TV Show Review

TV Review: ARROW: Season 6, Episode 19: The Dragon [The CW]

Kirk Acevedo Arrow The Dragon

Arrow The Dragon Review

The CW‘s Arrow The Dragon TV Show Review. In Arrow: Season 6, Episode 19: The Dragon, the Green Arrow was largely absent, and yes, he was missed. Instead, we focused on facing our inner “dragons” with Diaz.Oliver (Stephen Amell) did not say a word for 50 minutes. We were left wondering about our hero, wishing we had a word from him while Diaz was busy tearing up the underworld. It did not feel good being sidelined. This was a day in the life of being a civilian in Star City.

The Dragon was mostly about the vicious coming out party of the villainous puppet-master of Season 6, Ricardo Diaz (Kirk Acevedo, of HBO’s Oz). Between glimpses of his rough upbringing in an orphanage to his steady, low-toned stream of dogma on the virtues of master criminality, it is like the writers know that there is a lot of explaining to do.

Besides being Diaz’s character study, The Dragon episode emphasized the feeling of marginalization. Diaz apparently has been driven by this feeling of being unwanted and neglected as a child. As an adult, he is still just out of reach of the in-crowd of organized crime. During the season, he played much of his long game in Star City behind the scenes. Now, he wants the credit he deserves for dismantling Star City’s political structure. He wants to be recognized.

Advertisement
 

Laurel (Katie Cassidy) is clearly the audience perspective. She constantly peppers Diaz with questions and unsolicited comments. We, like she, wonder at every turn, “What exactly are you doing? What is your point?” It turns out that Diaz’s pursuit of absolute power in Star City is mostly clinical, logical with a little bit of emotion mixed in. The lost little boy inside him is still looking for a home, but he figures he has to build it himself …with blood equity.

The theme of marginalization continued as we experienced Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) and Curtis’s (Echo Kellum) perspective from the sidelines. Felicity and Curtis, like us, are the general public now. We only get a snippet of a news report about Green Arrow in the field. The whole episode left us wondering, where is Oliver? Is this what it feels like to not be on the team? This sucks!

Felicity busied herself with Helix, which makes sense. She was “fired” as Overwatch, so now she can focus on her original path of hactivist turned tech genius altruist. Yet, when Curtis shows up to help, the spacious loft filled with technology felt like a cavern. Those two alone, with no Team Arrow related work to do, felt hollow. Not that their banter is not endlessly entertaining, but the situation felt superficial.

This was a very bare bones episode, but it was more than just filler. Oliver needed to remind everyone that he was a capable crusader on his own. Mission accomplished. We have been reminded. Now, don’t disappear on us again!

On the other hand, Diaz needed to be authenticated as a villain. In the end, we got to know him as a blue collar criminal who wanted a literal seat at the table of super villainy. He showed himself to be an organized criminal, methodical and cruel. He is no Slade Wilson, but he is the insidious criminal element that Oliver was tasked with eliminating in the beginning of Arrow. That makes this episode a sort of reset button on the entire series. I am alright with that. Are you?

Leave your thoughts on this review and this episode of Arrow below in the comments section. Readers seeking more Arrow reviews, photos, videos, and information, visit our Arrow Page, our Arrow Google+ Page, Readers seeking more TV show reviews can visit our TV Show Review Page, our TV Show Review Twitter Page, our TV Show Review Facebook Page, and our TV Show Review Google+ Page. Want up-to-the-minute notification? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, and Facebook.

FilmBook's Newsletter

Subscribe to FilmBook’s Daily Newsletter for the latest news!

Thank you for subscribing.

Something went wrong.

PopcornMovieMaiden

I am ...a lover of all things film/TV ...a poet with a law degree ...a D.C. native, who frequents local and international film festivals ...a couch potato with opinions.
Back to top button
Share via
Send this to a friend