Arrow Recap/Review: "State v. Queen" and "The Scientist"

Megan Miller ’17/ Emertainment Monthly Staff
“State v. Queen”:
This episode featured the return of Count Vertigo (Seth Gabel) as the audience sees his escape from prison during the Quake in the Glades.  Since then he has developed a new strain of the drug known as Vertigo, and he has begun to infect the city by distributing it through flu shot trucks.  When the defense attorney in Moira Queen’s trial, Adam Donner (Dylan Bruce), passes out during trial and is then kidnapped by the Count, Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) discovers that the Count has been causing addictions in people who had no past contact with the drug.
As Moira Queen (Susanna Thompson) continues to stand trial, she maintains that she will not testify, no matter what her attorney says.  However, when her daughter’s testimony goes downhill and Thea (Willa Holland) accidentally paints her in a less than humanizing light as she’d wanted, she is forced to speak.  Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy), who has become the main attorney on the case due to Donner’s kidnapping, advises her against it, saying that she has Donner’s trump card and if Moira testifies she will be forced to use it.  Moira has no choice, and Laurel reveals that Moira and Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) had an affair a long time ago.

In flashbacks to the island, Dr. Anthony Ivo (Dylan Neal) and his goons bring Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) and Oliver ashore and demand that Oliver find Shado (Celina Jade) and Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett), whom he believes need to be eliminated before he can have Oliver help him find something he is looking for.  Shado and Slade turn their detonation mechanism back on them, and in the process help Oliver and Sara escape.  Shado reveals that she has what they were looking for: a stone with coordinates to a World War II Japanese submarine that supposedly holds something that could save the human race.
Back in Starling City, Oliver has to leave the trial just before the verdict is delivered due to a call from the Count that informs him that he has Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards), having found her snooping around his flu vaccination truck.  Oliver comes to her rescue at Queen Consolidated and being unable to save her without killing the Count, lets off several arrows into the center of the his chest, pushing the man backwards through the skyscraper window and to his death.  Felicity apologizes for being the reason he killed again, but he says that there was no choice between killing him or letting him harm her.

Oliver returns just in time for the verdict: acquitted on all charges.  Though Thea is thrilled, Oliver finds this suspicious.  Moira also seems confused over the result.  Further confirming her suspicions, when Moira is released she is told by the driver that she’s not going directly home.  When they stop and she exits the car, she is confronted by Malcolm Merlyn himself, who faked his own death and has now returned only to make sure the jury let her go.  He had doubted whether she’d told him everything about their relationship, and when he returned and ran a genetics test, he discovered that Thea is his daughter.
“The Scientist”:
The Flash’s appearance on Arrow has been hotly anticipated since he was announced, and this week he finally arrived.  Barry Allen (Glee’s Grant Gustin) arrived on screen in the form of a CSI from another town in the county, investigating a case in which a super-strong man broke into Queen Consolidated in order to steal a centrifuge.  Though he claims to be sent by his boss due to a similar case under their jurisdiction, Oliver discovers that there is no similar case, and that Barry is investigating because his father is accused for his mother’s murder.  He knows he is innocent, as he saw someone come in inside a tornado and kill her.
Felicity Smoak seems to have a thing for Barry, and even though she’s had feelings for Oliver, her and Barry are much more like-minded.  She initially invites him to Oliver’s party as her plus-one, but Oliver throws him out of Queen Consolidated when he discovers that Barry has been lying about his motives.  He eventually understands the error of his ways, and invites Barry back to dance with Felicity.  The party itself was an attempt to a return to normal in the Queen household.  It is meant as a celebration of Moira Queen’s acquittal and return to the company, though it is a bust when only a few people show up.

Moira is not enjoying herself much either, and Malcolm Merlyn continues to drop in to threaten her into telling Thea that he is her father.  Eventually she refuses and tells him that she found out about Ra’s al Ghul, who is unhappy that Malcolm violated the League of Assassins’ code of honor with his Undertaking.  She tells him to run, and run he does, though he takes his leave with a smile on his face.  Thea is blissfully unaware of these events, but she has other problems to focus on.  Her boyfriend, Roy Harper (Colton Haynes), has returned to a life of vigilantism himself.  Though she tags along, he ditches her in the end to talk to the vigilante, who insists that he doesn’t need Roy anymore.  The vigilante then shoots him in the leg in order to “slow [him] down”.
Oliver goes to face the man who broke into Queen Consolidated on his own, telling Felicity that he’s killed someone like this before.  She wonders what happens if he can’t  stop him again.  He loses the fight and two needles go through his leg, shooting an unknown substance into his body.  When Felicity and Diggle (David Ramsey) arrive at the scene, Oliver is close to death.  Diggle tries to call 911, but Felicity reminds him that they can’t risk it.  Instead, they tranquilize Barry and bring him to their lair.  Felicity pleads with him to save Oliver’s life.

Meanwhile, on the island, Slade Wilson’s condition grows worse as they get nearer to the old submarine that contains a serum that creates super humans, the only thing they believe can save Blade.  When they arrive, they find the serum but not the injection that they need in order to make sure he doesn’t die from the serum itself.  They offer him essentially two ways to die.  Before he allows them to give him the injection, he tells Shado that he’s sorry for not telling her how he felt about her before this moment.  They inject him and blood starts to run from his eyes.  Sara Lance, who is also still with them, checks his pulse and declares him dead.