Arrow S3x07 “Draw Back Your Bow”

WARNING! SPOILERS!

Draw Back Your Bow is the last episode of Arrow before the upcoming Flash/Arrow crossover that starts on next week’s Flash and how about that ending, huh? What a better way to tease a crossover by introducing a popular member of the Flash’s Rogues, Captain Boomerang? It’s an interesting addition and the crossover can’t get here quickly enough, but with that aside, let’s get back to the main bulk of the episode which gave us the new villain, Cupid, played by Amy Gumenick – who’s also been in the role of Mary, the mother of Sam and Dean Winchester, on Supernatural. The character made an interesting addition to Arrow’s rogues gallery as he battled with yet another rogue archer, and the resulting episode (which largely lacked any massive game-changing plot moments this week) was still pretty decent.

The episode itself introduced the inevitable love triangle forming between Ollie, Felicity and Ray Palmer. It’s been coming for a while and the relationship drama kicked into high-gear this episode, and we’re almost taking a step backwards in terms of the cheesy, love-triangle developments that the CW is so fond of. Arrow has shown for the past three seasons that it doesn’t need multiple love interests to keep the story going, and this addition, even though I knew it was going to happen, didn’t really work. The sooner it’s resolved the better.

Cupid was a different new addition to Arrow’s own rogues gallery and it wasn’t quite as filled with cheese as I expected it to be, featuring a villain with a creepy obsession on the main character. The plot was handled well and although we didn’t really get enough exploration behind Carrie, it was serviceable, and with a hint that she could return in an upcoming episode if the Suicide Squad were to show up (there’s also a minor blink and you’ll miss it type reference to Harley Quinn) so there could be time to explore her character more then.

The flashback material was fairly weak and the move to Hong Kong hasn’t quite given the momentum that the story has needed to make them exciting. Initially, they were the best parts of the show, with the Island-centric adventures being consistently entertaining. However, the plot was fairly underwhelming this week and the scene featuring Tommy aside, there’s nothing here that really suggests that the Hong Kong scenes will be anything particularly interesting going forward.

The episode itself also presented a new problem for Ollie at just how easy it would be for the villains to track him back to the club. It’d be interesting to see what were to happen if he had to move away from the Arrow cave, because inevitably Thea’s going to check to see what’s down there, right? And to have other bases around Starling City could be just what the team needs.

The other weakest link that was part of this week’s episode was the new DJ at the club. He was consistently annoying, and the most groan-worthy character of the episode. The character doesn’t really need to be there right now but then, it’s still the early days of this arc and if the show can improve Thea’s character from what she was in Season 1, there’s hope for anyone I guess?

On the whole then, this episode was an average episode of Arrow. There wasn’t anything particularly memorable and the love triangle drama was boring and isn’t really needed. Hopefully, things are going to change with the impending Flash/Arrow crossover, as things look to get super exciting.