We’re into week 3 of CW’s Arrow starring Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen / (Green) Arrow in the title role.
Spoilers follow. You have been warned. :)
“Lone Gunmen” (or Lone Gunman?) begins with Arrow confronting corporate firebug James Holder. Before Arrow can exact revenge on those burned alive in his fires, a bullet takes out Holder and another grazes our hero. Turns out Interpol named this unknown assassin Deadshot, because “he never misses“, and he’s after the same perp as Arrow. The expert marksmen is played by Michael Rowe. See a few cool pics here.
The cool part? Deadshot is also part Tattoo Man as he gets tats of the names of all of his successful kills.
Carl Rasmussen, another corporate baddie, is gunned down by Deadshot as well. Seems the picture is coming together a company called Uni-Dac is up for some kind of liquidation stock auction and potential bidders are being gunned down by Deadshot.
As part of (Green) Arrow’s sleuthing, he pursues a connection with the Russian mob. Oliver Queen masquerades as a member of the mob inquiring about how to hire a man like Deadshot. Queen is one of the most recognizable faces in Starling City, particularly after his return from the dead. I was quite surprised that the mob boss didn’t recognize him. Plus, Oliver’s fake identity actually passes the test of the mob and he finds out where Floyd Lawton, Deadshot, may be staying the City.
When Arrow confronts Deadshot the first time, it was VERY COOL to see Deadshot use his classic comic book firearm wrist gauntlets. Lawton escapes, but Arrow retrieves his computer, gets it fixed, and makes some connections about Floyd’s next target: the stock auction event. Looks like Deadshot is the employ of a potential bidder named Warren Patel.
Based on the locale of the auction, there are no bad shot spots and Arrow is ill-equipped to protect all potential targets from Deadshot. So, our hero strong-arms Detective Lance to secure the building and it’s a good thing since he saves Oliver’s step-dad Walter Steele who was the next target on Deadshot’s list.
The episode ends with Arrow fatally handling Deadshot. Seems like that eye piece ‘Shot wore might as well have been a Bull’s Eye. ;) In that exchange Diggle, Oliver’s bodyguard played by David Ramsey of Tom Selleck’s Blue Bloods fame, happened onto the confrontation and was shot by Deadshot. Arrow takes him to his lair and saves his life with an herbal remedy, gleaned from his island time. As Diggle gets back to consciousness he lays eyes on Oliver in Green Arrow garb. End episode. :)
I enjoyed the episode from the sporadic action, dysfunctional family dynamics, and unrequited love between Oliver and his ex-gf Laurel Dinah Lance, played by Katie Cassidy. She is growing on me as an actress as is her portrayal of Laurel. Although, there were more talking heads in the episode when more action may have been warranted. Also, I had hoped Deadshot would have had more prominence and not dispatched so easily. He hardly spoke. I think come of the family and jilted ex-girlfriend scenes could have been sacrificed or shortened to give Deadshot more depth. If I’m not vested in the villain-of-the-week, what does their fate matter?
We also get a few glimpses to Oliver’s island time. This plot convention is used to show what skills or learnings Oliver acquired in the past which comes into play later in modern day parts of the episode, e.g. the herbs used on the island to treat the “arrowed” Oliver Queen, to his modern-day use of it to treat himself after he gets grazed by Deadshot’s bullet, and its also used to treat Diggle at the end of the episode.
The other purpose of the flashbacks are to set up future stories and reveal Oliver’s character growth and journey from pampered to powerful as Arrow. On that score, not a lot is gleaned beyond seeing that an Asian man in Green Arrow’ish garb is tending to Oliver after he shot him last episode on the island. He seems to indicate he did to protect Oliver. We learn later that there are some mercenaries or militia on the island. This would appear to be Deathstroke’s henchmen that we have seen in preview pics with Deathstroke fully debuting in November’s “Damages” episode. I’m looking forward to Slade Wilson / Deathstroke showing up. The preview pics here and here look promising.
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