- Title: Arrow – Suicidal Tendencies
- wiki: link
Ra’s al Ghul‘s (Matt Nable) attempts to force Oliver (Stephen Amell) to accept his offer lead to more dead bodies with green arrows stuck out of their chests. Pledging to bring the vigilante to justice, Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) takes his new A.T.O.M. suit for a spin only to discover the true identity of the man under the hood. Despite a pair of confrontations, both in and out of costume, the heroes eventually come to an understanding although the episode’s closing scene suggests thing are going to get far worse for Oliver and his friends before the situation with the League of Assassins is resolved.
The episode’s other storyline centers around Diggle (David Ramsey) and Lyla (Audrey Marie Anderson) whose honeymoon is called off before it officially begins when the pair are sent overseas with the Suicide Squad to save a United States Congressman (Steven Culp) who has been taken hostage in the Republic of Kasnia. The episode is also a first as the flashbacks this week all focus on a recurring character rather than Oliver or a member of his team. Although far too truncated to offer the nuance the themes deserve, the flashbacks offer some context to Deadshot’s past as well some reasoning behind the selfless act he makes to see Diggle and Lyla make it out of Kasnia alive.
Although I think the motives for his actions ring true, I’m not quite buying Deadshot’s heroic death as the manner for his exit could just as easily be used as a smokescreen to disappear leading to his return somewhere down the line. “Suicidal Tendencies” also offers the return of batshit crazy Cupid (Amy Gumenick) as the latest Task Force X recruit and the end of Lyla’s employment for A.R.G.U.S. cutting off the team’s closest connection to the organization just as the League of Assassins amps up their Green Arrow attacks in Starling City.
