Now that Oliver’s new team is formed, he just has to trust them enough to actually let them help. A new drug, Stardust, hits the streets. Yes Arrow I see what you did there, and I love it. This was also our first episode with guest star, Cody Rhodes, and I’ll be the first to admit that he was a great villain.
Cody Rhodes plays Derek Sampson, the new Stardust dealer in town. Wild Dog goes after him, with help from Evelyn Sharp, and pushes him into a vat of chemicals. Sampson is pronounced dead but is later revived with enhanced strength and the inability to feel pain. Great, now they have a metahuman on their hands. Oliver is pissed that Wild Dog went out on his own. He only made matters worse.
Eventually, the team comes together and must stop Sampson before he turns the rest of his goons into metahumans like himself. Sampson wants his crew to take out Tobias Church. Thankfully, Oliver gets his recruits in line, and they work together to take Sampson down. Even though he can’t feel pain, Oliver renders him useless by slicing his tendons. Thanks, Ollie; that was pretty gross. Sampson is down for now, and the vat is destroyed making sure that he can’t make any more metahumans. But, I have a feeling that Sampson won’t be down for long.
Oliver is finally learning that when he’s the leader of a team, he needs to take responsibility for his teammates’ actions. With his Green Arrow team, he finally trusts them to help him take down Derek Sampson. He realizes that when one of them disobeys an order, that’s on him. With his duty as Mayor, he’s realizing just how out of sync he is with the town he is overseeing. Thea has been doing her best, but she got him some very bad press.
Susan Williams took being a sleazy reporter to a whole new level. She found out that Thea had hired Quentin Lance on as Deputy Mayor and ran with the story including all of the negativity around Lance’s alcoholism. Thea tries to talk with Susan woman to woman, and Susan couldn’t have been more apologetic. Thinking they are on the same side, Thea is happy knowing that Susan will change her tune. Of course, Susan played her, and Thea was ready to resign. Oliver decided instead to take responsibility for everything and officially appoint Lance as Deputy Mayor. Susan Williams better make that the last time she crosses this team.
In the flashback this week, we see Oliver continuing in the Bratva. Sitting down with Anatoly, Ollie explains that he doesn’t trust the Bratva because they killed innocent recruits. Anatoly shows him that those recruits were not innocent. One of the recruits was actually a murderer, and he took a photo of the dead man to the woman whose son he murdered. She couldn’t have been more thrilled. Oliver starts to trust the Bratva again, and he has to trust that his Bratva brother’s won’t kill him when they are each handed knives. Instead they just each put a nice slice in his back. Wow, some brotherhood.
John Diggle is in a terrible spot right now. He’s in prison for espionage. Lyla goes to try and help him, and he’s clearly desperate and running out of hope. When he gets back to his cell, he’s rooming with none other than Floyd Lawton. They have a sort of heart to heart, and Diggle reveals that he’s the one who actually killed his brother. All Diggle ever wanted was revenge on Deadshot for killing his brother Andy, but when Andy turned out to be alive, his revenge fantasy dissipated. Of course, we know that Andy wasn’t exactly brother of the year after being part of Hive and working with Damien Darhk. In the end, Diggle had to put his brother down.
When Lyla returns ready to fight these charges, Diggle is completely worn down. He has decided not to fight the charges. Lyla doesn’t understand why he would go down for something that he didn’t do. When he mentions Andy’s name, she realizes that he feels the need to be punished for killing Andy. He’s not listening to her and explains that Floyd Lawton is alive. Lyla looks completely miffed, and when Diggle returns to his cell, there’s no sign of Deadshot. It turns out that Diggle was imagining him the whole time. I was a little upset by that one since I loved having Deadshot on Arrow. I know he’s supposed to be dea, but is there no chance of bringing him back?
Felicity has had an emotional time ever since Rory, aka Ragman, has joined Team Arrow. She feels responsible for obliterating his entire hometown of Havenrock. Even though it was Damien Darhk’s missile, Felicity was the one who diverted it to Havenrock. In the grand scheme of things, it was the smart choice. She prevented many deaths by diverting it away from a higher populated area. Of course, Rory doesn’t see it that way since his whole family was killed.
Curtis talks Felicity into confronting Rory. She can barely look at him, and eventually he would figure it out on his own. Curtis believes that Rory just needs time to trust her. In the end, Felicity admits to diverting the missile to his town. She says how sorry she is, but Rory just walks away. I hope in time that he can come to forgive her. Her choice wasn’t an easy one, and no one can really say whether it was right or wrong. This issue isn’t exactly black and white.