By Mike McCarthy
The return of the Suicide Squad lives up to it’s hype. Oliver is all over the place emotionally and can only do so much to try and convince the city is he not the one killing thugs. Between Deadshot returning, Diggle and Lyla getting married and Ray Palmer donning the Atom super suit and wanting to hunt down the Arrow, it’s all action and emotion.
In the true Oliver way, he shows up fifteen minutes before Diggle and Lyla’s wedding, missing the photos by 45 minutes. Felicity showing up with Palmer makes it a little awkward, and Dig tells him that if he hurts her no one will ever find the body. The friend that was supposed to officiate the wedding was sent overseas, so Ray ends up officiating a very short and sweet ceremony.
While they celebrate the union everyone on the team gets notified about the murders by the false Arrow and that there would be a press conference, which involved Ray and Captain Lance. They both want the Arrow to face the courts for what he has done in the past and what may occur in the future. Dig wants to stay and help but Oliver tells him and Lyla to go enjoy their honeymoon instead since he has spent enough time with the team and away from his family. After sliding into the limo, they both see Deadshot sitting there, drinking their champagne and tells them that Suicide Squad has a new mission. Joining the three of them will be the newest member of the squad, Carrie Cutter aka Cupid who is still insanely obsessed with the Arrow. They are to go to a hospital in the Republic of Kasnia and save a U.S. Senator
.
We all love the flashbacks of Oliver from five years prior, but it is definitely refreshing to see it centered around someone else, and this time it is Floyd Lawton aka Deadshot. He was a soldier and surprises his wife and daughter, who he has never met after leaving the Army. Suffering from PTSD and living the days from the bottom of the bottle, starts yelling at his daughter and points a gun at his wife. She obviously can’t handle that and has him locked up. A recruiter from H.I.V.E goes to the prison and gets him released and pays him a lot of money to perform his first assassination, Andy Diggle. Hoping to see more character’s backgrounds in the flashbacks in future episodes and season, breaks up the monotony of Oliver in Japan.
Going after a large drug shipment and the dealers, Oliver gets there while the Ra’s disciples are killing eight and tries to take them out. After knocking out three of them, Maseo shows up and says that it will not stop until Oliver agrees to be the next Ra’s al Ghul, and that is how Ra’s makes people do what he wants. While walking through the warehouse afterwards, Oliver is facially recognized by a sort of x-ray machine that Ray created for his super suit while he is searching for the Arrow. This leads Palmer to tell Felicity that he knows that Oliver is the Arrow and that she has been lying to him the whole time and is completely untrustworthy. Felicity does not take this lightly and defends Oliver and their mission completely to Palmer.
While comparing his arrows with the identical ones used by the League of Assassins to force him to become their new leader, Oliver tells Roy that there is no difference which will make it difficult for them to be able to convince anyone. Felicity storms in and in her rambling, like always and tells Roy and Oliver that Palmer knows that he is the Arrow and that she has been helping him build his super suit. While Felicity is telling them this, Palmer goes to the police station and is trying to give his statement to Laurel who flat out says that his story can’t be corroborated and that digital photos can be photoshopped so she will not file the paperwork that Oliver is the Arrow.
The whole time that Lyla and Dig are in Kasnia, all they can think about is getting back to Sara, their daughter. As Deadshot is thinking back to his daughter, he makes it his mission to make sure that they do that. While trying to rescue the senator, he pulls a gun on them and tells them they are not supposed to be there. When he is shooting at them, Lawton jumps in front of Cupid and saves her life and take a bullet in the shoulder for her, which of course makes her fall madly in love with him. Over the radio, the Senator tells the Squad that he hired mercenaries to take over the hospital so that he can get the country behind him and try and get the Presidency when he diffuses the situation. The hostages were all supposed to survive, but now that they know what will happen, they could all become victims. After vowing to get Lyla and Dig home to their daughter, Deadshot helps them take out the mercs and stays and covers them so they can get away. The building gets blown up, but we don’t actually see him die or his body, so I have a feeling he will be returning at some point.
After Oliver goes to Palmer’s office to try and convince him that he didn’t kill those people, Palmer tells him that he knows that due to Felicity telling him the same thing before, but he is still going to put the Arrow away. Returning to the Foundry, Oliver informs Felicity that he met with Palmer and that if he tries to interfere with the other Arrows, that he will probably get killed. This upsets Felicity and she calls out Oliver and says that Oliver would probably enjoy that since she doesn’t believe that he actually wants her to be happy with him.
Oliver and Roy go to a power plant to try and stop another theft, when Palmer shows up and in actuality faked the 911 call to draw him in. The super suit is very impressive and he shoots bolts of electricity, one of which hits Roy and throws him several yards back into a fence. Oliver not thinking clearly, fires an arrow at Palmer and it just caroms off the suit into oblivion. The second arrow he shoots is an explosive arrow and it blasts Palmer up into the air. Palmer comes down and Oliver shoots the battery pack off the super suit, removing all power from the suit. Oliver points an arrow straight at Palmer’s head and tells him that he can save the city and that Felicity believes in both of them because she knows that they both are trying to save Starling.
Palmer and Felicity go to the Mayor’s office to try and convince her that he was wrong about the Arrow and that is being framed. The Mayor and Captain Lance are wondering why he is flip flopping, and Laurel is siding with him while she berates her father about his hatred towards to the Arrow that has nothing to do with what is going on. An arrow comes flying thru the window and hits the mayor right in the heart. It cuts out to Maseo in the green hood, and him aiming at Felicity thru the window, and all you hear is the arrow being released.
The episode leaves a lot to be seen for the rest of the season, with the city hunting for the Arrow. Will Palmer join Oliver’s side and help protect him from the onslaught of crap that is heading his way? I think he will, especially after Oliver proved that he is not the killer that people thought he was and how Felicity views them both. Maseo is showing his true colors by killing people for Ra’s al Ghul even though Oliver saved him and his family. Oliver will overcome the situation, and his team will help him survive the storm of crap that is heading his way.
Check out Arrow Wednesdays at 8PM on the CW
Photos are courtesy of the CW