Helena Bertinelli may be out of the DC Universe proper these days, but that doesn’t mean she can’t appear in Arrow. These episodes weren’t a proper two-parter, but thematically they book end each other.
It all starts with Oliver’s mother almost being the victim of the attempted murder of mob boss and occasional business partner Frank Bertinelli. Concerned about what happened, Oliver decides to take it upon himself to get a closer look at Bertinelli only to find himself loosely dating the mobster’s daughter Helena. Unfortunately the two become a couple, only to find out that they both have extracurricular vigilante activities. The only difference is that Helena’s are more vengeful; she was the one who targeted her father, as he had her previous fiancée killed.
So the couple does everything you expect they would; fight the Bertinelli crime family and the Triad gangs (from earlier in the series), and winds up running awkwardly into his previous girlfriend Dinah (now dating his best friend Tommy). The relationship, well, mutually implodes as Helena wants to be more lethal in her approach.
They officially break up when Oliver won’t let Helena kill her father, instead wanting to turn him over to the police. This was officially her “deal breaker” moment, as she dumps him and threatens to kill and expose his identity if he should ever cross her in the future. If I were Oliver, I could be content with this break up. The episode ends with Tommy asking Oliver for a job, since he’s a broke debutante late 20s/early thirty something. If life were only that easy.
There was a lot going on in this episode with the introduction of Huntress, who seems like an appropriate character to add to the show since she’s only tangentially associated with Batman. I like that they introduced her in a way they can use in following episodes, since she knows Oliver’s secret and is a bit of an enemy.
Ridiculously Awesome 
Last month an italian channel FINALLY started broadcasting Arrow. Honestly, I watched only the first 2 epidodes, and that evening I was so tired that I fell asleep before the end of the second one, but generally speaking I liked what I saw.
The most negative thing I can say about that series is, too many “casual meetings.” For example, when Oliver is walking on the dancefloor during his welcome back party, he suddenly bumps into an unknown lady, and, guess what, that lady is Dinah! What a coincidence! I counted about 10 improbable meetings like that only in the first 2 episodes, so I think they definitely were too many.
Anyway, there are also a lot of other things that satisfied me: a dark atmosphere, a lot of action, a clever plot… I think I’ll start watching Arrow again this week.
I keep forgetting that television shows and movies wind up being aired much later in Europe! Glad you like the show so far, it’s pretty good. But all first episodes, books etc. suffer from running into all the primary characters too easily.
I’m glad that the show improved after the first episodes. Thank you for your reply! : )