The Green Arrow has decided that it’s time to recruit a new team, but training them sure is proving to be a challenge. Diggle is having a tough time overseas in the military. Lance is struggling with his addiction, and Oliver and Thea work to do good in Star City now that Oliver is the mayor.
Let’s start with the recruits. We have Rene Ramirez who has been dubbed Wild Dog, much to his chagrin. Green Arrow asks if he wants to be more than a man in a hockey mask (I’m looking at you, Casey Jones!). Felicity’s pal Curtis also decides to join the Green Arrow and has no fighting experience whatsoever. The final recruit is Evelyn Sharp who aspires to be the Black Canary. These three all have their reservations, and Oliver won’t allow himself to trust any of them.
Oliver keeps his identity a secret during training. He urges Felicity to do the same, but she’s adamant that she won’t hide from them. Oliver gives them one test. They must start on a line and make their way past him to ring a bell on the other side of the room. No one seems to understand the purpose of the test and only continue to get frustrated. Oliver gives no help or encouragement. After all, that’s how he was taught when trying to become Bratva.
In the flashback this episode, we see Oliver begin his training to become Bratva. His goal was the same as his recruits. He had to get past current Bratva members to ring the bell. Oliver finally realizes that they need to work as a team in order to ring the bell. They devise a plan, and Oliver is the one ringing the bell at the end. Of course, the Bratva shoot and kill the other recruits leaving only Oliver left standing. Oliver is confused and upset, but Anatoly says that working together was Oliver’s idea which is why he’s the sole survivor. Anatoly reminds him that he can only trust himself.
Meanwhile, Mayor Oliver Queen is trying to help the city. It used to be that the Glades was the only bad place in the city; now, crime has spread. This caused multiple hospital closures, so Oliver wants to put on a free medical event to help these people. Amertek agrees to help put on the event, since they are working to help their tarnished image after it was learned that one of their subsidiaries had a hand in Genesis Day.
Our latest villain, Ragman, is trying to get back at Amertek for that exact reason. He’s the sole survivor of the town that was nuked. It also gave him some very strange powers. He seems to have some sort of tentacles that allow him to suffocate people. Naturally, they just call him Ragman. They really need Cisco around the Arrow team to help with these names. Oliver decides to help Ragman and invites him to join his new recruits. He wants to give both of them a new purpose to make their fathers proud.
It’s hard to see the new team without John Diggle. He’s currently overseas fighting for his country. He’s on a mission in Latvia to retrieve illegal nuclear technology. Dig seems to be enjoying his work and even comforts a new recruit about to head out on his first mission. When Dig’s team is attacked, they must find a way to retrieve the nuclear technology and get his men to safety.
When Dig sees another in his command, he is relieved; help is here. What he didn’t know is that most of the new crew are actually behind the attack on his unit. Now, Diggle is the perfect patsy. They even use his gun to kill that sweet new recruit that he comforted before the mission. They tell Dig that it’s their word against his, and they’re all going to say that he’s trying to sell a WMD for personal gain. Dig isn’t going to go down without a fight, but his court martial should be interesting.
After recruiting Ragman, Oliver understands that his new team needs to trust him. They had all quit, but he brought them back to reveal himself to them. Felicity reminded Oliver about his passion and the respect that his team had for him. She made sure that he knew that the reason his old team worked was because of the respect that they had for Oliver Queen not the Green Arrow. Looks like next week we will actually get to see how these new recruits are now that they know the identity of the Green Arrow.
