Arrow – Dodger

• Title: Green Arrow – Dodger
• tv.com: link

A new jewel thief known as Dodger (James Callis), with a nasty habit of forcing others to commit his crimes through intimidation and explosive collars, begins hitting the wealthy elite of Starling City. With Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) very much on the fence about joining the team, Oliver (Stephen Amell) targets Dodger to prove he cares about more than just the names on his father’s list. Meanwhile Moria (Susanna Thompson) reaches out to an old friend (Chin Han) in an attempt to extricate herself from the secret group and the upcoming “undertaking” which they both agree has gotten out of hand.

Felicity offers both Diggle (David Ramsey) and Ollie unsolicited romantic advice as she notices Diggle’s obvious chemistry with his brother’s widow (Christie Laing) and is in favor of Oliver asking out McKenna (Janina Gavankar), and for more than just using the police detective to find the jewel thief. Although each date ends poorly when the ghosts of Diggle’s brother and Oliver’s unwillingness to discuss his experiences on the island force abrupt ends to each date, both men are able to salvage second chances. On a break from working in Laurel’s (Katie Cassidy) law office, Thea (Willa Holland) makes the acquaintance of another important figure in Green Arrow history: a purse snatcher named Roy Harper (Colton Haynes).

When the attempt to plant a bug on McKenna’s phone to catch Dodger fails, Oliver and his team examine the thief’s robberies and provide him with an opportunity he won’t be able to refuse by donating an expensive jeweled necklace at a charity auction. However, things get complicated when Dodger puts a collar on Felicity at the auction to make her his latest hostage. While Diggle tries his best to disarm the device Oliver sets out after the thief to prevent his escape and stop him from detonating the explosives.

I like the introduction of Harper to the mix, and the quick glimpses we get to some obvious talent Green Arrow could use to mold into a sidekick (which, from the dirtbag version of that gets introduced here, is likely to be quite a ways off as we’re more likely to see Roy as a friend for Thea, rather than Ollie, in the near future). We also get the return of China White (Kelly Hu) who Moira hires to kill Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman), and the episode includes more flashbacks to the island in which Oliver tries to save a wounded Slade Wilson‘s (Manu Bennett) life and is forced to make a hard decision involving a shipwreck victim (Jared Joseph) who may or may not be all that he appears to be.