- Title: Arrow – Keep Your Enemies Closer
- wiki: link
After Amanda Waller (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) informs Diggle (David Ramsey) that his friend Lyla Michaels (Audrey Marie Anderson) has gone missing while searching for Deadshot (Michael Rowe) in Moscow, Oliver, Diggle, and Felicity head to Russia along with Isabel Rochev (Summer Glau) who decides to horn-in on the group’s cover story of inspecting Queen Consolidated’s overseas holdings. Contacting an old Russian friend (David Nykl) and fellow prisoner aboard Dr. Anthony Ivo’s (Dylan Neal) freighter, Oliver learns Lyla was caught while attempting to break into Russia’s most secure prison known housing the country’s most insane murderers and psychopaths.
This week’s flashbacks include Oliver’s reunion with Sara (Caity Lotz) and his introduction to Ivo who educates him about t the cargo from the lost Japanese sub the mercenaries are searching for (a lost super-soldier serum) as well offering the stranded billionaire a harsh lesson in betrayal. Also included is a single scene of Shado (Celina Jade) tending to Slade Wilson‘s (Manu Bennett) injuries after surviving the freighter’s shelling of the island. Although momentarily safe, Oliver’s misjudging of Sara’s motives has put all of them in danger once again.
As Oliver makes a connection with his new business partner, first in the hotel bar and later in his hotel room, Diggle goes undercover where he comes face-to-face with Deadshot, but to save both Lyla and himself Diggle has no choice but to trust the man who killed his brother and who is necessary to get them all out of prison alive. Unable to kill Deadshot, Diggle at least makes it out with Lyla and the name of the client who hired Deadshot to kill Diggle’s brother.
The episode also includes a B-story back in Starling City where Roy‘s (Colton Haynes) latest arrest earns Thea (Willa Holland) a visit from her mother’s lawyer (Teryl Rothery) who cautions her that dating a known felon isn’t likely help Moira‘s (Susanna Thompson) trial. Although the couple momentarily breaks-up, Moira steps in to be the voice of reason (and is certainly a rarity as a TV-mom for encouraging her daughter to date someone with Roy’s rap sheet).
Other than the pre-credit sequence involving Green Arrow and Diggle taking down a counterfeiter, the emerald archer and his bow sit out most of the action. In terms of ongoing storylines, Ollie’s Russian daliance with Isabel brings the nature of his relationship with Felicity into question and the introduction of a shadowy organization such as H.I.V.E. being behind the death of Diggle’s brother lays the groundwork for a new enemy as well. I’ll also be interested in seeing where the show goes, in flashbacks or the present, with Nykl’s version of the KGBeast (who is certainly an unusual, although certainly not unwelcome, choice to add to the Arrow universe).
