Review: Arrow ‘Suicide Squad’

Once again, Arrow delivers when it comes to producing an episode that is primarily filler and character development. For while the main plot sits on the backburner for a while, we get to take a ride with Diggle and the Suicide Squad as they attempt to stop a terrorist from selling off some serious quantities of chemical death. Oliver does some stuff too, but it’s not as important and generally the less interesting part of the story. What makes ‘Suicide Squad’ so much fun is seeing Diggle back in action and getting a chance to look at some of the show’s villains a little closer.

So part of the episode is about Oliver running around and trying to figure out what’s going on with his nemesis, Slade. But Slade is just teasing him along, leaving little clues and generally being a jerk. So Oliver freaks out a little and tries to get Sarah/Canary to leave him alone lest she get hurt. Of course, it’s Canary we’re talking about here and she’s been hanging out with the League of Assassins for years. Take off and let Oliver have all the fun? Hell no.

The main story follows Diggle as he’s recruited by A.R.G.U.S. to help them with a little problem. There’s a terrorist that has gotten ahold of some chemical agent that can cause major damage. So Diggle is forced to team up with his wife and some rather unsavory characters to get the job done. Those characters happen to be old Arrow villains Deadshot, Bronze Tiger and Shrapnel. Naturally, Diggle isn’t too pleased with this, but when he hears about the death that can result if the chemical weapons are not taken care of, he decides it’s all for the better.

So they infiltrate a party, track down the chemicals and then call in an air strike. Of course, nothing is that easy. The team gets found out and mayhem results. Diggle may have problems with killing everything in sight, but the other members of the Suicide Squad are not as nice. Eventually, Diggle figures out that Deadshot is being left to die in the strike and convinces him to get out while he can. A.R.G.U.S.’s leader, code named Mockingbird, isn’t too happy with that.

And a final scene - Oliver visits Mockingbird in search of information on Slade. As it turns out, A.R.G.U.S. has been tracking him. Although they have another name for their target - Deathstroke.

The action in this episode was great. It wasn’t over the top, but it didn’t skimp either. There was just enough, done well enough, to keep the viewer engaged. The Oliver half of the storyline was almost an afterthought, however, and it didn’t mean much in the long run. I suppose they had to give Arrow some screen time though. And it was great to have the villains of the show turned into human beings, despite their evil ways. It’s a technique that Arrow uses fairly often and they do it well enough that the viewer feels like the people in this world are real.

Bonus points - Harley Quinn makes an appearance at the A.R.G.U.S. holding cells. They don’t show her face or say her name, but only a fool would think it isn’t her. Does this mean that we’ll get to see Harley sometime in the future? I sure as hell hope so!

Check out a preview of next week’s episode, ‘Birds of Prey’, at this site. It looks like the Huntress is back, though for what reason?

Photo Credits -           

Suicide Squad courtesy of blog.zap2it.com