First Impressions - Arrow: 'The Climb'

This is by no means a deeply intense dissection of the episode.

It's just my quick comments and notes after seeing the episode only once (a la AoS).
Spoilers after the jump.

You've been warned...


Season 3 Episode 9: 'The Climb'

The Good:

Nice to see China White's back! Speaking of which - 

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Nice fight scene with Katana!

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I liked the explanation of Ray's motivation to create the ATOM suit.

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Speaking of the suit, ATOM is an acronym? Cool.

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Felicity's reaction to learning about the suit.

The Bad:

Did they have to name this episode after a Miley Cyrus song? No. They did not. 

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A little too Batman Begins for me.

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Laurel's actions. Telling Thea and her mother about Sara? Some secret...

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...and THAT? Using "mind-control-drugs" to explain Sara's death?

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I also see that Arrow has followed AoS's lead...

...in leaving viewers pissed.

Okay. I wasn't expecting Oliver to win this fight. In fact, in a perfect world one of two things would have happened: a) Oliver did "kill" Ra's, only to see him resurrected in a Pit, or b) something disrupted the combat, ending it in a draw. 

Unfortunately, we get something stupid. All this build up all episode long ending in a fight that lasted shorter than a damn commercial break. Why couldn't they have started the episode with Oliver fighting, and then do the flashbacks leading up to the fight, with clips of the fight happening throughout the episode? It would have been more dramatic, and given us the impression that Oliver at least had a chance. Having Ra's say to Oliver that he lasted longer in the fight than anyone before him means nothing. Especially when Ra's may as well have been wiping his nose for all the effort he showed in "killing" Oliver.

And it was mighty nice of Ra's to show honor and righteousness and obnoxious fighting superiority...when his opponent has just climbed a f**king mountain in the middle of winter only to have his clothes taken off without so much food or water first.

Yeah Ra's. You're a cheating bastard.

In fact, I want to see Clark walk right the f**k up to you and burn a hole into your skull with his heat vision.

Not that Clark would ever do that...

...Bizarro, however, would. And it would be GLORIOUS!

I'll bring the popcorn.

The WTF?: There were several...
1)

Maseo's still alive? I thought his (and his son's) death led to Katana.

2) 

Oliver climbs this unnamed mountain...in the snow...without gloves? And what's with the pants? Slacks?

3) 

Was it me, or did Oliver's voice seem more "distorted"-like even when he wasn't using the gizmo?

Adorkification Moment:

Yellow Blur reference!