Arrow Season 4 Ep. 11: A.W.O.L Review

 

Amanda Waller is Dead

 
For four seasons this Amanda Waller has been a polarizing character to fans. Fans of just the show seem to get the character and kind of root against her as a heel, however fans of Amanda Waller from the comic books hated this character. On the show, she was portrayed as a cold hearted and egotistical who is willing to do anything or sacrifice anyone for whatever task or mission she is doing. She had no morality and quite often was devious and dishonest in what she asked of the people serving her. To be fair, it worked, she almost always got the job done which is similar to the Amanda Waller character in the books. However, the Waller character in the comics had a sense of loyalty and unique respect for the members of her Suicide Squad. Yes, the members were “disposable” but she often had their back especially when other government organizations wanted to kill them or hurt them. This Amanda Waller was willing to let everyone die around her and would never compromise a mission or show emotion for anyone. Now that being said, we all know the real reason she was killed off, and that is the upcoming Suicide Squad movie were she is being portrayed by Viola Davis. By killing off Waller, we will likely not see the Suicide Squad anymore on TV and it will be interesting is Lyla goes back into the field to head up Argus. So here at That Cool Black Nerd we always say goodbye when major characters die, however this goodbye is more like a “Peace Out!”

Tale of Two Felicity’s

 

It’s always great when we get a glimpse at Goth Felicity and she was back with a purpose. I think the narrative of this episode was love yourself and love your family. Felicity started second guessing her place in Team Arrow and her relationship with Oliver through he formal self coming back. She was having hallucinations of Gothlicity telling her she is not good enough, she is being fake, she is hiding from who she is, Oliver is not right for her, she is not a super hero and it was all bullshit. The Felicity character in the show has grown since then and has taking the best parts of that point in her life and merged those with a new set of values and by the end of the episode she was back to being an integral part of Team Arrow.

Brotherly Love

 

This was a redemption episode for Andy. They have made the Andy character this shady person who has not morals and could care less about his family. In the past few weeks Diggle has done so much to help Andy regain his humanity and finally had a break through last week when they played a card game like the old times. This past episode Andy’s redemption story came full circle, when Lyla was being held hostage by Shadowspire and Diggle had no choice but to let Andy out and trust him to help take this organization down. Andy was not only a ghost but he was once a part of Shadowspire and was able to trick them to help save Lyla. The last scene with Andy though was interesting. In this show whenever too many good things starts happening to a character it comes crashing down. Andy was welcomed into Diggle’s home and he even got to meet their daughter and the scene was shot so happy that it seems inevitable that in the upcoming weeks something bad is going to happen to Diggle, Lyla, and or Andy.

This week in “Who’s in the Grave”

 

There was not to much plot development in the who is in the grave plot line. However with the touching scene with Andy, Lyla, and Andy the writers could be setting one of them up to die. I still would bet my money on Lance being the person who dies but the writers are doing a fantastic job of keeping you guessing to who it will be.

Below is a preview to next weeks episode.

Arrow: A.W.O.L Final Take