TV Rundown: Oct 12 - 17 | 'Arrow' Vengeance, 'Reign' Coronation, and More


Arrow 🏹🎯


As the team attempted to mourn and avenge Sara, the sentiment was difficult to empathize with. For one, she had strolled into Starling City last season acting superior to every member of team Arrow and had especially been a pain in Felicity and Laurel’s derrieres. Interestingly both women were shown to be the most outwardly shaken by her demise.

Sara’s smug self-righteousness, lack of remorse, and smug attitude should have made for few mourners. She betrayed her sister, killed people for a living, and was a compulsive liar, not much to miss there. She lived by the arrow and died by the arrow. The biggest mystery of the hour was how Laurel managed to carry Sara’s body all the way to Verdant.

Revenge 👗

A filler episode that provided little plot development saw Charlotte brought together with David, Victoria scheming to reclaim her financial bearings, and Daniel complaining about his misfortunate. 

The near reunion of Emily with her estranged father was the cliffhanger tease at the end of the episode. What will be interesting to see is if David’s loyalty to Victoria bothers Emily at all. It is because of her father’s betrayal and fixation on a married woman that has led to the destruction of her life. 

The Blacklist 🕵️‍♀️

Red is a recognizably multi-faceted character, complete with mysterious layers that make him morally ambiguous at times. Last season, the show teased that Liz might share that in common with him. During “Madeline Pratt”, she told a story that sounded convincingly honest about how she’d robbed a store by seducing the manager.

It was the first hint that Liz might have a dark side, and another hint came in this week’s episode when she spoke of what she desired to do to her estranged husband, Tom. There is more to Liz than meets the eye, and “The Blacklist” has cleverly been scraping the surface.

Dancing with the Stars 💃🕺

The partner switch-up provided the show with the “what if” of differentiating pairings. What made this week’s episode particularly confusing and lacking any cohesion was that each couple performed a different dance style.

Comparing which couple performed better was next to impossible to tabulate because there was no consistency in the routines. In the early seasons, half did Latin and the other half Ballroom. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.

Reign 👑

The lines between a King and Queen, love and duty, and husband and wife were crossed and explored in inventive fashion in “Coronation.” The conflicts of several characters mirrored each other, and the closing realizations provided rewarding character growth. Mary and Francis’ coronation was a standout sequence that was expertly executed.

Also standing out was the entire episode’s costume design which provided one ravishing confection after another, the showstopper being Mary’s stunning coronation gown. Not since her wedding dress has she donned such a spectacular gown.

The Flash 💨🦸‍♂️

“The Flash” is only two episodes in, and the freshman series has already shown a strong aptitude for balancing comedy, drama, and action. As Star Labs tried to diagnose the cause of Barry’s fainting spell, a test was administered on a treadmill.

He didn’t stay there long before humorously ending up in the boxes that had been placed to cushion him in the event of an accident. It was a quirky moment of predictable humor that landed its mark with surprisingly funny fervor.

The Vampire Diaries 📓

Joining Bonnie and Damon in 1994 was the uber obnoxious entrance of “the pork rinds gobbler”, a snotty know-it-all who, with any luck, will not make it back to the real world when Bonnie and Damon inevitably depart. Back in the present, Elena decided a party would be just what her friends needed to rejuvenate, and this has been the case with past attempts. Things turned deadly.

Where was Matt, the recent community watch recruit, when all of this was happening? He was just standing around. Even more curious is how Matt is supporting himself financially as a volunteer and what on earth qualifies him of all people to carry on such a duty?

Comments