If “State v. Queen “ could have a subtitle it would no doubt be “you can’t handle the truth.” After being built up for six episodes, we finally see Moira Queen on trial for her alleged role in Malcolm Merlyn’s Glades massacre. At first blush, this courtroom drama looks to be the centerpiece of the episode. Instead, in true Arrow fashion, it serves as merely the catalyst for the revelation of some much deeper, darker truths. The result is a somewhat overstuffed but ultimately winning new entry into the show’s ever-expanding universe.
Naturally, as Moira’s trial heats up, Oliver and his team find themselves facing a more heightened, citywide threat. Count Vertigo, that flamboyant drug dealer that Oliver defeated back in the season one episode “Vertigo” is back with a vengeance. Escaping prison in the wake of the Glades quake—he is also shown releasing the Dollmaker from “Broken Dolls”—Vertigo begins poisoning various people in Starling City with his self-named psychedelic drug of choice. Among those afflicted are Diggle and district attorney Adam Donner (Dylan Bruce), Laurel’s boss and the leading prosecutor at Moira’s trial. Moreover, the madman promptly takes Donner hostage.
Played with great gusto by Fringe’s Seth Gabel, the Count’s appearance last season characterized him as a ruthless dealer prone to theatrics. Now, driven insane by an overdose of Vertigo that Oliver administered during their previous encounter, the character has basically become a live action version of the Joker from Batman: The Animated Series—both in action and cadence. (There’s unmistakably a bit of Mark Hamill in Gabel’s delivery.) In addition, to add to the growing list of Christopher Nolan/Batman parallels, the Count even transmits a live recording of him tormenting Donner while cackling like a maniac (à la Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight). The problem is, though Gabel embraces his role with demented glee, the Count often appears to be all talk and no bark. Whereas a villain like the Joker continually displays a similar brand of twisted humor, one can nevertheless detect a palpable sense of menace and danger permeating even the corniest of his jokes.
Ultimately, the Count’s return feels like little more than as a device for a moral conundrum. Here’s a man who Oliver had the chance to kill but didn’t. Now, because of this decision, people close to our hero are being hurt. In the end, when Felicity is threatened in the episode’s climatic battle scene, Oliver is forced to skewer Count Vertigo with his arrow, sending the villain tumbling to his death. Considering that Oliver has only been sticking to this “no kill” philosophy for five episodes, the impact of him breaking it maybe does not hit as hard as it should. That said, kudos to the writers—co-creator Marc Guggenheim and former Buffy writer Drew Z. Greenberg are credited this time around—for actually having Oliver unambiguously go through with the kill rather than pulling the cheap trick of having someone or something else do it for him.