And Arrow decides that back to basics (for what, the fourth time now?) means tortured Oliver, shirtless Oliver, and ... time travel/flash forwards. 

Oh, Arrow. Let the rest of the Arrowverse focus on flash forwards and wacky timejinks. You focus on Shirtless Oliver.

Good things:

1. Felicity's hair was kinda awesome. The nose and eyebrow rings, not my thing, but the hair? Pretty awesome. 

2. Did I mention shirtless Oliver?

3. Their twin scenes - the parallel fighting and the prison scene - were also highlights. That moment when Amell portrayed Oliver bracing himself to hear about the deaths of Felicity and William - well done.

4. And some of the stunt work was definitely back on. As was the editing. I don't want to get too optimistic, but...I'm mildly optimistic for the rest of the season.

5. Have I mentioned shirtless Oliver yet?

6. Unpopular opinion here, I suspect, but I liked Rene tonight. I don't expect that to last, mind you, but I did like that he toned down the hypocrisy considerably and was focused, for once, on what might actually help people. And he was listening to people. 

7. The bit where Dinah and Rene were both "whatever" about what Laurel says. Heh.  

8. And the two season one newscasters are still with us! YAY! Though I'm kinda wondering about newscaster number one, who seems to be just at reporter level now. Will he ever anchor a Star City news report again? Let's see what season seven says!

Questionable things:

1. So, I get that Curtis had an impressive background prior to joining Palmer Tech, and that Diggle presumably gave him a good recommendation, but since joining Palmer Tech he was associated with the crash of a multimillion business, joined a start up that went nowhere, and was alleged to be involved in multiple felonies, so....can anyone explain what he's doing as the division head of a U.S. military group, however clandestine? No one? That's what I thought.

2. Felicity, I'm going to guess that part one of Witness Protection Rules is "Do not show off your massive computer skills to complete strangers who might just be working for Diaz."

3. Rene, uh, rather than keep making your point, go get tape and fix the bag!

4. On the one hand, giving Oliver The Count of Monte Cristo to read is on point. On the other hand, given that he's presumably going to be there for some time, maybe you should have given him the FULL version and not what was clearly an abridged one? (It's a long, long, book.) Though I can't help but feel that Dumas would have greatly approved the use of his book as a killer weapon.

5. And still comparing hands, on the one hand, I much prefer Dinah as a cop - or, rather, I should say, I prefer JH performing a focused, intelligent cop. On the other hand....this is just raising all sorts of questions. She was fired, for one thing, several people suspect or know that she's an associate of Oliver Queen, for a second thing, and for a third, most important thing - it's throwing the character right back into Hypocrite Mode, one of the chief complaints made about her last season. Dinah, you are a former vigilante who, unlike Oliver, is not in jail. This "I'm going to put the new Green Arrow in jail!" is just...not a good look, following that. 

6. And on that note, Dinah, it's all very well to want to catch the new vigilante, but in your own words, your focus is the safety of this city and cleaning it up, so....maybe arrest the bad guys and THEN worry about the vigilante?

7. All characters: This is Arrow. No place is ever safe. And definitely not boarding schools. You people have been on this show for how long now and haven't figured this out yet? 

8. We are trading flashbacks on Lian Yu for....flashforwards on Lian Yu? Oh, Arrow.

9. Who actually owns the title to this island? The Chinese government still? Argus? If so, has anyone checked to what they think about all the questionable plot uses that this island keeps getting forced into?

Bad things:

1. Arrow. Bamford. It's called "LIGHTS. CAMERA. ACTION" for a reason, and that reason is LIGHTS so that viewers can later SEE WHAT IS IN FACT HAPPENING ON THE SCREEN. I mean I get that there were a couple of dodgy bits there that you wanted to hide, but that doesn't mean you should leave viewers totally in the dark, as you kept doing.

2. Diaz. Worst villain this show has ever had, and unfortunately, the summer break has not improved him. I mean, I'm supposed to be scared of a guy who wasn't able to capture a kid and who could be held off by a largely untrained fighter until security forces arrived? Uh-huh. The fact that all of the returning villains in the jail were better actors did not help. Kill off this villain, Arrow. Please.

3. I'm resigned to seeing the same prison sets over and over and over again on three or four shows. Must I also see the same prop cars? It wasn't that dark, though, kudos, I guess, for keeping that same Chrysler going for seven seasons now even with lots of people falling on it.

And now, Black Siren:

On the one hand, I'm tempted to ask just how Black Siren - who, all else aside, is originally from another world - has managed to fake enough legal knowledge to stay the DA for this long, and on the other hand, I really want to applaud Arrow for continuity and recognizing that six straight seasons of incompetent, kidnapped, dead, and very evil DA's have left the DA's office so shattered, its staff now can't even tell that not only is their DA not a lawyer, but isn't even from this earth. On balance, I think I kinda have to say, kudos, Arrow!  Well, for the continuity, at least. 

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