Episode Report Card Monty Ashley: C+ | 5 USERS: A YOU GRADE IT Everybody Leaves
By Monty Ashley | Season 1 | Episode 20 | Aired on 04.24.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Diggle continues to be concerned with Deadshot. And conveniently enough, Deadshot is coming back to Starling City, which is good news because Oliver refuses to leave the city limits even though he's a billionaire who probably has a private jet. And Deadshot's already being set up by Diggle's friend Lyla, who works for the "Advanced Research Group United Support," or "ARGUS." So all Diggle has to do is sit back and let Deadshot get arrested, right? No! He wants Deadshot murdered, and Oliver is willing to do the job.
But it's never that simple, because there's another assassin at large in the city. He kills a nice young couple who were suing a plutocrat for swindling them out of all of their savings. But their child escapes and Laurel decides to watch him for a couple of days before the kid's grandparents get back from Melbourne. This naturally results in the assassin busting into Laurel's place, only to be fought off by Oliver. Then Tommy has the idea of holing up in Castle Queen, which seems like a good idea.
Now, hold onto your hat. Remember the setup where Deadshot is going to show up and Oliver is supposed to help Diggle kill him? At the exact time this is supposed to be happening, the plutocrat is skipping town and flying to Singapore. Because unlike some billionaires I could name, he knows that he's rich enough that he doesn't have to stay in this one city if he doesn't have to. Oliver decides to hunt him down and intimidate him into confession to everything, but that means he's not there when Deadshot shoots a bunch of ARGUS agents. Diggle blames him for this and walks out on the team.
But the plot's not over! First the assassin kills the plutocrat with a secret pressure point on the wrist, then he comes after Castle Queen. Luckily, Oliver kills him with a fireplace poker. Tommy's not happy because Oliver has decided he loves Laurel, so he leaves Laurel. Oh, and Roy and Thea have decided that they're crazy in love and also that Roy wants to join up with the vigilante. And back on Flashback Island, Oliver spends a whole day trying to learn to be an archer. And then Yao Fei walks into the plane, because he's sold the good guys out again.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Arrow is back, y'all! This is the story of Oliver Queen, a billionaire with a lot of time on his hands who nevertheless can't think of any more efficient way to fight crime than running around at night with a bow and arrow. I realize this is a complaint that can also be leveled at Bruce Wayne, but Batman has a creative R&D department. Oliver should at least have a crazy high-tech hood, right?
In the Arrowlair, Diggle punches pads held by Oliver. He's all pumped up because he wants to go kill Deadshot. And speaking of Deadshot, we cut to him in Germany aiming at an ambassador. Back to Diggle. Punch! Punch! He says, "We have to end this guy before he makes any more widows out of wives." So it's okay if he shoots bachelors? Or women? In Germany, the ambassador goes down. Oliver says he knows he promised to take Deadshot down, but he can't right now because "he's on another continent." I will take this opportunity to remind you that Oliver is a billionaire, so there's no reason that he can't fly to Germany and deal with things there. Or he could hire one of the many trained assassins that exist in this world. Oh! He's also a captain in the Bratva, so he could probably get the Russians to do something and not even have to leave his house. Or he could finance a satellite that kills people with a space laser. Oliver is just not that good at thinking outside the box. I mean, what are the odds that Deadshot is going to come back to Starling City and give Oliver another shot at him?
Well, pretty good as it turns out, because Felicity pipes up to report that she's broken into eight Federal databases. She knows that Floyd "Deadshot" Lawton is scheduled to meet with a potential client here in Starling City. This seems like a crazy thing to know about, but it turns out to have been a trap set up by Diggle's friend Lyla. Diggle will go talk to her, and Oliver is going to go have lunch with Laurel. Because we haven't had enough cycles of "Oliver wants to be with Laurel... wait, no he doesn't" yet.
Flashback Island. Oliver walks onto the plane and looks at his picture of Laurel. See, because Flashback Oliver was in love with Laurel, although Modern Oliver has moved past her several times. Slade and Shado bicker over how they're going to assault a place. This is a variation on the scene where Slade said that everyone knew the only way to attack an airfield was with two people. In this instance, Slade and Shado do the infiltration, but it's allegedly a three-person job, because someone needs to provide covering fire. Shado says Oliver will provide this with a bow, which Slade thinks is stupid since Oliver's useless. Oliver agrees, and I should mention that I enjoy Flashback Oliver's tentative demeanor. Shado says she'll train him by sundown. Sure she will.