It’s another look at the Suicide Squad on this week’s Arrow and it’s a welcome return.
Diggle and Layla get married again, but their honeymoon gets waylaid by Amanda Waller. Turns out she has a need to get the band back together.
Not without his own problems though, Oliver finds himself being targeted by Ray Palmer after the latter figures out his identity (darn x-ray vision). Needless to say the title takes on a dual meaning, reflecting on both the Suicide Squad and Oliver/Ray’s issues regarding the need to suit up and fight crime and such.
So season 2 had a Suicide Squad episode, and it was awesome. This is a great episode, however, the squad is woefully lacking. Diggle and Layla make up half the group. Deadshot makes a welcome return, and Cupid is the only new addition. Bronze Panther has been killed off between seasons, and for whatever reason, Boomerang and Deathstroke aren’t getting in on this one.
The squad’s plot isn’t particularly thrilling, the attraction is watching the group work. We get some quirky moments between Cupid and Deadshot, mainly due to Cupid’s psychological problems meaning she falls in love with someone when they save her. Also rather than the somewhat lacking Oliver flashbacks this week, we’re treated to Deadshot’s back-story. It’s surprisingly tragic considering how the character was first introduced as a ruthless hit-man.
Ray and Oliver butt heads this week, which results in a rather cool action scene where the two go head to head. In fact, we get some other good (albeit confusing) fights wherein Arrow takes on a group of impersonators. Unfortunately the key is in the word, so it’s hard to keep track of who is hitting who, so it’s hard to root for anyone.
Roy (Roy, Ray, ugh) gets the biggest laugh of the episode for commenting on how awesome the idea of Ray having built a super suit is. It just goes to show how far Arrow has come that people can casually talk about things like that whereas in the real world you’d probably end up in fits of laughter. Of course Felicity is at the centre of the Oliver/Ray conflict, with the latter not trusting her when she assures him that Oliver hasn’t returned to his old killing ways.
Laurel doesn’t have tonnes to do this week, though she does at least block Ray out of publicly outing Oliver as the Arrow. It doesn’t help that his credited source is literally ‘x-ray’ vision. Fortunately for Ray, he officiates the marriage between Layla and Diggle earlier in the episode so he retains enough charm that I’m willing to let him off for blindly believing that Oliver needs to be taken down.
In any case, experience wins out again as Arrow goes all Batman on A.T.O.M. What follows is a rather dramatic conversation that ends with Arrow awesomely walking away. Unfortunately for him, he appears to have forgotten that at the start of the fight Ray totally zapped Roy with his suit and Arsenal is therefore currently still twitching on the floor somewhere in need of medical attention.
Cupid really doesn’t have much going on, hopefully she’ll be back next year. She gets in a few action beats, but ultimately her place on the Suicide Squad seems to be about numbers. She still uses the bow and arrow, has no military training and is stir-crazy to boot. While it’s nice for continuity to be reminded that all these colourful characters can be brought back if needed, it might have been better to have her end up in a situation where she and Nyssa have to interact.
The episode ends up with the Arrow being implicated in murder, only this time it’s the mayor. Can Arrow clear his name? Will Ra’s ever learn to take no for an answer? Let us know what you think in the comments below…
