He was part of Diggle’s storyline, but not in the way the audience was first led to believe. Diggle is back in the States in a military prisoner. Lyla comes to visit and get the full story on why he is now behind bars. As Diggle is about to go back to his cell he asks about his newly created Flashpoint son John Jr.
The real shock for Diggle – and the audience – is waiting in his cell as his cellmate is revealed to be the presumed dead Floyd Lawton. Deadshot’s body was never shown, so he survived and was captured soon after. Diggle then breaks the news to him that he didn’t successfully kill Andy, Diggle did that.
For fans hoping that Deadshot’s return could signal the Suicide Squad’s return to Arrow, that sadly does not appear to be the case. Floyd Lawton is simply a manifestation of Diggle’s grief over shooting his brother. Guilt that is making Diggle want to stay in prison for a crime he did not commit.
In Star CityA new drug is out on the streets called Stardust. The Green Arrow has tracked down a dealer and is interrogating the suspect while the new team listens in from the HIVE training center – they are still not trusted enough to be in the Arrowcave.
After getting the name of the supplier, Derek Sampson, Oliver returns to ask the team what they have learned. Instead he is met by Rene insisting that he is ready to go out in the field to take down Sampson. Oliver tells him to stay put, and leave catching Sampson to him.
Of course Wild Dog does the exact opposite and goes after Sampson with Evelyn. On the surface, the mission doesn’t appear to go too badly. Wild Dog gets into a fight with Sampson and the drug dealer falls into the Stardust. But it is too early in the episode for that to be the end of the story. Rhodes hasn’t even fought Stephen Amell yet.
One of the pipes that burst during the fight, knocked some chemicals in the pool of Stardust. Instead of dying, Sampson wakes up in the hospital morgue unable to feel pain and with super-human strength.
Needless to say, Oliver is not impressed that Wild Dog managed to create a superhuman. The new DA, Adrian Chase, is also not impressed as he was about flip Sampson for more information about how Stardust is making its way to Star City.
Mayor Oliver Queen’s problems get even worse when the story breaks that Quentin Lance has been hired as Deputy Mayor. He tasks Thea with taking back the job offer and fixing the situation.
She approaches the reporter who broke the story, Susan Williams, and admits that she was the one who hired Lance, and that is why Thea needs to take the story back. Instead, the story becomes about Oliver not knowing what is going on in his own office.
Thea offers to resign because of this mistake, but Oliver will not accept this. He needs people he can trust in the Mayor’s office, and that is also why he tells the media that Lance will in fact be his deputy. Thea then confronts the reporter and lets her know that she shouldn’t cross her again.
As a show of the newfound trust with the new team, Oliver brings them into the Arrowcave. He also apologizes to Rene for not trusting his earlier plan to take out Sampson. Things are definitely moving in the right direction for the new team.By the end of the episode, the new Team Arrow has also come together as well. To stop Sampson from creating an entire army of superhumans, it is time for everyone to be out in the field. Together, they stop the threat. Ragman, Wild Dog, Curtis – in his first costume as Mr. Fair Play – and Evelyn are responsible for taking out Sampson’s men and setting the place to blow up. Oliver and Sampson fight, with the Green Arrow winning by cutting all of Sampson’s tendons.
The flashbacks and other episode highlights
- The flashbacks continued to be very connected to the main story this week, a major strong point for this season. It was all about Oliver learning to trust the Bratva, something he is a little reluctant to do, especially after watching the other recruits get shot. But his stance starts to soften after Anatoly tells Oliver that not all of the other recruits were innocent. One of them was a murderer who was recruited just so he would be killed for his crime. By the end of the episode, Oliver is trusting enough of the Bratva to let them cut his back with knives.
- Felicity’s boyfriend, Detective Billy Malone, gets is wish from last week and meets one of her friends. He just doesn’t know it yet. Detective Malone meets the Green Arrow after calling in a fake tip. He is there to warn Green Arrow that Prometheus is after him, thanks to word spreading of the conversation Prometheus had with Tobias Church.
- Felicity tells new team member Ragman aka Rory the truth that she was responsible for the nuclear bomb landing on Havenrock. It will be interesting to see how this revelation impacts the show moving forward.
- The episode ends with Lyla coming to Oliver asking for his help breaking Diggle out of prison.