Recap / Arrow S 2 E 8 The Scientist

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On the island, Oliver, Sara, Shado, and Slade make their way to the Japanese submarine. Onboard, they find the stash of miracle drug, but no sedative to prevent a probably fatal reaction. Slade orders Oliver to inject him because he’s almost dead anyways. The drug gives Slade bloody eyes and removes his pulse just as Ivo’s men walk in.

The astounding theft of a centrifuge at Queen Consolidated draws the attention of Barry Allen, a crime scene investigator from Central City who works cases like these in hopes of finding answers about his mom’s mysterious death. Working alongside Felicity, Barry discovers sugar in the thief’s footprints. That leads them to track the truck the thief just used to rob a blood bank. Oliver attacks the driver, but is easily overpowered. As Felicity fixes up Oliver’s wounds, he mentions seeing these abilities on the island. He destroyed all of the serum, so the thief must be trying to synthesize more. Felicity finds that the next ingredient is the sedative from an ARGUS bunker.

Malcolm orders Moira to tell Thea the truth. Moira decides she’s done being afraid and threatens him with the knowledge that Ra’s Al Ghul wants him dead. Very few people attend the “Welcome Back” party Oliver throws for Moira, but Isabel shows up and Barry comes to dance with Felicity, who’s smitten by him.

Sin asks for Roy and Thea’s help to find her friend, Max, who went missing during a blood drive. They soon find that Max, not a druggie, died of an overdose. Roy sneaks a picture of the body, revealing blood draining from Max’s eyes. When Roy informs Arrow of this, Oliver cuts off their deal. During a fight with the thief, the Acolyte, Oliver is injected with an unknown toxin. Felicity and Diggle bring Oliver to the Arrowcave and ask Barry to save his life.

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Tropes Applying to This Episode

• Agony of the Feet:
  • Oliver arrows the Acolyte's feet to the floor. The Acolyte rips them out and continues fighting.
  • Played for laughs when Barry repeatedly warns Felicity that he can't dance because he's got two left feet. But he'll hold her hands and sway. As they start to dance...
    Barry: Sorry.
• After Action Patch Up: Subverted when we see Oliver shouting in pain rather than his usual stoicism.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Don't know why they hesitated to bring Barry into the fold; he was 99% of the way to figuring out the Arrow's identity anyway.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: Turns out Barry was pulling one. He barges into a crime scene pretending to be a CSI to investigate Queen Consolidated's robbery.
• Birds of a Feather: Felicity and Barry, both Motor Mouth geniuses with an interest in crimefighting.
• Blatant Lies: Oliver tells Barry that he has no idea how much strength is needed to snap a man's neck.
• Call-Back: Barry grills Felicity on what the Arrow is like, given that he saved her life in the previous episode. Felicity curtly describes him as "Green."
• Cassandra Truth: As part of Barry's backstory. He got into crimefighting because no one believed what happened to his mother.
• Cleavage Window: Felicity wears a red dress with one.
• Cliffhanger: In the present, Ollie's been poisoned with a minimal dose of an unknown drug, forcing the team to bring Barry into the masquerade in the hopes of saving him, while in the past the serum appears to have killed Slade and the bad guys just broke in on our heroes, guns drawn.
• Costume Porn: Felicity looks gorgeous in a red dress with her blonde hair down (and of course no glasses). So does Thea in her open backed black dress with diamond necklace.
• Cruel to Be Kind: Ollie puts an arrow through Roy's leg to keep him from investigating the super-serum on his own.
• Description Cut: Quentin is talking about how 'fast' the robbers must have been, before a cut to Barry Allen, soon to be the Fastest Man Alive, arrives in Starling City.
• The Dog Bites Back: When Malcolm tries to put Moira under his intimidation tactics again, this time Moira is ready for it and informs him she's let Ra's Al Ghul know he's alive in Starling City.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Before Oliver injects him with the serum, Slade touches Shado's hair and apologizes for not expressing his true feelings. From the expression on her (and Oliver's face), it's clear she gets the message.
• Emergency Transformation: In the past Ollie injects Slade with the Mirakuru super serum when it's clear he'll die without help and they've got nothing to lose.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The League of Assassins, whatever else they might be, have a code of honor. And Ra's al Ghul himself was so disgusted by The Undertaking that he now wants to kill Malcolm personally.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Oliver says that Dr. Ivo is dead and he destroyed all the stocks of serum.
  • There's noticeable chilliness between Moira and Isabel that can't just be put down to Isabel's opposition to Moira's return as CEO.
  • A bit of foreshadowing that would be subtle if we didn't already know where Roy is heading. When Oliver puts an arrow through Roy's leg, we get a close up of the bloody "red arrow" and Roy's face behind it.
• Got Volunteered: Of course just asking Barry to help would be too much for Team Arrow, who instead shoot him with a Tranquilizer Dart and drag him back to the Arrowcave.
• Grand Staircase Entrance: The Queens at their party.
• Hypocrisy Nod: When Oliver says that Barry lied about who he was, Felicity shoots back: "And what do we do every day?"
• It's the Only Way:
  • Slade is injected with the serum without the sedative because he is going to die regardless.
  • Barry is let into the secret because the only alternative is taking Oliver to a hospital, exposing him as the Arrow.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Felicity asks Barry to be her Plus One at the Queen party, but then Oliver exposes that he's there under false pretenses, driving him away. However he turns up at the party after all, invited by Oliver as an apology to Felicity.
• Kidnapped by an Ally: Felicity and Diggle knock out Barry and take him to the Arrowcave while he's unconscious.
• Malevolent Masked Men: Gold wears a mask that covers his entire face including the eyes.
• Mama Bear: Threatening Moira by endangering her children is not exactly a good idea for anybody attempting this.
• The Missus and the Ex: Shado and Sara meet. It is about as awkward as you expect, especially once Oliver tells Shado the truth.
• Mythology Gag: When Barry and Felicity are in the crime lab, Barry is reshelving chemicals while a lightning storm is going on outside, all in reference to the Flash's Silver Age origin.
  • Also, his story about how his mother was killed by a "blur", which was added to the Flash mythos later on.
  • Barry's boss, Director Singh is a recurring character from the Flash comics.
  • Barry Allen first appeared in the comic books in Showcase #4. The magazine Barry has over his head when he first appears in the rain has “Showcase” in the title.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Felicity is alarmed to get a bent arrow from Oliver, noting that means the man's skin had the strength of concrete.
• No OSHA Compliance: Barry complains about how chemicals are stored in the Queen Consolidated lab.
• Oh, Crap!: Malcolm's reaction when Moira reveals she's contacted the League of Assassins and told them he's still alive.
• Older Than They Look: Discussed by Oliver in reference to Barry not looking old enough to drink.
• Properly Paranoid: Oliver has Diggle run a check on Barry. Turns out he's not there officially like he claimed.
• Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: The Arrow punches Gold in the face several times to no effect. Gold responds by knocking the Arrow clean out of the cab onto the truck's hood, then smashes his fist through the window to grab Oliver and haul him back inside the cab. When Oliver stabs him, he delivers a punch that knocks Oliver (along with the cabin door) out onto the road.
• Ragnarök Proofing: The serum is still viable, but all the vials of sedative in the submarine have been used or smashed.
• Right in Front of Me: While poking around the crime scene with Oliver, Quentin quietly asks Felicity to make sure "our mutual friend" knows about this case. Felicity assures him that the Arrow is already on it.
• Room Full of Crazy: One that's only apparent to the audience, but Max's studio is full of drawings of a single subject: Sebastian Blood's skull mask.
• Running Gag: Barry is always running ten minutes late.
• Saved by Canon: In an earlier episode, Sara asked Oliver what happened to Slade, so it looks like he's gonna survive the serum injection.
• Ship Tease:
  • Barry and Felicity, more obviously. Less so is Ollie's dagger looks when they flirt.
  • When Shado discovers the truth of Oliver's Sibling Triangle, she gives Oliver a Death Glare and lets Slade put his arm around her for support, walking off with him instead. Oliver gripes about how chummy they've gotten, and Slade all but gives a Love Confession as he's about to be given the serum.
• Starving Artist: Sin's friend, Max.
• Stiff Upper Lip: Seeing the party her son is organised is virtually unattended, Moira forges ahead with entertaining the few guests who did turn up. When Oliver apologises for this humiliation, she assures him that it's not his fault, and that her children made the effort is more important to her.
• A Storm Is Coming: Dramatic Thunder is heard constantly in the leadup to the activation of the particle accelerator.
• Summon Bigger Fish: How does Moira get rid of Malcolm? By telling Ra's al Ghul he's still alive, forcing him to go on the run.
• Super-Strength: Gold can knock a reinforced titanium door off its hinges, Neck Snap a man single-handed, rip an industrial centrifuge from the floor and carry it off by himself, and effortlessly knock Oliver not only across the room but directly upward into the ceiling of a warehouse.
• Tears of Blood: Slade on being injected. When Oliver in the present day sees the same on Max's body, it only confirms what he already knows.
• Tempting Fate: Diggle scoffs at the idea of human weapons. "What's next: aliens?"
• That Came Out Wrong:
  • When Felicity tells Barry that she spends most of her nights with Oliver, then hastens to explain that He Is Not My Boyfriend.
  • This one's either this or a Freudian Slip.
    Barry: Police reports show that he uses carbon arrows, but if he switched to an aluminum carbon composite, he would have far better penetration.
    Felicity: Maybe he thinks he penetrates just fine.
• Traitor Shot: One of the policeman guarding Max's body turns out to be Officer Daily, who gives a long look at Roy after he takes a photograph of the body.
• Trespassing to Talk
  Moira: And I thought it couldn't hurt to add extra security guards.
  Malcolm: It hurt them. (throws a couple of pistols onto the floor) Badly.
• Un-Confession: Moira looks like she's going to tell the truth about Thea's parentage to her, but just tells Thea she loves her.
• We Will Meet Again: Malcolm departs with a threatening, "This isn't finished, Moira."
• Wham Line: When Moira name drops Ra's al Ghul.
• Who Is Driving?: Oliver shoots out the rear vision mirror on the truck, and the driver is surprised to see Oliver's motorcycle speeding past with no-one on it, before realising that Oliver has jumped onto the truck behind him.

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