'Human Target' was a pretty messy episode overall, but there were plenty of things to get excited about. Diggle is back, the conflict with Church is resolved, and Prometheus seems to be finally making his presence felt.
The episode's title is obviously in reference to the comic-book character of the same name, but he was hardly the focus tonight. Wil Traval plays Christopher Chance/Human Target and is an old friend of Oliver
or Diggle? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Diggle is the one who said "I know somebody" but the description for the episode states that Chance is an old friend of Oliver's. No matter, Traval wasn't given any real screen time to develop Chance. I had mixed opinions of him on Jessica Jones, so maybe it was best to keep him in the background.
Tobias Church provided the episode's main conflict as he had Wild Dog captured and tortured. For the second straight week, I have grown increasingly interested in his character. Rick Gonzalez clearly has acting chops, and I'm glad they are building out his character. Granted, he's making a ton of mistakes, but it's not like those mistakes are going unnoticed. It helped that he got to have some screen time with Diggle this week and it looks like that bond will continue.
Unfortunately, that screen time towards Wild Dog takes away from the time spent on others, like the rest of the team. It's funny, because this episode already felt overstuffed even without significant time spent with Artemis, Curtis, or Ragman (why the heck is he bullet proof by the way). Felicity got some of that screen time tonight as her dating Billy came to Oliver's attention. It was more than awkward watching him find out through the Human Target, but I actually believe the Olicity material this week was handled well. No, I don't believe they will date again, but I found their scenes together to be well- written and a necessary evil. Now if the show continues to focus on Felicity's new boyfriend or Oliver's jealousy, then I will address that when it happens. But there's no need to get mad at tonight's execution in that department.
Oliver also had his hands full in the mayoral department tonight with Susan Williams giving him a hard time and the lack of voting on a low- income housing issue. I enjoyed his dynamic with Susan, so it was unfortunate to see that it was basically all Christopher Chance's doing (masked as Oliver Queen). Really? This show really just pulled a Mission Impossible with that mask reveal? I thought we were going back to the more realistic and grounded take on the character?
I've been hard on this episode so far, but there are plenty of saving graces. The material in Russia nicely set up the reveal that Susan Williams now has some bargaining chips over Oliver. Prometheus knows who Oliver is. And I'm growing more interested in the new team with Diggle back on the table. I'll take what I can get this season.
+Wild Dog paying his dues
+Diggle is back as Spartan
+Susan & Oliver could be fun
+Prometheus knows
+Olicity was handled nicely
-Human Target not given a ton of time to do anything
-STILL way too much going on
-Mission Impossible mask? Really?
7.8/10
