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Episode 2.06
Writers: Beth Schwartz & Ben Sokolowski
Director: Guy Norman Bee
THE ONE WHERE: Dig is on a mission to rescue his ex-wife, held captive in a gulag in Russia – and it’s a mis🃏sion that will bring him face to face with൩ Deadshot…
THE VERDICT: An episode that takes us out of Starling City and injects a little touch of spy-chic: Isabel gets to wear the kind of fur hat that glamorous guest stars rocked in Cold War episodes of Mission: Impossible and Oliver has a chance to Bond it up, flaunting his knowledge of Russian in a restaurant and participating in an opportunistic shag. There’s even a lovely espionage-soaked piece of incidental music as the team prepare to board their jet. Yes, we know the Russian location is conjured with gree♛nscreen – spot that glimpse of Red Square placed in a corner of Vancouver – but it feels refreshingly exotic and the icy gulag makes for a grimly atmospheric crucible for this tale, with a great, brawly action sequence at the climax.
The plotting could be a little tighter – Deadshot and Dig have an uneasy truce but it feels like we’re missing opportunities to see the storytelling screw♎s tighten even further. There should have been more mindgames, some harder moral choices to be made. Isabel, too, should have been more of 🐠a complication for the team on this trip, rather than conveniently going on a tour while the rest are organising the rescue mission. Truth told, she’s been a bit of a drag on the show so far.
It’s a Dig-centric episode – always a good thing – and while Arrow himself takes a back-seat there’s a fan-friendly tingle in seeing Oliver and Roy in action together, green ꧒hoodie side by side with red hoodie, edging ever closer to the iconic Green Arrow/Speedy duo.
TRIVIA : Amanda Waller, head of Task Force X, is a mainstay of the DC Universe, first appearing in Legends 1 in 1986. She’s been brought to the screen before: Angela Bassett played her in Green Lantern while Pam Grier took on the role in season 9 of Smallville .
TRIVIA 2: In the DCU HIVE is a SPECTRE-like terrorist organisation specialising in assassinations. It’s an Acronym of Evil𓂃, of course, standing for Hierarchy Of International Vengeance And Eliminations. And no, Dig, 𝔍you probably won’t find them on a Bing search…
HMM: Another mention of a certain particle accelerator in Starling City, now with added warnings of doom. Wh🐻at can possibly go wrong?
LINGUISTIC NITPICK: We’re told that there’s no word for optimist in Russian. But there is, and it’s оптимист. Any other hoary Cold War cliches need disabusing?
BEST LINES:
Felicity: “What were you thinking? Over 64 million women over the age of consent in Russia and you sleep with her.”
Oliver: “So you’re not doing the ‘Whatever happens in Russia stays in Russia’?”
ဣFelicity: “We’re still in Russia.”
Arrow is broadcast in the UK on Sky 1 HD
Nick Setchfield is the Editor-at-Large for SFX Magazine, writing features, reviews, interviews, and more for the monthly issues. However, he is also a freelance journalist and author with Tita💎n Books. His original novels are called The War inꦗ the Dark, and The Spider Dance. He's also written a book on James Bond called Mission Statements.
