DJ Watches: Arrow Season Five: Episode Three: A Matter Of Trust
When we last left Oliver Queen and his would be band of vigilantes, Green Arrow finally came clean about his identity to them and promised to try and be a better leader, and generally speaking, everyone acted like real human beings instead of caricatures acting in ways to increase drama and tension. Sure enough, he’s trying, though he’s still kind of a jackass about it. After teaching the new group a thing about interrogation and the power of information as opposed to just beating the stuffing out of everyone, Ollie forbids Curtis, Evelyn, Rene and Rory from going out there to the streets and keep gathering information. Stubborn as he is, Oliver of course ignores that Rene patrolled the section of town that a mysterious new drug called “Stardust” is emanating from, and given how Wild Dog is far more stubborn then Green Arrow himself, his warning falls on deaf ears. Meanwhile, Mayor Queen and Chief Aide Thea are having trouble with a local news reporter after news leaks that they are considering hiring the former Detective Lance as deputy mayor – not a problem, except Thea hadn’t actually told Ollie yet.
Rene has managed to talk Evelyn into doing recon with him to track down the drug dealers, and proving his instincts correct, they do in fact find the Stardust base of operations. However, rather then doing what Evelyn suggests and grabbing the rest of the team and Arrow to take the place down, Wild Dog jumps in half cocked with her instead, and shuts down the operation, complete with getting into a fight with the small time operation’s somewhat dashing leader. The guy’s rather tough, and it’s really only with a lucky shot that Rene is able to convince him to take a bath a la Joker into a vat of the galactic-ally named street drug. However, this is all for naught, as over in mayor-ville the new DA storms into Oliver’s office and complains that these no-good vigilantes have ruined a sting operation the office was ready to pounce on, and the now dead gang leader was to serve as an informant when leaned on. Naturally, Oliver is rightfully furious about this news, and lays into Rene and the rest of the team over it. Thea, dealing with the other issue at hand, confronts the news reporter about the leaked news and tries to make things better…except said news reporter takes the “correction” and conflates it to make it seem like Oliver has no idea what’s going on in the office and just makes things worse. While Oliver goes a bit easier on his sister then the team, she still takes it hard and offers to resign.
As for the drug leader, Derek Sampson, his drug bath ended up going the way this sort o thing goes with comic characters, as he awakens on the autopsy slab with super strength and an invulnerability to pain, and a somewhat notably more outer-worldy personality quirk then before. Green Arrow confronts the now murderous rampaging Sampson, and after noting that his arrows don’t seem to be doing much anything to him, beats a hasty retreat. As a result, Derek returns to his old crew and rather then bury his face away in disgrace and seek vengeance, instead openly embraces the new found super powers he has and hatches a plan to give his crew the same treatment and try to take the city over. While all this is happening, Diggle is sitting in a cell after being framed by Optimus Primal last week for trying to steal that nuke, and after a conversation with Layla, seems to be stuck in a cell with a not-so-dead Deadshot. Coming to the realization of his guilt over killing his evil little brother last season, he decides to let himself be framed and rot in prison to try and atone.
So, Felicity has a conversation with Oliver about everything going on, and points out that while, yes, Rene screwed up, had Oliver attempted to actually listen to his new team and pay attention that, misguided as it was, Wild Dog was right about knowing the area in question and all of this could have been avoided if he had listened. Catching wind of the new Stardust enhanced Sampson’s plans and figuring out what he intends to do, Ollie calls together the team and finally acknowledges that they should suit up and get going. Felicity, however, is feeling a little trepidation, as she confides in Curtis that, technically speaking, their new teammate Rory’s woes about his city being destroyed are somewhat her fault, as she was the one that diverted the missile away from its original intended location. Still, there’s no time for that now, as Green Arrow and his team of recruits get going and storm Sampson’s base to put a stop to him. While Green Arrow wrestles with the increasingly unhinged and fifth dimensional drug leader, the rest of the team dismantles the gang and sabotages the processes. A few hip tosses and armbars later, Arrow goes for a foreign object and severs Sampson’s tendons, and drops maybe a few too many one liners before walking away as the base explodes around him, leaving the helpless lunatic’s Stardust dreams go up in smoke and mirrors.
Remembering how his Bratva training and initiation was all about building trust when there seemingly shouldn’t be any, Oliver, as mayor, takes full responsibility for all the events going on in the office, and points out that, indeed, the buck stops here, and every decision made by his office is his by default. To exemplify this, he welcomes the newly appointed Deputy Mayor Quentin Lance to the office in a press conference, hoping it will be both what the city and Lance himself needs. Thea promises to be more open, as Oliver promises to keep better tabs in the running of the city….and then Thea proceeds to basically threaten the newswoman in a way tat could never be used against the mayor and his office in a negative way. Yup.
Taking the theme of trust further, Oliver brings the new team into the Quiver/Arrow-Cave/Fortress of Fletch-itude, officially welcoming everyone aboard. Felicity also takes a step forward and comes clean to Rory about her part in the destruction of New Haven, which he doesn’t take well, as expected, but at the same time, he takes better then one would think as he merely walks away in shock and silence from a remorseful Felicity. And so, we leave the newly upgraded Team Arrow, with Layla coming into the base and requesting Ollie to…break John out of military prison. Huh.
This was another good episode of Arrow. This season so far has been night and day to last year, despite some flaws still here and there. Like last time, the pacing is still pretty good, and everyone’s motivations and decisions actually make sense, good and bad. Of course Oliver would still be protective and hard assed about the team not being ready, and his reasoning for so makes sense, even I it’s flawed. Same for Rene wanting to go out, it’s not just because he’s stubborn, he genuinely ants to help, and does so even after acknowledging his crew up. Felicity coming clean to Rory was also refreshing, since least year that would’ve been dragged out over the course of several episodes. It’s almost as if the characters are looking over the last four years, realizing hiding things just ends poorly, and are doing things differently as a result. Weird. Diggle’s side story still just seems like an excuse for the actor to do something, though it might get more interesting now. The flashbacks are slightly more useful, though it’s honestly just the last part with trust that mattered to the overall story of the episode.
Derek Sampson is a blah villain, and yes, he’s played by the former Cody Rhodes, pro wrestler and son of The American Dream Dusty Rhodes. The drug being named Stardust is also a nod to his last character in the WWE, and I was a little disappointed vie his portrayal. It’s pretty clearly a normalized version of Stardust, which is sort of a shame, since it just ends up awkward. They should have gone all the way and let him be completely loony and deranged like he was, or just have him be a normal dude. Still, there were more then a handful of wrestling moves in his and Green Arrow’s fight, and I’ll accept that. It was also nice to see a figment of Deadshot, even if it was all in just Diggle’s mind, and I like Floyd’s explanation of how he was there being just “You know how/why.” I halfway expected him to glance over to scathing critical reviews of the DC Cinematic Universe films afterwards, but I digress. While I’m still not sure what Evelyn Sharp will eventually be, I got a kick out of seeing Mr. Terrific, and the excuse of him being Curtis’ favorite wrestler growing up is a perfect way of explaining the “Fair Play” jacket.
So, yeah, nothing spectacular, but a good, sensible, logical episode. I think this show might be turning a corner, but I’ll be cautious since even last year had some decent bits to it. It’d be nice to have 3 out of 4 good Flarrowverse shows this year instead of it being at .500.