The Sin Eater – When China White, Cupid and Lisa Warner escape prison, the team’s efforts to recapture them are hampered by emerging evidence connecting The Green Arrow to the murder of Detective Malone. While Thea takes a different approach to dealing with evidence.
Now this episode was meant as a step back towards the Prometheus story, and while it does further some aspects, as an expectation managing spoiler, the figure himself does not feature for the 5th episode running. Of course, absence makes the heart grow fonder and not over-saturating your principle villain is advised but if they expect viewers to keep caring about him as a threat, they need to get him back on screen and pronto. Meeting his mother clearly feels like a setup down the line and her similar dislike of green-hooded vigilantes implies she’s connected somehow; maybe she instilled the hate into her son? However, for the rest of the episode, Prometheus just gets treated like a go to bogeyman with Oliver jumping to his involvement behind anything suspicious despite several possible alternatives. Speaking of alternatives, sound the crazy over-analysing theory klaxon.... did anyone else get a whiff of embedding a connection between Thea and Prometheus? Firstly, consider that Thea has not just been out of masked action this season but also had notable periods of absence altogether. Then there were Oliver’s words when discussing Thea’s less then reputable actions (that conveniently made things much worse for Oliver), “What kind of a person would do something like that?”, hinting that Thea could be more than she seems. She certainly isn’t under the mask because Prometheus is a similar size to Oliver and much bigger than tiny Willa Holland but she could still be involved somehow.
Thankfully, behind every absent principle villain is a trio of badass ladies as White, Cupid and Warner form a Star City Sirens like alliance. All 3 are welcome reprisals and White in particular ties in well to season long theme of circling back to season 1 having appeared in the show’s second ever episode (fun fact – Kelly Hu was also X2s Lady Deathstrike). I also liked the way they didn’t force story relevance on all 3 ladies by focusing the dramatic material on Warner. That took considerable pressure of White and Cupid and as a result, the actresses come across as having a great time just being badasses. White looked completely lethal while Cupid got to mix in the odd laugh. As for Warner he story, although quite one note, was a good one and linked well into the titular theme of feeling guilt for the sins of others. When last we saw Warner she was a bad Lady Cop on the road to redemption courtesy of Quentin’s actions.... until seeing Quentin confess to colluding with Damien Darhk destroyed her faith in those believes like watching her hero fall. It’s good material and unsurprisingly to any True Blood fans out there, Rutina Wesley does some great work with it.
Having the Fox Force Threesome on hand also made for a nice action climax of bows, bullets, bow staffs and many many kicks. The action was good and frantic while also allowing servicing as a conduit for some character evolution within the team. Curtis is not only now wearing a Kevlar version of his comic loyal Fair play jacket but he seems far more confident as his hero persona and this could very well be his ascension towards really being Mister Terrific. Similarly, Dinah Drake starts her journey towards the Black Canary mantle. I felt this was handled extremely well. Firstly, just starting with the mask was a good way to ease into things but it felt relevant as a means of protecting Dinah’s identity. Then there was Dinah’s animosity towards taking on the identity out of consideration for Laurel and those who cared for her. It felt very respectful towards the contributions of Katie Cassidy and Dinah’s end moment with Quentin pulled everything together nicely. That Dinah is not replacing Laurel, she is continuing her legacy as Laurel would have wanted.
It was a holding week from the flashbacks with a typical, “This is what the title means” speech but some of the hospital action was cool. Overall, despite spinning their wheels over Prometheus, I thought this was a great episode that continued the greater emphasis on mayor Oliver Queen rather than just the Green Arrow with a great end twist to play out next week.