Review: Arrow ‘Keep Your Enemies Closer’

This week’s episode of Arrow, ‘Keep Your Enemies Closer’ takes us for a brief ride in Diggle’s world, steering away from the usual Arrow vs. baddie story arcs that characterize the show.  Now that Black Canary is out of the picture for a while, it seems a perfect spot to pause and explore one of the other characters.  And while they don’t really go too far into the personality of Diggle, they do make him the primary focus and introduce a certain lady-love of his life.

As we begin, Diggle is snatched up by some folks from A.R.G.U.S., the old organization he used to work for.  They inform him that another agent - one that happens to be his ex-wife - has gone missing and that they need him to go and retrieve her from prison in Russia.  As it turns out, she was investigating Deadshot with information that Diggle had fed her.  But feeling guilty isn’t enough and to add even more incentive the A.R.G.U.S. leader informs Diggle that she knows all about Oliver Queen being Arrow and their involvement together.

So off goes Diggle, though with Oliver’s help.  Ollie makes an excuse to visit Russia and he and Felicity set out to be Diggle’s back-up.  But in order to get into the Russian prison (one of the toughest, so they say), Diggle has to get arrested.  Off to jail he goes with a plan to get out once he finds his lady.  Of course, nothing is that easy.  Deadshot also happens to be in the prison and, in a typical twist, Diggle’s only hope of finding his lady and escaping is to team up with him.  In the end, Deadshot reveals some rather interesting information that the death of Diggle’s brother was initiated by a group called H.I.V.E. 

In the meanwhile, Oliver sleeps with his partner/rival Isabel Rochev and Felicity gets all jealous and butt-hurt about it because she has a crush on him.  And in the past, Oliver is betrayed by Sarah (Canary) into revealing the fact that his friends are still alive.  So off the bad guys go to hunt them down and kill them.

While I didn’t think this was one of the best episodes of the season, it certainly didn’t fall back into the realm of the mediocrity of season one.  The story was compelling enough, there were some twists and turns to keep it interesting and they managed to set up several new potential plotlines - the mystery of Diggle’s brother, the H.I.V.E. organization, A.R.G.U.S. knowing who Arrow is and the Oliver/Isabel/Felicity love triangle (which will hopefully die with a whimper).

My biggest issue with this one was that you really had to close your eyes to ignore the very blatant flaws in the writing.  How did Diggle manage to get arrested, processed and sent to a gulag (traditionally placed in the middle of nowhere, weeks from everything) all in one day?  How did Oliver and company get all the way out to the gulag without Isabel noticing them gone?  Why did the Russian military not immediately mobilize once they instigated a prison break from a place where the worst-of-the-worst are held?  Someone on the writing staff has been playing too many video games, where arcs begin and end in a few hours with no repercussions, me thinks.

Regardless, the quality of Arrow is still hovering at least around 6-7 out of 10 on average with the occasional spike to 9, so I’ll keep watching and enjoying.  Next week looks to be even more interesting when, in time-honored fashion, the series brings back an old villain to fight once again - Count Vertigo.  And all this while Oliver is trying to deal with his mother’s trial.  Let’s hope Vertigo spices things up as much as Dollmaker did earlier in the season.  For a sneak peak at what ‘State v. Queen’ has to offer, check this site out.

Photo Credits -           

Keep Your Enemies Closer courtesy of dc.wikia.com