Recap / Arrow S1 E1 "Pilot"

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The episode opens with Oliver on the island, rushing towards the shore to alert a passing boat that he is there. While on the island for five years, Oliver Queen, billionaire playboy, forged himself into a weapon to seek vengeance on the corrupt and right his father’s wrongs. After he returns home, Oliver is continually plagued with flashbacks of the shipwreck and the island, including one vivid memory of his father sacrificing himself so Oliver could survive.

In present day Starling City, three masked men capture Oliver and Tommy Merlyn, Oliver’s long-time friend. They interrogate Oliver about his father, but he soon frees himself from their restraints and takes them out. Oliver insists to Detective Quentin Lance that a man in a green hood saved them, starting the legend of his own alter ego. Moira Queen, claiming that she needs peace of mind, introduces Oliver to his new bodyguard, John Diggle. While Diggle drives him around, Oliver sneaks away and begins building his home base and training on the infamous salmon ladder.

As Laurel Lance and her co-worker, Joanna, discuss their case against the criminal Adam Hunt, Laurel learns that Oliver is alive and is less than pleased. Oliver begins looking into Adam Hunt, having Hunt’s name in his little book. Oliver, as Arrow, orders Hunt to wire $40 million into an account, but Hunt refuses. Oliver slips out of his “welcome back” party and into Hunt’s office, completing his task and zip lining out the window before the police can catch him. As Oliver crosses out Hunt’s name, the $40 million is distributed to Laurel’s clients. In the end, we learn that Moira was responsible for Oliver’s abduction.

Tropes applying to this Episode:

• Arc Words
  Oliver: (narrating) For five years I've had only one thought, one goal. Survive.
• Arrows on Fire: How Oliver lights-up the bonfire to catch the fishermen's attention.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Tommy lists to Oliver all the things he's missed: the teams winning the Superbowl, a black president, "And Lost? They were all dead. I think."
• Back from the Dead: Oliver was presumed dead for five years before he was found.
• Big Brother Instinct: Ollie gives Tommy the stink-eye when he mentions how hot Thea's gotten, and also pickpockets Thea at the club to keep her from doing drugs.
• Blatant Lies: Oliver tells Laurel her sister didn't suffer when she died. A Flashback Cut shows the terror in Sara's eyes as she's pulled screaming underwater.
• Bodyguarding a Badass: Poor Diggle...
• Body Sushi: Before they're rudely interrupted by kidnappers, Tommy is suggesting to Oliver that they celebrate his return by finding some leggy models and eating sushi off them.
• Book Ends: The pilot begins with Oliver leaving the island, and ends with a flashback on how he drifted there.
• Chairman of the Brawl: After he breaks free of his restraints, Oliver grabs the chair he was zipcuffed to and uses it as an Improvised Weapon.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • For his Welcome Back party, Tommy tells Oliver to name the venue and he'll make all the arrangements. The venue Oliver chooses happens to be right next door to the building with Hunt's office, enabling Oliver to slip out of the party, attack Hunt, then return for a suitable alibi.
  • Doctor Lamb tells Moira Queen that twenty percent of her son's body is covered in scar tissue. Turns out Every Scar Has a Story.
  • The hozen that Oliver gives to Thea becomes important in Season 2.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Some of the people whose names are on the List will gradually appear throughout the show.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • While rushing to light the signal fire, Oliver uses the same ability to cross terrain fast that he'll use later in chasing down his kidnappers in a more urban environment.
  • Oliver speaking Russian will be of use in later episodes, though it will be a few seasons before we get the full story of how he could speak Russian in the first place.
• Chilly Reception:
  • The Lances are not thrilled to see Oliver alive which is Lampshaded by Tommy. Laurel apologizes though, before Oliver pushes her away.
  • Oliver in turn to his mother's new beau, Walter Steele.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Raisa, the Queens' Russian maid who is also implied to be Oliver's former nanny, disappears after this episode until Season 6.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: The kidnappers zap Oliver with a taser, demanding to know if Robert Queen lived long enough to tell Oliver anything.
• Cold Equation: Robert Queen kills himself and another sailor so Oliver will keep all the supplies and rations for himself.
• Commercial Break Cliffhanger: Oliver is knocked unconscious during his fight with Drakon as Quentin and a SWAT Team are entering the building. He recovers Just in Time to escape with a Super Window Jump.
• Continuity Snarl:
  • Robert Queen's birth year is stated to be 1948. Starting the following episode, it will be rectified as 1958.
  • Sara Lance is portrayed as a tall (5'8) brunette and her first name ending in "h". Season 2 onwards will later establish her as a 5'6 blonde.
• Damsel out of Distress: Gender Flipped with Oliver. He ends up killing his kidnappers.
• Death by Secret Identity: The last of Oliver's kidnappers, who gets his neck broken despite being disarmed and no longer a threat. Oliver does this specifically so his fighting skills will remain a secret.
  Kidnapper: You don't have to do this!
  Oliver: Yes I do. Nobody can know my secret. (Neck Snap)
• Demoted to Extra: Constantine Drakon's a recurring and highly dangerous opponent to Green Arrow in the comics. In the show, he's nothing more than a Starter Villain and Villain of the Week for Oliver to overcome by the episode's end.
• Deserted Island: Lian Yu, which means Purgatory.
• Ditch the Bodyguards: The start of a Running Gag; Oliver ditches Diggle twice in this episode alone—first by jumping out the back of his car while he's driving, then by putting him into a sleeper hold when he has to slip out of his party to take on Hunt.
• The Dragon: Adam Hunt has Constantine Drakon, a powerful bodyguard who puts up a decent effort against Oliver.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Oliver's Private Eye Monologue, which persists for a couple more episodes until he gets someone to deliver exposition to.
  • Oliver's hacking skills will mostly disappear once Felicity Smoak joins Team Arrow, though in fairness, it's because he doesn't really need them much after that.
  • During his rescue, and when Oliver first lays eyes on Lian Yu, the island is covered in storm clouds to give it a menacing air. After this Lian Yu is usually quite sunny—it's the people Oliver encounters on the island who turn it into Purgatory.
  • To Walter and Moira's surprise, Oliver talks of going straight to work at Queen Consolidated, making it look as if he intends to start digging into what's being going on there. The following episode has Oliver going to great lengths to avoid this so he can be free to carry out his vigilante activities, and he'll show a marked reluctance to admit that his own family is involved in the conspiracy he's investigating.
  • Oliver has a warm relationship with Raisa, the Russian housekeeper. She shows up only once again after this episode.
• Elaborate Underground Base: Oliver does a little construction work in the basement of the abandoned Queen Consolidated factory. It's surprisingly elaborate, given he's working alone.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Oliver and Thea embarrass each other with their childhood Affectionate Nicknames of "Ollie" and "Speedy".
• Emo Teen: Thea, though not without reason.
  Oliver: I know that it couldn't have been easy for you when I was away...
  Thea: Away? No, you died. My brother and my father died. I went to your funerals.
  Oliver: I know.
  Thea: No, you don't. Mom had Walter, and I had no one. You guys all act like it's cool, let's forget about the last 5 years. Well, I can't. For me, it's kind of permanently in there, so I'm sorry if I turned out some major disappointment, but this—me—is the best I could do with what I had to work with.
• Evil Matriarch: The Stinger reveals that Moira Queen was the one who arranged for Oliver (and Tommy) to be kidnapped.
• Exactly What I Aimed At: Adam Hunt was too arrogant to realized that the arrow he dodged wasn't meant to kill him, but rather a wireless encryption key to drain out his illegal funds. Which leads to his Villainous Breakdown as seen below.
• Exact Words: Oliver threatened to take the money Adam Hunt stole back to everyone Hunt robbed. He does so by using an arrow with a wireless encryption key to transfer the money back the people Hunt stole it from.
• Facial Dialogue: Diggle looks worried during Oliver's altercation with Thea and starts to move in on them, then gives Oliver an approving look on seeing him dump Thea's drug stash in the trash bin; Oliver however doesn't look happy that Diggle has seen Beneath the Mask.
• A Family Affair: The main conflict between Oliver and Laurel is when he cheated on her with her sister before his apparent death.
  Oliver: I want to ask you not to blame her.
  Laurel: For what; falling under your spell? How can I possibly blame her for doing the same things that I did?
  Oliver: I never meant—
  Laurel: She was my sister! I couldn't be angry, because she was dead. I couldn't grieve because I was so angry; that's what happens when your sister dies while screwing your boyfriend.
• Female Gaze: Oliver's Training Montage.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The Deathstroke mask with an arrow in its right eye is not just there for display.
  • Oliver calls Thea "Speedy". She also has archery trophies in her room.
  • In the final scene before The Stinger, Tommy and Laurel end their conversation with prophetic lines.
    Tommy: Dinah Laurel Lance. Always trying to save the world!
    Laurel: Hey, if I don't save it, who will?
  • The names on the List in Oliver's book.
  • The fact that Oliver knows how to speak Russian (see Chekhov's Skill).
  • We get a clear view, front and back, of Oliver's scars and tattoos. We'll get to see how he got every one of them.
• Friend or Foe?
  • A kidnapper fires at Oliver but only kills his partner whom Oliver is holding in front of him.
  • One of Hunt's bodyguards gets thrown through the glass door to Hunt's office only to get riddled with bullets by the men inside.
• Friends with Benefits: Turns out Tommy had a past fling with Laurel while Oliver was officially dead, a fact that Oliver (in his Hood guise) discovers while secretly listening in on their conversation.
• The Glomp: Used to show the close relationship between Oliver and his kid sister Thea.
  Thea: I knew it; I knew you were alive! (runs down stairs and throws her arms around her brother) I missed you so much...
  Oliver: You were with me the whole time.
• Grand Staircase Entrance: Oliver sees his grown-up sister Thea for the first time in years at the top of a staircase.
• Hypocrisy Nod: Thea gets angry at her brother for trying to curb her hedonistic lifestyle, when it's exactly the way he used to act (and still is to cover for his activities).
• Infraction Distraction: Oliver deflects Walter's question of where he learned Russian by bluntly raising the issue of him sleeping with his mother.
• Inexplicably Awesome: Five years stranded in purgatory has turned Oliver Queen into a badass who can take on criminals armed with automatic weapons using just a bow & arrow or even his bare hands, but the audience is left to wonder (for now) how come he's also able to speak Russian and construct sophisticated electronic arrows that can hack into bank accounts.
• It's Personal: Despite doing his job, Quentin doesn't hide the fact that he utterly hates Oliver.
• Kick the Dog: A kidnapper guns down an innocent civilian so we don't feel too bad about Oliver killing him just to preserve his Secret Identity. Never mind the fact that the kidnappers are wearing masks, so don't have to worry about being identified, and it turns out they don't intend to hold Oliver for ransom. Meaning they raised the potential charges against them to murder for no apparent reason.
• Kill All The Witnesses: The kidnappers gun down a civilian who walks in on them kidnapping Oliver and Tommy. In turn Oliver kills them to preserve how he Took a Level in Badass.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Tommy blatantly spoiled the ending of Lost.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: A newsreader on a television at CNRI announces a movie of the week will be made of Oliver's survival.
  Newsreader: The son of a very wealthy billionaire will soon become a legendary story.
• Leap and Fire: Oliver shows you don't need a gun to do this, killing Drakon with a flechette dart to the chest while leaping backwards over a desk to avoid his gunfire.
• Le Parkour: Oliver shows off some basic Parkour moves while chasing down—and avoiding the gunfire from—one of the men who kidnapped him.
• Looks Like Jesus: How Oliver looks like when the fishermen found him.
• Loving Details: Tommy makes an offhand remark about how long it's been since his best friend got laid. "By my rough estimate... 1,839 days", the implication being that Tommy counted the days since Oliver was Lost at Sea.
• Mr. Fanservice: Oliver begins a tradition of wearing tight T-shirts (when he can be bothered with a shirt at all), doing construction work and working out.
• Mugging the Monster: The men torturing Oliver laugh when this celebrity playboy says he's going to kill them...until Oliver reveals he's Slipped the Ropes. He then proceeds to wipe out a professional kidnapping team.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Tommy notes how hot Thea is. Then he notes she is not.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Deathstroke's mask is seen briefly on the island where Oliver is shipwrecked, with an arrow in its right eyehole.
  • Ollie calls Thea "Speedy", the name of Green Arrow's sidekick (Roy Harper, usually) in the comics. She also happens to have a drug problem (Roy famously became addicted to heroin in "Snowbirds Don't Fly").
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Oliver plays up his pre-Island image as a Millionaire Playboy to cover for his vigilante activities, throwing his welcome back bash as an alibi for when he goes to take on Hunt. It also comes in handy for driving Laurel away from him.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Both Quentin and Laurel Lance to Oliver.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Oliver and Tommy's kidnappers are dressed in black outfits and red masks.
• Revealing Hug: Compare Oliver's distant look as he hugs his mother, with the unrestrained warmth of the hugs he gives his little sister Thea and best friend Tommy.
• Revealing Skill: When Raisa stumbles, Oliver catches the bowl she was carrying and answers her apology in Russian, to everyone's surprise.
• Running Gag: Oliver begins his streak of ditching Diggle.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Played with; Tommy wakes up just as Oliver leaves to chase down the last kidnapper, and pauses for a moment before answering he was "knocked out" when Quentin asks him about what he saw during the ordeal. He also makes a pointed comment to Oliver on the coincidence of Hunt being robbed in the building next to where they were holding their party. Though later episodes make it clear Tommy doesn't know Oliver is the Man in the Green Hood, he clearly suspects Oliver is not telling him everything.
• Self-Made Myth: Oliver claims he was rescued from the kidnappers by a mysterious man in a green hood. This is before he's commenced his vigilante activities.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Adam Hunt's bodyguards wear pretty decent clothing, a sharp contrast to Oliver's dirty hood.
• Sherlock Scan: Apparently no-one told Oliver about the sensitive issue of his mother getting married to Walter, but he works it out by watching them interact at the dinner table.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Oliver has shades of PTSD after coming home. When his mother finds him sleeping on a rain-soaked floor she tries to rouse him only to find her son's hands at her throat before he comes to his senses.
• Ship Tease:
  • Thea can be seen casting admiring glances at Tommy Merlyn, who comments to Oliver on how hot she is.
  • At the Welcome Back bash, Tommy casts Laurel a Longing Look when she walks off with Oliver for a quiet conversation, and they're later revealed to have had a brief sexual relationship that Tommy seems eager to start up again.
• Shout-Out: Tommy mentions Lost and The Twilight Saga, the Super Bowl winners from 2007-2012 and Barack Obama.
• Slipped the Ropes: Oliver frees himself from his zip-cuffs without his captors noticing, only revealing his hands once they've set him up for a decent Pre Ass Kicking One Liner.
• Starter Villain: Adam Hunt.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Oliver pulls one from the back seat of a moving car, also initiating a running gag of Ditch the Bodyguards. Next time Diggle waits in the backseat and has someone else drive.
• Table Space: Downplayed—but Thea, Tommy and Raisa are sitting or standing closer to Oliver than Walter and Moira.
• Take That!: Tommy tells Oliver he is better off not knowing what The Twilight Saga is.
• Tempting Fate: When Sara gets worried about the storm getting closer, Oliver replies, "Sara, we're going to be fine." Suddenly the Queen's Gambit capsizes and Sara is thrown screaming into the sea.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Thea's friends are not-so-subtly implied to be bad influences to her.
• Training Montage: The closing scenes of Oliver creating his Elaborate Underground Base features him doing the now infamous Salmon Ladder, hanging sit-ups, and testing his archery skills.
• Trashcan Bonfire: An obligatory trope for the economic decline of Starling City.
• Trick Arrow: In this case, an electronic hacking arrow.
• Tuckerization:
  • Oliver's bodyguard John Diggle is named after Andy Diggle, a Green Arrow writer.
  • The crooked judge named Grell is a nod to Mike Grell, an acclaimed writer/artist of the Green Arrow comics.
  • One woman wronged by Adam Hunt, Danielle DiDio is a nod to DC Comics co-publisher, Dan DiDio, another is named for science fiction writer Nancy Kress.
• Villainous Breakdown: Adam Hunt has one at the end when he learns that his money is gone:
  Hunt: Untraceable?! It is FORTY MILLION DOLLARS! FIND IT!
• Wake Up Fighting: Moira tries to wake up her son who is sleeping on the floor next to an open window in the rain, only to find the edge of his hand against her throat. Oliver is horrified when he comes to his senses, though his family naturally put this down to PTSD instead of realising he's become a dangerous killer.
• Wham Shot: Moira being revealed as the one who arranged Oliver's (as well as Tommy's) kidnapping.
• Wretched Hive: Starling City, which begins Oliver's journey into "cleansing" it.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Quentin and his partner watch in disbelief as the Man in the Green Hood jumps through the window and ziplines to the building opposite.
  Detective Lucas: Tell me you saw that...
• Your Television Hates You: Laurel turns off the TV in CNRI when it starts showing a news report on Oliver's return, specifically mentioning the death of her sister.
• You Should Have Died Instead: Laurel tells Oliver he should have died instead of her sister Sara. Later he agrees with her, even though she takes back the comment.

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