Violet recaps Season 5 Episode 3 of Arrow, titled A Matter of Trust, where Oliver learns if he can trust his team of new recruits when dealing with Stardust, the newest drug on the streets, and a man who can feel no pain. Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode.
- His thoughts on A Matter of Trust, Episode 503 of Arrow
- Her thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 3: A Matter of Trust
Recap of Arrow, Season 5 Episode 3: A Matter of Trust
While Green Arrow apprehends a criminal on the run, the four new recruits watch live video with Felicity back at the old HIVE HQ, now being used as Arrow training camp, as a training lesson. Oliver is able to get the name of the man’s supplier of Stardust, the latest drug on the streets: Derek Sampson. He also takes a sample of the Stardust from the man. When Oliver returns to the Arrow Cave, he asks Felicity to analyze the Stardust to try to figure out where it was manufactured. Rene, aka Wild Dog, volunteers to try to find things out, since he knows the neighborhood, but Oliver isn’t interested. Just then, Felicity picks up a distress call, so Green Arrow heads out.
When Green Arrow gets to the location, it turns out it was a fake call, and it was just Detective Billy Malone, Felicity’s boyfriend (unbeknownst to Oliver), wanting to meet up with him to give him intel. Malone tells him about the person who killed Officer Conahan threatening Tobias Church — because he wants to kill Green Arrow himself.
The next day, when Oliver goes to the office, he and Thea watch a news report, where the reports announces that Oliver Queen as appointed Quentin Lance as Deputy Mayor. This is the first that Oliver is hearing about this, and he gets angry with Thea, telling her to take care of the mess she’s made.
That night, Rene and Evelyn sneak out for a recon mission. They check out a warehouse where Rene thinks Stardust is being manufactured, and he is right. Rene puts on his Wild Dog masks and starts shooting up the place. Meanwhile, some men have spotted Evelyn on the catwalk above, so she fights back. One of the men follows Wild Dog up to the catwalk, and they fight. Ultimately, with Evelyn’s help, Wild Dog pushes the man off the catwalk into a vat of some sort of liquid.
The next day, the new District Attorney tells Oliver that he was building a case against Derek Sampson, the Stardust dealer, but last night someone in a hockey mask killed him. Oliver heads over to Arrow training camp and reprimands Rene for his actions.
Meanwhile, Thea goes to talk to the reporter, and tells her that Oliver actually hasn’t appointed Quentin Lance as Deputy Mayor yet, and that Oliver doesn’t know that Thea had offered him the job. The reporter says she’ll update the story.
When the coroner begins the autopsy on the man that Wild Dog killed, he suddenly wakes up and wonders why he can’t feel anything. Then he kills the coroner.
Over at Arrow training camp, Curtis and Rory get to talking, and Rory says that he’s from Havenrock. After Rory leaves, Curtis talks to Felicity, who still feels guilty about rerouting Darhk’s missile to Havenrock and killing thousands of people. Just then, they get a alert from Starling General.
Green Arrow shows up at Starling General, and puts an arrow through the man who has awakened from his autopsy and begun attacking people. However, the arrow has no effect on him, and he begins attacking Green Arrow. Oliver is able to slip away unharmed.
Felicity calls the team back to training camp HQ. Oliver reports back that the man can’t feel pain. Before he heads back out, Rene and the others offer to help, but Oliver isn’t interested.
The DA goes to see Oliver about helping him get a search warrant for Sampson’s last known address. Apparently Oliver and the DA met 12 years ago, and the girl the DA was with ended up going home with Oliver. Thea shows up and tells Oliver that she had thought it went well with the reporter — but then shows him the reporter’s latest broadcast in which she calls Oliver out for not knowing what’s going on with his administration. Thea says she’ll clean this up.
Back at the Arrow Cave, Curtis encourages Felicity to tell Rory the truth about Havenrock.
Meanwhile, Sampson shows his men that he’s alive and can’t feel pain. They plan to take back the city from Tobias Church.
Later, Felicity finds a wounded Oliver in the Arrow Cave. They see the reporter’s damaging broadcast. Felicity gives Oliver some advice about listening to his team. Just then, a break-in report at Allman Industrial pops up. Oliver heads out to gather the team.
Oliver shows up at Arrow training camp, where the recruits are busy training. Oliver admits to Rene that he should have trusted him. Felicity comes in and reports what Sampson stole from Allman Industrial: a molecular transmodality processor, which Curtis explains replicates chemicals based on their molecular structure. The Arrow Team figures out he’s going to use the processor to make more of himself, and that he’ll be returning to the same place because that’s where the vat of liquid was that gave him his powers.
Sampson arrives at the warehouse and kills the security guard. His men follow him in. Green Arrow is waiting for him, shoots an arrow into his men, and then Sampson and Green Arrow fight. While they fight, the rest of the team, now suited up, handles the other men inside, and Curtis sets up a bomb. Oliver takes a knife and slashes Sampson’s tendons, rendering him immobile. The team exits the warehouse as the bomb explodes. Oliver takes the Arrow team down to the Arrow Cave for the first time. They are in awe.
The next day, the DA comes by Oliver’s office to tell him that the Green Arrow apprehended Sampson, and that it looks like he has a new team. Thea walks in and overhears this. After the DA leaves, Thea tells Oliver that she’ll stay until he can find a more qualified and experienced replacement. However, Oliver says he doesn’t want a replacement. He then heads into a press conference, where he announces that any decision made by a member of his administration is his decision. He says he trusts his team, and that his team will include Quentin Lance as Deputy Mayor.
As the reporter, Susan, leaves, Thea catches up with her and calls her out for playing her. She then threatens her if she ever does it again.
Back at the Arrow Cave, Felicity confesses to Rory about Havenrock. Rory leaves without saying anything.
Diggle
Lyla visits Diggle at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Langham Penitentiary. He tells her that something must have gone wrong and he thinks pinning it on him was the backup plan. Lyla tells him she believes him. As the guards drag Diggle away, he tells Lyla to tell John Jr. that he loves him — thus confirming that the changes that Barry Allen made to the timeline in The Flash affect Arrow as well, as Diggle’s daughter, Sara, is now Diggle’s son, John Jr.
When Diggle is brought back to his cell, he is upset to find that Floyd Lawton, aka Deadshot, is his cellmate. Lawton explains that he survived the explosion. He asks about Diggle’s brother, Andy, and Diggle confesses that he killed him.
Later, Lyla is able to visit Diggle at his cell. He tells her to stop digging, he’s not going to fight the charges. He seems to think he should be punished for killing Andy. Lawton’s name comes up, and when Diggle turns around, he’s surprised to find that he’s all alone in his cell. He tells Lyla to stop fighting for him, and that he’s stopped fighting for himself.
Lyla goes to the Arrow Cave and tells Oliver that she needs him to break Diggle out of prison.
Flashbacks
Oliver awakens with a wound in his side. Anatoli tells him there are still two more tests left, and to trust Bratva. Anatoli brings Oliver with him to see a woman. He hands her a picture of one of the Bratva recruits who were shot dead. She thanks him for bringing her son’s murderer to justice. Anatoli explains to Oliver that the recruit was let off because he was friends with Kovar’s son, so he was let off, and Bratva was called to step in. Anatoli further tells Oliver that an army will be needed to take down Kovar, and things are not what they seem.
Later, Anatoli brings Oliver into a room with several Bratva members. He tells Oliver that his Bratva brothers will do anything for him, as he must do for them, and says he must trust his brothers. Oliver says that he does. Anatoli opens a briefcase containing several knives. He tells Oliver to turn around. One by one, the Bratva brothers slice a cut into Oliver’s back, each in the same area.
Her Thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 3: A Matter of Trust
At the beginning of the episode, I can see where Oliver is coming from when he doesn’t take Rene up on his offer to do a recon mission. From Oliver’s perspective, Rene and the rest of the team just aren’t quite ready to undertake a mission. He probably wants to protect them and make sure they get the proper training before they do so, since Laurel did not really get that, and went out there before she was ready. From what we’ve seen, the new recruits have barely trained physically, and they have only just had this one lesson on tactics as they were watching the live video of Oliver in action. They were then supposed to get DVDs of Oliver’s mission, and study them. But Oliver didn’t have to shut Rene down like he did. He could have at least listened to what he had to say. Of course, then this causes Rene to blatantly defy Oliver’s instructions, though ultimately, Oliver semi-apologizes to him, saying he should have trusted him.
One of the problems I have with this show, and mainly with Oliver, is that it’s either one extreme or the other. At first, Oliver doesn’t think the team is ready to do anything yet, so he doesn’t want to listen to anything they say, even though it has the potential to be useful. However, I do agree that they need more training before going out on a real mission. Then by the end of the episode, Oliver does a 180, and takes the team with him on a mission, because he wants to show them that he trusts them. Okay, it’s one thing to trust someone, it’s another thing for the team to have been trained properly. The same thing happened last episode, where Oliver started out on them too tough, then by the end of the episode, he not only relented, but revealed his true identity. I feel like there needs to be some sort of middle ground here! So, is the team now declared to be ready to go out on regular missions now? Or is more training involved? If it’s the former, that’s annoying, because it’ll be like Laurel all over again.
It’s nice to have an Arrow team again, but I’d rather have the old one back. Now that it looks like Oliver might be helping break Diggle out of prison, maybe we can at least get Diggle back. Please?
Side note: I enjoyed the subtle references to Wild Dog’s hockey mask and its correlation with Stephen Amell having played Casey Jones in the latest TMNT movie!
His Thoughts on Arrow, Season 5 Episode 3: A Matter of Trust
COMING SOON
Scenes from Arrow, Season 5 Episode 4: Penance
Preview of Season 5 Episode 4 of Arrow
