Arrow S3 E6 - 'Guilty' Review

Just Another Weapon In His Arsenal.
Roy finally got the chance to take centre stage this week for the first time in season three as a mysterious killer tried to set up Ted Grant.
I love that the show-runners chose to centre an episode on both Roy and Ted as they are excellent peripheral characters who deserved their time to shine. Ted Grant's story unfolded in the foreground, as his apprentice Isaac Stanzler returned to exact revenge on the mentor who failed him. It was an interesting plot which revealed the truth behind Grant's vigilante past and resulted in both the Ted/Laurel and Oliver/Roy relationships developing in positive ways. I only wish we had got the chance to see Grant suit up, as that would have been the icing on the cake!
Roy's journey this week felt slightly rushed, but was also a chance to let Colton Haynes flex his acting repertoire. It was hard watching our beloved sidekick realise he had murdered an innocent man and I really can't remember how he gets past this revelation, so am eager to re-discover! I liked seeing the contrasts between Oliver/Roy and Ted/Isaac, although the dialogue was a bit too on-the-nose and corny, particularly Roy's "don't abandon me" followed by Oliver's "never". It made sense in the context of everything that happened this week, but just as with the words shared between Ted and Isaac, something felt slightly too forced about the whole affair and sadly the episode didn't quite stick the landing as a result.
In the flashbacks, we witness some development in the hunt for China White and whilst the idea that a candle and meditation can unearth memories came across a bit stupid, I enjoyed watching Oliver bond further with both his super-heroic hosts. Whilst I can't remember exactly how this story-line ends, I have to admit I am really hoping that Oliver doesn't hook up with Katana as that would just seem like such a cop out after all that has happened.
Overall, 'Guilty' conveys some strong messages about faith and mentor-ship, but sadly fails to achieve all it sets out to due to poor dialogue and one too many developments taking space in just 40 minutes.

STARRING: Arsenal, Wildcat, Cupid

AWESOME MOMENTS:

• Seeing Ted's Wildcat lair!! Even though it was just a crusty old storage container, you gotta love getting a sneak peak at another vigilante lair!
• Roy kicking some SERIOUS ass at the end more than made up for his terrible closing line, especially his fancy flip kick attack which I'm sure is incredibly efficient ;) 
• That vigilante chat at the end of the episode just oozed cool
• ARSENAL FINALLY GETS HIS NAME!! Although hear me out, how much better would this line have been? - Oliver: "Well he's wrong. You ARE my Arsenal" 
• A totally, totally NOT awesome moment, but one I had to mention nonetheless - the line that has haunted my nightmares for years and lingers at the tip of my tongue whenever I think of corny lines was uttered in the final moments of this episode... "I'm Cupid, stupid". Ugh. I mean COME ON, could NOBODY at the CW realise how dreadful that line is?! I actually shrivelled up and died just listening to it again. Truly disgusting.

EASTER EGGS:

- Oliver and company discover a number of bodies belonging to the Culebras and Halcones gangs.  Culebras is the Spanish word for "snake", while halcones is Spanish for "hawks."

- Ted Grant's gym is located on the corner of 9th and Hasen.  Wildcat's co-creator was Irwin Hasen, a Golden Age cartoonist who worked for DC Comics before moving onto the long running newspaper strip Dondi.  Hasen is still alive and is 96 years old. 

- A poster advertising a boxing match between Ted Grant and Ken Rabehl was shown several times in last night's episode.  Rabehl is a graphic artist and concept illustrator based out of Vancouver who has worked on a number of television shows, including Battlestar Galactica.  

Rabehl's name has popped up in a couple of other Arrow episodes.  His name first popped up on the byline of an article about Oliver's reappearance for the World News in "City of Heroes".  In "The Man Under the Hood", his name was shown on one of the gravestones in a cemetery dedicated to those who died in the Glades earthquake.  So I guess in the Arrowverse, Rabehl was a boxer turned journalist who perished while covering the Glades disaster.  What a life.

- Isaac Stanzler, this week's villain, was probably named after Wendey Stanzler, who directed several episodes of Arrow including this season's "Sara".

-  You may have noticed Cupid standing in the crowd outside of Ted Grant's gym after the police had been called, prior to her reveal at the end of the episode

- "Weapon in his arsenal" - Looks like we know how Roy gets his name Arsenal in the show.  In the comics, Roy takes up the name Arsenal after rejoining the Teen Titans after a stint working for the CBI, a clandestine government agency focusing on drug trafficking.

- Oliver used the famous boxing glove arrow from the comics when he fought Ted Grant in his lock-up

- This episode establishes that Roy killed a cop instead of two cops which is what is shown in season 2.
- When Laurel and Oliver are talking about Laurel's training, Oliver says that Laurel "still treats this like it's a game". This is a reference to Batman and Batgirl in "Batman: The Killing Joke", in which Batman tells Batgirl the same thing
- Albert Mancini is a reference to Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, whose fight with Duk Koo Kim caused brain injuries to Kim, and 4 days later killing him. Mancini's guilt sent him into a depression and break from his boxing career which is similar to Ted Grant's retirement as The Wildcat

RATING: 7.7/10