Loved It? Hated It? What did you think of "The Man Under The Hood?"

[KSiteTV]

What did you think?

[Arrowaddict22]

Epic

[thatoneguy]

All I could think at the end of the episode was "oohh ****".

[thatoneguy]

I did like the progress though. I didn't like laurel and how she was snooping and I thought she was going to out Oliver. After she met with q.lance I'm glad she realized that keeping it a secret is important and that Oliver has a tough go of it having to keep it a secret. I gained a little respect for laurel after that.

i didn't look at any trailers or spoilers for this episode so seeing Roy being drained was a surprise. I feel bad for the kid and I hope he can get his stuff straight.

im curious as to where Thea is going. Maybe going to live at verdant? That makes me wonder if she's going to discover Oliver's secret.

when dig **** Isabel I was like "F yeah!". Then the end of the episode ruined that joy for me. I guess we'll see her in costume in an upcoming episode.

team Arrow is officially out numbered, and that biz natch Isabel has the mirakuru in her now and I'm more worried about her than slade.

Hopefully next week Roy can learn some control so that we can get at least a little advantage.

[JDBentz]

As always, just when I think this show can't get any better, it does. The stakes have been raised even higher in this episode as Slade gains his Mirakuru Army along with a newly-improved right-hand witch in Isabel Rochev, or shall we call her Ravager now? I am glad they went with the whole 'Robert was lovers with Isabel' plotline rather than the 'she's his daughter', because there was already too much 'possible incest' with the whole Tommy and Thea thing, even if it was actually one-sided (unless you count Tommy's comment in the pilot, but I'm trying to ignore that one). Robert knowing the truth was an excellent twist, and even though I know Thea is just trying to deal in her own fashion, all I could think of at the end was, "Oh, great, return of Queen ***** Thea. Just what we need. Oh, well. Wouldn't be the CW without teenage angst."

Laurel's quest was well-played, I think. Despite her letting the Canary and Arrow go in Birds of Prey, she still had difficulties with everything due to her 'loss of faith' in the Arrow after Tommy died along with the others in the Glades. She started out because she wanted to find the Arrow and get her father out of jail because she knows, despite her words, that he was doing the right thing helping the Arrow. I think it reminded her of those times she worked alongside 'the Hood' in Season 1. I love that she knows, but she doesn't just come out and tell Oliver. Oliver's not dumb; he knows she's aware of his identity now, but he's not saying anything either. Very well-played and no over-the-top dramatic BS. Bravo, Arrow writers, bravo. Oh, and if they do come on here from time to time to see the reaction of fans.... don't think we didn't notice Laurel's outfit was similar to Sara's. We did. Well, I did. I think the way Laurel's been moving with DA Spencer that she's not long for the whole lawyer gig regardless. She's seeing inside the criminal justice system of Starling and she's not liking what she's seeing.

Loved the little interactions for Felicity with the two 'Flash' guest stars. Pretty cool how they worked together to bring down Slade for a moment. Sadly it was right near something better than a centrifuge.... ah, plot devices. Poor Felicity, though..... "She's Barry's.... something." Ouch. Well, I'm sure Oliciters will be happy.

I'm sure John Campea from the Arrow after show will put Roy having no speaking parts at all in his positives column, but damn, Slade is a cold SOB. And now we know Oliver had the chance to cure him before now but chose to kill him instead; again, the Arrow writers find a way for us to sympathize with the villain even if we know they're villains.

Even though I remembered the pic that was circulating with Rochev dressed up as Ravager, when Diggle shot her I was like, "Yes!" Then of course the end came and I literally did groan out loud, "Oh, no..." I have speculations for the finale now even more in my head. We'll see how that turns out...

thatoneguy: I'm pretty sure they said next week Roy's losing control and attacks Thea at Moira's little shin-dig, which takes place in Verdant. (Tilts head) Though considering the current Queen drama, why Thea's allowing it in her club is odd....

[Anno_Domini]

So many callbacks and not specifically about Barry's accident. The Clock King, the Skeleton Key, Laurel slowly putting two and two together about Sara being The Canary. Even confirming my speculation that Quentin Lance doesn't really care who The Arrow is, just like James Gordon never caring who Batman was.

And Dr. Light reference! He could be a solid villain for the Flash spin-off.

[costas22]

It was pretty good. Lots of action. I like the fact that they are not trying to keep Oliver and Slade away from each other until their eventual battle. Last night Slade won one round and Oliver won the other.

It was a very good episode where Laurel is concerned. I thought Katie Cassidy did some excellent acting without saying a lot. So now she knows about Oliver and Sara. Makes you wonder how soon before they find out she knows.

I did like Quentin's reasons for not wanting to know who the Arrow is, but imo the show has been playing dumb on this matter. He should have pieced it together a long time ago. When the producers said this would be addressed in episode 19, I was hoping Quentin would reveal he knew who it was already. He's a detective after all.

I liked the island scenes. The good thing about the island arc is that it works contradictorily to Oliver's present arc. In the latter, we see him evolve from vigilante into a hero. And in the island storyline, we see him turn into the vigilante we meet at the start of the series.

This episode brought back dramatic Thea, but after Merlyn was revealed to be her father, we knew that was coming.

One question about Isabel. If Robert loved her, why did he include her on the list? I hope the show hasn't forgotten about that.

Like someone else above, my reaction at the end was also "holy s***".

7.5 out of 10.

[Thailog]

Anyone else getting the feeling that they are kind of setting up that Caitlin girl as The Flash's version of Felicity? The way she talks and her mannerisms seem pretty much copy/pasted from Felicity.

Slade getting an army of mirakuru enhanced convicts is interesting, but how is he going to control those guys? If each of them ends up as strong as him, they could easily overpower him if they banded together, despite his superior combat training.

[badraven]

Amazing, just flat AMAZING! The series just continues to raise the bar. Wow.

[SmittyXtreme]

Anyone else getting the feeling that they are kind of setting up that Caitlin girl as The Flash's version of Felicity? The way she talks and her mannerisms seem pretty much copy/pasted from Felicity.

Not a bad idea for the beginning of the show, but I think they are going to ultimately end up with a different route for her. Caitlin Snow in the DCU ends up turning into the super villian "Killer Frost" so i suppose she could be a slightly *****ier version of Felicity for a few episodes, until she gets S.T.A.R labs freezing powers and goes crazy!

[Austin 3:16]

Absolutely amazing. Loved every minute of it and was sad when the ep was over. Felt so bad for Felicity too when she said shed already been replaced by Barry.

Btw when they said Iris came to visit I was like "Yes finally we're getting more hints about the show!"

This show gets better and better with each ep I swear.

[NightHawk777]

This was another great episode. Plenty of action, plenty of drama.

Laurel - finally, she is getting a chance to break out of this terrible downward spiral. I'm not sure what she is going to do, but it feels like she is really going to do something reckless. She was following Arrow and BC around? lol

When she went to Oliver, after seeing the scars on Sara, and remembering Ollie's scars... I think she now believes Slade that Ollie is Arrow, but she has also pieced together that Sara is BC. But now what? It's like she is on the outside looking in. She knows Ollie and Sara, but now, she doesn't really know them.

It was also nice to see her asserting herself against that lady to get Quentin out of jail.

Quentin - Ouch, what a mini beat down. I liked his reasoning for not inquiring too far into the vigilante. Remember, he nailed Ollie in an early episode of season 1 as being the Vigilante. I'm pretty sure he knows, but he just can't bring himself to ponder on it too much. He is going to be free and reinstated. I wish they would reinstate him as a detective, but anything beats being in jail.

Thea - It's about time Thea had an existential eruption, she's been too chill for a while now. In her mind, she is the daughter of 2 mass murderers, so she is fated to be screwed up. Lets hope that she can find some kind of stability and get beyond all the crap going on right now. All the fun started when Ollie somehow convinced Roy to leave her, then she gets kidnapped by Slade, and now she is agitated over her real dad. Seems like a lot to throw onto a character who hasn't been a real major player lately.

Arrow and his crew - it seemed almost childs play for them to wipe out the Queen Science Division. Then it seemed childs play for Deathstroke to take them out. At least Ollie was able to get Roy out of that lab...

Sara - that bum rush against Deathstroke might have worked if she had caught him by suprise, but not with him standing there ready to defend. Ouch was she all banged up after that. Seeing all those scars on her back is a painful reminder that she was also a part of the island that formed Ollie and Slade. When she is with her family, you can almost see what the island took from the Lances. She is almost becoming a glue for her fractured family.

Diggle - All right Dig! He needs to upgrade to the 19 round magazine like Deathstroke was using. He runs out of bullets too fast. After watching this, they really need to gear Diggle up with some sweet weapons. If he has to go up against super strength bullet proof bad guys, the typical body guard won't be able to deal with that. It's always great when Diggle is getting some air time.

Felicity - It's quite an adventure for her when she goes out into the field, but another matter entirely when Deathstroke is waiting on you in your hide out... She needs a hidey hole in there in case this kind of stuff happens again. I feel that she is going to be instrumental in taking Slade down, getting a cure from the Mirakuru.

Arrow/Ollie - It's nice to see the actor really saying a lot without using words. I could tell he did not want to blow up that building.

The fight in Arrow HQ with Deathstroke was fantastic. It wasn't cheesed for dramatic effect. If you have two guys dual wielding sticks/swords, it's going to be over probably in 10 - 20 seconds. As soon as someone makes a mistake, it's over. And Ollie had his guard broke, and Deathstroke quickly punished him for it.

The final fight to save Roy was excellent as well. Arrow didn't even attempt to go hand to hand with Deathstroke. In fact, the exploding arrow felt like a unique way of dealing with him. Diggle popping in to ice Rochev was a nice added touch.

Deathstroke - This is one scarey villain. He seems to have a heightened level of devious planning, along with the strength. He takes out almost the entire Arrow group with relative ease. Then he leaves them alive. He did that to demoralize them. He could have taken them out, and they know it. He is playing with them, and they know it. Slade capturing Roy caught me by surprise. If that had really been Slade there, Arrow probably would have iced him. Somehow, Deathstroke took that into account. To me, he is even more devious than Malcolm Merlyn, and that is saying something.

This is my long winded way of saying, I really enjoyed the episode

[JDBentz]

This was another great episode. Plenty of action, plenty of drama.

Laurel - finally, she is getting a chance to break out of this terrible downward spiral. I'm not sure what she is going to do, but it feels like she is really going to do something reckless. She was following Arrow and BC around? lol

When she went to Oliver, after seeing the scars on Sara, and remembering Ollie's scars... I think she now believes Slade that Ollie is Arrow, but she has also pieced together that Sara is BC. But now what? It's like she is on the outside looking in. She knows Ollie and Sara, but now, she doesn't really know them.

It was also nice to see her asserting herself against that lady to get Quentin out of jail.

Quentin - Ouch, what a mini beat down. I liked his reasoning for not inquiring too far into the vigilante. Remember, he nailed Ollie in an early episode of season 1 as being the Vigilante. I'm pretty sure he knows, but he just can't bring himself to ponder on it too much. He is going to be free and reinstated. I wish they would reinstate him as a detective, but anything beats being in jail.

Thea - It's about time Thea had an existential eruption, she's been too chill for a while now. In her mind, she is the daughter of 2 mass murderers, so she is fated to be screwed up. Lets hope that she can find some kind of stability and get beyond all the crap going on right now. All the fun started when Ollie somehow convinced Roy to leave her, then she gets kidnapped by Slade, and now she is agitated over her real dad. Seems like a lot to throw onto a character who hasn't been a real major player lately.

Arrow and his crew - it seemed almost childs play for them to wipe out the Queen Science Division. Then it seemed childs play for Deathstroke to take them out. At least Ollie was able to get Roy out of that lab...

Sara - that bum rush against Deathstroke might have worked if she had caught him by suprise, but not with him standing there ready to defend. Ouch was she all banged up after that. Seeing all those scars on her back is a painful reminder that she was also a part of the island that formed Ollie and Slade. When she is with her family, you can almost see what the island took from the Lances. She is almost becoming a glue for her fractured family.

Diggle - All right Dig! He needs to upgrade to the 19 round magazine like Deathstroke was using. He runs out of bullets too fast. After watching this, they really need to gear Diggle up with some sweet weapons. If he has to go up against super strength bullet proof bad guys, the typical body guard won't be able to deal with that. It's always great when Diggle is getting some air time.

Felicity - It's quite an adventure for her when she goes out into the field, but another matter entirely when Deathstroke is waiting on you in your hide out... She needs a hidey hole in there in case this kind of stuff happens again. I feel that she is going to be instrumental in taking Slade down, getting a cure from the Mirakuru.

Arrow/Ollie - It's nice to see the actor really saying a lot without using words. I could tell he did not want to blow up that building.

The fight in Arrow HQ with Deathstroke was fantastic. It wasn't cheesed for dramatic effect. If you have two guys dual wielding sticks/swords, it's going to be over probably in 10 - 20 seconds. As soon as someone makes a mistake, it's over. And Ollie had his guard broke, and Deathstroke quickly punished him for it.

The final fight to save Roy was excellent as well. Arrow didn't even attempt to go hand to hand with Deathstroke. In fact, the exploding arrow felt like a unique way of dealing with him. Diggle popping in to ice Rochev was a nice added touch.

Deathstroke - This is one scarey villain. He seems to have a heightened level of devious planning, along with the strength. He takes out almost the entire Arrow group with relative ease. Then he leaves them alive. He did that to demoralize them. He could have taken them out, and they know it. He is playing with them, and they know it. Slade capturing Roy caught me by surprise. If that had really been Slade there, Arrow probably would have iced him. Somehow, Deathstroke took that into account. To me, he is even more devious than Malcolm Merlyn, and that is saying something.

This is my long winded way of saying, I really enjoyed the episode

I agree with all of this, especially that bit about Slade being more devious than Malcolm saying something about the character.

Your comment about Sara rings true, and one can only speculate what will happen if she dies. I personally think she'll be more likely to 'retire' because she can't take the constant fighting, but she trains Laurel. Whether it's just because she wants Laurel to be able to defend herself or she is actively trying to have Laurel replace her as the Canary is the question.

A couple sidenotes, having now watched this episode 3 times: Slade didn't just take down Team Arrow. He owned them. He came in, wiped the floor, and effed up the Arrowcave while also taking the very thing they used against him previously (the Skeleton Key). That is the ultimate bad-ass, and I am trying to wrap my head around the fact that these episodes are considered 'low-quality' since they had to skim some of the budget for these episodes to make the finale better than the rest of the series (Stephen says they have done this). Every episode since Episode 15 has felt at near-finale level, if not right there at finale level. I'm trying to figure out not only how the finale's going to play out, but how they'll top Season 2 next year with Season 3. But they will. They've proven able to make the impossible happen as far as quality continually improving.

I sort of recognized the guy who beat up Quentin but didn't realize who it was until the second time through. It was one of the Hoods, which made his comment about Quentin and "that hooded freak" being the reason he was inside hilarious.

[President_Luthor]

I never thought that, on an episode where Deathstroke was ramping up his mirakuru project and battled Team Arrow on their own turf and the cameos from Team Barry, my favourite part of the episode was how they handled secrets and lies -- specifically the Arrow's secret identity.

I was impressed. It could have easily slipped into a "he said - she said" with Ollie, Laurel and Sara, with accusations flying about on not trusting people / how could you lie to me / I did it to protect you, etc. They didn't go there at all.

And not only that, they had Quentin all but saying he doesn't want to know who the Arrow is because the hero he wants for Starling City would not have a family that might prevent him from doing what needs to be done. He was channeling both Jim Gordon and a bit of Batman Begins re: incorruptible symbols, etc. I have to believe he all but knows who the Arrow is, but due to the greater good, he is choosing to keep the Arrow as a faceless symbol. And Laurel took his advice to heart!

And how about Laurel's handling of The Secret. She basically dotted the i's and crossed t's to verify that Slade's claim was true. No pity party here. After her chat with her dad and piecing together all the coincidences re: Arrow/Ollie and Sara/Canary 1.0, she didn't go off on a SV-like blame game (I think Thea, sadly, has taken up this torch now). Laurel handled it pretty well and, taking Quentin's advice to heart, acknowledged that the Arrow as a symbol outweighs the need to uncover/expose his identity (even though she knows it).

A great episode overall, but how they deftly handled the discovering of The Secret was in a class all its own. (It makes the secret-keeping snafus on SV look rather juvenile in comparison.)

This must count among the best episodes of the series, just on the strength of their handling of the Arrow's identity. It's an episode that I think will hold up as one of the best written, as the seasons go on.

[Quark]

That was such an enjoyable episode. Two scenes stood out for me the most. One is the hug that Laurel gave Oliver. It just looked like Oliver desperately needed someone to give him a hug. Quite a well-played understated scene.

The other scene was Slade bringing Isabel back to life. Slade doesn't seem like the type of guy that cares who lives or dies for him (at least before this episode). So I was really surprised that he not only brought Isabel back to life but gave her the Mirakuru. Makes me wonder if they have more than just a business relationship...

Another scene that is up there is seeing those two scientists best Slade. Slade got completely owned.

This episode also made me realise that the only way Oliver is going to be able to beat Slade is if he somehow gets ARGUS, the Russians and (potentially) the League of Assassins on side.