- Title: Arrow – My Name is Emiko Queen
- wiki: link
Arrow returns from mid-season hiatus unmasking the new Green Arrow and revealing it to be… Oliver Queen‘s never-before-mentioned half-sister Emiko (Sea Shimooka). A comic character originally inspired by Thea (a character created specifically for the show), there’s a weird circular logic to her introduction here as Emiko seems like an unusual choice to throw into the mix this far into the show’s run (especially presenting her as a near carbon-copy of Oliver from the show’s first couple of seasons complete with her own book of names to cross off). While we have to wait until next week for the first conversation between the siblings, this episode does see Emiko put her own posse together as Rene (Rick Gonzalez) and Curtis (Echo Kellum) join her fight.
The future storyline also continues featuring more characters in some questionable old age make-up and a big reveal concerning Rene’s role as Mayor of the Glades who appears to be at least indirectly responsible the death of a major character. The show also continues to refuse to move on from Ricardo Diaz (Kirk Acevedo) as Diggle (David Ramsey) paints his wife into a corner to relaunch the Suicide Squad with Diaz as its star recruit. Aside from being a serious dick move for Diggle to pull, this feels like the show re-purposing and idea that has already had its time (with mixed success). However, it could mean the return of Ben Turner (a character who, far more than Diaz, does deserve to steal a bit of the spotlight) while opening the door to more characters (including an expanded list of Bat-villains now that the show is on record that Batman does exist in this reality).
