‘Arrow’ Review & Recap: The Lone Gunmen

Deadshot is in Starling City on this week’s episode of Arrow!

The recap, for those of you not following along at home: Ollie, now known to the SCPD as “The Hood,” has a little competition in his quest to work his way through The List. An assassin known only as Deadshot is taking out investors looking to buy their way into Unidec Industries at an upcoming stock auction. Ollie’s also starting to run out of ways to get the omnipresent Dig off his tail long enough to pursue his vigilante lifestyle. He decides to eliminate at least one of these problems by opening up a club right on top of the Arrowcave, thereby giving him a reason to disappear into a terrible neighborhood with no discernible nightlife time and time again.

Ollie uses his amazing forensics skills and currently inexplicable ties to the Russian mafia to figure out Deadshot’s identity and next targets. The sniper is planning on taking out all of the investors, presumably save his boss, at the stock auction itself. Ollie gets Detective Lance and the SCPD. Maybe Papa Lance is warming up to The Hood a little here. It all boils down to a one-on-one, gun vs. bow shoot-out in which Deadshot gets an arrow to the eye, and poor Dig gets a poisoned bullet to the shoulder. Ollie uses his mad, island-learned healing skills to take care of his bodyguard, but has to reveal the Arrowcave to him in the process.

Back on that island, we learn that the mysterious man who shot Ollie last week was, in fact, doing it for his own good. Just why that is isn’t exactly clear yet, but Survivor-man seems to be willing to take Ollie in and show him the ropes of the island. Unfortunately, they’re not alone, as a team of armed men seem more than willing to vote Ollie off. Hopefully we’ll be learning more about them next week.

I have to admit, this wasn’t my favorite episode. Both Deadshot’s defeat and Ollie’s reveal to Dig felt sudden and a little unearned. I’m surprised that they chose to blow a good DC villain in one episode like that. I wasn’t expecting to see Deadshot in every episode, but with his ties to both Gotham and Star City, I really thought he’d be around for a bit longer.

As for Dig’s Big Discovery, it would have been more rewarding, both for Dig and for the audience, if he’d figured out Ollie’s secret on his own. Having Ollie randomly decide to let him in feels more like an apology for getting him shot than a testament to the intuition that Dig has shown up to this point.

Leaving behind Starling City for a moment, I’m finding myself far more invested in the island flashbacks than in what’s happening in the present. I definitely want to know more about Ollie’s new buddy and the high-tech hunters we saw this episode. It just seems like there’s a lot more ground to cover in the backstory here. Comic book fans, what’s your opinion on this one? Is Arrow building up to something larger in the big city?

Best Quote:
Tommy: “You want to get to him, you’ve got to go through me. Wow, they are probably going to go through me.”

Things to Ponder:

• So the chest tattoo is Russian mafia, huh? Did anyone notice if he’s had it in flashbacks, or is the mafia tie an island acquisition?
• So glad Laurel showed a little more spunk this episode. Do you think her becoming Black Canary is going to coincide with her finding out about Oliver’s little hobby?

Review by Jennifer Steele