One of Arrow‘s biggest successes is the character of John Diggle (David Ramsey), a character created specifically for the show that had no connections to the comics. The reception for his character has been so good that he is now part of the comics and an episode centered around him which was a fun ride. One of the highlights of this Diggle-centric episode was getting to see flashbacks of him in Afghanistan as I have always wanted to learn more about his background.
“Suicide Squad” has been one of the most anticipated episodes ever since it was announced that the team was coming together. While the only letdown with this episode was Sharpnel, it was great seeing some of these villains becoming this team under the control of Amanda Waller who got to play a bigger role in this episode. The reason why we didn’t enjoy Sharpnel was because he didn’t really do anything intriguing and that’s a shame because with a talent like Sean Maher, I was expecting something different.
I think this episode showed us more than any of his previous episodes why Michael Rowe was perfect for the role of Deadshot. While he has been in only a few episodes so far, the development of this character has progressed in a very good pace. Hopefully, they will consider bringing him in for more episodes in season 3. A character like Deadshot, a dangerous assassin yet a sassy as well as a fun character would make a great addition to the show if he was in more episodes. I like that the mission that the squad got was connected to someone that was from Diggle’s past.
Even though it was just for five seconds and we didn’t see her face, the cameo that we got of Harley Quinn, one of the most iconic villains in the Batman mythos, was a huge deal for a lot of DC fans. But it’s safe to say that no one saw the voice cameo of Tara Strong (who voiced the character in Batman: Arkham City as well as in a few other DC video games), coming. Now what does this cameo mean if you look at it from a bigger picture? With this show, whenever they name drop or tease something very familiar from the DC Universe, they do it for a reason. Now despite that FOX’s Gotham is happening, we still think that Harley Quinn may actually show up on Arrow in season 3.
As expected, Oliver had fewer scenes in this episode, but the writers made sure to give us good things in every one of his scenes. Seeing his shield starting to crack because of Slade’s presence in Starling City, was good for so many reasons because it reminds us that at the end of the day, he is still just human. Believe it or not, but I actually forget that detail about Oliver sometimes because of his strength and how he is as a character. It was good to not only have Sara setting him staright, but Laurel as well. We are so glad that she is finally starting to head into the right direction and hopefully, things will just keep getting better for her.
“Suicide Squad” was one of the strongest episodes of the season and it has set up so many possibilities of where it can go in future seasons. Keto Shimizu and Bryan Q. Miller (who worked on Smallville and is now writing the digital comic) did a outstanding job with this script. They took one of the famous DC teams and made it come together so well in the Arrow-universe.
Arrow airs on Wednesday nights, 8/7c on The CW.
[Photo: Cate Cameron/The CW — © 2014 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.]
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