While season 3 of CW’s Arrow has so far hit their arrows on all the right places, last night’s episode wasn’t the strongest one, though it was still a very solid episode with the introduction of DC Comics’ Cupid (guest star Amy Gumenick).
Out of all the Green Arrow villains that I have seen in the comics, Carrie Cutter is the one I’m least familiar with, and I was never sure if we would actually see her on the TV show. But since she was created by show-runner Andrew Kreisberg, who wrote the Green Arrow/Black Canary comic book for a very long time, the possibilities were there. Gumenick’s version of the character was very mixed for me, in both good and bad ways.
I had to go back and re-read some of the Green Arrow/Black Canary comics she was in before watching this episode and personality wise, they are very similar, if not perfectly adapted from the comic panels. On one hand, I’m always open to have characters that are a little bit nuts because sometimes, they can make episodes of any TV show very fun. However, there were times in this episode when it did become a little bit too much.
The backstory we get of her was enjoyable and we see that the Arrow actually saved her in season 2 during the attack of Deathstroke and his soldiers which is when she started getting obsessed with him. I did like her style when it came to her arrows, bow as well as her costume, but there were times when some of her insanity became a little bit too much of a good thing and the comedic aspect felt somewhat forced, just a few times.
I’m not sure if the original concept for the character in the comic books was supposed to be a Harley Quinn-ish type of character for the Green Arrow. In this episode though, I got a lot of Harley vibes from her; heck, there was even a reference to Harley. Remember when Diggle mentioned that Cupid was even crazier than the last woman to have joined the Suicide Squad? Yep, that was her and I’m still hopeful that we will get to see her on Arrow at some point.
Speaking of the Squad, I like that after all the crazy things that went down between Cupid and Arrow that she ended up with ARGUS. She would definitely fit in with the Suicide Squad and even before they revealed that, I was open to see her back for more episodes. Gumenick seemed to have a lot of fun with this character and for us as viewers, it was definitely fun to watch her.
The flashbacks in this week’s episode were the best that we have gotten so far in this season as Oliver and Tatsu got to connect with each other. Up until this point, Tatsu wasn’t the biggest fan of Oliver, given the circumstances for him having to live at their place. I really enjoy Fukushima in the role as I became a huge fan of her after seeing her in The Wolverine. I have been waiting to see some pre-Katana action from her for a while and last night we finally got to see that girl swing her sword and kick some serious butt.
One of the major downsides of this episode was, without a doubt, the introduction of Chase (Austin Butler), the “DJ” aka Thea’s new love interest. This is the guy that is supposedly going to get together with Thea? I hope Thea will realize sooner rather than later that she can do better; my suggestion is that handsome and sweet fella Roy Harper who still loves her very much. I just don’t find myself investing any interest in this Chase character who couldn’t be more boring and bland. Hopefully, Daddy Merlyn will show his disapproval and I’m sure Malcolm is a man that you don’t want to get disapproved by.
Last but definitely not the least, let’s talk some Ray and Felicity who had a lot of great moments in this episode. But the aspect that I enjoyed more out of this was seeing the psychology of Oliver who showed a lot of powerful emotions in the episode. Although Oliver tries to avoid talking about it with Diggle, he can tell that Oliver is upset about Ray and Felicity and still wants to be with her. At one point, he does tell him how he really feels, and even though I don’t want to see my characters being upset, this was necessary for Oliver as a character.
Even Diggle tries to tell Felicity that Oliver’s head is somewhat messed up regarding his feelings for her. Felicity then gave one of the best answers which was that if Oliver really had a problem with all of this, HE should be the one to tell her. It’s interesting that as Oliver’s life is starting to, in a way, fall apart, Felicity’s is just getting better every week. Olicity fans were probably not too happy when Ray decided to go all in and kiss her, but I was perfectly OK with it because I like these two together.
The scene where Oliver goes back to the Arrow Cave and knocks down all those things on his table was powerful and this might sound weird, but I think Oliver needs to let his frustration out a bit more often. It was cool to see him and Roy basically admit to each other that their lives are not the greatest right now and they decide to take up on Diggle’s dinner invite. I need more Oliver/Roy scenes like crazy. Towards the end of this episode, DC fans got some very fun stuff to look at. The first thing was seeing Ray’s hologram plans for his A.T.O.M. exosuit and all I kept thinking was that The Atom is definitely coming.
The other thing was the introduction of Flash villain, Digger Harkness (guest star Nick Tarabay) a.k.a. better known as Captain Boomerang. As a big Flash fan, I was very disappointed that he didn’t have his Australian accent and I don’t get why they didn’t let him have it. But that issue aside, this was an awesome introduction of the character and boomerangs have never been more dangerous than that moment. It will be very fascinating to see the TV show’s take on him and how/if he will transit over to The Flash at some point as he is one of the Rogue members in the comic books. Who knows, maybe he will be sticking around as a member of the Suicide Squad as he is part of that team too in the comics.
Overall, “Draw Your Bow Back” wasn’t the strongest episode, but it was definitely not the worst either. We got some crazy fun with Cupid, great Ray/Felicity interactions, a deadly and dangerous Boomerang, and Oliver letting some steam out. I’m all ready now for the epic crossover in two weeks!
Arrow will be back on Wednesday, December 3, 8/7c on The CW which will be the night of part 2 of the upcoming Arrow/The Flash crossover event, titled “The Brave and the Bold”!
Photo via The CW
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