When the idea of 4 or 5 new vigilantes making their way to Star City first surfaced a few months back, I was completely against it. This season seemed like it was going to feature Oliver taking on criminals by himself once again. So 2 episodes in he already recruits a new team? I'm sorry that just wasn't something I could get behind.
But I was actually on board with the idea during this episode for a while. Or maybe it was just the fact that seeing Ollie kick the crap out of a few cocky wannabes was just plain awesome. Either way, the episode started out nicely. It didn't hurt that the relation to the flashback's via the "on the line" training tactic seemed to be integrated well this time, though I am a bit tired of the flashbacks perfectly linking up the present.
I was also entertained by Oliver's attempt at balancing his time as mayor and working on a deal with Amertek amidst his late night activities. Or as Thea would say, a vigilante moonlighting as the mayor. The episode seemed to have a clear arc and grounded tone with these new recruits. Having Laurel's death still looming in the background and weighing on Oliver and Quentin was a nice approach. But then the episode kind of took a turn for the worse.
I'm not down for Wild Dog, Artemis (or whatever they will call the fake canary from last season), or even Curtis suiting up as a vigilante. But I feel like even they showed some promise. Wild dog complains a whole lot, but Curtis had some nice comeback's to Oliver's mishaps. But it was Ragman that really turned me off. We had just finished a season where the concept of magic invaded what was a pretty grounded show considering the other CW shows it shares a universe with. Damien Darhk was cool for a bit, but it got old watching a man with a bow and arrow fight who was basically an immortal god. I thought we were done with magic or people with meta-human like powers. I won't pretend to understand exactly what Ragman's powers are as of yet, but I just can't get excited for that on this show again. 'Legacy' was a brilliant episode that brought the show back to its grounded roots, this episode seemed to take a step in the wrong direction.
Ragman's mini arc finished with him unmasking to Oliver, whom he just met, and already agreeing to be a part of the new team. It just felt really out of place. As did Oliver's rushed turn of admitting he doesn't want to fail anymore at saving this city. So is he already eliminating going back to killing? Something he just went back to in last week's episode?
I know I'm being harsh, but it's because I care about the quality of this show. I don't want it to make the same mistakes previous seasons did. I wasn't a huge fan of the Diggle material this week but the flashbacks were cool, as was Quentin's potential position as deputy mayor. Those are story lines I'm interested in, however. I don't care about the new additions, but maybe that can change. Let's just keep the quality of the show consistent week to week.
+Oliver's training tactics
+Flashback's link
+Laurel's death still weighing on everyone
+Quentin's new gig?
-Ragman brought everything down
-Unmasking too early
-Wild dog's complaining
7.2/10
