Arrow - S3E8 - The Brave and the Bold
Previously on Arrow, ‘Draw Back Your Bow’
House Call
Team Arrow tracks Boomerang to a house, but it’s rigged with explosives. Roy and Oliver detonate the doors and enter, but they’ve just missed him. A.R.G.U.S agents storm the house and Oliver figures out they’re hunting Boomerang because his victim must have been A.R.G.U.S.
Flashback
Amanda orders Oliver to question a man named Mr. Chang. He has planted a bomb somewhere in Hong Kong and Oliver needs to get the location. She leaves him there with his “tools,” and tells him to get the info and she doesn’t care how.
Surprise Visitors
Felicity is leaving Palmer Technologies when she’s surprised by Cisco and Caitlin from S.T.A.R. Labs and they really want to see the Arrow Cave.
Diggle heads to A.R.G.U.S to get info on Boomerang from Lila, and of course Boomerang attacks while he’s there. He calls it in, and Roy and Oliver rush out. Caitlin notes everything will be over before they get there. Not quite, but Boomerang does manage to take out several guards before Oliver and Roy arrive. Good thing Caitlin has called Barry and he arrives just in time to save Oliver from catching two boomerangs to the chest. Boomerang tosses a smoke pellet and bugs out.
Lila reveals that Boomerang’s real name is Harkness and he’s a rogue member of the Suicide Squad. Lila gave the order for him to be killed after a mission went south, but the chip in his head failed to do the job. Now he’s back for a little revenge. Oliver decides the safest place for her is Team Arrow’s HQ.
Oliver isn’t pleased to see Team Flash and worries that they way he does things may be a little too real for them. Barry convinces him to let them stay and proves his worth by quickly assembling the boomerangs broken in the attack. Then, Cisco is able to trace their origins to an arms dealer with connections to the Russian mob.
Team Arrow storms the mob’s warehouse and even though Barry is able to tie up several of them without incident, Oliver ends up torturing one to get info on Harkness, including a phone Harkness gave him. This doesn’t go over well with Barry, and Oliver tells him this is the way they roll in Starling City and he’s welcome to go home if the doesn’t like it. Welp.
Flashback
Oliver tries to front like he’s going to torture Mr. Chang, but his captor quickly points out that Oliver doesn’t have the stomach for it and taunts him. Oliver keeps asking over and over again where the bomb is, but never shoots his arrow. A building explodes nearby and Mr. Chang grins.
Philosophical Talk
On their way to Harkness’ hideout, Cisco wonders if people like Barry, Oliver, and other metahumans were given to them to battle the crazies like Harkness. Roy and Diggle figure that’s as good as explanation as anything else.
The men in Harkness’ warehouse don’t know where he is, but he did leave a message for Oliver which means they just got played.
Sure enough, the phone Felicity hacked turns itself on and Harkness has used it to trace the Arrow HQ. He attacks and manages to hit Lila with a boomerang before running off. Caitlin and Felicity try to keep her alive until help can arrive. Barry rushes her to the hospital.
Flashback
Amanda jumps all in Oliver’s ass for not getting the job done. People deal in extremes and extremes are needed to stop them. Torture is an art form and Oliver needs to work on his skills. Luckily, Amanda has more people for him to practice on.
There’s Always Time to Drink
Roy, Cisco, Caitlin, and Felicity drown their sorrows in drinks at Thea’s club while Lila is in surgery. We get more talk about how what happens in Starling City is much different than what goes down in Central City.
Oliver blames himself since he tortured the guy to get the phone that led Boomerang to Lila. Lately, Oliver feels like he’s losing himself and just becoming the Arrow. Barry calls bullshit and says it’s Oliver’s humanity that makes him do what he does to help people.
Felicity has used facial recognition to track Boomerang to the train station. Barry speeds the people away and then he and Oliver confront Boomerang on a platform. He’s not ready to give up so easily. He’s placed five bombs throughout the city. They can stop him or the bombs, not both. Hasn’t he been paying attention? Barry is FAST!
While Barry gets direction from Felicity on the locations of the bombs, Oliver fights Boomerang. He has him beaten, but hesitates to torture him in order to get him to deactivate the bombs. When Cisco realizes that the bombs need to be deactivated at the same time or they’ll blow up, Barry grabs Roy, Felicity, Caitlin, and Cisco, dropping them off at a bomb while he tackles the fifth. They coordinate and save the day. It is awesome.
Saying Yes and Goodbye
Lila pulls through and Diggle proposes to her in the hospital. She says yes, of course.
Harkness is now Slade Wilson’s cellmate.
Oliver has Felicity install a mannequin for Barry’s suit so he’ll have a place to keep it the next time he’s in town. Aww. It’s like getting your own drawer at your boyfriend’s place. Cisco has a tricked out hoodie for Oliver.
Who Would Win in a Fight? The Flash or Arrow? They still won’t let this go so, before Barry leaves town, he and Oliver head to an empty warehouse to test it out. I love these guys.
Thoughts and Questions:
- A league of their own reference. Heh.
- When did Roy get so hot?
- You know, the lack of Laurel and Thea in this episode (they were each shown for about a minute each) made me realize that I don’t really need them on the show.
- There are a shitton of warehouses in Starling City.
