Some of Arrow‘s best recurring characters are members of Suicide Squad, and last night’s episode marked the return of that little task force, with the newly remarried Diggle and Lyla ditching their honeymoon to join Deadshot and Cupid on a dangerous mission, while Oliver Queen and Ray Palmer learn each other’s secrets and fight it out.
This episode dealt with Ray finding out that Oliver is the Arrow through his A.T.O.M. suit, and sadly, it ended up making me dislike Ray most of the episode, which I suspect was the point. However, I feel that I disliked him for all the wrong reasons, as it became less about his view on the Arrow and more about him being jealous that Felicity had been working with him. Basically, it felt like two men fighting over a girl rather than one superhero going up against another superhero.
Speaking of that fight, I was bummed that Oliver and Ray’s battle was so short and not as big as I had expected. I guess I fell for the trailer way too much, because I was certain that they would have a similar fight to the one Oliver had with Barry in the crossover, but who knows? It could happen again and maybe be longer the next time around; it’s a superhero universe after all! The best thing to come out of it though was that Ray’s suit proved to be very functional and impressive, even though it had some Iron Man-like qualities to it (sorry, but it does!). In addition, Oliver gets Ray to believe the truth and realize that Oliver is definitely not the one going around and killing people.
Last night’s Arrow also focused on the Suicide Squad’s latest mission, which was to rescue Senator Cray from a kidnapping. However, in a shocking twist, it was all revealed to be a ruse by the senator, who wanted to be a president and had planned to use the situation as a way to glorify his chances of becoming one. Basically, a giant-sized man-baby wanted to be a hero and therefore thought it was a great idea to put innocent people in danger so that he could “save them.” Choice of mission for this episode: a major letdown. You can do so more interesting things with the Suicide Squad than this.
Luckily, though, we got some fantastic Deadshot moments, as we saw the origin story for Floyd from the time he gets home from the war to the moment he gets approached by H.I.V.E. to take down Andy Diggle. I’m not too familiar with Deadshot’s background in the comics, but whether this was based on the comics’ version or not, it was heartbreaking to see how he lost everything. I’m still fascinated by how much the show has been able to make this character so likeable; a lot of props go to Michael Rowe who adds all of that wit and charm to what is one of the DC Universe’s deadliest assassins.
I was expecting to see a lot more of Cupid, and while I enjoyed her fascination with Deadshot, she was mostly just there in the background, even though I’m sure we will get plenty of her in future seasons. However, that may not be the case for our beloved Deadshot, who sacrificed himself during the mission to get everyone to safety. Now, let’s make sure to remember the number one rule when it comes to comic book TV shows and films: if we don’t see a body during said death scene, then that person is not 100% dead.
But here is the thing that concerns me when it comes to Deadshot’s situation. Sometime this month, Warner Bros. Pictures will start production on the Suicide Squad movie by director David Ayer, in which Deadshot will be played by the remarkable Will Smith. Now as we know, we can have multiple versions of certain DC characters (i.e. The Flash, even though I still think Grant Gustin should be The Flash for the movie universe as well as have the TV shows be connected to the films) on TV and in film.
But this just felt way to convenient because of how close we are getting to that movie starting its production and what happens in this episode. We have already lost every chance in the world of getting a Suicide Squad spin-off show, so I really hope that this wasn’t WB’s hands forcing Arrow to kill off Deadshot. There is no necessary reason to kill the TV version since the films aren’t connected with the shows anyway. I’m not sure what the chances are that he actually survived and will return in the future, but hopefully, we’ll see him again.
Overall, aside from Ray’s behavior and the potential farewell to Deadshot, this was a very solid episode of Arrow that continued to build up Oliver’s biggest battle ever, as Ra’s al Ghul will do everything in his power to persuade (aka force) Oliver to take over for him.
Arrow airs on Wednesday nights, 8/7c on The CW.
[Photo via The CW]
