Arrow Review: A.W.O.L (Season 4 Episode 11)

This week’s episode of Arrow is hard to grade because depending on which scale you use, it was either spectacular or a spectacular failure.

On one hand, we finally get a Diggle-centric episode in “A.W.O.L” and some much-needed payoff to the Andy storyline that has been floundering in the background as of late. Before now, Diggle’s resurrected brother has provided some interesting character dynamics but not much else, as he wasted away inside a cage in the Arrow Cave for four episodes. This week he’s given a purpose and a whole lot more meat as far as the plot is concerned.

Trapped inside A.R.G.U.S headquarters, Andy must chose between his old drug-profiteering buddies and his tentatively reestablished bond with his brother. Andy chooses right, helping Diggle and Lyla escape from the shady Shadowspire organization and earning his freedom. Not to mention an adorable meet and greet with his baby niece.

Also in the pro column is the resurgence of “dark Felicity” who is not technically dark so much as she is snarky and rude.

Pain killer hallucinations were an inventive and believable way to give Felicity a very physical way to deal with a mental problem. She struggles with the idea that she can no longer be part of the team because of her injury, which is predictable, but also with the darker thoughts that her desire to play hero is what got her paralyzed in the first place.

Eventually though, she comes out the other side of those dark thoughts and realizes that neither she nor Oliver are to blame for what happened to her.

Felicity: It is the fault of only one man, and he has an extremely on the nose and alliterated name.

Glad to see she’s kept some of that snark alive.

Felicity’s new nickname is also cause for celebration. Overwatch is a little reminiscent of Smallville’s codename for Chloe (another Felicity-type character), Watchtower, but fans seem willing to roll with it. They also seem willing to role with the pretty blatant Oracle joke the writers had Oliver throw in. I do love it when a show manages to essentially stare directly into camera and give the audience a little wink without it feeling too weird.

On the scale of using your supporting characters in a complex and entertaining way, this episode gets five stars. We rarely get to see Diggle and Felicity take precedence over Oliver, after all.

On the scale of creating an interesting plot that moves the story along in any way, Arrow has hit a bit of a rut. After barreling full tilt towards Damien Darhk in the season finale, we’ve seen no movement on that front for two weeks now. In fact, if it weren’t for the ominous introduction of this Rubicon thing, “A.W.O.L” would have had no forward movement at all. I fully expect Rubicon to make another appearance later on in the season, and it will no doubt be very bad for Star City.

But Shadowspire is clearly a one-off villain, and a pretty loosely thrown together one at that. What’s worse, they somehow manage to kill off Amanda Waller like she’s a regular old red-shirt. Don’t get me wrong, there’s no love lost here for Amanda Waller. She was not particularly exciting or likable, and she mostly just showed up whenever exposition was needed. But she has been around for two years now. Killing off a recurring character so suddenly and without so much as a tear shed over her fate seems a little cold. I wonder if the “Suicide Squad” film is behind this move? They already robbed us of Deadshot, this just seems excessive.

Other Thoughts:

• The flashbacks are trying so hard this year to be cool, and they’re almost getting away with it. Almost.
• How soon can we expect Andy to backslide? I give it two weeks.
• Where in the frick frack is Oliver’s son? Did they just forget about him?
• I’m glad we’re going to work on getting Felicity back on her feet. If we can bring Sara back from the dead, we can fix a spinal cord.
• Olicity continues to be adorable instead of boring. How are they achieving this dark magic?

What did you think of this episode of Arrow? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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