“The Recruits” is a textbook example of Arrow trying to do too much at once and succeeding at little. This episode focused on Ollie’s efforts to build a new Team Arrow staffed by rookie vigilantes like Wild Dog (Rick Gonzalez), Artemis (McLaughlin) and Curtis “When Will He Call Himself Mister Terrific?” Holt (Echo Kellum). But in addition to that main story thread, it also focused on Mayor Handsome’s efforts to turn Star City around, Quentin’s struggle with alcohol-fueled depression, the rise of another new vigilante in the form of Ragman (Joe Dinicol), Diggle’s trials and tribulations in Chechnya and Tobias Church’s ongoing quest to take over Star City’s underworld. Plus, the obligatory flashback sequences. Is it any wonder so many of these subplots felt underserved this week?The big problem facing the show as it slowly constructs a new Team Arrow is that there’s not much reason to care about characters like Wild Dog or Artemis. The show is basically throwing them into the deep end and hoping viewers will become attached. Compare that to the slow evolution of characters like Roy, Thea and Laurel, who had months or years of character development before they ever put on costumes. Curtis at least has his Season 4 appearances to fall back upon, but nothing in these first two episodes has done much to endear me to Wild Dog or Artemis. They haven’t earned their places at Ollie’s side.
This problem only becomes more apparent when you factor Ragman into the equation. Ragman didn’t appear in this episode nearly as much as I would have liked. But even so, he had a strong (if brief) character arc. His interaction with Ollie firmly established why Rory is on this path of vengeance. And by the time Ollie extended a welcoming hand to Rory, the two had a bond between them. I think what this shows is that it would have been better to introduce each new member of the team one by one and having Ollie slowly piece together his new Team Arrow rather than simply tossing everyone in a room and letting them get smacked around by their cranky drill sergeant.
I should also say that I enjoyed seeing Ragman make his debut and appreciated how the writers worked his origin story into the nuclear attack from Season 4. It seems that the show won’t completely shy away from the supernatural side of the DCU this season, but rather draw from it more sparingly. I just hope the writers intend to explore Felicity’s reaction to learning Rory’s tale of woe. Season 4 wasted a lot of opportunity in terms of exploring Felicity’s guilt, and it would be a shame to see Season 5 make the same mistake.Diggle’s subplot is another that felt poorly handled this week. His struggle in Chechnya is already tenuously tied to the rest of the show, and seeing it play out in a series of short, choppy scenes isn’t helping. In general, his return to the army is moving in an intriguing direction, but I found myself wishing we could have seen this story play out in a Diggle-focused side episode rather than one of many moving pieces. At the very least, this episode shouldn’t have tried to juggle both the Diggle subplot and the flashbacks.
Those aforementioned flashbacks are quickly falling back into old habits. In a general sense, I’m interested in seeing how Ollie’s time among the Bratva plays out. But as with much of Season 4, it seems as though the writers care more about using the flashbacks to contrast the present than to actually tell a cohesive, satisfying story from week to week. Ollie trains his new team in the present, so we see him train with his fellow Bratva recruits in the past. Ollie extols the virtues of teamwork in the present, so in the past he learns that he can’t trust anyone. If the progression of the Bratva storyline is going to be as slow as the Baron Reiter conflict from Season 4, we’re in for a long, dull ride.
Messy and unfocused as this episode was, at least it had one thing going for it. James Bamford stuck around to direct again this week, leading to another batch of stylish, well-choreographed fight scenes (and a neat little cameo in the form of the Bam² gym sign). The flashback scenes were the standouts in that regard, thanks to the brutal hand-to-hand fights and the graceful way the camera danced between fighters. The action is one area where the return to a more grounded approach has already paid off handsomely.