Arrow Season 1 Episode 2: Honor Thy Father

Episode 2 of the show that birthed the DC TV universe. Written by Andrew Kreisberg & Marc Guggenheim with a story by Greg Berlanti & Marc Guggenheim. In it Oliver has to go to court to be declared alive again. How messed up is our justice system when someone has to go to court to be declared alive? What if the judge was a horrible person and turned down his request.

On the way of the court room he runs into Laurel  and the tension between the two of them seems to be getting worse and worse. Although, can you blame her? For the past five years she thought that he had died while cheating on her with her sister. It turns out that he survived while her sister died while they were messing around behind her back. Kind of makes it worse doesn't it?

Laurel is going against one of the most powerful men in the city in court so Ollie throws on his hood and tries to help her out in the streets by scaring him into confessing. Meanwhile his mother pretends to care about him and emotionally blackmailing him into having Diggle protect him. Diggle tells Ollie that if he ditches him one more time he will quit. He doesn't need the job that bad.

Ollie keeps getting pushed into taking a leading hand at the company but he is fighting against it. He goes out of his way to push his mother and her new husband away from him. He just wants to run around town playing superhero and doesn't really care about running the company. Not when he is so busy trying to bring all the rich people around the city down.

Thea is still having a hard time dealing with Oliver's death. She helps Oliver see that pushing everyone away isn't doing himself or anyone else any favors so of course the first thing he does is run off to go see Laurel. Part of his reasoning is to make sure she is safe. The same reason her father has posted cops all around her house.

They hit it off spending a long time eating ice cream and catching up when gun fire goes off. He tries to keep her safe as a white haired assassin shows up out of nowhere and Diggle fights her off. What would he do without Diggle? The man who would go on to become Spartan is one of the only reasons that Ollie is still alive.

Detective Lance threatens to disappear Oliver and Diggle starts to figure out how well of a fighter Oliver has become. The start of a beautiful friendship is just becoming. 

After fighting with the white hair assassin Arrow gets caught by Detective Lance. He manages to escape but leaves behind a recording for Lance to help in Laurel's case. Olvier shows up the next day at a press conference pretending to be drunk and makes an ass out of himself. He does it to make a point, that he isn't his father and that he never will be. He asks the city and his mother to stop asking him to be something that he is not.

Laurel wins her case thanks to the help from the arrow. The show just keeps getting better and better.