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" &amp;quot;You can&amp;#039;t trust Sebastian Blood.&amp;quot; Arrow - a show that now comfortably wears the mantle of one of TV&amp;#039;s best ever live-action comic book series - wrapped 2013 on top form. It returns this year as slick and stylish as ever but with perhaps a little less vigour and energy than it had in December.  &amp;#039;Blast Radius&amp;#039; sees Oliver (Stephen Amell) aggressively pursuing &amp;quot;the man in the skull mask&amp;quot; - who is, in fact, Starling City&amp;#039;s newest benefactor Sebastian Blood - and working to thwart highly-trained urban terrorist Shrapnel (Sean Maher). Blood is an intriguing character played by supremely charismatic Kevin Alejandro - the viewer is kept guessing throughout how much of what he reveals to Laurel (Katie Cassidy) is the real Sebastian. Is he really deranged or simply misguided? Oliver and Laurel&amp;#039;s dual investigation into Blood is engaging enough, but &amp;#039;Blast Radius&amp;#039; doesn&amp;#039;t really pick up speed until its frenzied final scenes, as Blood&amp;#039;s rally spirals out of control. However, just as it reaches a dramatic high, the episode fizzles out with a weak climax. Shrapnel&amp;#039;s defeat - put out of action by a single arrow - is hugely underwhelming.  One of the better aspects of the episode - and I never thought I&amp;#039;d say this - is Laurel&amp;#039;s involvement. She features heavily here and after several Laurel-lite episodes of late 2013 - where the writers clearly didn&amp;#039;t have a clue what to do with her - they&amp;#039;ve now returned to the character with renewed vigour and a game-plan. Placing Laurel in opposition to Oliver, as with Moira&amp;#039;s trial, clearly wasn&amp;#039;t working - there&amp;#039;s a middle ground between bumping heads and bumping uglies. She needs to be incorporated into the Arrow&amp;#039;s world in a way that&amp;#039;s both entertaining and believable and her getting close to Blood to uncover his true motives is a good example of that.  The only concern now is that brief scene in which she&amp;#039;s seen popping Quentin&amp;#039;s pills - a drug-fuelled breakdown for Laurel is the kind of tiresome and distracting sub-plot that this show just doesn&amp;#039;t need right now. &amp;#039;Blast Radius&amp;#039; is a perfectly serviceable Arrow episode, but following a month-long hiatus, the show needed to return with something just a little bigger\u2026 a little bolder. It&amp;#039;s perhaps an unfortunate consequence of the show&amp;#039;s recent quality that it&amp;#039;s now expected to be not just solid but spectacular every single week.   ArrowHeads!  - Olicity moment of the week - Queen and Smoak are initially at loggerheads this week over her &amp;quot;distracted&amp;quot; behaviour - with a comatose Barry Allen preying on her mind. But their reconciliation - in which Ollie admits how much he needs Felicity - is easily the episode&amp;#039;s standout moment. - Oh, and &amp;quot;Were you apologising to me or were you talking to your quiver?&amp;quot; wins the Line of the Week award too. - So Barry&amp;#039;s in a coma - presumably he&amp;#039;ll stay that way unless his pilot gets green-lit. - It&amp;#039;s a minor grumble, but it&amp;#039;s a pity that the show&amp;#039;s opening sting has now removed all traces of Blake Neely&amp;#039;s fantastic &amp;#039;Five Years&amp;#039;. - The action sequences on Arrow remain second to none, with some exhilarating motorcycle scenes this week. - That said, love how Oliver wears his mask under his bike helmet - safety first! - It&amp;#039;s a little detail, but there&amp;#039;s a pleasing internal consistency in having the reporter covering Blood&amp;#039;s rally be the same guy who dramatically informed us that &amp;#039;Oliver Queen is alive!&amp;#039; way back in the pilot. - For the DC comics novice, the original Shrapnel is a member of the Doom Patrol and is a being made of organic metal. He has superhuman strength and stamina and the ability to project the metal plates of his body into explosive bursts. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/arrow/news/a544535/arrow-season-2-blast-radius-review-ollies-back-with-a-literal-bang/>