The Scientist

*For the titular character, see Barry Allen (Earth-1).*
"*One night... something just came into our house, like a tornado. A blur. Somewhere inside the blur, I saw a person. My dad went to fight it. I tried to get 'em when suddenly... I was 20 blocks away from our house. Nobody believed me. They thought I was trying to cover for my father. But what I saw that night was real. As real as the man that ripped down that metal door with his bare hands. That's why I look into cases like this. The ones nobody believes are possible. Maybe if I can just make sense of one, I might be able to find out who really killed my mother. And free my dad. I am sorry I lied to you. Better find another plus one."
"He did lie about who he really was."
"And what do we do every day?*"
—Barry Allen, Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak

## Information

### Written by

**Story by:**
Greg Berlanti
Andrew Kreisberg
**Teleplay by:**
Andrew Kreisberg
Geoff Johns

## Chronology

### Followed by

"Three Ghosts"

"**The Scientist**" is the eighth episode of the second season of *Arrow*, and the thirty-first episode overall. It aired on December 4, 2013.

## Cast

### Main cast

* Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/The Arrow
* Katie Cassidy (credit only)
* David Ramsey as John Diggle
* Willa Holland as Thea Queen
* Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak
* Colton Haynes as Roy Harper
* Manu Bennett as Slade Wilson
* Susanna Thompson as Moira Queen
* Paul Blackthorne as Officer Quentin Lance

### Guest starring

* Grant Gustin as Barry Allen
* T.J.Williams as Tyler West
* Kevin Alejandro as Sebastian Blood
* Celina Jade as Shado
* Caity Lotz as Sara Lance
* Summer Glau as Isabel Rochev
* Bex Taylor-Klaus as Cindy "Sin" Simone
* Jesse Hutch as Officer Daily
* Dylan Neal as Dr. Anthony Ivo
* Graham Shiels as Cyrus Gold
* John Barrowman as Malcolm Merlyn

### Co-starring

* Keri Adams as Bethany Snow
* Alec Burden as Attendant
* Jennifer Cheon as Uniformed Officer
* Bill Croft as Grizzled Man
* Jordan Schartner as Carl
* Sheldon Trosko as Guard #1
* Lee Vincent as Kelton

## Plot

When a masked thief with superhuman strength steals a centrifuge from Queen Consolidated's Applied Sciences Division, Oliver and his team investigate, with the help of Central City CSI Barry Allen, who is a fan of the Vigilante and has many observations and theories about him. He reveals all of this to Felicity, telling her he's interested because his mother was murdered and a person like The Arrow may have been able to stop it.

Oliver suspects that Barry is hiding something and has him investigated by Diggle. When confronted with the fact that there is no similar case in Central City and he's only an assistant CSI, Barry reveals that he is searching for super-powered beings in the hope that he will prove one case true and subsequently, find answers to clear his father for his mother's murder. He explains the night his mother died, when a blur-like figure entered his home and his father went to fight it. Barry went to help but somehow found himself twenty blocks away. It's implied that the strangeness of his testimony and the fact that he was so far away led the police to believe he was covering for his father, who was arrested and convicted of his mother's murder.

After a blood bank is robbed and Oliver fails to stop the thief, he recognizes the combination of blood and serum and realizes that the thief was enhanced using the same serum that Dr. Ivo was searching for on the island. He reveals this information to Diggle (who had previously suspected he knew more than he was telling) and Felicity adding that he destroyed the entire supply of the serum and all survivors were subsequently killed. He relays to Diggle and Felicity that the serum needs a strong sedative as well, which leads Felicity (aided by Barry) to find the next place the robber will hit. Felicity warns Oliver that that he may not be able to fight the thief due to his strength and muscle density.

Roy and Thea stumble upon Oliver's case after helping Sin to find her missing friend. He was a test subject of Alderman Blood's that didn't survive after being lured in by a blood drive. He contacts Oliver to ask him to investigate, but Oliver brushes him off, telling Roy to stay away, as he is already on the case albeit from a different angle. Frustrated, Roy says he and his friends will investigate themselves, so Oliver shoots Roy in the leg to prevent him (and possibly Thea) from getting further involved.

Oliver tracks the thief to an A.R.G.U.S bunker,where the robber reveals that he is only a follower of "his brother" who "saved" him with the serum. Oliver fights him, losing, and is badly injured. He loses consciousness, having been injected with an unknown substance. Felicity and Diggle arrive and find Oliver weak. Unable to identify what entered his body, Diggle tries to call 911, but Felicity stops him to protect the Arrow's identity. She says she know someone else who can help.

At the train station, Barry has missed his train to Central City and will have to wait until the morning. Realizing he's going to be in trouble, but conceding that it's out of his control, he sits on a bench to wait. From the shadows a dart is shot into Barry's neck and he falls over unconscious. Groggily, he wakes up in the Arrow's hideout, confused by what he is seeing and where is at. Upon seeing Oliver unconscious on a table in front of him, Barry is startled and then is approached by Felicity who begs him to save her friend's life.

Meanwhile, Moira returns to the public eye and is not welcomed in society or by Isabel Rochev at Queen Consolidated. Not only that, but Malcolm has begun to put pressure on Moira to tell Thea that he is her father. Moira tells Malcolm she refuses to be afraid of him anymore. Instead, she has contacted Ra's al Ghul, who wants to kill Malcolm for breaking the League of Assassins' code of honor by destroying the Glades. Moira tells Malcolm to run and as a result, Malcolm leaves and warns her that the issue regarding Thea is not over.

In a flashback to the island, Oliver, Sara, Slade, and Shado travel the island using the amulet to find the sub in a fissure on the island, and find the serum. They have the serum but no sedative, but since Slade will die without it they inject him anyway. Just before they do, Slade apologizes to Shado for not revealing he had feelings for her. When they inject Slade with it his heart stops, just as Dr. Ivo arrives at the sub with his men.

## Trivia

* Intended to be a back door pilot for the *The Flash*, this episode introduces the character of Barry Allen, who in the comics (and later in the spin-off series) is the civilian identity of the Flash.
	+ Barry tells Felicity that he's interested in The Arrow because when his mother was murdered, the police never caught the culprit, and he believes a person like The Arrow might've. This statement actually turns out to be true as Oliver eventually helps Barry catch Reverse-Flash by using nanites during a battle in *The Flash* Season 1 episode "Rogue Air".
	+ When Oliver tells Diggle and Felicity that he's encountered Mirakuru-enhanced individuals before, he describes the Mirakuru as a serum designed to create human weapons. John then says, "Human weapons? My God, what's next; aliens?" Approximately three years later, Team Arrow (alongside Supergirl, Team Flash, and the Legends) ends up dealing with aliens during *Invasion!*.
		- Furthermore, when Barry went to ask Team Arrow to help him battle the aliens in the crossover, John replied, "I swear to God, Barry; my life was somewhat normal before I met you", a possible nod to the fact that Team Arrow first encountered strange things like Mirakuru soldiers around the same time that they first met Barry.
* While Barry is observing chemicals in the lab with Felicity, there is a noticeable thunder crack and lightning that catches his attention. This is a direct nod to how Barry received his powers as The Flash in the comics, being struck by lightning in a chemistry lab, which is seen in the next episode, "Three Ghosts".
	+ This episode starts off with a shot of the sky and a flash of lightning.
* This episode is notable as being the first episode of *Arrow* to hint at super-human abilities; previously, the show was considered to be extremely grounded.
* In one shot, the name "Kord" was seen on lab equipment in the Applied Sciences building. This is likely a reference to Kord Industries and Ted Kord.
* In the extended promo of this episode, there is a scene of Barry arriving at Queen Consolidated, which is not featured in the episode.

## Goofs

* When Barry tells Oliver and Felicity about the night his mother was murdered, he refers to the Reverse-Flash as a "tornado" and that his dad, Henry Allen, went to fight him. However, this episode was made prior to *The Flash* Season 1, which featured flashbacks during which the Reverse-Flash is referred to as a "man inside a ball of lightning" or the "man in yellow" and Henry didn't fight but rather told his son to run.

## Production

Preparation ran from September 19 until September 27, 2013. Shooting ran from September 30 until October 9, 2013.

## Gallery

### Promos

Arrow 2x08 Promo "The Scientist" (HD)PromoArrow 2x08 Extended Promo "The Scientist" (HD)Extended promo
## References

1. ↑ "Invasion!"
2. ↑ Marc Guggenheim (@mguggenheim) - Twitter

Template:Season 2 (Arrow)

es:The Scientist
pl:Naukowiec
fr:Le scientifique
ru:Учёный
de:Das Serum