Arrow Episode Guide: “Pilot” (Season 1, Episode 1)

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Original Airdate: 10/10/2012
Story By: Greg Berlanti & Marc Guggenheim
Teleplay By: Marc Guggenheim & Andrew Kreisberg
Directed by: David Nutter

Starring: Stephen Amell (as Oliver Queen/Arrow), Katie Cassidy (as Laurel Lance), Colin Donnell (as Tommy Merlyn), David Ramsey (as John Diggle), Willa Holland (as Thea Queen), Susanna Thompson (as Moira Queen), Paul Blackthorne (as Quentin Lance)

Guest Stars: Colin Salmon (as Walter Steele), Jamey Sheridan (as Robert Queen), Jacqueline Macinnes Wood (as Sarah Lance), Annie Ilonzeh (as Joanna De La Vega), Kathleen Gati (as Raisa), Roger R. Cross (as Detective Hilton), Brian Markinson (as Adam Hunt)

First Appearance: Oliver Queen, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Tommy Merlyn, Dinah Laurel Lance, Quentin Lance, John Diggle, Walter Steele, Robert Queen, Sarah Lance, Joanna De La Vega, Raisa, Detective Hilton, Adam Hunt

Trivia: The house that is used for the Queen home is indeed Hatley Castle in Victoria, British Columbia. It was used for Luthor Mansion on Smallville and Xavier’s school in the X-Men movies.
– Stephen Amell is the second actor to play Green Arrow in live action; the first was Justin Hartley on Smallville.
– Oscar winning designer Colleen Atwood designed the Arrow’s look for Arrow.
– Both Willa Holland and Katie Cassidy appeared on episodes of Gossip Girl.
– Andrew Kreisberg wrote the characters of Oliver Queen and Dinah Laurel Lance in DC Comics’ Green Arrow/Black Canary series.

Summary:

Arrow 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 beings 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 being caught by police. 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.

Quotes:

Joanna: Come on, Laurel, we’re lawyers, not miracle workers. We can’t win this.
Laurel: If we can’t win a class action suit against a man who swindled hundreds of people out of their homes and life savings, then we’re not fit to call ourselves a legal aid office.
Joanna: And if we go bankrupt in the process, we wont be a legal aid office. Hunt has an army of lawyers and they’re ready to bury us.
Laurel: You and I against an army, I love those odds.

Thea: What was it like there?
Oliver: Cold.

Joanna: You know, it’s fun being your friend. I get to say, “I told you so,” a lot.
Laurel: No, Adam Hunt is not smarter than we are.
Joanna: No, he’s just richer and willing to commit multiple felonies.
Laurel: We don’t need to go outside the law…
Joanna: …to find justice. Your dad’s favorite jingle.

Laurel: Why are you here, Ollie?
Oliver: To apologize. It was my fault and I wanted to ask you not to blame her.
Laurel: For what? Falling under your spell? How could 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. We buried an empty coffin because her body was at the bottom of the ocean where you left her. It should have been you.
Oliver: I know that it’s too late to say this, but I’m sorry.
Laurel: Yeah, I’m sorry too. I’d hoped that you’d rot in hell a whole lot longer than five years.

Quentin Lance: Thanks for your statement. We’ll put out an APB on Robin Hood?

Oliver: What’s Twilight?
Tommy: You’re so better off not knowing.

Thea: Ollie, I love you, but you can’t come back here and judge me, especially for being just like you.
Oliver: I know that it couldn’t have been easy for you while 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. I had no one. You guys all act like it’s cool, “let’s forget about the past five years,” well, I can’t. For me, it’s kind of permanently in there, so sorry if I’ve turned out some major disappointment, but this, me, is the best I could do with what I had to work with.

Oliver: Laurel, you always saw the best in me. Right now, that’s what you’re doing. You’re looking at me and you’re wondering if that island changed me somehow, if it made me a better person. It didn’t. Stay away from me. Otherwise, I’m just going to hurt you again. This time it will be worse. Gotta role. I’ve got five years of debauchery to catch up on.
Laurel: You know what, Oliver, you’re wrong. That island did change you. At least now you’re honest.

Laurel: If, hypothetically, $50,000 magically appeared in your bank account, it might be best for you not to speak about it, to anyone, ever.

Joanna: It looks like Starling City has a guardian angel.

Tommy: Dinah Laurel Lance, always trying to save the world.
Laurel: Hey, if I don’t try and save it, who will?

Episode Guide Entry Author: Stephanie Hall

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