'Arrow' Recap: "The Lone Gunman"

This week’s episode of “Arrow” had Oliver taking on DC Comics’ villain Deadshot in, “The Lone Gunman.” There was a lot of buzz leading up to the episode, but for me, it was a little bit of a letdown and felt like the weakest episode so far. Of course the weakest episode of an awesome show is still awesome, but also a little disappointing. So instead of the standard recap, I’m going to hit the biggest moments.

Oliver still has some aggression to work out.

Like any CW show worth its salt, “Arrow” was kind enough to start off with a half-naked man working out (Don’t ever change, CW). Oliver was doing some training exercises that involved lifting some seriously heavy stuff and also knocking out some walls. It turns out that he wants to turn the old warehouse into a nightclub. He’ll keep his Arrow-cave beneath it so that way as far as the world is concerned, Oliver Queen is partying at the club every night and he can sneak away and do his Arrow thing (Pretty impressive thinking, right?). Tommy and Dig were both a little skeptical of his plan for the club part though.

Deadshot seems more serial killer than hired assassin.

I’ve said it before: I don’t read comics and I know very little about their lore so maybe I’m missing something, but this is the second week in a row that I wasn’t overly impressed with the villain of the story. Deadshot killed one of Arrow’s targets and then hit him with a poison bullet (more on that later). Afterward, he went back to his creepy motel room and tattooed the victim’s name on his body. Um, okay then. And when Arrow and Deadshot faced off, Deadshot tried to make it seem like they were the same and it just reminded me of every cop/serial killer movie ever.

Oliver had a savior/mentor on the island

So remember last week when Oliver got shot with the arrow in the flashback by the guy in green? This week, that guy was taking care of him in the flashback. He gave Oliver some grass to eat to counteract the poison in his system (Hence, how Oliver knew how to treat the bullet poison) and then he yanked the arrow out of Oliver and that looked like it hurt. Later, he had Oliver in some kind of net and lowered him down and warned him the island wasn’t safe. I’m going to assume this guy is important somehow and it’s just my comics’ ignorance that stops me from understanding why.

Thea is a mess

Oliver’s little sister got busted for larceny in the episode and was brought home drunk. She proceeded to give everyone attitude and do whatever she pleases. Oliver convinced Moira to be a little harder on her, but Thea basically ignored her and continued to do her thing. She showed up at a nightclub and gave Oliver grief when he wanted her to leave and then she spilled Laurel and Tommy’s secret, which leads me to…

Laurel is a BAMF

After Thea ran her mouth about Tommy and Laurel hooking up, Tommy started apologizing and Oliver told him it was fine; he wanted to deal with Thea. The little brat stormed off, but then Laurel told Oliver that she wasn’t going to apologize or ask for his forgiveness because she didn’t owe that to him (Damn right she doesn’t. Oliver sleeping with her sister is so much worse than Laurel sleeping with his friend after they thought he was dead). But that wasn’t the only indiscretion that got Oliver in hot water. It turned out that he’d slept with the club owner’s fiancée at his rehearsal dinner so the guy wasn’t exactly pleased to have him in his club.

As his bodyguards started to rough Oliver up, Tommy jumped in and said they’d have to go through him first. He realized quickly that they’d be fine with that and a fight ensued. Then, Laurel came into the room and took a guy down in a matter of seconds as the stunned men watched. Laurel doesn’t mess around and I’m sure the comic fans were delighted with the pre-Black Canary action.

Later, Tommy went to see Laurel at work after talking with Oliver. Laurel pointed out that Oliver already knew about them. She wasn’t sure how, but his face did not change when Thea spilled the beans. Tommy was confused, but then suggested that they could date for real since Oliver knew. Laurel seemed a little hesitant, which is understandable. Earlier in the episode, her friend caught her looking at an article about Oliver online and mentioned that Laurel hasn’t been with anyone other than Tommy since Oliver “died” and that doesn’t really count since he’s Oliver’s BFF. But Laurel seemed to be considering Tommy’s offer (While I did like Tommy more in this episode, I’m still 110 percent Team Oliver when it comes to Laurel. Their chemistry is just too good).

Arrow needed help

Oliver and his alter ego both reached out to other people in this episode. Oliver went to the company’s computer whiz, Felicity Smoak (again, I’m told this has something to do with the comics, but all the scene did was remind me of Chloe and Ollie on “Smallville.” OTP, forever, guys). Anyway, with Felicity’s help (now I’m thinking about Keri Russell’s haircut. It’s been a long week, okay?) Oliver figured out that Deadshot was targeting businessmen who were involved in a deal to potentially buy a company. One of those men was his stepdad Walter. Oliver knew he wouldn’t be able to protect everyone because Deadshot doesn’t miss so he decided to reach out to Detective Lance for help.

By “reach out,” Arrow came up behind him, slammed him against a car and told him the information he needed. Needless to say Detective Lance wasn’t thrilled and made some veiled threats, but he also took what Arrow told him seriously. He had men scattered throughout the party, but unfortunately, Deadshot somehow had one of the police radios (again, total serial killer moment). Oliver wasn’t happy to see his mom and Thea at the party so he tried to get them to leave and as he did, Deadshot took aim at Walter, Detective Lance pushed him out of the way, a waiter got shot, then some random woman; it was chaos.

Oliver changed into his gear and chased down Deadshot. The two fought hard and then Dig came in and he got shot. Arrow took out Deadshot with an arrow to the eye (wasn’t expecting him to die) and then he hurriedly got Dig back to his Arrow-cave and gave him a shot of some sort (not sure how that was going to help the bullet wound, but okay). Dig was a little woozy from being shot, but Oliver totally let him see that he was Arrow and when Dig’s eyes widened, Oliver simply said, “Hey.”

So the last 20 minutes and that amazing Laurel moment made up for all the slow moments throughout the episode that I didn’t bother to recap. Is Deadshot really dead? It seems a little too easy and too huge, even to a non-comic fan like myself. Then again, they did kill Lex Luthor on “Smallville” a few times and he always came back so, who knows? It’ll be interesting to see how the dynamic changes now that Dig knows Oliver’s secret. I have to assume that their future bromance will be epic since they are both awesome.

What did you guys think? How awesome was Laurel? Did you like Deadshot? What’s up with the guy on the island? Hit the comments below and let us know what you thought of the episode and I will see you next week.