(no subject)
Because we need to talk about Slade.
It's not that this hasn't been telegraphed for the entire season, because it has. It's been perfectly crystal clear how things would go down on the island since, like, episode 3. Clearly, Slade and Shado did not make it off the island, or at least they did not make it off on good terms with Oliver.
I'm still frustrated though. Oliver and Slade spent a year together, and clearly had formed a close friendship during that time. Shado never returned Slade's affections while alive - in fact, she seemed to prefer Oliver. Slade had been doing pretty well coping with that in a mature, adult manner, even after he caught them sleeping together.
The only, only way I buy this is if the Mirakuru permanenly re-wired Slade's brain. And I get that that's a very traditional comic book villain way to go: previously good guy turns inexplicably bad due to [deus ex machina out of his control]. Sure, let's let Shado's death be the thing that catalyzes the already unstable Mirakuru in his system. (Though, show: shitty way to kill her off, can we just be clear about that? I get that in real life awesome people die senselessly all the time, but if you are deliberately setting up a storytelling universe in which deaths receive maximum drama and interpersonal relations are played out according to Greek rules, you need to give Shado a better death.)
So ok, Slade goes nuts when Shado dies. I'm fine with that!
Here's what I'm not fine with: blaming Oliver. Because it wasn't Oliver's fault. It wasn't. He did not choose Sara over Shado. He didn't choose either of them. He thrust himself between them, slightly more to Sara than Shado, and begged Ivo not to shoot either one of them.
I get that Oliver probably thinks he chose Sara. I get that unconsciously he would have chosen Sara. I get that he is carrying around his own grief and trauma and guilt about seeing Shado die. But in a situation in which his suddenly superpowered and unstable good friend might blame him for Shado's death: a little honesty goes a long way, right? Maybe it would've helped to have told Slade sooner, but it sure as hell would have helped if he had actually spelled out what happened when confronted instead of clamming up and letting Ivo talk Slade into a murderous rage.
And murderous to the point that he tortures Oliver and carries out a personal vendetta against his city and his family five years later, come on! That is a lot of crazy-blaming and it only partially works for me.
It's not a deal-breaker, but you need to do better than that, show. Let us into Slade's brain more. Unpack what actually happened instead of letting misunderstanding rule this one.
In the meantime, though: SARA. SARA YOU ARE AWESOME I LOVE YOU.