This week’s recap of Arrow is for episode Draw Back your Bow, which is about a new villain in town, calling herself Cupid. She would kill to be with the Arrow–literally! Check out Josh’s recap of the episode, and see Josh’s and Violet’s thoughts after the jump!
Don’t need the Arrow episode recap for Draw Back Your Bow? Click here to jump directly to Violet’s thoughts on the episode!
To see Josh’s thoughts on this week’s Arrow episode, Draw Back Your Bow, click here to get directly there!
Episode Recap of Arrow, Season 3 Episode 7: Draw Back Your Bow Recap Overview
This week’s episode of Arrow opens 6 months ago, when Deathstroke’s henchmen were destroying the city. We see Arrow save a woman from some men, and we see that the woman eventually becomes obsessed with the Arrow.
In the present, Lance is investigating a murder, which is a man dressed like the Arrow. Oliver is with Lance, and so far no one has any leads other than a “spade” tipped arrow used to kill the man.
Felicity meets with Ray Palmer, and he asks Felicity to come with him on a business meeting with a “boring” CEO, and he even bought an extremely expensive dress for her to wear. He assures her it would be platonic. She agrees, more than excited about this fancy dress.
Back with Oliver, he meets with Diggle at the Arrow Cave. Turns out the murder victim was Ted’s (the boxer) ex-vigilante partner. On the news, Diggle and Oliver see Ray Palmer holding a press conference, and he has changed the name of Queen Consolidated to Palmer Technologies. To distract himself, Oliver gets back to investigating the arrow he recovered from the murder victim, and he finds an address inside. The address turns out to be a room filled with Arrow-related newspaper articles, and hearts all over the room.
Oliver gets a call from “Cupid”, and she professes her desire to work with Arrow, helping him kill the next target she has in mind. The Arrow isn’t happy about this newfound “partner”.
Returning to the cave, Roy is not doing well, dealing with his murder he did while under the influence of Mirakuru. Felicity walks in, and she was able to identify the next victim of Cupid. Felicity breaks the news of her workdate with Ray, and Oliver seems a little heartbroken about the news.
At her new club, Thea is auditioning DJs, and a wise-cracking DJ tries to call off auditions, claiming to be the best there is. Thea kicks him out.
Meanwhile, Carrie Cutter is identified as Cupid, and she was the first SWAT team member in Starling City. Learning that she is an avid gardener, Oliver and Roy head to a nearby florist to see if she is possibly hanging out there. Turns out she is. Cupid gets the jump on “Arsenal”, and Cupid radios Arrow. She professes her love for him, and Oliver finally finds her, and her victim is dressed with a bomb vest. After Oliver breaks her heart, she flees, and Oliver saves the victim from the bomb exploding.
Back at the Arrow Cave, Roy is disappointed about letting Cupid get the jump on him. Diggle finds that Cutter was sent to a psychiatrist for stalking her partner. Oliver decides to pay the doctor a visit. Meanwhile, Diggle visits Felicity at her fancy office. He tells her about Oliver being hurt over the “workdate”. Felicity doesn’t seem too worried about it, since he basically dumped her before it started, and isn’t willing to talk to her about his feelings anyway.
At the psychiatrist, Oliver talks with Cutter, And after some “coaxing”, she reveals that Cutter has attachment issues. as he leaves, the Doctor offers her services to him, pointing out he is running around as a masked Robin Hood.
Felicity gets ready for her date, and Ray offers her an expensive diamond necklace to wear to dinner. Meanwhile, we see Cupid pay a visit to someone who seems to be working as “Felicity” for her. He figures out based on how the Arrow moves, he is residing somewhere near Club Verdant. Pleased with the results, she kills her henchman, and gets ready to hunt down Oliver.
Lance finds the dead man, and lets Oliver know. Oliver demands Diggle to get Felicity back to the Arrow Cave despite her dinner, and Oliver finally admits he is bothered by the date. Arrow heads out to look for Cupid.
Felicity gets a notification at dinner, but she tries to ignore it. Felicity plays wingman in talking to the CEO they were meeting with, and makes a good argument for why working with Ray is a good idea.
At the club, Cupid has shown up. Roy and Thea decide to fire the terrible DJ that was hired. But our previous DJ who tried to take over the auditions decided to show up, and magically fixes the DJ problem after some quick negotiations with Thea.
Diggle gives a quick call to Oliver, telling him that Felicity was able to find that Cupid was looking at Verdant. Oliver gives Cutter a call, and he tells her he’ll meet her “anywhere but that club”. She seems excited to meet, but warns if she is being played, she will come back to the club and murder everyone.
They wind up meeting at the place where they first met. Oliver tries to talk her down, but she doesn’t seem to want help. Cutter attacks Oliver, and gives him a run for his money. She is able to get handcuffs on Oliver, and onto some train tracks. She wants to let the train hit them both so they can be together for “eternity”, but Oliver is able to get free, and saves them both. Afterwards Cutter says, “I knew you loved me!”
Oliver hands Cutter over to Wahler, and she is going to be a member of the Suicide Squad. Diggle tells Oliver to tell Felicity how he feels, but it is too late–He finds Felicity, but she is kissing Ray. He leaves without saying anything. Ray meanwhile, apologizes for moving so quickly, and Felicity seems a little baffled by the sudden cold feet. Meanwhile, back at the Arrow Cave, Oliver is frustrated. Roy is as well, so they decide to have some bonding time, visiting Diggle and his family for a much needed “normal” dinner with “family”.
Back at Verdant, Thea is happy with the DJ’s performance, and the man moves in for some making out. Thea turns from irritated with the guy to falling for him.
Meanwhile, Ray Palmer gets the mine he was hoping to buy, and he is eager to get mining right away. We then see that Ray has an exo-suit in the works–the A.T.O.M suit to be exact.
Then we see a new villain, one with a metal boomerang, and he kills a man because the man has something he “needs”. We don’t learn what it is that he needed quite yet.
In a flashback, back in Hong Kong, Oliver is still with Tatsu and Maseo. Maseo has to head out to do some work for ARGUS, and heads out. Later in the episode, Tatsu is worried about her husband, as he is not answering is phone, and it has been 9 hours since he left. Oliver offers to head down to the docks to look for Maseo. They decide to both head down.
They watch the docks, and the two seem to bond some. Tatsu reveals that she and her husband left Japan because they upset some powerful people. Oliver spots a man on the dock, to which Tatsu reveals is a rival to the Triads. Oliver is immediately beaten pretty badly. Tatsu shows up though, with a katana, and seems to know how to use it. She asks one of the still living men, and he says that the ARGUS men are dead.
The two head home, and to Tatsu’s happy surprise, Maseo is at home.
Josh’s Thoughts: Arrow, Season 3 Episode 7: Draw Back Your Bow
I thought this episode of Arrow started out pretty cool, tying in parts of the Deathstroke mayhem, and how it would affect the people of Starling City, but I wasn’t really of fan of this character, Carrie Cutter, AKA Cupid. She seemed like a very cheesy character that wasn’t really too believable to me. I could understand someone becoming obsessed with the Arrow in a stalker kind of way, but Cutter seemed to have learned to be an expert bow user in the course of a few months, and her martial arts seemed to be pretty high. I know she was an ex-SWAT member, but I can’t imagine they do a ton of bow/martial arts training for that. I get that Cupid was sort of an avenue for Oliver to express his frustration of being forced to live alone, or at least that how he currently feels, but I just really didn’t like how it was portrayed.
I also don’t like how Ray Palmer is just getting all up in Oliver’s business! He changed Queen Consolidated to Palmer Technologies, and now is wooing Felicity with little effort! I thought Felicity was better than that! I guess wearing a $10 million dollar necklace can break even the staunchest of resistance. But Felicity certainly doesn’t want to be alone like Oliver is set on doing, and we can see why Felicity would look elsewhere for companionship if Oliver wasn’t going to reciprocate. Of course in true CW style, Oliver misses his window to profess his emotions to Felicity by a half a second.
As for this smug DJ Thea is falling for–that sure was quick. That guy is an arrogant jerk, who I would never hire, no matter how good of a DJ he was. I guess I wonder how “real” their very young relationship is though. Would a woman fall so quickly for someone so arrogant? For me, I want to be as far away from that as possible. Maybe Roy will deck him a few times some time this season. The guy surely has it coming I am sure.
I have to say though, the end scene with Roy and Oliver heading to Diggle’s house for dinner was surprisingly my favorite scene of this episode. Oliver and Roy no longer have much family, so it is nice that they have turned their mission into a “Family-esce” group. For that night at least, they are able to enjoy a meal as a typical family. Diggle and his wife being the pseudo-parents, and Roy and Oliver being the siblings coming home for dinner. It was a nice moment, I thought.
But of course that moment is interrupted by some madman with a boomerang. I guess we will be seeing more of him soon. But what is very exciting is the crossover episodes coming up for Arrow and The Flash! I can’t wait to see those!
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 3 Episode 7 of Arrow: Draw Back Your Bow
At the end of last episode when she said, “I’m Cupid, stupid,” just the way she said it I was like, oh no, this is going to be really cheesy. And it was. I mean, I know we weren’t really supposed to take her seriously, since she was mentally unstable, but I found her to be really annoying. Although, I can’t really blame her for being obsessed with Oliver Queen, because, well, come on, look at him!
As for Felicity, I must say that Emily Bett Rickards has locked lips with more guys in just this season than she did in the entire past 2 seasons of Arrow! First there was Oliver, then Barry Allen (okay, so technically that was on The Flash, but she was still playing the Felicity character, and that was still this season!), then I can’t specifically remember if they showed her kissing her ex-boyfriend in the flashbacks, but it’s possible — and now Ray Palmer?! Man, she is really getting around this season! Kind of random that she’s already moved on from Oliver so quickly, and to her new boss. I think she just has a weakness for any guy she sees doing Salmon Ladder pull ups! Before that, she didn’t seem to have any kind of romantic interest in Ray. It was also annoying how Oliver just happens to drop by Felicity’s office (since when does he do that?? Never! And how would he even know she would be there?) just in time to see her and Ray kissing. Right. Because that seemed totally plausible. Not.
And then Thea randomly decides to make out with the annoying DJ guy who’s full of himself. Was it just that “love was in the air” because of “Cupid” being on this episode? Kind of silly if you ask me. Will these love interests continue with Cupid gone? Guess we’ll soon see. Overall, this episode was not that great to me. The ending was an interesting surprise though, how Oliver and Roy go hang out with Diggle, Lyla, and the baby, Sara. You never see them hanging out in a non-professional setting.
Anyway, looking forward to the Flash vs. Arrow crossover episodes — these should be fun!
Scenes from Arrow, Season 3 Episode 8: The Brave and the Bold
Here are scenes from the next episode of Arrow, titled The Brave and the Bold:
I wasn’t a fan of this episode at all. Just seemed to be a filler episode until the Flash/Arrow crossover.