Arrow #3.7: “Draw Back Your Bow” Recap & Review

Summary: A serviceable main plot offers a chance at character and relationship insight.

If you have not seen this episode yet and do not wish to be spoiled, do not continue reading!

Recap

During Slade’s assault on Starling City six months earlier, the Arrow saved the life of Carrie Cutter from one of the Mirakuru soldiers. Cutter was the first female member on Starling City PD’s SWAT force, but left after some emotional problems which eventually included an unhealthy fixation on one of her co-workers. Now, her fixation is on the Arrow and she spends six months learning archery in an effort to protect the one she thinks she loves.

Cutter makes her presence known by killing Isaac Stanzler, Ted Grant’s former sidekick, and dressing him up in a replica of Arrow’s costume. Oliver discovers an address in one of Cutter’s homemade arrowheads, and he and Diggle investigate. They find a shrine to the Arrow and receive a phone call from Cutter. The Arrow must commit to a relationship or she will kill her next victim, a mob boss, with a bomb.

Ray Palmer invites Felicity to a business dinner, and she asks Oliver for a night off from working the Cutter case to go. Oliver relents but won’t admit that he’s jealous, despite Diggle’s efforts to bring it to his attention. Diggle asks Felicity to talk to Oliver about being together to clear his head when out in the field, and Felicity tells him that Oliver should be the one to come to her about it. At the dinner, Felicity wows a gentleman who Ray wants to buy a mine from by explaining that Ray does things less for business reasons and more to make a good difference in the world.

Felicity is able to track Cutter down to a greenhouse and Oliver and Roy go to investigate. Cutter gets the best of Roy because he’s distracted by recent revelations, but Oliver manages to free the mob boss and Roy. To figure a way to stop her, the Arrow visits Cutter’s old shrink, who offers a diagnosis and suggests Oliver should be in therapy.

Cutter uses a tech guy to pinpoint where the Arrow’s base of operations might be. After killing him, she goes to Verdant. Diggle looks into the police investigation and tells Oliver about this. In an effort to protect Thea, who is trying to find a DJ for the club, and the Arrowcave, Oliver calls Cutter to tell her she’ll meet him anywhere but the club. She suggests the location where Oliver originally save her life. When he arrives, he remembers her from that night, and firmly tells her he can’t give her what she wants, can’t be with anyone. Felicity is listening in on the conversation.

Cutter decides to kill Oliver and herself in the subway below, but Oliver manages to save them and take her into custody. He has Diggle turn her over to Amanda Waller for the Suicide Squad rather than prison. Diggle tells Oliver Felicity heard what he said and that she doesn’t want to be alone. He strongly suggests Oliver tell her how he feels before he loses her. Oliver goes to the newly rechristened Palmer Technologies to talk to her but finds her in a kiss with Ray.

Felicity’s speech helped close Ray’s deal for the mine. In thanking her, he kisses her, then pulls away saying he wanted to keep the night platonic. He goes off to call people to begin drilling the mine for a specific ore. He then initiates a holographic render of his gameplan: a powered exosuit, presumably to use to fight off any further attacks on Starling City.

Meanwhile, a man is approached in the city by a certain fellow who kills him with a weaponized boomerang.

Review

Full disclosure: This wasn’t an episode to look forward to. Nothing against Andrew Kreisberg and his comic creation brought to life, but the concept wasn’t one that elicited much excitement coming in. It didn’t register as one to avoid, either, but this had the distinct feeling of filler written all over it.

Used far too often by audiences, fans, and critics, there is hesitation to employ the deplorable “filler” tag, mainly because it’s often not a very sincere designation. Filler implies no worth, and that genuinely tends to almost never be the outright case. It is rare to find an episode of any series that offers nothing from a character or a plot perspective. Usually, one has to question whether they could’ve dropped a given episode and told those plot/character points in another episode or, at least, in a better story.

Once watched, the “A” plot with Carrie Cutter/Cupid doesn’t necessarily rise above filler-like status on the surface. It’s an engaging enough story, but for a season that seems to be taking its sweet time on major arcs, this felt more like another Dodger or Mr. Blank. The copycat facet — the arrow distributor in Starling City has to be rolling in dough nowadays — the deranged lover, the lonesome hero. These are once-covered aspects on the show.

Guest Amy Gumenick makes a wonderful meal of the part, and she’s certainly a lovely sight to behold. There’s enough meat to the character’s bones to keep her around. Cutter’s brand of crazy is a bit theatrical, but it’s fun and can be playful, which is a particular niche that isn’t regularly filled by the villains on the show. It’ll be amusing to see her again in the inevitable Suicide Squad episode later in the season.

Cupid’s story, though, is there for another purpose, and that provides its value. We talked last week about Arrow using themes in a given episode. This week, it’s heavy with it again, though not as bluntly heavy-handed as “Guilty.” This time around we’re dealing with not always getting what one wants and/or needs, the choices we make and the reasons we tell ourselves about why we make those choices.

The collective mumble-and-grumble by many in the audience about the “CW”-ness of it all can be deafening. Frequent is the time when someone complains about the soap opera aspects of any show on the network, but often use it to slight their hero series. Again, we have to call to remember the source material; comics are as much soap operas as anything you’d see on daytime TV. Dressed up in capes and action beats doesn’t make them any less so. Spend some time with any run of books and it’ll be very apparent.

Aside from the comics, though, a long-form live-action series is as much about the lives of its characters as the story it’s telling. Relationships, wants, desires are all very much part of the human experience. Any series trying to offer complete characters doesn’t shy away from them, as much as people might want to see wall-to-wall action on a more frequent basis. This season pulled on the thread of the possible romantic connection between Oliver and Felicity, and it would be unnatural not to follow up on it.

Yes, by all means, it felt like there was retread on Oliver’s part this week. We saw him struggling with the exact same issues with Laurel in Season 1, about whether or not he can devote a piece of himself to a personal life with someone while being the Arrow. The overarching theme of this season is if Oliver Queen can co-exist with his hero persona. It’s admittedly a bit tiresome to see the same questions play out in a scripted drama, but there is a human truth to that. It’s not clear-cut and we often deal with recurring themes in our lives if we haven’t addressed them properly.

It’s particularly tough when you see someone you have feelings for moving on. Kudos to them for allowing Felicity not to wallow. Sure, she’s still very hung up on Oliver, and it’s curious (and telling) that they pushed the parallels between Ray Palmer and Oliver so hard this episode. Yet, she briefly entertained romance with Barry Allen in her Flash guest appearance, and here she finds herself a willing recipient of Ray’s affections. Diggle even boldly underlines the point for Oliver that she isn’t waiting around to go for the things she wants out of life.

Another hat tip of respect that they had Felicity shut Diggle down during his well-intentioned but misguided attempt at matchmaking and feather-smoothing. He has both of his friends’ well-beings in mind, and he would seem to genuinely feel that they would both be better off exploring their feelings for one another. Still, putting Oliver’s frame of mind on Felicity was unfair and uncalled for. It was clearly a last-ditch move to get Oliver to listen to reason, but after last week’s suggestion to cut Roy lose, Diggle’s moral compass seems to be filtered through the wrong prism of late. Can we get John back on track, please?

Who knows what Oliver would’ve said and done if the kiss between Ray and Felicity hadn’t stopped his head of steam. He seemed to be making a decisive move, but we’ve seen such things out of him before. It’s not hard to imagine him professing his undying devotion to this young woman who means so much in his life … only to talk himself out of it right in front of her.

As an audience member, that actually made for the romance of Ray and Felicity’s scenes more appealing. Brandon Routh and Emily Bett Rickards have their own lovely chemistry that tends to feel more rom-com, and they hit all the romantic fantasy beats this week. The dress, the necklace, the dinner, the kiss and pull-away. I’ve heard mention that Ray’s actions came off a bit “creepy” to some, mainly because of all the assumption made on his part. The trope was strong, yet this felt as more like someone who is influenced by those romantic concepts than anything sinister.

Much of what Ray does externally seems to be living up to a certain image. (Though, there is an earnest, authentic quality to it all.) He’s a tech geek at heart, yet he works out to fit the image of a debonair playboy. He seems upfront and forward about his desires, and yet there’s a clear introverted aspect to what matters closest to him. He pushes this business tycoon persona, yet all the while his main concern is doing good in the world.

The moment Felicity lays this bare to Mr. Gardner over dinner is both touching and revealing. She might joke that she has a type, but she’s able to see through into the good intentions of honorable men. It sold her on Oliver’s endeavor and it allows her to see Ray for who he really is, even if she’s as blinded to the specifics of what he’s doing as anyone. That made it sting just that much more when Ray left her hanging on the platonic line.

Check off another parallel with Mr. Queen. Not to mention replacing the identity of Queen Consolidated with his own name. That and what would seem to be his own narrow-minded focus on erecting his A.T.O.M. exosuit, the apparent endgame of his exploits so far. Palmer’s like a less-abrasive Tony Stark. And ominous moves aside, it would appear that his intentions are heroic.

“Draw Back Your Bow” continues a trend of seemingly loosely-connected stories that are setting up plot threads for after the winter hiatus. As exciting as next week’s Flash vs. Arrow event looks to be, expect that trend to continue. While usually one for deliberate paces, including the one taken during the stretch of episodes in the second half of last season leading up to the three-part finale, it still feels like the show is a bit listless right now.

Odds & Ends

• Speaking of the Suicide Squad, Diggle’s dialgoue seems to imply that the woman who would be Harley Quinn, featured from behind in last year’s Squad episode, is no longer with the team.
• Without doubt, my favorite part of the episode was the brief scene where Oliver and Roy show up to John and Lyla’s place for the late dinner. It felt like a family moment, and those are always nice beats played on the series.
• Director Rob Hardy had an odd predilection with things coming into camera to cut scenes, primarily Oliver’s chest.
• Who has the pool going on what A.T.O.M. stands for?
• Though it’s possible the name was a reference to long-time Green Lantern character Guy Gardner, the owner of the mine that Ray wishes to buy was likely named for writer Gardner Fox, creator of the Atom, along with editor Julie Schwartz and artist Gil Kane.
• Of the suit, Brandon Routh tweeted that he saw the render of it for the first time while watching the episode live. The render looks to have taken elements from the New 52 version of the comic suit rather than the traditional spandex-like costume.
• Ray mentions mining for “dwarf star alloy” in the newly acquired Gardener mine in Nevada. In the comics, the Atom gets his shrinking abilities from white dwarf star mineral. Conceivably, this will power the exosuit on Arrow, but it sounds like it might allow for the possibility for Ray Palmer. If not on Arrow, perhaps on some future appearance on the power-friendly The Flash. (Or maybe in a spinoff?)
• There was a great nascent hero theme from series composer Blake Neely during the suit render scene.
• Neely also adds a fun little tinkling sting to the Arrow theme during the opening titlecard to complement Cupid’s arrowhead filling in as the backdrop this week.
• It’s sure to offer more, but the Thea-DJ subplot didn’t provide much interest. And you have to chuckle at the fact that people start dancing the moment he starts playing his music. I’ll grant people that “CW” moment of the hour.
• The title of the episode was likely taken from lyrics to the song “Cupid” by R&B legend Sam Cooke. People of a certain age will no doubt remember the song’s prominent use in the 1987 film Innerspace, which was, coincidentally, about shrinking a man down to microscopic level to travel inside the human body.