Arrow - The Sin-Eater - Review

Arrow “The Sin-Eater” was written by the team of Barbara Bloom and Jenny Lynn and was directed by Mary Lambert. This is Bloom’s first writing credit, but Lambert’s career is fascinating and includes The Blacklist, Madonna’s Like a Prayer video, and Pet Sematary – yes the Stephen King movie! It seems fitting that an all-woman team would be the creative force behind an episode that focused so heavily on the women. I did like the twisted Charlie’s Angels vibe of China White (Kelly Hu), Cupid (Amy Gumenick), and Liza Warner (Rutina Wesley) teaming up! The other thing that I liked about this episode was how the theme of the Sin-Eater wove its way through both past and present storylines. It’s certainly not a new theme for the show, but it was well-written into this episode.

We get a little movement on the Prometheus storyline as Diggle (David Ramsey) and Oliver (Stephen Amell) pay a visit to Amanda Westfield (Corina Akeson), Prometheus’ mother. Oliver completely misjudges her. He thinks that if she learns Prometheus is her son, she’ll give him up. I did like him using the words he always applied to himself – Prometheus has become something else, someone else. How exactly do they not have his name? They know who his mother and father are! It’s a stupid question. Presumably they are asking for an alias? Westfield refuses to allow Oliver to lock her son up like some kind of monster when he’s only acting out because he’s scared and hurting. Of course, their real purpose is to plant the “sniffer” so Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) can get access to Westfield’s electronics.

Susan (Carly Pope) comes to see Oliver before the swearing in ceremony. Oliver realizes that something is wrong, and she blurts out “Are you the Green Arrow?” He says yes – and I thought he was actually telling her! Amell’s face was perfect! I really liked this little exchange as he claims he was just doing a joking thing back. Susan tells him she was working on another story and things came up relating to him, so can we give her a pass for not targeting him?

In the flashbacks, Anatoly (David Nykl) tells Oliver the story of the Sin-Eater – it’s a great tale from folklore. The guy who lives on the edge of the village who eats the sins of the dead to allow them to go on to the afterlife. He takes on their sins as his own. Oliver is staying to take out Gregor (David Meunier) and secure Bratva, but then he’s going back to his life. Anatoly realizes that at this point it’s not really Oliver’s fight.

When Gregor shows up at the hospital, Oliver tries to escape with a still very wounded Anatoly. Gregor has them trapped and tells Anatoly that if he hands over the American “all sins will be forgiven.” Oliver is sure only one of them is going to make it out. Anatoly insists that he doesn’t want Oliver to suffer for his sins, but Oliver jumps up to give himself up. Oliver takes up out Gregor’s men, but Gregor gets the drop on Anatoly.

I have my doubts that police swearing in ceremonies are cause for press conferences, but of course Dinah (Juliana Harkavy) is getting more and more to do. Still not feeling her as a replacement for Katie Cassidy – and of course, she’s also really taking Rory’s (Joe Dinicol) place on the team too. When Quentin (Paul Blackthorne), suggests that Dinah needs a codename, Oliver says he’s been thinking Black Canary. Quentin gives his blessing – so long as she makes Laurel proud. And of course, by the end of the episode Felicity presents Dinah with a mask.

Thea (Willa Holland) takes it upon herself to deal with the Susan situation. I loved Oliver telling her that he’d handled it – he’s had quite a bit of practice at covering his tracks – and I’m with Willa, here. He’s got an abysmal record at keeping his identity secret! Thea goes to Felicity and of course, the two are united in their dislike of Susan. Thea starts by suggesting that they just delete whatever evidence she has. Once they’re in, they see she has a lot of evidence – and it’s only then that it occurs to them that if she got it once she could get it again?

Susan loses her job and comes to Oliver. She tells him she’s been thoroughly discredited, and the timing of someone hacking into her laptop to do it is incredibly suspicious. So, in fact, it really just solidified Susan’s belief that Oliver is the Green Arrow.

Oliver goes to Felicity, who admits to hacking into the computer, but it was Thea who actually planted all the material. Thea insists to Oliver that she didn’t mean for it to go as far as it did. She also tells him that she did it to protect him and to keep his hands clean. Oliver insists that Susan wouldn’t expose him, but Thea is convinced that she would have – and frankly, I think Thea is right.

The Angels attack the triad first. Quentin (Paul Blackthorne) insists on helping because he feels responsible for Warner. Quentin is a sin-eater too. There’s a great scene between Quentin and Thea in which he admits to being responsible for her sins. Thea gives him a sharp reality check. She tells him that he has to stop taking responsibility for other people’s sins – Liza Warner is a criminal! But Thea also admits that she’s committed her own sin.

Curtis (Echo Kellum) is back in the field and is now sporting the iconic jacket of Mr Terrific - complete with "Fairplay" on the arm. He and Rene (Rick Gonzalez) team up again in the field to discover what the stash is.

We get a nice action sequence with the Angels, and Warner is tagged by one of Oliver’s arrows. Quentin chases her down and she tells him that he did convince her to turn her life around, but she lost faith when she saw that Quentin sold out to Dahrk. She doesn’t care why.

Cupid and China White get away when the ACU show up and try to arrest the Green Arrow for Billy Malone’s murder! I loved the exploding bow effect! The Green Arrow has more than just trick arrows of course.

Oliver fills in Quentin on what happened with Prometheus and Billy. Chase (Josh Segarra), Quentin, and Oliver meet with Captain Pike (Adrian Holmes). They try to persuade him that the Green Arrow wasn’t responsible, but Pike won’t let it go, after all a cop was killed.

Oliver asks Chase to leave, so he and Quentin can continue speaking. Oliver is convinced that Prometheus sent the evidence to Pike as a push back for Oliver visiting he mother. Chase, however, did not look happy about being dismissed.

Quentin tells Oliver that the Angels have kidnapped one of Bertinelli’s men, so maybe they can track him through his phone. Oliver shocks Quentin by saying they have to let the ACU handle it. Prometheus has tied his hands, and he won’t risk the rest of the team. Quentin calls him on taking on other people’s sins. And points out he didn’t give up with Slade or Darhk. Quentin also tells Oliver that Prometheus is the one responsible for Billy’s death. Quentin tells Oliver about his talk with Thea, and Oliver wants to dismiss the advice because it came from Thea. Oliver tells Quentin that he doesn’t want Billy’s life to be for nothing.

Oliver goes to Pike and tells him that the Green Arrow was manipulated into killing Billy and that Chase covered it up. Oliver asks Pike not to stop the Green Arrow from being the hero that the city needs. I really liked how this scene was lit as Amell’s face is cast in shadow, making one eye appear to be in the makeup he used to use to disguise himself. He’s telling half truths, but he is also revealing a connection to the Green Arrow to Pike. Pike says he’ll think about what Oliver has told him – but then he sends the ACU after him.

Oliver refuses to sit out the final conflict. It was a great location for the final fight – though it looked like a pretty cold shoot. Anybody else think that in addition to the mask, Dinah’s hair was lighter in this final scene too? Warner has assembled her own army by promising them a cut of the money. We get a classic Arrow fight.

Pike shows up with the ACU, but they simply gather up the bad guys. Oliver as Green Arrow apologizes to Pike, and he ultimately lets him go. I did wonder why the Deputy Mayor is running around with a gun, however…

Quentin pays Warner a final visit and tells her that his conscience is clear. He’s not using other people’s sins to justify his own. Quentin also runs into Dinah and says he knows she’s the new Black Canary. Dinah says she’s not ready, but Quentin tells her that Laurel wanted someone to carry on in her place – essentially giving her his blessing.

Oliver pays a final visit to Thea. She apologizes and says she made a mistake. Oliver insists that she didn’t make a mistake, she made a choice. It’s exactly the kind of thing their mother would have done. And she didn’t always make the right choices. Oliver tells her that he’s worried about Thea.

I did love Chase bursting in to tell Oliver they have a problem, and Oliver saying that just once he wishes that Chase didn’t come into his office saying that! Chase says there’s a situation that Oliver needs to get out in front of. Someone has leaked information about the cover up – and Oliver fears it might be the end of his administration!

Is this the end of Susan? Who leaked the cover up? Does Thea need saving or did she do the right thing? Are you feeling Dinah as the Black Canary yet? Did you like the team up of the Angels? While it wasn’t really treading new ground that our team is over-burdened by their own guilty consciences, I really did like bringing in the story of the sin-eater to help them deal with it. Funny that Oliver would be so quick to dismiss it because it came from Thea this time and his own connection to the story from Anatoly didn’t resonate more with him.  Let me know your thoughts on the episode in the comments below!