Loved It? Hated It? What did you think of "The Calm?"

[arrowSHIELDfan]

I hope Laurel do not anything crazy as she an ADA and she cant break the law for revenge........this is going to suck for captain Lance wonder if he saw Sara before season 3 events. Nyssa is going want revenge.......I don't believe it Malcolm as it is likely Komodo. He could frame Malcolm as the fall guy? as both have black arrows but since everyone knows he is dead beside a few people

[Austin 3:16]

R we sure that Sara is really dead? She could have had something protecting her from those arrows underneath. Maybe its just the comic book fan in me but there r always possibilities as a greenblooded pointy eared favorite character of mine once said.

Loved the episode and seeing Grant as Barry was amazing. I honestly think maybe it was Ra's himself who shot Sara. Now though im thinking it could be Ollie's sis.

Ill give it a 10 out of 10. Amazing season premiere and im looking forward to next week.

Btw Brandon Routh was amazing as Dr. Palmer. Definitely looking forward to the next time he shows up.

[Lipzo]

Overall it was a good opening episode for the season.

Things I liked the most were;
- Oliver/Diggle bromance, the way it was handled with Diggle not agreeing with Oliver and then coming round to his point of view at the end was perfect. It also showed that Oliver does have some wisdom about him.
- I really liked the new Count, though it seemed like they tried to make the count into the Scarecrow with that drug which I can't say I really liked.
- Roth as Ray Palmer. I really liked the character and how he portrayed it.
- The fact that Olicity was teased for so long and then shut back down by the end of the episode. I don't care about who Oliver ends up with (if anyone), but the Olicity fans generally do my head in so I had a laugh at that.

Things I didn't really like;
- Cpt. Lance's recklessness rushing into the field even though earlier in the episode he had a cane. That just doesn't make any sense to me.
- Palmer hacking into QC to get those stats, it seemed like a low blow and he could have taken control of the company.

As for Sara, while I was expecting her to die I do find it odd as I thought I read that she was going to be in at least 3 episode's this year so for her to be killed off in the first just doesn't make much sense to me.
Now who killed her, that's a curious one. The way I see it there are 4 possible killer's with those being Ra's, Malcolm, Kommodo or Nyssa all of which I'll break down slightly.
Malcolm - I can't see it being him given that he is off training Thea somewhere and surely Oliver would have found out if Thea and Malcolm where back in the city given how Felicity is tapped into everything.
Kommodo - He has no direct tie in to the League (at least as far as the comics go) so I don't see why Sara would have said "What are you doing here" just before she got shot. If it is him then I expect him to have a backstory with the League, and he was also part of the reason Sara was sent back to Starling in the first place.
Nyssa - While she loved him, if an order came directly from Ra's to kill her I don't doubt she would do it. It would also explain what she said just before she died.
Ra's - We know he comes to Starling for whatever reason so maybe killing Sara was the first step in it?

[DigificWriter]

Yes, we're still going to see Sara in two more episodes this season despite what happened at the end of tonight's episode, and, yes, there are still story plans for her character beyond her remaining two appearances this year, so the bottom line is that her death isn't the last we've seen of her or that we will see of her.

[acer15]

who was the one who shot Sara with the Arrows? Malcolm or Ra'a Al Ghul

[DigificWriter]

^ Probably neither.

[arrowSHIELDfan]

it Komodo......Malcolm isn't not to show up until episode 4

[PHOENIXZERO]

Keep in mind that none of the living characters know Malcolm is still alive except for Thea. I doubt it was Nyssa seeing as she initially released Sara and was probably okay with her returning, it was almost certainly someone tied with Ra's though, maybe Sara was targeted either as punishment to Nyssa or revenge maybe a little bit of both. Perhaps there was another student who either failed or got passed over because of Sara, which could tie into getting some Sara flashbacks.

[IAmTheArrow]

8/10, and that is up from the 6/10 I was going to give it right up until the end.

I love this show, in fact, it is the one show a week I can't wait to watch, but there was just something about it that dragged this one down slightly (right up until the end and it shot up). The whole "will they/won't they" between Oliver and Felicity has been dragging on. We get it, he loves her but can't be with her to protect her, we've seen it before in countless superhero shows/movies, we've tried it, now its time to move on.

The villain of the weak was pretty poor and seemed like it was an after thought, I was hoping the new Count Vertigo would offer more than a handful of short scenes. The visual of Oliver and Arrow going toe to toe was cool, but after that, where else could they go? We saw a short fight between Arrow and Vertigo on the roof, but it seemed a lot more one sided than their previous encounter, even after Oliver had already been dosed again.

The addition of Brandon Routh is one I will have to give a bit more time, some of his dialogue just seemed too cheesy to me, but hey, he may grow on me. Seeing Roy as a full fledged member of the team now is awesome as well.

The ending was a bit of a shocker, but I don't get how the theories around the web point to Ra's as the one to shoot Sara. It wouldn't make sense. She is the, I suppose, lover of his daughter, and also a serving member of the league of assassins. What benefit would there be to him killing one of his own? Logic would say that it was Merlyn related (Malcolm or Thea), due to their time in the League, Malcolm and Sara would know of each other, it would also give Ra's a motive to travel to Star(ling) City to stop Merlyn, after all, didn't Nyssa say in the last season that his biggest regret was allowing Merlyn to leave the league? The only thing that points me away from Komodo is that he called Sara by name, how would he know who she was?

[Thailog]

Interesting episode. I somehow expected more due to all the hype it got but it was pretty good nonetheless. Some thoughts:

• Oliver and Roy teaming up was executed perfectly. I particularly like how they coordinated their fighting moves
• Seeing daddy Diggle with his new family brought a smile to my face
• Oliver was too indecisive with Felicity which felt odd. Too little time passed between the "let's go on a date" and "sorry, I can't do this right now after all" moments
• Not a fan of the new Count Vertigo. The character feels tacky and the weird speech patterns don't help
• I'm not impressed with Ray Palmer so far. His behavior feels a bit immature for someone in his position and of his age. I get that he's supposed to be someone that Felicity can relate to but I don't think it was necessary to create a male copy of her for that purpose
• Interesting development with Sara. I wonder how this will turn out

All in all, an 8/10 from me.

[Caught_In_The_Sun]

8

EP flew by!

I was never a fan of Sara so not sad to see her go. I loved Felicity as always. I actually liked Routh/Ray. I just wasn't feeling the thing with Vertigo and didn't work for me.

[JDBentz]

An addendum to my post: I was re-watching that final scene, and when Sara is shot, there is a distinct look of betrayal in her features. While they might be setting it up to look like Komodo killed her, I suspect it will end up being Ra's or another of his agents.

[costas22]

Wasn't the greatest premiere. Or the greatest episode in general. The show is making a new start in some ways and it will take time for everything to build up again.

The positives:

- The teamwork between Ollie and Roy. Cool Red Arrow outfit by the way.

- Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer. He was probably the best part about the episode. The guy just fills the screen with his presence.

- Laurel in a good place again.

The negatives:

- The Olicity scenes. In the past 2 seasons, especially the first, I was a fan of their chemistry. But right now, I'm just not feeling it. It seems like the show is trying to take their relationship in a new direction simply because it's popular with a portion of the fanbase. Maybe I'll grow into it over the course of the season, but even the notion that Oliver is in love with Felicity right now felt out of place and random.

- Sara's death. As soon as I saw her and Laurel in the closing scene, and knowing that episode 2 was named "Sara", my heart started racing. Besides Moira, Sara has been my favorite female character on Arrow. And yeah, you always suspected she wouldn't have a happy ending, but I hoped the show would at least keep her alive. I've heard theories about her being resurrected in the Pit and what not, but this seemed pretty definitive here. Sara's death, and the way it transpired right in front of Laurel's eyes, is probably what inspires the latter to embark on her journey. As for the killer? My money would be on Malcolm.

- The villain of the episode. Honestly, when Stormare was cast, I hoped it would be an improvement on Gabel's Vertigo. It wasn't really. With the entire episode devoted to whether Oliver and Felicity can be together or not, the villain arc was just an afterthought.

- Seeing Diggle and Quentin sidelined. Again, hopefully this is something that changes over the course of the season. I love the rapport both of them have with the Arrow.

- The absence of Malcolm and Thea.

With the negatives outweighing the positives, I'm giving this a 5/10. Once everything clicks into gear, the episodes should start improving.

[DigificWriter]

My review:
I haven't yet seen a large chunk of Season 2, and consequently liked that the episode started in such a fashion that I didn't feel lost. The "in media res" nature of the opening scenes with Team Arrow was a great way to start off the episode in lieu of the now-traditional 'voiceover sequence', and also helped to establish the new 'status quo' before everything was shaken up.

I'm someone who rather enjoyed Seth Gabel's take on the Count Vertigo character, and was therefore somewhat skeptical as to how the writers were going to bring in a different version of the character believably. I was therefore pleasantly surprised by the way they brought in Werner Zytle and made his version of the character distinctly different from Gabel's. I also thought he was a really effective 'antagonist of the week', and find myself interested in how long it's going to take him to reappear (since it seems fairly obvious, based on the way his story ends, that he will).

I'm not a hardcore "Olicity" shipper, but do appreciate the chemistry that exists between the two characters (and the actors), and I liked that the writers were able to use the characters' feelings for one another to explore and drive what is going to clearly be a central theme for the season: that of Oliver struggling to figure out who he is and if/how he can balance being Oliver Queen and being The Arrow. I also liked that the writers were able to use the characters' fledgling relationship as a fulcrum on which to pivot and set up a scene that we saw in last night's Flash episode, since we now know that when Oliver gives Barry the advice he does, he (Oliver) is literally telling Barry that he has a chance at something that Oliver has realized that he cannot have based on the struggles he goes through in this episode dealing with Zytle. The way that the writers handle Oliver and Felicity's fledgling relationship in this episode also sets the table rather nicely for something that we know will be happening in Flash episode 1x04 between Felicity and Barry, which I thought was a nice touch.

I'm not yet sold on the character of Ray Palmer, although I did like the fact that Felicity went from being friendly with him to wanting nothing to do with him - and even screwing with him using her computer skills - after she found out that he'd taken advantage of her knowledge to do a 'run-around' on Oliver's attempts to regain control of his family's company.

The Arrow writers have demonstrated that they're not afraid to 'go big' in the past and do stuff that has significant repercussions, and killing off Sara - particularly in the fashion that they did - is the latest example of their creative brilliance in that regard. It also helps pave the way for something that I've been waiting for for a while, which is the evolution of Laurel's character into the Canary we know she becomes. Sara, as popular as she's become, was always going to be a 'stepping stone' character (like Tommy, Yao Fei, and Shado), and her death was therefore pretty much a narrative necessity. I know that saying that is going to make some Sara fans angry, but sometimes the truth is harsh.

"The Calm" really was a great way to open the season, and I'm giving it a 9.5.

[Lipzo]

Keep in mind that none of the living characters know Malcolm is still alive except for Thea. I doubt it was Nyssa seeing as she initially released Sara and was probably okay with her returning, it was almost certainly someone tied with Ra's though, maybe Sara was targeted either as punishment to Nyssa or revenge maybe a little bit of both. Perhaps there was another student who either failed or got passed over because of Sara, which could tie into getting some Sara flashbacks.

She may have initially released her, but she is more loyal to Ra's than anyone else. And as you said, it is going to be someone tied to Ra's but the only characters which are tied to them are Nyssa and Malcolm for the moment.