Arrow is finally back on our screens. While I do think the Olicity stuff was laid on a bit to thick in the back end of the first half of this season, I still thought everything else the season did was really well done. I like how they have built this villain team to take on Team Arrow because we get to have many little conflicts within this larger story.

Moving into this week’s episode, I really enjoyed what they did. One of the strongest story arcs coming out of the first half of the season was the team splitting and they did a really good job of making that the focus of the episode. I really like the idea of Wild-Dog, Black Canary and Mr Terrific spinning off into their own team. The three of them always had a good dynamic together because they were the new members, so it is going to be interesting to see how that dynamic is tested now that they don’t have a clear leader.

On the other side of that, I thought they did a lot of Team Arrow by making them come to terms that it is just the original three once again. This is where the show started before they added the likes of Roy, who we know is returning very soon, and eventually Thea. I think it is going to be good to have that original dynamic from the first few seasons back for a short period of time because it changes up the whole dynamic of the show. Arrow has had a pretty bumpy road throughout it’s six seasons and I like how in the last two, they have stripped back elements of the show to what the show was in the beginning.

My favourite part of the episode was with Thea and Lance. I have always really enjoyed this father/daughter type relationship with the two and I think this environment is where both character work the best on the show. What I really did enjoy about this section of the episode is that it is laying down foundation that will be built off in the future. In the past, conversations like this would go no way and be viewed as pointless, but in this case you know that this is going to lead to Lance trying to turn Black Siren at some point in this season.

Overall, a really strong episode back into Arrow. It was nothing that blew my out of the water but it hit all the standards you want in a show returning for the second half of it’s season.

8/10