Arrow, Season 4, Episode 11: AWOL
Okay, first up? I'm blaming the embargo on Suicide Squad related characters for Amanda Waller's death. There really is no reason to kill her off using this unmemorable villain of the week, her death was definitely done for shock value and there are a couple of decent hanging plot threads regarding her. Alas, poor Amanda Waller, she has joined Deadshot in death thanks to competing DC franchises. Boo. Boo, I say! And I was so excited too when ARGUS showed up again, because I honestly didn't think that Waller would even show up again beyond being the little-seen mission control in Oliver Queen's flashback stories. It's just a shitty thing to do, really. CW ends up killing off Deadshot and Amanda Waller, and the likes of Captain Boomerang, Harley Quinn and Katana are all shuffled into limbo thanks to the movie. Did Jerome in Gotham meet a premature end thanks to Suicide Squad too? Honestly, I think it is just utterly moronic for this embargo to exist at all. Wouldn't having the characters actually show up in other DC-related material be good mutual promotion between the two? And 'confusing the audience' is a piss-poor excuse and honestly quite insulting.
I could rant on and on, but I'll just shut my mouth here before this entire review devolves into pure bile regarding WB's management of their DC movie series.
Because, well, this episode is a really good one, Waller's death aside. I mean, yeah, the Shadowspire group and Colonel Whatshisface aren't the most memorable bad guys, and are just a generic terrorist group, but the focus of this episode is on two of our main characters -- John Diggle and Felicity Smoak. And both are handled spectacularly. And, yes, it's a filler episode from the bigger HIVE picture, but in no way can this episode be called disappointing.
John Diggle gets thrown into the focus as he and Lyla end up getting dragged into ARGUS business when one of Lyla's old buddies, one Alan Chang, get abducted, tortured and had his eyes ripped out by Shadowspire, a group that Andy Diggle once belonged to. And this little distraction actually came at a decent position since we just had the Diggle brothers reconcile last episode. The flashback of this episode show the Diggle brothers in Afghanistan with Colonel Douchebag, and shows more of the conflict between the two, how Andy puts up a facade of niceties in front of John, but still is happy to deal with Shadowspire behind John's back. We also get a requisite action scene in the flashback, and a revelation that Shadowspire is employed by none other than Baron "Blitzkrieg" Reiter, tying in the flashback to the Oliver-flashback stories.
But really, the biggest points of interest for the Diggle Brothers story are set in the present. Andy Diggle is not a character that I really like, but he does bring out a lot of emotion from John Diggle, and gives John a real chance to act and actually show his stuff. And Andy does genuinely want John to trust him, and when Colonel Douchebag shows up, shoots Waller in the head, and threatens to kill Lyla, John ends up trusting Andy, even if their plan involves Andy apparently pretending to give John over in a fake attempt to curry favour with the bad guys. It's a great moment for both Diggle brothers as they show that, well, HIVE brainwashing aside, they're still brothers. And saving Lyla together, and later John inviting Andy over to dinner and introducing Andy to little Sara, is heartwarming.
And, yes, Waller's death... was not really well done. This episode served as a nice little last hurrah to Amanda Waller, though, as she acts will full pragmatism while still trusting people like Lyla to do what needs to be done, just off-the-books... it's just that some jackass real-world decision pulls the plug on a highly interesting character just to get sole rights to her live-action portrayal for like two hours or whatever. Hopefully we can pass this off as a clone duplicate or some shit, but I don't see it happening. Waller's interactions with Lyla this episode seemed to be setting Lyla up to take a leadership role within ARGUS, which might make Lyla actually relevant again. Lyla hasn't shown up for a long, long time, and she really needs some time to shine. Will Lyla lead the battle against Shadowspire, if there is any trace of the organization left?
Felicity is the other main focus this week, as she recovers from her injuries. No, she doesn't become Oracle... because that name is taken. Is Barbara Gordon somewhere out there in the CW-verse? Hell, is Batman somewhere out there in the CW-verse? Hopefully so, no matter the situation regarding the monopolization on DC characters. Felicity's new codename is Overwatch... but she has to struggle against her own self-worth problems. We get some really awesome scenes between Felicity and Death Goth!Felicity, a nice little callback to a prior episode. It's a well-acted scene, and while the evil hallucinatory doppelganger thing ended up running a wee bit too long for my tastes, how it explores Felicity's mindset, how her perceived notions of destiny and 'meant for bigger things' and all that are shattered... and how ultimately Felicity shows that, yes, she can still be a hero... it's well done.
Also nicely done is the subtle showing that Felicity's presence is what allowed Diggle to summon backup in the first place, since Diggle has picked up enough technical knowhow from Felicity to jury-rig that TV signal thing. And Diggle shows that he's way more intelligent than just being dumb muscle.
Oliver does get a wee bit of character moment to himself as he confesses about how he's troubled about the whole Barry time-travel thing from the crossover, how Barry told Oliver about how he and Felicity kinda fucked up their relationship in the splinter timeline that Barry prevented. This raises some interesting questions about time-travel, and honestly with time-travel featuring very heavily on this week's Flash and Legends of Tomorrow episodes it can't be a coincidence, can it? Oliver is nothing but sweet this episode, though, and her little moment of vulnerability in front of Laurel shows the maturity of both of them compared to the earlier days of Arrow.
Overall, though, the real stars of this episode are John Diggle and Felicity Smoak, and they certainly don't disappoint. It's always nice to have episodes focus on the second stringers and show us just why we should care, and develop their characters, and this episode has certainly been more than adequate to the task.
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