Last Night's TV: Arrow, AHS: Hotel, Survivor, and More (SPOILERS!)

VIEW IN BROWSER THIS ISSUE: Arrow, American Horror Story: Hotel, Survivor, Empire, Supernatural TOP MOMENT OF THE NIGHT "I Am the Green Arrow" The CW BECAUSE: Not since Kermit the Frog has the word "green" been infused with such power. After an emotional premiere that saw the old team reuniting in the name of Star City's duress, Oliver and Felicity making their way back out of the suburbs, and Chekov's engagement ring (we've seen the rock, let's see that bended knee, Oliver), Oliver strapped on his voice-altering gear, looked Star City in the camera-eye, and declared that Green Arrow had arrived to be the symbol of hope the Arrow never quite was. READ OUR RECAP American Horror Story: Hotel FX WHAT HAPPENED: Wes Bentley as a police detective with a heart of gold, a jaw of steel, and a past of darkness; Lady Gaga as an all-powerful, Gaga-like Countess; Matt Bomer as her plaything; and Sarah Paulson as Ryan Murphy's Sarah Paulson... yep, the AHS: Hotel gang is all here (miss you, Lange). The latest iteration of American Horror Story, in its fifth season, traps all of Ryan Murphy's most disturbed characters -- and two unfortunate Swedish tourists -- in a hotel of nightmares in downtown Los Angeles, Hotel Cortez. There are bloodbath orgies, a plethora of little blonde children, some homicidal bald thing that we really don't want to get into, and then there's Denis O'Hare cosplaying Elizabeth Taylor. "What the hell is happening here?" asks EW recapper Darren Franich with all the right questions: "Gaga's bloodthirst feels like a clue toward vampirism. But the supernatural forces circulating through this particular hotel seem more elaborate." Nothing says elaborate like a coupla' murder gloves and an ashtray full of eyeballs. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: This one is really something else, people. Perhaps you could handle the misfits of AHS: Freak Show, the nasty power struggle of Coven, the grotesque mysteries of Asylum, and while this current season certainly shares the most similarities with the claustrophobic mental trickery of Murder House, as Variety accurately (and frighteningly, for audiences) assesses, "Hotel shows that the previous seasons were hardly the horror anthology at full throttle, boasting not only a glossy new star in Lady Gaga, but more sex, guts and terror than even the show's darkest moments." READ OUR RECAP Survivor CBS WHAT HAPPENED: Season 31 seems like an odd time to pull out all the stops, but we'll just say it: Second Chances is shaping up to be, borrowing EW recapper Dalton Ross' word, one complete and total "Twistapolozza." In Wednesday's episode, not only did a member of the Bayon tribe find a hidden immunity idol at a challenge, but that tribe member had been on a different tribe just hours before because after only two Tribal Councils, the groups were split from the original two, into three new tribes. An opposite-merge! Unprecedented. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: And all these shake-ups are making for a helluva good time. The tribe shake-up could have been a total plot-flop, but the producers probably knew they had an ace in the deck by the name of Abi-Maria Gomes. As the A.V. Club says of the tribe switch-a-roo, "The biggest reason it worked is how it was constructed ... like a slow-moving train wreck, where you see the train coming far off in the distance but can't seem to get out of the way. The train in this analogy is Abi, of course." Abi is completely unpredictable both in strategy and emotional volatility; love her or hate her, you must admit that she brings a completely capricious element to the season -- making her whispered taunt, "The second time you write my name," to Woo feel almost like it could belong in American Horror Story rather than Survivor. READ OUR RECAP Empire FOX WHAT HAPPENED: Freed from the pin, but forbidden from entering Empire, Lucious is keeping his enemies close -- his enemies of course being most, if not all, of his family, and "close" being an awkward family dinner fit for the Corleones. It's silly, Lucious is acting like he literally thinks he's a god, and Cookie ends the meal by failed-magician-ing the tablecloth full of food right onto the floor, but it's all worth it; as EW recapper Melissa Maerz says, "Cookie and Lucious' banter is just as delicious and filled with cheese as the spread on the table." That, on top of Hakeem naming Dynasty's new girl group Mirage a Trois and Cookie putting them through the stiletto boot camp from Destiny's Child's Behind the Music, plus all those Kelly Rowland dreams, and it's almost as though Empire is insisting: Don't try to make sense of it -- just sit back and marvel. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: And Vulture agrees that trying to make sense of what is currently happening on Empire is a bit like skimming the Sparks Notes on an Intro to Symbolism course. After watching Lucious' homage-ridden behavior in Wednesday night's episode, the Vulture critic asks, "So this season, we have Julius Caesar leaving his business to his son, Michael Corleone, while his ex-wife, a gorilla, plots with his two other sons, Happy and Biff, to take over the Elephant Graveyard ... did I get it all?" Yep, that sounds like everything for this season -- which has only been three episodes. By the end of this thing, we're going to need a dissertation complete with a bibliography and glossary of terms to understand what's going on here. But hey, naming girl groups isn't easy, and neither is running an empire/Empire. READ OUR RECAP One More Thing... Don't Even Think About It, Supernatural! The CW LET THE BOYS LIVE: Even after a decade in the game, TV's most prolific supernatural hunters still haven't learned their lesson, it seems -- only the premiere episode into season 11 and the Winchester boys are already keeping secrets from each other. But it's for good reason, what with Dean's multiple attachments to the Darkness (cute little baby girl edition) and Sam's slight case of zombie-itis. Godspeed, fellas. READ OUR RECAP Also Check Out... Recommended by Copyright © 2015 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved. WANT MORE? To subscribe to any of EW.com's email products, please click here. PRIVACY POLICY Please click here for our privacy policy. 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