From left: Michael Jai White as Ben Turner (“Bronze Tiger”), Sean Maher as Mark Scheffer (“Shrapnel”), Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Amanda Waller, Michael Rowe as Floyd Lawton (“Deadshot”), Audrey Marie Anderson as Lyla Michaels, and David Ramsey as John Diggle. Photo: Cate Cameron/The CW — © 2014 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved
What They Say:
Suicide Squad – Oliver prepares for battle with his former friend Slade; Amanda recruits Diggle to stop a warlord, but he is surprised when he meets the rest of the team she has assembled.
Content:
With so much of the previous episode focusing so heavily on the island arc, which brought to bear a lot of what was going on in the end that broke the relationship between Slade and Oliver, it worked extremely well. We got a lot of what was going with Oliver and Sara at that point which was pretty interesting to see unfold, but the whole relationship with Slade is what excited, especially since it was framed by him making his appearance to Oliver in the present so vivid. The simple smirk of it all, as well as the way he manipulated the situation even as Sara and the others tried to move in to stop the situation from going down a bad path, just made Slade all the more fun to watch. Manu Bennett has totally owned the character in a big way and while he’s been fascinating to watch in the island arc, there’s some great scenery chewing in a perfect way in the present to just take it to the next level.
Knowing that Slade is in the city has Oliver looking pretty intensely for him, which goes in an interesting direction since more of his past is lightly exposed as he uses some of his Russian connections from his time on the freighter to start investigating it. Oliver is not handling the situation well in general, since he obviously knows what Slade represents and the kind of intensity that he brings with him. With previous events now coming into focus with the Mirakuru drug and the kind of issues that exist between the two men, Oliver is definitely fully in driven mode. All the more so because his mind is being distracted by what’s happened in the past with Shado, which is bleeding into Sara as well. It’s good to see that he realizes the danger and is doing what he can to deal with it, but it’s also good to see how Diggle has put things together to try and keep an eye on everyone that could be a potential target for Slade.
While this is a big part of the series at this stage, we also get Diggle going down his own route as well, which is the big appeal for the show. It does start off fun since we get to see him and his favorite ARGUS agent, Lyla, that’s come back into his life for the moment, but it also opens us up to his past while serving in the military. Since they have a connection to each other back then, it definitely works well as we get some of what happened in regards to Gholem Qadir, a high value target during their tour. That past will play into the present of course, but it takes the fun turn of both Lyla and Diggle being drawn into to an operation that Amanda Waller is putting together. With an issue involving Markovia that brings Qadir back into the world, Diggle has a personal connection to it that he can’t let slide too long. So Waller wants to use him to achieve her goal of keeping the drug out of the system.
But the twist is that she doesn’t want him to retrieve the package personally but to use her Task Force X to do it, which is a great callback to the past in the comics. As he gets introduced to the captured criminals that Waller has brought into her program over the course of the season, we even get the proper name thrown out as Deadshot calls it what it is with Suicide Squad. It’s been a slow but steady build over the two seasons so far to get to this point with the characters introduced, which has obviously accelerated this season, but it comes together well in a way that most comic book fans should appreciate, even if it lacks the costumes. Having been a fan of the Suicide Squad since it got its first series with John Ostrander writing it (hence the Ostrander hotel reference), seeing it come to life like this in a fairly serious way just clicks right.
And we get an awesome Harley Quinn nod as well, which completely delights me and has me hoping she’ll have more appearances..
What’s fun as the show gets going with the mission, we see them using the code names as Diggle makes a connection with Qadir, which includes some great Deadshot moments. But we also get to see the suicide part of the program as Shrapnel realizes that he’s in a country with no extradition treaty and tries to make a bolt for it. Having known from the past just what it means to try and bolt from the squad, we see Waller pull the plug in him, showing that she definitely has control over the team and that abandoning the mission is not an option. It’s unfortunate that we lose one, but it’s not a surprising plan all things told. What does work is that we do see how much it bothers Diggle, especially when he realizes that Lyla is completely aware of it and okay with it, which adds a new schism in their relationship that was already a bit hard to manage.
Giving us the mission in the present and fleshing out what happened between Diggle and Qadir in the past works well, since each has its issues that has to be dealt with. Diggle really isn’t thrilled with all that’s going on, even as he sees the overall goal as a worthy one, and it actually gets talked out a bit between him and Lyla. The show also plays well with events back in Starling City as Oliver realizes that Slade has just spent so much time on his revenge that it’s above his head in a lot of ways. He’s so focused on protecting everyone and keeping them away that he knows he needs help, but he can’t bring himself to do it in a clean and simple fashion. It’s an emotional aspect that’s hard for him to get across, especially with Sara considering all that they’ve been through, but it’s something that is really nicely explored overall as we see their relationship really working through the difficulties that they’ve had to cope with.
The Markovia mission definitely works well overall, especially when things go south and we see how Diggle is intent on bringing everyone out alive, even if Waller is looking at it from a bigger point of view. There’s humor to be had with it, especially with the way that Diggle has to deal with Lawton, but it also connects it with a good bit of emotion as well since the two had an awkward kind of bonding earlier as Diggle learned more of Lawton’s past. Unfortunately, things are wrapped up a little too cleanly and easily when you get down to it, though it’s good to see the Suicide Squad being kept in lockup for future use, but I like that we get something out of Diggle where even though he’s dealt with villains and murderers like Lawton, he still has a conscience about it and doesn’t like that they’re being used in this way and truly struggles with it.
In Summary:
Arrow has consistently done solid and interesting adaptations of the comics material and it’s almost gleeful in a way as it tackles things that most shows in the past have skirted around at best, afraid of alienating the casual fans. With this episode, they go in completely with the Suicide Squad and it serves as a vehicle to show the bigger world more, with what Waller is doing, a bit more of Markovia and that they’ll kill characters when needed. Diggle has gotten good episodes so far and this provides another piece of the puzzle and keeps him connected to something really complex. Which Oliver already had his connection to, which gets nicely utilized here briefly. The show also has a lot of fun with some of its references and name dropping, and I’m going to be really hoping that they follow through on Harley sometime. With the ‘Squad this time around, the formalization of Deathstroke and now getting a little Birds of Prey action next week, Arrow continues to be the best comic book TV series in years.
Grade: A