ARROW Dodges Cupid, Speedy Meets Speedy

Episode 115 “Dodger”

Speedy… meet Speedy. And Felicity is… Smoakin’ hot.

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

Now, it seems Beauty and the Beast has tossed the voice-over. Can Arrow do the same, please?

James Callis makes his guest appearance as Dodger, the highly successful international jewel thief who uses other people to do his dirty work. Strapping an explosive device around his victim’s neck, Dodger forces cooperation in his heist.

Now he’s in Starling City, to fence a big red hunk o’ glass, and Detective Hall is on the case.

Ah, Detective McKenna Hall. Oliver’s new crush. Something Felicity points out as Team Hood strategizes at Big Belly Burgers. It’s nice to see a girl on the team, and Felicity brings some much-needed balance to the testosterone of Oliver and Dig. When she’s not playing matchmaker — giving advice to both of them about asking out their respective crush interests — she’s also acting as a conscience of sorts, refusing to help if Oliver is going to keep killing people. She’s only in this to help find Walter, anyway. (She says)

Of course, the dates don’t go too well — Dig makes the mistake of mentioning his dead brother, and Oliver shuts down when McKenna starts asking about the island — but those are minor hiccups, right?

It also looks like Felicity may be instrumental (along with Dig’s priorities) to getting Oliver off his blinder-focus on the List and more into the hero business.

She even gets into the act by helping track the big shiny necklace put up for auction by the Queen family — a target Dodger can’t resist. Naturally, being the rookie sidekick, she gets a bomb collar put around her neck, and the clock starts ticking. But Felicity has her Windows 8 device that lets her track the homing device in the necklace, leading Oliver to confront and capture Dodger. Score one for Team Hood.

And Felicity needs to get out from behind those glasses more. Yowza.

Flashback sequence dealt with the aftermath of the assault on the runway, and the subsequent bad mojo coming with the bullet in Slade’s arm. Infection is setting in, so Oliver makes a dash for the cave to get the Magic Herb That Cures Everything. Y’know, if there was such a thing, wouldn’t more people know about it? Wouldn’t medical science be using the heck out of it?

At the cave, we get a new complication: a young-ish man bound and bloody. Who is this guy? Says he’s the only survivor of a shipwreck from a couple of days back. But is he? How is it that he just happens to be in Yao Fei’s cave? The soldiers left him there? If they know about the cave, why wouldn’t they be waiting to ambush Oliver or anyone else who goes in there? Or even track Oliver to the plane and snatch both him and Slade. Something’s fishy, and Oliver is right to be suspicious.

On the domestic front, we have suspicion and complications galore. First, Moira makes arrangements to get out of the Glades Redevelopment Project, or “The Undertaking”. (seriously, writers, do better on this part)  Through another member of the team — who also has his doubts — Moira starts the wheels turning because she’s had enough. Her first husband is dead, her second husband has been abducted, the Hood almost killed her, she just got her son back… it’s enough emotional turmoil that she’s just fed up. Naturally, her answer to the whole thing is a little more complicated than just writing a letter of resignation. Knowing how this is likely to play out, she has to make sure there won’t be any chance for retaliation, so she’s going to cut off the head of the serpent, making a deal with China White to kill Malcolm Merlyn.

And we finally meet Roy Harper! Purse snatcher, general hooligan, square jaw that the ladies will like. The plot point is rich with potential, as we now have two characters that could be Speedy. Well, OK. Right now, Thea is Speedy, but that could very well turn into something between the two. Perhaps a love interest, and Roy takes on the name Speedy in her honor? Does that foreshadow tragedy for Thea?

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[Official Show Site at CW]     [Previous Recap: “The Odyssey”]