Arrow season 2, episode 16, “Suicide Squad,” aired tonight. Read our recap and discuss the episode with fellow fans.
Oliver and the guilty conscience
The episode opens with Oliver having a nightmare about a bloodied Shado calling him a murderer. When he wakes up, he and Sara are in bed together in the Arrow cave. Unable to sit still, Oliver sets up a meeting with his Bratva connection, Leonov.
Oliver wants help finding Slade. However, Leonov wants Oliver’s help first. Oliver’s having none of it, though, and takes out Leonov’s guards before holding Leonov at gunpoint.
When Oliver returns, Sara is waiting. She tries to get him to open up, but he simply says he’s going to kill Slade and “make damn sure he stays dead.” But he has to find him first.
Diggle enlisted
When Felicity discovers Diggle keeping watch over her apartment, she tells him that if Slade wants to kill her, nothing will stop him so Diggle should go home. Once Felicity leaves, a text leads Diggle to a hotel — where Lyla is waiting for him in lingerie. Good morning, Diggle.
However, the happiness doesn’t last as they’re met by Amanda Waller on their way out. She wants to enlist both of them for a mission. A.R.G.U.S. has been tracking a nerve agent that is about to hit the open market, and its current owner is one Golam Kadir — a warlord whose life Diggle saved in Afghanistan.
We see in flashbacks that Kadir was a terrorist Diggle’s unit took captive, but when a sniper starting firing on them, Diggle killed the sniper before he could kill Kadir. Kadir ended up sharing intel with the American government and Diggle received a commendation.
With that history in mind, Waller wants Diggle to get his team into a fundraiser hosted by Kadir in order to get the nerve agent out.
That team consists of Deadshot, Bronze Tiger, and Shrapnel. (And is that Harley Quinn in one of the cells?) If team is compromised, the government will simply write them off — hence the nickname Suicide Squad. Diggle’s not interested in working with a team of criminals, but Lyla convinces him.
Following orders
In Markovia, Diggle manufactures a run-in with Kadir. Diggle implies that he’s turned to less than honest means of operation since they last met. Before the conversation can continue, Deadshot opens fire from a nearby roof, and Diggle knocks Kadir out of the way.
As Deadshot attempts to exfil, his ride, Shrapnel, flees. He’s not interested in working for the government and ignores Waller’s warnings, so she sets off a kill chip in his head. RIP Simon Tam.
In the aftermath, Diggle is furious at both the situation and Lyla for going along with it. However, the mission is still active, as Diggle got his invite to Kadir’s fundraiser.
Pushing people away
Back in Starling, Felicity is unable to track Slade, but she does get an alert for a robbery in progress. By the time the Arrow gets there, though, it’s over. However, he discovers a familiar mask with an arrow through its eye mounted on a nearby roof.
The next day, Oliver meets Leonov, who has Slade’s bank account number. Leonov, though, tells Oliver that if he takes the intel, they’re done. Oliver takes it.
As Oliver leaves the meet, Sara confronts him. She calls him out on the way he’s lost control since Slade appeared, including his nightmares about Shado. Oliver admits that he’s afraid of Slade getting to Sara to hurt him and tells her to stay away.
Gray areas
In Markovia, Diggle and Lyla arrive at the fundraiser and greet Kadir while Deadshot uses Diggle’s fingerprint to get in. While Diggle and Lyla hit the dance floor and start arguing, Deadshot heads for the nerve agent.
Deadshot finds it, but it’s far too big to transport. Waller calls in a drone strike and orders Deadshot to stay put while the rest of the team exfils.
Diggle, though, refuses to let innocent people die; he causes a distraction by calling Kadir a terrorist in front of the fundraiser guests. While they all leave, Kadir threatens Lyla, recognizing her from Afghanistan. However, Bronze Tiger appears and kills him. Meanwhile, Diggle goes after Deadshot.
Deadshot’s ready to die doing something honorable, but Diggle invokes his daughter and convinces him to live. But their exit is complicated by the fact that the drone was not programmed on Kadir’s estate but on Deadshot’s chip. Lyla cuts it out and the drone crashes.
Back at A.R.G.U.S., Waller is furious. She dismisses Diggle, who is just as happy to leave. Waller informs Lyla that the implants will be moved to the inmates’ spines for future missions. Meanwhile, Diggle walks Deadshot back to his cell. Is that compassion for your brother’s killer, Diggle?
Once Deadshot is locked up again, Lyla asks Diggle about them. Diggle is still struggling with what he just experienced and Lyla’s part in it, but he says he can’t stand losing her again, and they kiss.
Mending bridges
Back in Starling, Felicity finds the location of Slade’s bank account, and Oliver goes after him alone. But what he finds is a setup — Leonov with an arrow through his eye and videos of Shado projected against the wall.
Oliver returns to the Arrow cave, and tells Sara that Slade is too many steps ahead. He doesn’t know what to do. Sara says to let Slade come. “I’m not that easy to kill,” she adds, setting off alarm bells.
The episode closes with Oliver turning down a dinner invitation with the Lance sisters to visit Amanda Waller. They apparently knew each other in the past and had an adversarial relationship. However, Oliver’s only interested in her help finding Slade. She tells him that A.R.G.U.S. has been tracking a mercenary named Deathstroke.
