How does The CW’s Arrow follow up the epic Canary/Sara Lance storyline? They roll out a near-perfect episode that has Team Arrow globe trotting to Russia, more comic book based characters than any other TV in the genre–most in the first 15 minutes of the episode, and there was even a Rocky and Bullwinkle reference. In other words, this episode was one of the season’s best, and a harbinger of so many good things to come.
1. What is it?
Arrow Season 2, episode #206, ‘Keep Your Enemies Closer.’
2. Who’s in it?
Stephen Amell stars as Oliver Queen/Arrow; David Ramsey as John Diggle; Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak; Colton Haynes as Roy Harper; Willa Holland as Thea Queen; Susanna Thompson as Moira Queen; Manu Bennett as Slade Wilson; Paul Blackthorne as Quentin Lance; Guest stars this week include Celina Jade as Shado; Summer Glau as Isabel Rochev; Caity Lotz as Sara; Audrey Marie Anderson as Lyla Michaels; Dylan Neal as Professor Anthony Ivo; David Nykl as Anatoli Knyazev; Jimmy Jean Louis as The Captain; Michael Rowe as Deadshot/Floyd Lawton; Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Amanda Waller; Teryl Rothery as Jean Loring. Yes, THE Jean Loring!
3. Who made it?
‘Keep Your Enemies Closer’ was written by Ben Sokolowski and Beth Schwartz. The episode was directed by Guy Bee.
4. What is it about? (**spoilers galore**)
‘Keep Your Enemies Closer’ opens with Team Arrow breaking up a counterfeiting ring, complete with a great shot of Arrow (Amell) and Roy Harper (Haynes) wearing hoods, green and red respectively. After the Op, Diggle (Ramsey) is attacked and taken into custody.
Diggle wakes to meet Amanda Waller (Addai-Robinson), the head of A.R.G.U.S. Waller tells Digg that Lyla Michaels (Anderson) has gone dark on a recent op in Russia searching for information on Floyd Lawton–who killed Digg’s brother–and Waller wants Digg to go in and get her back.
Digg asks Team Arrow for help and Ollie agrees, to the dismay of Isabel Rochev (Glau). Ollie, Digg and Felicity (Rickards) are set to take the corporate jet to Moscow and Isabel shows up to go with, seeing as Ollie is using this as a “business trip” for Queen Consolidated.
Once in Russia, Ollie meets up with his old friend Anatoli (Nykl), for help getting Digg into a Russian gulag to find and rescue Michaels. We also learn that Digg and Michaels were once married, adding a new level of importance to the mission.
Digg is able to get arrested, and after starting a riot during lunch, is put into solitary confinement with none other than Lawton (Rowe). Anatoli’s inside man–a prison guard–is able to get Digg free and together, they find Michaels, thanks to Lawton–who they freed as well. With time of the essence, the three fugitives are able to escape with Ollie and Felicity’s help and Digg gets his moment with Lawton alone. Lawton tells Digg that his brother was the target all along and that the hit was contracted by something called H.I.V.E. Digg lets Lawton go, proving himself to be the better man.
The episode ends with Ollie and Felicity having a heart to heart about getting too close in their line of work. Diggle–reunited with his ex-wife, Lyla–begins his research into H.I.V.E.
The subplots this week feature Jean Loring (Rothery), the Queen family attorney, advising Thea (Holland) that it would be better that she not be in a relationship with a known criminal like Roy Harper. Thea breaks up with Roy, and Moira (Thompson), from prison, is able to reconcile the two lovers by finally meeting Roy and giving Thea her blessing.
In Russia, Ollie and Isabel have a long conversation over good vodka, as we learn that Isabel lived in Moscow until she was four. She laments that it’s hard to find time to meet someone, and one thing leads to another and they end up in bed. Felicity, coming to get Ollie to execute their end of Diggle’s great escape–finds the two together and is incredibly upset, leading to the confrontation at the end of the episode.
On the Amazo, Sara (Lotz) pretends to not know Ollie and when Ivo (Neal) questions Ollie about Slade (Bennett) and Shado (Jade), he says they are dead. Ivo explains that he is searching for the corpses of some Japanese supersoldiers from World War II who disappeared near the end of the war.
Later, Sara breaks Ollie out of his cell and leads him to contact and warn his friends, but it was all a trap. Ivo and The Captain now know that Slade and Shado are alive, and then make plans to find them. With Ollie now expendable, Ivo orders his death, but Sara saves him by reminding Ivo that Ollie knows where the Japanese supersoldier gravesite is located.
5. Any revelations, tie-ins, easter eggs, etc.? (**possible spoilers**)
Oh man. We got the first appearance of Amanda Waller, head of A.R.G.U.S.; The Queen family attorney is revealed to be Jean Loring; Ollie’s Russian friend is Anatoli Knyazev, known in the Batman books as the KGBeast; another mention of the STAR labs particle collider, and the possibility of bad things happening if STAR continues their experiments; a mention of H.I.V.E., which is from the Teen Titans comic books, which also means that Deathstroke is not that far behind. And with mention of supersoldiers and experiments, he will be one badass mutha!
6. Will we watch next week?
Yes. It took all of about 15 minutes into ‘Keep Your Enemies Closer’ for me to start freaking out over the many comic book references. And it never seemed to let up. Even with the forced “Felicity being jealous” side story, this episode soared. And with only two weeks away from the Geoff Johns’ scripted episode ‘The Scientist,’ Arrow has never been better.
