Arrow Season One: An Innocent Man

"I'll join if I get a costume"

The episode begins where the last one left off with Diggle waking up and finding out that Oliver is The Hood. Oliver asks him to join him in his fight to help Starling City but he refuses, believing Oliver to just be a murderer and walks off. Oliver then meets Laurel at his manor who gives him a lecture which causes him to have a Flashback to him back at the cave and the hooded man sees him looking at pictures in his wallet. In the present Oliver and Thea manage to bond again but while watching the news Oliver discovers a connection between Peter Declan, a death row inmate, and Jason Brodeur, one of the men on his list, in the morning Oliver is shocked to find out Diggle has quit. Oliver is then seen making new arrows in his hideout while investigating that Declan is accused of killing his wife.

"I like to think of this as my art"

At night Oliver, as The Hood, visits Laurel and convinces her that Declan was set up and Brodeur is the guilty one; Laurel then visits Iron Heights in the morning and believes Declan is innocent. Meanwhile Quentin tries to convince Laurel to drop the Declan case while Walter becomes suspicious of Moira and thinks she knows more of the Queen's Gambit. Oliver later visits Diggle at his sister - in - law's restaurant to convince him it join him and manages to get to Diggle by saying that Deadshot was the one who killed his brother. Later Laurel then contacts The Hood and says that she needs more evidence and Oliver manages to get more by threatening Declan's former supervisor on why Declan was framed meanwhile Walter enlists the help of Felicity to find out more about the Queen's Gambit. We then have a Flashback to when the hooded man tells Oliver he must kill an animal for food and back in the present The Hood tells Laurel that Declan is definitely innocent.

"Everyone else hogs the screen time, I say we take some"

Laurel then tries to get Declan released but still doesn't have enough information and is even stopped by Brodeur and Quentin, she tells The Hood about this. Oliver then visits Brodeur and finds out of a plan to kill Declan and Laurel during a "prison breakout" which is happening now. Oliver manages to save them both as a masked prison guard but has to be stopped from killing someone by Laurel, we then have a Flashback where Oliver does manage to kill an animal. Later Walter finds the remains of the Queen's Gambit with Felicity's help and Quentin sees security footage of Oliver retrieving The Hood costume the night he fought Deadshot. The episode ends with Moira meeting a man named Malcolm (John Barrowman) and Diggle agreeing to work for Oliver again and help him but Oliver is soon arrested by Quentin for being The Hood.

Oliver's backup costume

Seems like Oliver's identity may be revealed to the public soon and after only 4 episodes lol. I admit that ending was quite a surprise because I just didn't expect it and I wonder how Oliver is going to get out of this one. It is possible that he has some plans for his new ally Diggle because if he is in a holding cell next episode than having someone on the outside could help. Speaking of Diggle I am really glad that he has come round to accepting Oliver as The Hood and I hope this means that if Oliver manages to convince everyone is isn't The Hood that he will help take out the bad guys. Also it was interesting hearing that Deadshot killed Diggle's brother and that is another reason why Deadshot has to be alive; there just has to be a confrontation between these characters.

"Don't you touch my fries!"

As for the rest of the episode I liked that Felicity is back (everyone just seems to give her their IT problems) because you just can't help but like her and I'm glad she is helping Walter because it gives these two character's their own subplot. I wonder how Moira will react when she finds out about this and I wonder what part Malcolm plays in all of this. I think Thea was a lot better in this episode because she was more of the helpful little sister in this and was there more for Oliver when he needed her. Also the Flashbacks was really good because I like how Oliver could barely bring himself to kill an animal for food yet had to be stopped from killing someone in the present. This kind of shows that Oliver is used to the killing by now and the experiences on the island has dulled of impact of taking a human life.

How is he going to get out of this one

Lastly while I think that the whole "prison breakout" scene was awesome and The Hood kicked some serious ass, after including Deadshot in the last episode I was disappointed that we didn't get to see another comic villain. I guess I shouldn't expect to see a comic villain in every episode and it probably is better that way because we just can't have one every time. This does lower the excitement slightly however because unlike Deadshot I don't think these corrupt businessmen on his list pose much of a problem for Oliver at all.

Lucky he is a skilled negotiator too 

Overall this was a good episode; the excitement has died down from the aftermath of Deadshot but I am glad we learned more about Diggle and Oliver is sure going to be in trouble next episode.

SCORE: 8/10

Highlights: Diggle and Deadshot connection/ Diggle joining Oliver
                   The prison breakout
                   Walter and Felicity now have a larger part

Let - Downs: Villain or his plan in this was not as threatening as Deadshot