Arrow recap "Lone Gunman"

 

Oliver opens the episode with some weight lifting.  Well, not weights so much as giant block of cement on the other end of a pulley.  It’s no salmon ladder but I’m still very impressed.  It’s very possible that I’d be impressed with him reading passages from the dictionary too. You know, if it were a shirtless reading of the dictionary.

Our bad guy of the week is James Holder.  Mr. Holder’s company installed defective smoke detectors in low income homes.  He’s out for a late-night swim in his rooftop pool but Arrow has a different plan and lets Holder know by demolishing his drink.  Arrow starts in on why he’s been a very bad boy but the admonishment gets cut short.  Someone else shoots Holder (with a gun) before Arrow can make his…point.  Sorry.  It had to be done.  Arrow gets grazed in the arm with one of the bullets and of course he has to stitch himself up.  He makes lots of muscles while doing so.  Shortly after he realizes he’s been poisoned and passes out after eating something odd and spiney.  During his unconsciousness he flashes back to the island and the time after he was shot in the chest with an arrow.  The guy who shot him is trying to nurse him back to health.  This guy, an Asian in a hood, explains that he shot Oliver for his own protection.  That old gem…

Detective Daddy is investigating the shooting death of Mr. Holder and knows it isn’t Arrow who committed this crime because the killer used bullets and a gun instead of arrows and a bow.  Clever.  Speaking of the killer, he has just finished tattooing Holder’s name onto his arm.  Then we get a full view of various names all over his body.

At Queen Industrial Steel Fabrication and Welding, aka Arrow HQ, Oliver is giving Tommy and Digg a tour of the upper part of the building and telling them about his plans to turn it into a nightclub. Tommy makes a joke about the clientele if Oliver names it Queen’s, mentions them going to another local club to check out the competition and then leaves.  He’s not terribly useful.  Digg chastises Oliver regarding his gentrification plan for the neighborhood, which is called the Glades.  Oliver is sticking with the plan because it would provide him with a solid alibi for hanging out there all the time. 

Meanwhile, the bleeding hearts at legal aid (Laurel and her bestie) are chatting about Laurel’s need to get out and get over her feelings for Oliver.  Not a lot of aiding needy with the law going on this week.  Laurel proclaims to be totally over Oliver and dating Tommy (his best friend) while Oliver was missing had nothing to do with her feelings.  Or something like that.  Bestie doesn’t buy it and her advice is to go clubbing and dance with random men.  Gee, I wonder if they’ll end up at the same club Tommy’s taking Oliver to.

Oliver tries to find where the shooter was standing and where some stray bullets may have ended up.  He decides to free-climb the side of a building (I’m not complaining) and, of course, finds a bullet lodged in the wall.  Detective Daddy is still sort of defending Arrow to his partner.  The cops have found the poison on the bullet too but they didn’t get quite as far as Oliver did with the detective work.  Oliver is able to trace that bullet to the Russian mob and figures they’re the ones who hired the tattooed killer for the hit on Holder.  Oliver winds up at a chop shop, ok maybe it’s a legit garage, and introduces himself as a member of their little organization.  A captain, even.

A helpful reporter on TV tells us there’s been another death of a local business man and that means our tattooed killer is adding another tattoo on his body.  This business man company is going to be up for auction and there are a lot of interested buyers, including Oliver’s step-daddy.  I wonder if this will be important later.

At the club, Oliver and Tommy run into Laurel, her bestie and Drunkie McNeedsattention (aka, sis Thea).  Thea, in order to get back at newly self-righteous brother Oliver, decides to spill the secret that Tommy and Laurel were together while Oliver was shipwrecked on the island.  Shortly after, Oliver and company run into the club’s owner whose fiancé Oliver slept with just before their wedding.  Oopsie.  There’s a fight, Laurel jumps in, saves their asses and everyone gets banned from the club.  Digg takes them for a burger and we’re introduced to his sister-in-law.  She reminds Digg that his brother, her dead husband, died in a similar type job so he better be careful. Ok.

The Russian mob calls Oliver with the location of the tattooed killer.  Arrow and he shoot at each other but the tattooed killer gets away.  Boo.  However, Arrow got his laptop, which he brings to the IT department of daddy’s company.  The IT expert is a nervous chick named…Felicity Smoke.  REALLY?!?!  Anywhoodle, the stuff on the laptop leads Oliver to the business auction thingy that was mentioned earlier.  Oliver guesses what the tattooed killer is up to and realizes he won’t be able to cover everyone who shows up at the business auction thingy.  Arrow enlists the help of Detective Daddy who is all too willing to a) believe what this masked dude is telling him and b) act on it.  Tattooed killer takes out a cop and is in position to shoot someone at the business auction thingy.  Detective Daddy spots one of those laser guidance things from a gun and is able to save Oliver’s step-dad.  Too bad a waiter, just doing his job, gets hit instead.

Arrow goes up against tattooed killer and they yell things at each other.  Arrow tries to justify his killings as being “for the good of others.”  Rationalize much?  Then he kills tattooed killer and I have to admit that probably saved some lives so I’ll let it go.  Digg has been hit in the scuffle and we get another flashback to the island. Asian guy tells Oliver that places are too dangerous for a man to be alone.  Dude!  If Digg survives, Oliver/Arrow has to do what I’ve wanted him to do, which is bring Digg in on the whole thing.  At Arrow HQ, Oliver/Arrow is making a concoction to heal Digg.  Then Arrow reveals himself to be Oliver or Oliver reveals himself to be the Arrow.  Whichever.  Digg is totally in on this now.  This can only be a good thing.