Final Thoughts From the Arrow Episode "Taken"

Even though I watch this show on a regular basis, I must confess I don't watch the spinoffs/related shows as religiously. As a result, I was honestly very confused when Oliver brought in Vixen (Megalyn Echikunwoke) to help him fight Damien Darhk, mostly because I honestly don't have any clue who she is.

Of course, even if I did, I think I would have been disappointed by her participation in this episode. Oliver should have been the one to defeat Darhk. Instead, it was Vixen with a (very small) assist from Oliver. That was a serious let down for me.

I think the number of people who knew about Oliver's "secret" son is only outnumbered by the number of people who know about his secret identity/secret lair. In fact, you can even add one more person to that list now that Samantha Clayton (Anna Hopkins), who isn't dead, as I originally thought would be the case, was let in on that secret too.

I actually wasn't too surprised he told his ex-girlfriend. I figured it was only a matter of time before she found out. I am, however, a little surprised he didn't give her a costume, weapon and code name in the process since that seems to be the way he normally does things.

I guess I'm not too surprised Malcolm (John Barrowman) didn't rat out Oliver as the Green Arrow because that would put Thea (Willa Holland) in danger too. But, am I the only one who is puzzled by the fact Darhk couldn't figure it out on his own?

I know Oliver wears a disguise. But, it's not like it hides his entire face and I would think Darhk is both smart enough and familiar enough with Oliver to add the pieces together.

It's kind of her fault everything that happened in this episode had a chance to happen. After all, Oliver was perfectly content staying retired as a crime fighter and she's the one that dragged him back into it. Had she not done that, he would never have known about his son and would never have been forced to lie to her about him.

That being said, I did think it was pretty cool she was able to regain the ability to walk as she was breaking things off with Oliver. Her walking out of the door added a nice exclamation point.

I'm still waiting to hear how Felicity explains the breakup to her mother (Charlotte Ross) but, overall, I think this episode was somewhat disappointing. As I mentioned, Darhk being defeated by an outsider was a pretty big letdown and there wasn't anything about this episode that really helped to make up for that.

My Grade: C