ARROW Season 5 Episode 13 Review: Spectre of the Gun


Oliver Queen hasn’t done all that much for Star City as its mayor it has to be said. That changed this week in what I honestly felt was the best episode of ARROW to date. After a mass shooting at City Hall, the real “villain” of this week’s episode wasn’t the shooter, but the spectre of gun (control). 

An armed man strolled right in to City Hall in a workman’s uniform and opened fire with a machine gun, an M16 to be precise - America’s most popular gun. When trying to trace the weapon it’s casually mentioned that it’s unlikely to have been procured illegally and may well have just been purchased legally from a gun store. As a Brit this BLOWS MY MIND. The argument that it’s a constitutional right to own a device designed only for killing, whilst other things such a health care aren't, is so alien to anyone outside the US that it’s like peering through the looking glass into some kind of bizarro world (sorry America, I still love you). But this episode did something; it showed that other people’s points of view might come from a genuine place, even if you can't wrap your head around their logic. 

Curtis tried to make the point to Rene about the statistical likelihood of him being shot as a black man is 3 times higher than the rest of Team Arrow, or that despite what Rene believed, previous automatic weapon bans did actually have an effect on the number of shootings, but Rene was coming at the whole issue from a different point of view. In this week’s flashbacks we saw the tragic secret back story that Rene’s wife was killed during a home invasion robbery, right in front of his daughter, something Rene is absolutely convinced he could have prevented if he had his gun on him at the time. Instead, he had left it at home in his safe on his wife’s behest, so was unable to stop the drug dealing low life that came into his house to exact a price from his wife for her illegal habits. Rene did manage to get to his gun, but when he shot the dealer, the dealer’s gun went off and killed his wife, a distinct sequence of events I feel gun lovers might overlook in convincing themselves that the only thing that can top a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. What came next was equally tragic, as Child Services took Rene's daughter and placed her in a foster home, citing Rene was unsafe to be around. Rick Gonzalez securing his place, for now, as my favourite actor and character on Arrow as a man who lost everything. 

My own feelings aside however, I did feel like the issue weighted the characters personalities more as they came down on whichever side of the argument they fell. It’s some of the best characterisation ARROW has ever done. 

The City Hall shooter turned out to be a nobody named James Edlund, who simply wanted to lash out in pain over the fact his family were killed in a random shooting. Convinced the city’s lack of gun control laws were to blame, Edlund had taken up arms to prove a point, at the cost of the lives of 7 staff members working under Oliver Queen. The victims being otherwise nameless characters who may never had existed before this episode did take a little away from the impact of what they were trying to say, not that I’m suggesting another member of Team Arrow needed to die, but compounded by the fact that the magical compromise gun control law pulled out at the end of the episode wasn’t fleshed out at all, I felt it was a shame as I felt the ARROW wimped out from taking a side. BUT, I do feel that it isn’t always about taking sides. Curtis’s of the world need to reach out to the Rene’s of the world and try to understand that their desire for access to guns is born out of fear. Rene’s of the world need to extend the Curtis’s of the world the same courtesy because their desire to control, restrict or even ban guns comes from fear too. Who wants to get shot? 

Perhaps as a Brit I shouldn’t comment on this, but simply put, the very idea of having 2-3 guns per person available to the general population, with minimal restrictions and enshrined in law is madness. But I’m sure if you told me over and over again something I had was my right and people wanted to take it away from me, I’d be angry too. That’s exactly why people voted for Brexit. And Trump. They felt that there version of the world was under attack and that's when barriers go up and discussion gets shut down. And it's discussion that's so badly needed right now. That is to say, just because you don't agree with some, doesn't mean they're all bad people. 

Coming to realise Rene's pain, Curtis extends the offer to help him get his daughter back (he has a “lawyer friend”) once again confirming my theory that Rene is the beating heart of this version of Team Arrow as he connects with everyone on some level. 

Felicity, a character who was literally shot to pieces and left in a wheelchair, albeit for about 6 weeks, was largely non-committed to either side of the gun debate, but the looming threat of her all powerful USB stick of doom is still there, waiting to blow up in Team Arrow's face. 

With a fun, though not surprising cameo from Vigilante as well, highlighting the difference between the arrow and gun wielding vigilantes, this week touched upon nearly every plate that ARROW currently has spinning right now. It's been weeks now since we've seen Prometheus, but the team are following a lead on his true identity and with there still needing to be a payoff to Evelyn's betrayal, I find myself hoping for a return to that story, though promos for next episode make it look like I'll have to wait a little longer.

Written by Nick Whitney, ARROW Beat Writer -- Click to read Nick's posts


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