‘Arrow’ Recap: Oliver Gets Killed … Again

Warning: This recap contains spoilers for the “Human Target” episode of Arrow.

And so we bid a fond farewell to Tobias Church (the excellent Chad L. Coleman), who, it turns out, isn’t this season’s big bad. This may be the best episode of the season so far, mixing solid action with even better character development and a flashback twist that actually affects the present.

The Plot
Diggle returns to help the team find Rene, who is being tortured by Church. The team rescues him, but not before he reveals that Oliver is Green Arrow. During this serious threat from Church, Oliver refocuses on his job as mayor — meeting and defusing situations with a councilman and Susan Williams. Diggle debriefs Rene, and they figure out that once Oliver is dead, Church plans to meet with other crime bosses and consolidate the illegal drug business. Oliver is killed, though it turns out to be a ruse pulled off by the Human Target (Wil Traval). The team breaks up the crime boss meeting and arrests Church, who is then killed by Prometheus, who had told Church not to get involved with Oliver.

The Flashback
Oliver is accepted into the Bratva, but not everyone wants him there. He gets attacked by thugs, but is saved by Chase, who has been hired by Anatoly to protect him. In the present, Williams is able to connect both appearances by Chase and has proof that Oliver was in Russia five years ago, not on a deserted island as he claims.

Diggle and Rene
This felt like one of those contrived setups to get out some exposition, but locking Diggle in with a healing Rene may have been the high point of the episode. Diggle is getting a chance to work through the things that made him want to stay locked up, and Rene’s recklessness is no longer an annoying character quirk; it’s a deeply unhealthy response to his self-sabotaging inner monologue. Can we do the same with Artemis before she becomes a fully two-dimensional character and slips though a crack in the concrete?

Christopher Chase: The Human Target
On paper, the idea of a guy method-acting so you can fake your own death sounds ludicrous. But — like Diggle and Rene — it actually turned out to be another outside-the-box way of exploring character. Chase is the Oliver that Oliver wishes he could be: He charms the adversarial reporter, he out-politics the lifelong politician. He even gets to say one of those banal platitudes — “Nobody moves forward in life when they’re hiding behind a mask” — and because of the very specific nature of his job, it makes complete sense and nobody rolls their eyes.

This Mayor Gig May Not Have Been a Good Idea
For the most part, Oliver has been dodging his day job — whether out of fear, poor time management, or the writers are already bored with the story — we can’t be sure — but tonight the show at least proves that politics can be fun in Star City. Turning the tables on the councilman with the discovery that he stands to benefit if the rezoning fails is a rare win for Oliver that doesn’t involve an arrow in the leg. Of course, we’re watching Arrow to see arrows in legs, but it’s a nice palate cleanser for the mayhem later in the episode. We hope there’s more to come.

Inside Comics Moment
The original Human Target appeared twice in the ’50s — once in 1953 and again in 1958 — but most people know the Christopher Chance version, created in 1972. This is his third live-action incarnation: In 2010, Fox ran 25 episodes of Human Target with Mark Valley (CSI, Boston Legal) in the Chance role, and ABC ran seven episodes starring Rick Springfield (the guy who sang “Jessie’s Girl”). This time, he’s played by Traval — Jessica Jones’s Will Simpson — which is a respectable comic book pedigree.

Quiverful of Thoughts
Billy Malone is the worst. Susan Williams is the worst. Maybe they could get together and go make terrible babies somewhere that isn’t this show? They’ve already got a couple name: WillBill (which is also the worst, so it’s perfect).

“When it comes to guilt and recrimination, the line forms behind me,” says Diggle. But, really, what characters on this show couldn’t believably have that line tattooed on their forehead?

Line of the Night: “I’ll be fine.” “Have you ever — has he ever said that and it turned out to be true?” You can’t lie to Felicity, Oliver!

Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on the CW.