This week, “Arrow” changed things up not only in location, but in lead character as well. We find our heroes – and Isabel Rochev – in Russia with Diggle in the lead as he tracks down his former partner, A.R.G.U.S. Agent, and ex-wife (What?!), Lyla Michaels who has set out to track down Deadshot.
Diggle finds out that Lyla has gone missing in Russisa while tracking down Deadshot “for him”. Of course, Diggle being the man he is, he feels responsibles and plans to set out for Russia to find her. Oliver, having grown as a character and not just looking out for himself anymore, insists on going with him to help with Felicity in tow. A wrench is thrown in their plans however when Oliver’s business partner, Isabel Rochev, shows up at the airport to tag along; she believes that Oliver is attempting to conduct company business behind her back. Oliver uses his Russian Mob connections to find out that Lyla is being held in a Gulag, but with Rochev in the mix, Oliver can’t lead up this effort to save her – so it rests on Diggle.
Diggle gets himself thrown in the gulag and comes face to face with Deadshot. Deadshot makes a deal with diggle: he’ll take him to Lyla if he helps him escape the prison. Diggle agrees and the two adversaries are able to locate Lyla and escape the gulag with the help of some pre-planning and Oliver, Anatoli, and Felicity. After escaping, Diggle is on the brink of executing Deadshot when he reveals that he killed Diggle’s brother because that was the contract, not because he missed. He never misses.
Often times in these shows, taking the focus off of the main hero can feel really clunky and forced. Diggle is such a strong supporting character though that giving him so much more to do felt like a logical step, and perhaps long over due. David Ramsey is able to carry this episode with ease – not only does he just play bonafide badass so well, but his unfiltered anger when he comes face to face with Deadshot and his caring for his ex-wife when he finally rescues her are both palpable. He’s a more than capable actor that I sincerely hope remains on the show for a long time.
The sub-plot with Oliver and Isabel was just okay. Summer Glau is fine in the role, but I’m just not sure on what’s going on with her character yet and what her motives are. This week’s “interaction” between these two seemed to simply bring to light that Felicity may have some romantic feelings for Oliver. On the other end of the spectrum, watching Felicity, Oliver and Anatoli go toe to toe with the Russian mob was a lot of fun – and Oliver intimidating them by simply whispering into the mobsters ear was pretty badass. In fact, our very own Andy (Citizen-bot) speaks fluent Russian and was able to give us an idea of what Oliver whispered into his ear – but due to him whispering he was only to translate the beginning as, “If you do this, my people will kill you and your children . . .”
This episode also further submerged us into this growing DC universe with Amanda Waller popping up near the beginning and a mention of H.I.V.E. (Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination) by Deadshot that could have potential to be a reference to Deathstroke showing up in the present day at some point. As for the flashback scenes, we have some interaction between Ivo and Oliver in which Ivo makes reference to a sort of super-solider serum that was being developed by the Japanese which I’m sure will come into play as superpowers are introduced into the series. We also witnessed Sara Lance betray Oliver by getting him to unintentionally give up the location of Slade and Shadow.
This episode really started off with a bang with Oliver and company executing a well-planned ambush on some counterfeit money dealers, and it was just plain awesome to see them all working as a team like that – except poor Roy taking the fall for his “citizen’s arrest”. From here, the show maintained great momentum through a Diggle-centric episode that again furthered the plot and introduced even more players from the DC universe. Another awesome episode, another long week until the next one!
I say it every week, and I’ll say it again: “Arrow” is the best superhero series on television right now.
In case you missed our recap and reviews of the last three episodes prior to this week’s, you can check them all out here!