much, even for her.
It's an interesting surprise to put Oliver back on the sidelines, which hasn't been the case since Diggle wore the Green Arrow costume earlier in the season. To be fair, this is an episode of Arrow that breaks the traditional point-of-view storytelling we're used to, so it is a breath of fresh air to have Diaz star in his own story in some ways as the protagonist. I can imagine the Felicity-Curtis scenes trying to work at Helix were created to make sure Stephen Amell made an on-screen appearance this episode, as well as try to reason out why Oliver would abandon Felicity, as well as how she would react. Curtis' reactions to everyone jumping ship from Old Team Arrow almost felt as if he wanted to just recruit Diggle and Felicity and rename themselves Team Everyone But Green Arrow.
Miscellaneous thoughts:
- Regardless of my thoughts on Diaz being able to have the same overall physical style as John Wick, impressive job on behalf of the stunt team.
- "And what would you have done if they shot you in the head?"
- "Plans are like men. It's best the avoid the complicated ones." Laurel has the best lines.
Through six seasons, we've followed Oliver Queen's crusade and at times it's painfully obvious he is the one instrumental to his own downfall, sometimes more so than the actual villain he's facing. It's an interesting character flaw at times, even when it's given poor execution, but at some point, it's become so recurring it feels like an indelible mark on the main protagonist that curses the show as it strides forward. It's as if Oliver Queen would be able to get his city together in a decent time if he had a support system he didn't frequently abandon when the going got a little too tough. And more often than not, that is exactly how a season of Arrow carries itself in one way or another. Bringing back Josh Segarra to play as Prometheus is a fun dynamic, but the ghosts of self-awareness past sometimes feel like they've come too little, too late, and feel nothing more than a cloying wink at the audience to say "we'll do better next time, promise."
The entire premise of "Fundamentals" is that Oliver is going through a Vertigo dosing from Councilmen Kullens and starts hallucinating that his life is in a bigger shambles than it already is. At the end of it, Oliver decides it's time to stop stretching himself so thin (as Diggle so readily reminded us last week), and recommit fully to his crusade by saving Star City and doing so alone. Again, Oliver is the classic over-corrector, so having him abandon Felicity is a little much in an attempt to go solo, especially for an episode all about Arrow's sudden need for self-awareness. It's an interesting well to return to, considering the last few times that Oliver has abandoned his team, he finds a way to be reminded that his allies and partners in his crusade are the ones that keep him both balanced and alive enough to continue what he set out to do over half a decade ago. Since that is the nearly the trajectory of other seasons where Oliver alienates his team at this point of the season, there has to be some gamble by the show to either fully commit to keeping Oliver alone, or having the buck stop after this breakdown.
It's an interesting dynamic to use Adrian Chase/Prometheus as basically a dark reflection of Oliver Queen. It's not actually Adrian but an image that acts as Oliver's dark impulses and the episode treats him very much as the devil on his shoulder. The show is aware enough of itself that it literally spells it out with Adrian's speech in the bunker: no villain is better at taking down Oliver Queen than Oliver Queen himself. I guess it would have been nice to have Prometheus disappear entirely and have his dark voice in his head completely replaced by season one Oliver/The Hood, but that would probably have distracted from the desire the show had to give Oliver an action sequence in his season one costume.
The hallucinations come in waves, showing Oliver's greatest fears, but also making him more irate and anxious. He blows up in from of Felicity and William (in, hilariously, a rather sanitized and calm way) and hallucinates that Felicity wishes to separate from him because of this outburst. He recounts how he's broken Laurel over and over again ever since leaving on the Gambit, and then allowing her to become Black Canary, only to be killed because she didn't have the training to be a vigilante. Dinah, Rene, and Curtis also get their hits in as they deride him for hospitalizing Rene.
The reason for Ricardo Diaz holding back on killing Oliver is to make sure he's not martyred as a figure by the city, so he chooses instead to disgrace Oliver in every way he can think of. It's a little questionable to say it's only the beginning of his plan, seeing as if Oliver was killed, there would be little love lost by the city. Though I suppose the hard part of Diaz is now is rooting out someone who's no longer a public figure and knows he's cornered. Hopefully the final stretch of episodes feature more of Diaz, what exactly he has to offer as a villain, and some idea of what his plan is for Star City, because, like Oliver's Adrian Chase told us, Oliver is doing a good enough job tearing his life apart that Diaz is probably spending more time catching up on his Netflix binge list than having to orchestrate something else to dismantle Oliver Queen's support system. In that way, it makes Ricardo Diaz, in some ways, not really that threatening or much of a worthy antagonist, especially when a hallucination of Adrian Chase is powerful enough to remind you of how well he was used both in the previous season, and the last hour.
Miscellaneous thoughts:
- I'm not sure what to make of the Ricardo Diaz hallucination though, since it means Oliver is at least somewhat aware Diaz is trying to dismantle Oliver before killing him. Which is weird because of the repeating "more dangerous as a martyr than Green Arrow" line.
- Cannot get over how amazing Adrian Chase is in this episode, just lounging around in the background when Oliver is busy with city council, or egging Oliver on to go above and beyond the dangerous.
Timeless decides to basically take the week off in period garb, and it pays off surprisingly well with the change in pace by bringing someone from the past into the present. Although the show is always firmly rooted on in the trio of Lucy, Wyatt, and Rufus, in the past year they've taken on more allies and those allies have become more entangled in their adventures, albeit usually on the events in the sidelines. With "The Kennedy Curse", the crisis of the week allows all the characters to bounce off one another with having to deal with a young JFK wandering around in the present, rather than having the supporting characters pop in for a quick brief at the start of the episode, tag in for their scenes for their respective subplots, then appear again for the denouement (unless you're Flynn this week). It makes for a more energetic episode where the entire cast isn't literally separated by the gulf that is literal decades and helps bring a lot of focus on most of the episode to a singular purpose.
As I had stated in the review for the previous episode, the show continues to move briskly with Jessica involved, giving the feeling the whole young JFK to the present plot was constructed wholly so it would be possible to get Wyatt, Lucy, and Jessica to share the bulk of the episode's scenes together without having to find a more convoluted reason for her to take a trip in the Lifeboat (though the show also teases Rufus and Jiya trying to add an official fourth seat). A young JFK escapes his supposed confinement in the team's bunker, and the show surprises as well by not simply confining the episode to the bunker itself, letting him escape into the wilder world and having to react to knowing he's literally time travelled.
Lucy accompanies Wyatt into the field if only to size up Jessica, who only wants to follow along and not feel useless. And of course if Lucy is able to handle it, she should too. It makes for an interesting dynamic by seemingly pitting the two women together but at odds, held together by Wyatt's presence. The back and forth comes and goes with Jessica being able to rise to the occasion, and Lucy being able to employ her expertise towards the hunt for JFK. Lucy begins to realize that there's an immense amount of history between Jessica and Wyatt that no amount of life-or-death adventuring with Wyatt could possibly outdo what bond the two have. Despite Jessica's misgivings about how Wyatt had treated her in the past, Lucy is correct when she tells Jessica of his devotion to her. Wyatt is as committed as he says he is, because Lucy witnessed all of Wyatt's attempts in season one to bring her back, driven from his guilt of losing her and thinking he could bring her back. Sure, it pushes Lucy further away from Wyatt in a romantic sense, but for everyone involved, it is, as they say, "complicated" beyond any measure.
Meanwhile, Rufus, Jiya, and Connor play the role of tech support back at the bunker, and it leads to Rufus and Jiya pondering further about just how causality just might work within the confines of Timeless. It makes one wonder how much their conversation is the writers trying to work through the messy mechanics of time travel and causality, and how much of it is just the fact that it's two technically apt people trying to work their way through everything they've faced. Timeless seems to have some firm rules set on how time travel works in the show, but it is interesting to have Rufus and Jiya muse over causality. If the present hasn't changed significantly and everyone is still aware of JFK as president, doesn't that mean that you can conclude JFK will be returned to his place in time, and will carry on as he's supposed to? It does make that one errant scene of the JFK quarter weird in the context of that conversation; it transforms into Nixon even though ultimately JFK comes out unharmed when Emma attacks and it's never shown again. The show even implies JFK's history generally follows the same trajectory despite Rufus' request to avoid his own assassination.
The subplot between Denise and Carol comes off strong because it's played off with two strong actors (Jaffrey and Thompson), but unfortunately for me, there's very little to work with other than the generic threat to the Christopher family deal. Lucy ends up really making the final decision though, sort of removing Agent Christopher from the equation despite the risk involved to someone's family. I'll be genuinely curious though if this point really comes up again or has some follow-through as a result of it.
As for the episode's namesake, JFK ends up playing a fairly minor role, which is par for the course with Timeless. Much of the episode is spent either in awe of or confused by a way of life that's drastically different from yours. It's not really until the final act where JFK and Kayla share some moments together and the two are given some time to develop some sense of either who these characters are. The Kennedy family curse itself may have also gotten worse as the young JFK gets a chance to see his short-lived fate, as recorded by Wikipedia, and has to live with the burden of knowing the future of himself and his family, and as the episode ends up telling us, unable to really change much, only being able to simply live his life more or less as expected, give or take a few minor details. It leaves one wondering exactly how malleable or resilient history is to change in Timeless, given that the show doesn't seem to give a firm answer. In the meantime, it's worth the ride that episodes like "The Kennedy Curse" provide.
- It's worth mentioning a bit but Rufus and Jiya have come up against the brick wall that is fundamental differences in philosophies and worldviews, borne out of trying to figure out how causality is supposed to work. That's usually a relationship breaker, so I'll be interested to see where it goes.
- Despite Flynn being missing, there is a good amount of chemistry and banter about and involving Flynn, especially when he returns from the past.
Finally, it feels like Timeless has produced an episode with a lot of movement this season after lingering in the wake of its season two premiere. There were a lot of errant plot threads that didn't seem to amount to much finally being addressed in "The Salem Witch Hunt" that seem to set the show in interesting directions moving forward. With not much time left in the season, it's strange to see the show trying to take its time getting to its more interesting stories.
Firstly, Timeless did a great job in moving much more briskly with Jessica than I was expecting by placing her in the bunker with the rest of the team by the end of the episode, but also attaching a lot of interesting baggage on the character, and by extension Wyatt. I remain optimistic about how the show will handle her, as she could be an interesting dynamic that exists beyond "getting in the way of" Lucy and Wyatt. Assuming Jessica is nothing more than a diversion or complication in that sense, there are still interesting threads weaved through the episode. Does Rittenhouse just simply plan to unbalance the team by bringing her back? With Flynn taking a more active, and positive role with Lucy and Rufus, the show does give the impression that the team is malleable and can work without Wyatt acting as muscle (or as in season one's "The Lost Generation" showed us, how Lucy and Rufus have to compensate when they have none).
I was expecting a long, drawn-out reveal that Rittenhouse was behind Jessica's return; except the show decided to explain what happened in the span of thirty seconds and focus on the consequences instead. Having the follow up to Wyatt's mission to bring back Jessica in season one to having her back and trying to convince Jessica to reconcile will be an interesting story to see. Even if the implications that she could very well become a Rittenhouse double-agent (or triple-agent) seems to always be waiting in the wings because of the circumstances, at least the show is smart enough to acknowledge it.
Speaking of consequences, this episode also finally addressed Jiya's premonitions, and they all seem to center on Rufus. I thought it a bit clumsy to show her premonition an episode in advance, almost as a teaser, but it works in a way that you might expect the next week's episode promo to work, having the audience parse out of context snippets meant to catch your attention. It does a good job weaving in the story of the week, Rufus' and Jiya's personal struggles with time travel, as well as weaving in the show's themes of fate/free will (through time travel, of course) into the equation. The show never settles into a strict right and wrong (or rather factual vs. subjective) reading of the situation, preferring to express it through its characters. The pilgrim Jiya saw in her visions might have only been meant to die because she told the team about it, causing him to become involved with Rufus' journey to begin with. While the trope is a staple of time travel stories, it can be interesting with proper execution, and at least "Salem" puts the show in the right direction.
Rufus' arc through Salem is an interesting one because it contrasts to Lucy's in a drastically different way despite the two of them being almost inseparable except for a creepy cabin. Lucy is definitely determined to make sure Benjamin Franklin's mother doesn't get hanged as a witch in order to save the America she knows from going under, but also to make sure values like criticizing authority don't get taken away by Rittenhouse. Lucy has mostly existed on the show, in many ways, to ensure history survives as best it can despite outside manipulation, but her change in attitudes at the climax of the episode seemingly move her in another - and fascinating - direction. She empathizes with the women who she knows will hang for no good reason, and decides to save them all instead of leaving them to their known fates, consequences be damned. Perhaps Lucy is fully set on the path to destroy Rittenhouse, fixing one problem on the way at a time. After all, Lucy knows now more than ever that she is working with Flynn on the right side of history, and maybe she thinks should be able to help shape it for the better rather than just try to fix what she sees as broken to begin with.
As someone who studied history, it's an interesting idea by itself, but also something to be wary of: which is to apply your modern, contemporary values to a past that didn't hold your values. Though we know Lucy is the hero of the tale that is Timeless, is her attempt to reshape history (another word might be to "clean" or "sanitize") in "Salem" going to continue? And if so, does that make her any different from what Rittenhouse is trying to do?
Miscellaneous thoughts:
- Pretty bold move by Timeless to cast Patrick Fischler in a bit role in an attempt to trick us into thinking he's the Rittenhouse sleeper agent. Anyone who knows their TV guest stars would've easily assumed that a recognizable name in a show like Timeless (or any procedural cop show, really) is the guy who's guilty 99% of the time.
- Not sure how to feel about Nicholas, who still feels like a really cynical version of Sleepy Hollow's Ichabod Crane. He has a plan, but the show is not too keen on sharing it. And of course he doesn't have to care about his granddaughter if only because killing her doesn't erase him from history. It's so painfully obvious the direction the show wants to take Carol in though by making Nicholas just that evil enough.
In the act of whittling down Oliver's allies, Arrow has faced an uphill battle from fans and critics alike. In this recent episode, the show takes aim by separating Diggle from Oliver, finally addressing lingering questions set up early in the season during Diggle's stint as the Green Arrow. While the members of New Team Arrow end up leaving en masse due mostly to Ricardo Diaz's (and Cayden James') scheming (probably knowing Oliver would drive them apart), Diggle's departure (though also intrinsically tied with Diaz, but not wholly induced by him) feels much more organic as the episode centers entirely on how Oliver's greatest ally can no longer simply fight alongside him. It's an interesting sequence of events where we follow Diggle - who throughout the series has generally been the most measured character of the team - seemingly starts to act out of character and slowly has to reconcile six years of fighting for Star City, his own ideals, and Oliver himself.
The big confrontation between the two men is a relative slow build up, starting with Oliver finally deciding to tell Diggle the truth, followed by Diggle needing to sound off on Lyla a few times to try to discover what's really gnawing at him. Oliver apologizes to John, telling him that like Thea the episode prior, his best self is tied to being the Green Arrow. It's interesting the episode doesn't bring back Diggle's line about the Dominator dreams from earlier in the season, as it would colour Diggle in a similar same light; being the Green Arrow was something he had aspirations for or made him feel complete. In "Brothers in Arms" however, Diggle's main focus on wanting to put on the hood is borne out of being the city's protector and committing himself to the task. Oliver on the other hand says he has a similar focus when he is the Green Arrow, but Diggle is unconvinced because he knows that parts of Oliver simply enjoy putting on the costume.
It's not the first time the show itself has commented or argued that Oliver is probably attracted to the adrenaline or power the Green Arrow provides. The argument is messy in a good way; no one side dominates because both men are to blame for their current predicament, all the decisions they've made, and the setbacks they've endured, especially as it relates to Diaz's grip on the city. Although Diggle is to blame for directly funding Diaz, Oliver is wrong that Diaz came into power under Diggle's watch as Diaz had planned for a long time, manipulating Cayden James into igniting the conflict that looms over the season.
Ultimately though, Diggle takes umbrage with Oliver's leadership style, which is something that cannot be argued against, presenting the evidence as it stands: Dinah, Curtis, Rene, (and soon to be) Diggle, have abandoned Oliver. Diggle argues Oliver's way of keeping the city safe is untenable or chafing under his command, and it's not something he can stand by even as he tries to steer Oliver in a more sensible direction. Through the series, Oliver has had a tendency to alienate his allies, becoming at this point almost a yearly exercise in frustration for fans and critics alike. Diggle thinks there is a better way, because although it wasn't said, it is obvious over the last six years, there are points where Oliver is fairly mercurial when overwhelmed. Rather than courting allies, he pushes people away. It's a character trait one should accept at this point, but it makes me wonder if we'll see a season where he overcomes this disastrous trait. He handles the police chief and DA with pure frustration without empathizing with their stressful positions under Diaz, for instance, opting to toss them aside instead of finding a way of working with them, ultimately leading to his decision blowing up in his face. He has stretched himself too thin by mostly playing as mayor (this season mostly where it feels mostly like a figurehead than a lawmaker), alongside being a father and vigilante, and in some ways, the show also feels the same.
Given the late position of the conflict this season, there is some question if the two of them will somehow reconcile, or if Diggle somehow becoming part of ARGUS, and his search for his own path will be the new status quo at least until season seven starts. A qualm I have had with season six is that through all the manipulation that Diaz has orchestrated, there is much, much less screentime for Diaz than should be expected. Say what you will about the poor execution of say, The Flash's Savitar, but at least he had some presence, whereras Diaz feels like a bolted-on afterthought to each episode, and we're left to accept he just has an entire city in his grasp because we are told so (and because money or threatened pressure points are easy to tell without showing). Diaz will have his focus, but at this point, it feels a little too late, at this point to win me back with the main villain arc for this season, which is disappointing.
There's not too much to say about Dinah and Curtis' subplot, which is fairly straightforward, and it culminates in Curtis and Nick trying to work through Nick's anti-vigilante stance. It's unfortunately a shallow exploration in a season that teased world building points like the anti-vigilante law, or for a show that has (or had?) an anti-vigilante police task force. It falls a bit flat but also doesn't leave much wiggle room for Curtis or Nick to express it as character development either.
Miscellaneous thoughts:
- Was hoping to leave this section blank, but I will use it to express my thoughts the final scene, which did not deserve any of the build-up to it in two ways, unfortunately, 1) the fact that villain-Laurel (not lawyer-Laurel) had to remind a city's DA that they were maybe fired by the mayor inappropriately especially in legalese, and 2) there was literally no built up to pairing Diaz and Laurel together, which makes the pairing extra weird, at least to me.
As with Manu Bennett's departure from Arrow, Willa Holland is given a two episode stretch to say goodbye to the character. Of course, being a principal cast member means she's given more finality (given the official departure of the actor) to the situation whereas, from how I understand it, Deathstroke as a character is being taken off the table for DCTV, so having Slade Wilson's departure is a little less final, though it certainly still feels that way. That being said, the focus on Thea is an interesting one, but it means it's another detour for the show, robbing any momentum of the last stretch of Arrow (if it has even started) and the story they set out to tell for season six.
To address it first, the Diaz story remains in the background, handed off to Dinah and Curtis to figure out the dirty details. The subplot acts mostly to provide some more world building, and to help our heroes discover exactly how far-reaching Diaz's influence. The only problem is that we, as the audience, already were told of it four episodes ago that Police Chief Hill is in his pocket, so merely catching our heroes up (besides the fact that Diaz is slinging Vertigo, I guess) seems like a long time to do so with nothing really new to add for the audience. Again, unless the Vertigo angle somehow works its way forward to the next episode (more on that later, though, given the preview for next week's episode), it's a disappointing development that doesn't really justify its screentime, except maybe to pair Curtis off with a boyfriend. Hopefully something will come from that.
Otherwise, much of "The Thanatos Guild" specifically tries to tie Thea and Roy together with Nyssa's quest to dismantle the leftovers of the League of Assassins loyal to Malcolm Merlyn. It's a fun romp that tries to squeeze in some final character development for Thea before her departure and provide some complication in a fairly simple departure from Star City. If anything, the episode's saving grace is Katrina Law's Nyssa al-Ghul, whose performance always brings something enjoyable. She gets in some jokes with mocking Oliver and Felicity's marriage, but at the same time carries a certain gravitas that doesn't necessarily come off as cheesy in any sense.
Specifically with Thea (and by extension Willa Holland), she has not been involved in Arrow very much for a while, and it's somewhat plain to see over the period of the last few years. The last-minute development feels a little rushed, seeing as Thea basically was only ever paired off with Quentin for the longest time in smaller subplots this season and the last with little for her to do except acting as a sounding board for whoever she was paired off with. The show goes for broke, and for me, it somewhat works to tie together Thea and Nyssa's legacy (really, just daddy issues) together, bonding them so that the two of them (plus Roy) can continue having adventures elsewhere instead of riding off into the sunset together. It's a little contrived to begin with, but having Thea explore her reluctance to leave after finding the map/puzzle box (you know, besides having the worry about Thantos Guild ninjas behind your back for the rest of your life) through Roy's return, connecting back to Malcolm's final moments in the season five finale, Nyssa's worldview, and connecting to Oliver's reluctance to give up his mantle an interesting exercise, if rushed to get the point across. But it was central to the whole emotional arc of Thea this episode, so from my perspective it worked well enough.
Of course, leaving the departure open-ended, as well as leaving Athena and many Thanatos assassins alive will always allow the possibility that Thea, Roy, and Nyssa will return (or need Oliver and company to help intervene), which is an exciting thing, but hopefully not for now, as Arrow has yet to show me what Ricardo Diaz is capable of, or if providing a catalyst for more infighting amongst Star City vigilantes will be his only legacy after basically manipulating everything in the background to get the season going.
Miscellaneous thoughts:
- Liked that Thea answered Felicity about what type of Indiana Jones traps were implemented by her late father. Raiders!
- Roy wearing the cap was a nice homage to the comic book version of Roy Harper/Arsenal.
- Again, the preview for the next episode brings in the infighting to Oliver and Diggle, which was a long time boiling. I'm sure the writing will work, but if having to break the team apart is what Arrow has to rely on most of the time through this stretch of the season, it will be disappointing indeed.
- It's never not funny to see Nyssa basically troll Felicity at every opportunity, and she admitted to enjoying it.
Sometimes an episode of Timeless ends up being fairly straightforward, and that's all you need in the world. But other times, you also wish there would be something more drastic happening, as a trip to 1940s Hollywood(land) feels like a transitional episode saddled with fairly straightforward story of the week. It's a fun story nonetheless, but it's not until the very end when all is said and done that Timeless wants to play its hand. With a fairly short second season order of ten episodes, it feels like (from personal experience) that everything is down to the line, especially in an environment where they might not be able to save Timeless again for a third season. A fun hour of television is always good, but sometimes it feels like the show is a little lost for direction when it should be making some more moves.
The episode shines when the three heroes are on display, taking in the sights of another era, and enjoying themselves. There's a lot of energy to be mined with the three principal characters, so the weekly dose of the three is always welcome, despite any of my misgivings. Props specifically goes out to Abigail Spencer who gets a nice, rousing musical performance into the episode. Meanwhile, as Wyatt and Lucy get closer and closer romantically, it's great to see the chemistry between everyone, especially Rufus when he discovers the pair post-coitus and can't contain his nervous energy.
It's a fairly laid-back episode where - if I'm being honest - the Rittenhouse portion of the plot feels like an afterthought to highlight the era. It hits all the beats of the cabal trying to rein in history to their advantage, this time by stealing Citizen Kane to get William Randolph Hearst to let them publish a single article in his papers. It's a little surprising someone like Hearst wasn't already a Rittenhouse member, since earlier episodes seemed to imply Rittenhouse was so well ingrained in America's elite around this time that someone owning a giant media company wasn't already in cahoots. Hedy Lamarr is a fun addition and has fun bouncing off the cast, though it felt a lot like she was just included so the show could make a point about her notable achievements than really providing a catalyst for character development (other than getting Lucy and Wyatt to finally hook up) that usually works well in the show's format.
Unfortunately, because Rittenhouse feels like an afterthought in this episode, actors like Teddy Sears are wasted playing a minor plot point to something that could have had interesting implications. There's a handful of scenes where there's something for Sears to work with - most notably the two he shares with his father - that gives the growing sense that these sinister agents have gone native, as they say. It's interesting how none of these agents (Lucas and Ryan from last week) neither seek out any Rittenhouse support structure (you'd think they'd have a secret handshake or something) to prevent them from enjoying themselves too much, or had more concrete plans. The writing comes off giving the impression that Rittenhouse dumped Lucas off in 1925-26 Hollywood with barely a plan except to integrate themselves before waiting for someone to come back to relay their final orders. This sort of implies that Nicholas Keynes' arrival in the present isn't simply a catalyst for Rittenhouse's sleepers to activate, but that he has to micromanage them, and beforehand, there was no concrete plan for these sleepers until he showed up. I wish there was some more danger to Rittenhouse's plans, for instance, maybe even replacing a historical figure with a Rittenhouse agent, to truly up the stakes.
In the final moments, Timeless finally unites Flynn with our heroes. He feels like a necessary addition to the team and hopefully will prove to be an interesting foil considering that Rittenhouse sleeper agents have been somewhat lacking in personality. Considering neither Wersching or Thompson had their statuses bumped up, it means there might be a lack of personality to Rittenhouse for the time being to balance out the spectacular cast of protagonists. It's a good thing Flynn might take a more active role in season two, and maybe provide interesting complications for the team. On the same note, reviving Jessica for Wyatt has interesting implications, though we've not heard a word from her yet, so it's too early to say if she factors into anything involving the Rittenhouse arc, or if her return is somehow some kind of causality working itself out (maybe the security guard that is killed in 1941 someone connects to her disappearance). Either way, I'm sure it's enough to cause fans of Lucy and Wyatt to burst into flames shortly after the pairing came together.
Miscellaneous thoughts:
- Not much again on Jiya this week, as it's kind of slow development again, though I did enjoy her rationale on avoiding doctors. She's "healed" in a sense by time travel via the Lifeboat, but the implications still feel too far out to make any prediction what it could mean, since the visions and seizures are still there.
- Seems like the episode was made for poking fun at Hollywood culture. "Who knows what writers look like?", or "Writers are a dime a dozen." Writers know exactly who they're writing for here.
- "TV, it's the future," says the man from 2018. Too bad his attempt at making Jurassic Park probably gave him away.
