Oliver Queen must return to Russia in the latest episode of Arrow. Joined this time by Laurel, William and Mia to help him succeed in his mission. Whilst there, Oliver meets his old bratva brother and long time friend since his time on Lian Yu, Anatoli, who once again seeks to help Oliver, his favourite American.
Before heading off however, Oliver decides to help Mia with some training tips in archery and combat, bringing back a familiar scene involving arrows and tennis balls, but this time, the writers decided to have Oliver explain to Mia, and therefore to the audience as well, why he trains using tennis balls, and it makes perfect sense now, whereas back in season one, it just seemed to us like it was something fun for him to do. Oliver explains that hitting and piercing the tennis balls requires focus and precision, because if you don’t hit the tennis ball directly with the arrow, it simply deflects the arrow away. So we get a nice little montage of Mia training as she improves her technique and later becomes almost as good as Oliver with arrow tennis, almost.
Whilst most of the team head to Russia, Diggle finds and meets up with an old team member, who tried his best to hide after his apparent bloodlust got the better of him. Roy Harper is brought back into the game, much to his disdain at first, but later on, after a heartfelt chat with John, he decides he would like to stay for a while, meaning we’ll get to see more of him for the remainder of the series hopefully. The pair are on a mission to steal plutonium, which sounds dangerous, but honestly we don’t really get to see much of their mission, as the episode focuses more heavily on Oliver’s adult kids, learning more about their father and his history, including his apparent fame in Russia, and his time on Lian Yu. More than his story though, they also get to see him in action, as Oliver proves his prowess in a cage match with an opponent twice his size.
Oliver isn’t the only one who shows his prowess in this episode though, as we get to see Mia in action as well, as she continues to try and prove herself to her father and the original team arrow members. She discusses with Laurel later on that she continuously tries to impress them but ends up failing to do so, but Laurel soon sets her straight, telling her to be her own person, and not to worry what the original team think because they’re all proud of her and her team.
Following this conversation, and Laurel’s conversation with the Monitor at the end of last weeks episode, Laurel decides to have a change of heart and not betray he friends, not even for the return of Earth-2, which was destroyed earlier in the season. Finding out Lyla’s secret, Laurel isn’t sure what to think and so the question on everyone’s mind is, what would Oliver or John think if and when they find out?
Overall this was another cracking episode, and it seems that within this season the writers and the cast can do no wrong. There might be a few moments that aren’t as strong as others, especially with certain dramatic sequences but as a whole, this season is certainly shaping up to be a powerful season with a, no doubt, explosive ending.
