Green Arrow & Speedy Make the Ultimate Team on Tonight’s ‘Arrow’

Oliver Queen is back in costume, but things aren’t exactly the same on Arrow. The members of Team Green Arrow, and many of their friends and family, are leading lives that become more chaotic by the day as the city grapples with new threats around every corner. Can someone step up and fill the leadership void? While “The Candidate” certainly wasn’t a bad episode, it definitely didn’t live up to its potential, either. The affects are alarming and Oliver has to figure out how he’s going to help her control them. She doesn’t want to, but is told by the board there isn’t much choice.

Felicity calls another board meeting. It’s nearly like a parody at this point when it comes to the office of Star City mayor. I’m down. But if future episodes are going to skew more towards what Social Media wants to see than plots that comic book stories have laid out for decades, I’ll quickly find myself losing interest.

Oliver disarms the man, but he runs; Oliver gives chase but is evaded when the attacker gets into a waiting vehicle while Oliver is hit by another.

Regrouping at the Arrow Lair, the discussion turns to the fact that the attacker has scrambled his own fingerprints somehow. Madison is graduating with a degree in ancient philosophy (good thing she’s a trust fund baby). “Here is how Entertainment Weekly describes the character: “[Curtis] Holt is a technological savant and inventor who works at Palmer Technologies under the supervision of Felicity Smoak”. Ollie has purchased a fern and packed her a lunch. He’s reluctant at first but spills it: HIVE is the organization that killed his brother. And with Anarky’s violent escape from his police and medical escorts, I have to say that I side more with Thea. Be sure to check out the slideshow for more quotes from the episode. Darkh agrees but says he doesn’t give third chances.

That disagreeement doesn’t end there.

At Palmer Tech, Felicity gets a few bad financial news about the company. Oliver has Danforth call her daughter, who is supposedly at the library, only to find that no one is answering her phone. Oliver tells her that Thea that Malcolm had warned him the Lazarus Pit would change her, but he didn’t tell her becuase she seemed fine. John wants to know why her symptoms are showing up six months later and what they should do about it now. He pitches Felicity an algorithm that will help downsizing. Oliver and Thea accompany her to her campaign announcement only for it be interrupted by someone mysterious and murderous but not a Ghost. And, frankly, if I were her, I might have gone after Ollie a heck of a lot sooner. He presents the kidnapped girl to Darhk, who is incredibly displeased to learn that he broke what he would consider to be his code of honor.

But Oliver takes what Quentin has to say at heart, as well as Danforth’s reasoning for originally running for mayor. All Lonnie represents is anarchy (foreshadowing!), and Damien prefers discipline, order and precision and says their business together is done once Machin cleans up his mess.

“Meanwhile, Thea begins to exhibit effects from the Lazarus Pit”. Laurel is shocked that he’s been doing this behind everyone’s back.

Lance tries to tell Darkh that he’s ending their partnership, but Damien simply threatens Laurel. Darhk reveals the location of Madison and gives it to Quentin, who then shares the information with Oliver. They blackmail Oliver into working for them. When Oliver Queen foils that attempt, Anarky opts to take young Madison instead. Black Canary and Diggle take her to safety while Speedy promises Green Arrow she’s up for this and Felicity confirms Machin is still in the building. Speedy and ARROW ride their motorcycles into the mill.

But it’s time for Round 2 with Speedy! Watching her fire people, however, was not enjoyable. Whoa. Green Arrow shoots the sprinkler system to put him out, but damn. Lonnie electrocutes Thea from behind and ends up fighting with Oliver, zapping him as well. No one, especially Curtis, is happy about it. He talks about how he’s been having trouble figuring out how to do things differently. Laurel suggests taking herout of town to clear her head, but after Oliver leaves, she reveals her real agends. Likewise, Thea continued to act extremely aggressive when up against the bad guys, and Ollie was forced to confront her about this yet again. Uh, you don’t think? He tells her that he’s decided he’s going to run for mayor. At least we know he can take care of himself.

It’s a little surprising that Laurel wants to save Sara even after seeing the side effects that the pit can have.

In the flashback, Oliver is led into a shelter where the leader of the armed men recognizes him and says that while he won’t send him home, he has no reason to kill him. Oliver’s used to people trying to kill him, so that part of the Mayor job isn’t an issue.

Anarchy reigns over “The Candidate”, and not just because Anarky has appeared in Star City.