- Title: Arrow – State v. Queen
- wiki: link
Oliver (Stephen Amell) finds his attention pulled in two directions with the beginning of Moira‘s (Susanna Thompson) murder trial and several people in the city, including Diggle (David Ramsey) and the Assistant District Attorney (Dylan Bruce) trying Moira’s case, falling ill to a disease caused by Vertigo-tainted flu shots created by The Count (Seth Gabel) who escaped prison during the chaos caused by the quake. The Count has resurfaced to blackmail those infected with the cure for the disease: the original version of the mad man’s own highly-addictive drug.
With Diggle out of commission and Ollie trapped in the courtroom, Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) decides to try and grab a sample of the cure on her own which not only gets her held hostage but also alerts the villain to Green Arrow’s true identity. Although Oliver is able to save Felicity’s life, to do so he must kill the villain. Oliver gets much better news in the courtroom where despite Laurel (Katie Cassidy) damning cross-examination, the jury acquits his mother on all counts.
This week’s flashbacks feature Oliver’s return to the island as Ivo’s (Dylan Neal) prisoner. However, thanks to the quick thinking of Shado (Celina Jade) and a severely-injured Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett), Oliver is able to break free from Ivo’s men and decides to take Sara (Caity Lotz) with him. Sara shares with the group what Ivo is searching for, and hints that whatever is hidden on the sunken submarine could change the world.
Moira’s verdict is a surprise, but not as much as the return of the somehow still breathing Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) who has a discovery of his own to share. Although I’m never going to complain about seeing Barrowman, I thought the show gave his character a well-designed exit and moved on well from that battle. It does make me wonder, however, whether Merlyn’s survival had to do with his time in Nanda Parbat (as he hints) or something more in-line with the current season’s involvement with the League of Assassins.
In other ongoing storylines we also get more of the man who hired The Count to kill the archer, as we see Brother Blood (Kevin Alejandro) has other options to take out Green Arrow in the form of enhanced soldiers (Graham Shiels). The rumors of super-soldiers this season may refer not only to Blood’s new minions but also the secret locked away on the sub (which, if it was used on Slade, would take the character one-step closer to his comic counterpart).
