Diggle and Lyla get married, Ray finds out Oliver is the Arrow, and fake Arrow is really causing some problems for the team. Suicide Squad goes on a mission with serious consequences, and we get flashbacks from someone besides Ollie. This episode was incredibly busy, which was rather detrimental. It was difficult to be interested when we were zooming from one storyline to another. The newly Mr. and Mrs. Diggle are summoned for a mission alongside Deadshot and Cupid: to save a U.S. senator from a hostage situation. It ends in a shootout and a fiery explosion, naturally, and has Diggle and Lyla both questioning their career choices in the face of parenthood.
Ray, meanwhile, discovering the Arrow’s identity and takes it upon himself to get justice for the murders committed by Fake Arrow, who is not one person but many League members, including Maseo (who looks mighty fine in the Arrow get-up, I might add).
Ray’s discovery puts an obvious strain on his relationship with Felicity, and Oliver still firmly believes that it’s impossible to be a hero and be a person at the same time. Maybe he has a point, but I’m so bored by this excuse and by this attempt at a love triangle.
We get some flashbacks of Deadshot’s pre-A.R.G.U.S. life, of the family that he briefly had and of his PTSD. It’s meant to build sympathy leading up to his sacrifice, but it doesn’t quite work for me.
This could have been a solid episode if it hadn’t tried to juggle several storylines at once. A main story with a couple of subplots works just fine, but in this episode the focus was everywhere at once. Plus, I’m pretty over the love triangle. After everything, Ray still isn’t very likeable, so I find it hard to root for his relationship with Felicity, though her and Ollie’s mutual pining isn’t much better.
This episode ends in a cliffhanger of sorts. And we’re nearly at the end of season three and Lance still has no idea who the Arrow is. I feel obligated to bring that up until he works it out. I very nearly wrote “until he inevitably works it out” but Lance has been completely clueless for this long, so honestly who knows.
Score: 2/5
Arrow 3.17 – Suicidal Tendencies