Arrow – “Damaged” – Blog

This week picks up straight where the previous episode left it, with Oliver arrested for being the vigilante. He requests that Laurel be his lawyer, and she eventually agrees, and manages to get him conditional bail. One of the conditions is that he doesn’t leave the house except for visits to the police station. He agrees to take a polygraph test in front of Detective Lance in an attempt to convince him he isn’t the vigilante, and is asked some seriously tough questions. He does finally admit to being tortured on the island, which neither Detective Lance nor Laurel were expecting. Later at a party Oliver throws at his house, Laurel asks to see his scars, and the 2 kiss. Meanwhile, Diggle has gone to stop an arms deal, dressed as the vigilante. Oliver is attacked in his room by an assassin sent by John Barrowman’s character, but Detective Lance kills the assassin. The charges against Oliver are dropped, and the episode ends with Oliver going to stop the arms dealer… permanently.

However, it’s what happens in the flashbacks of this episode that really got me excited. We learn a little more about Oliver’s relationship with the mysterious archer, and see the first time he picks up a bow. We then see Oliver get captured and questioned, but he refuses to give up information. This leads to a man coming to torture him. A powerful man. A man in a very specific mask. Deathstroke. The addition of Deathstroke to the series is brilliant, and really ups the villain scale. Oliver was eventually rescued by the mysterious archer, and praised for not giving up any information.

It was a great episode this week, with both plot developments and character development happening in spades. It was good fun, with a brutal finish, and introduced another of my favorite comic book characters. I can’t wait to see how it develops even further in the coming weeks.

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