*spoilers*
Now that’s more like it! Arrow returns this week with a strong episode and our first real appearance of fan-favorite DC Comics villain Deathstroke. Not very often would I think an episode where Oliver only dons the green hood in the last few mintues could actually be good, but here I stand corrected. “Damaged” is an episode with clever pacing, well-choreographed actions sequences and smarter-than-usual dialogue.
Oliver is on his way to jail this week after being arrested by Detective Lance in last week’s cliffhanger. Turns out this wasn’t an inevitable slip-up, it was actually part of Ollie’s plan. Sounds like a dumb plan, but we’ll hear Mr. Queen out. In another moment like last week’s voice-changer device, we’re given a completely smart explanation for a common question anyone would have living in Star(ling) City. Why wouldn’t anyone make the connection between a high-tech (minus the bow) vigilante’s first appearance and the return of a famous muscle-bound billionaire playboy? Taking a page from Scream, Ollie decides to address the issue right away by clearing his name publicly using a partner to appear as Green Arrow elsewhere while he’s at home publicly visible throwing a huge prison-themed party while on house arrest.
And of course he enlists the help of everyone’s favorite ex-bodyguard turned sidekick/mentor Digg. I must admit it was pretty awesome seeing Digg play with the arsenal in the ArrowCave and then donning the hood itself later in the episode to foil this week’s Lister. Digg is able to thwart the Lister’s arms deal with some gangbangers with minimal bloodshed but whoops! You know those last few minutes I mentioned earlier when Oliver wears the hood at the end? Yeah, he goes and kills the Lister and his henchman. What a wacky duo, that Ollie and Digg!
Once again the island flashbacks are worth the price of admission (free!!). We learn that Faux-Arrow is an ex-General type named Yao Fei. He has started to train Ollie in archery before the vigilante-in-training is quickly nabbed by the soldiers also seen previously on the island. They are the men of Edward Fyers and he really wants to find Yao. When Oliver, in a rare moment of morality, won’t give up his new mentor the reward is a fun torture session by none other than Deathstroke in full mask and bandoliers. Yao comes to the rescue and has a really excellent but brief hand-to-hand combat battle with Deathstroke to free Oliver. At times, Deathstroke’s costume looked a bit cheesy but overall it was fanboy-tastic to see a Green Arrow (although not Oliver) fight Deathstroke on a live-action TV show. Good times for nerds.
In other news, the Well Dressed Man is none too happy to hear that his lackey Moira Queen’s son might actually be the vigilante he’s tracking. John Barrowman’s not given much to do here as WDM but hopefully there are bigger plans on the horizon. Walter’s discovery last week of The Queen’s Gambit stored in a warehouse concludes with his head of security getting murdered after being enlisted to help investigate. After confronting Moira, who warns him not to pry, he wisely tells her as the help carries his multiple suitcases out of the mansion that he’s going on a business trip (ha!) for an undetermined amount of time. Smart guy, that Walter.
Oliver and Dinah have some surprisingly nice scenes as she warms towards him and acknowledges harboring feelings, after he admits under a polygraph test that he was not alone on the island and his scars were not self-inflicted, rather mostly torture induced. Isn’t she swell? But the writers did a nice job of making her likable this week using her dad’s obsession with taking down Oliver as a unifier to bring them together.
Lots of good stuff this week. Deathstroke didn’t have any dialogue but I’m sure we’ll see him again. Could he be the Well Dressed Man? What’s Yao’s deal? Who is this Fyer guy? Not sure when we’ll get answers but next we’ve got The Royal Flush Gang in Star(ling) City!
FINAL SCORE: 4.5/5