Last week, Oliver Queen finally came to the realization that Team ARROW must evolve if he wants to save his city, and the episode left viewers with questions.
With John (David Ramsey) back on active military duty and Thea (Willa Holland) preferring the mayor’s office to being Speedy, Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) must convince Ollie (Stephen Amell) to consider new recruits.
Tonight, instead of pushing the second-string vigilantes away, Green Arrow actually decides to recruit them.
After shooting Wild Dog, aka Rene Ramirez (Rick Gonzalez) with an arrow for trying to help Green Arrow with Lonnie Mecham/Anarchy’s bombs, Oliver relents and agrees to let Rene try out for the team.
Wild Dog prefers guns to arrows, so Oliver’s return to the “killing is acceptable” concept from Season 1 may fit in well with the team’s new approach.
Curtis (Echo Kellum), fresh from being beaten up while checking out Tobias Church, is angry and asks to join Oliver’s training sessions, as well. As someone who has gotten further in life by using his brain than his brawn, Curtis will have a hard time during the drills. The future Mr. Terrific definitely has a tough time climbing the salmon ladder (as would most people).
The third candidate for the team is Evelyn Sharp, last seen as a Black Canary imitator. Tonight, she will be training for the team and going by the moniker, Artemis. Evelyn is out to avenge the death of her parents at the hands of Damien Darhk.
Another crimefighter is on the slate…Ragman aka Rory Regan (Joe Dinicol). Regan’s parents were killed along with everyone else in last season’s explosion of Havenrock. Felicity was forced to pull the trigger on the city to save millions more people who would have died as a result of Darhk’s machinations.
Regan, the only survivor, has magical powers, though assumedly not as strong as Darhk’s. Rory is deeply religious and could serve as the team’s ethical compass since Diggle is in conflict over shooting Andy, leaving his family and friends to pay penance.
And what of Damien Darhk? Have rumors of his demise been greatly exaggerated? Wonder how Oliver will react when he finds out that, at least in some eras, Darhk (Neal McDonough) will be wreaking havoc with the not-so-late-but-heavily-lamented Captain Cold (Wentworth Miller), Malcolm Merlyn/Dark Archer (john Barrowman) and Reverse Flash (Matt Letscher)…and perhaps Black Siren…who join forces as the Legion of Doom.
[NOTE ON OTHER RETURNS FROM THE DEAD AND ELSEWHERE…Besides Darhk, other notables back from the dead for ARROW’s 100th episode….Moira Queen (Susanna Thompson) and Robert Queen (Jamey Sheridan). Also returning are the not-dead-yet Slade Wilson/Deathstroke (Manu Bennett) and Helena Bertinelli/Huntress (Jessica De Gouw). Expect more Easter eggs like Frank Bertinelli’s name in Robert Queen’s journal and Pino Bertinelli appearing in last week’s episode.
Katie Cassidy is returning for #100, but it is unclear if she will be dead Laurel or living Laurel, aka Black Canary or Black Siren. The anniversary is celebrated in Episode 8 when the mega 4-part crossover with THE FLASH, SUPERGIRL and LEGENDS OF TOMORROW also will bring some heroes to Star City.]
Now, back to our regularly-scheduled sneak peek of tonight’s episode, “The Recruits.” The potential team member whose drawing Felicity pointed to and called “Mr. Ski Goggles,” may be reticent to join Team Arrow. He is Star City’s new District Attorney, Adrian Chase aka Vigilante, who will make his debut in an upcoming episode. With Oliver, Laurel and Quentin using their positions to gain intel for Green Arrow, why should the new DA not do the same?
And kudos to the person on ARROW who recruited veteran DC artists, Neil Adams and George Pérez, to ink those drawings in last week’s episode! CHICAGO P.D. star, Josh Zegarra, will play Vigilante, a character actually created by Pérez and Marv Wolfman.
It will take a village to fight this season’s new Big Bad, Prometheus. (Pardon the political reference, but they have been prevalent in this week’s superhero 4-pack.)
Prometheus, the archer who shot Police Lt. Conahan, has a costume that resembles Ragman’s threads in print, but assumedly the virtuous Regan would not be out shooting policemen.
Conahan, the officer in charge of Ollie’s special police task force, had an extremely clean record according to Quentin (Paul Blackthorne). Lance, who trained Conahan, may have to step in to fill that void.
But why shoot Conahan and why outside of the precinct? Is there someone on the SCPD who might have the impetus to target someone on the task force? Well, there is Detective Malone (Tyler Ritter), Felicity’s new squeeze. Malone seemed awfully interested in another clean cop who was offed by Tobias Church (Chad L. Coleman). Malone wanted to know what the slain officer knew about SCPD corruption, asking if he knew who the “bad cops” were. Could Malone be one of the bad cops, and are Ollie and Chase the only two people in town exploiting their offices to get intel?
David Nykl returns tonight as Anatoly Knyazev. Aaron Pearl guest stars along with Vincent Dangerfield as Evan Wender (presumably not playing Beverly Hills attorney, Evan Wender).
ARROW airs tonight (October 12) at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on The CW in the U.S. and on CTV Two in Canada.
