Arrow: “Next Of Kin”

Few more weeks of this, then

This was fine? Yeah, it was fine.
This is mostly a villain of the week thing, with rogue military operatives putting Diggle’s leadership qualities as the new Green Arrow to the test. A test he fails, and then passes, for Brroding Talk Then Pep Talk reasons which sort of make sense for Diggle if you ignore the fact that he made the decision to kill his own brother like, two seasons ago. A tough call, with nobody backing him up, of the kind he says he’s never made this week.

The Felicity-Oliver sitch has apparently not been “are we back together”, but rather, “back together, but not much and in secret because of Secret Son’s feelings. Which get resolved this episode because he’s smart and scholarly and Felicity tutors him. Which is all fine. No problems with it. NOt particularly YOWZA, but fine.

Diggle gets a tech-based arrow-flinger to conceal the fact that he’s not an archer, and he handles it with no tremors because MYSTERIOUS SECRET SERUM THAT WON’T GO HORRIBLY BADLY AT ALL as revealed at the end of the episode. This Diggle arc honestly feels like it’s filling time, like they needed four episodes of light padding  before they get to the main plot of the season. But it’s all handled competently.