Arrow Episode 20 - Home Invasion (2013): TV Recap

Diggle is training with Oliver to let off some steam. He’s still frustrated that they haven’t caught Deadshot yet. Oliver tries to convince him to relax while Deadshot is on another continent, but Felicity breaks in with some news: Deadshot has just taken out a target in the States. She’s hacked the A.R.G.U.S. database to learn that Diggle’s friend Lyla Michaels has set up a sting operation to catch the assassin. Diggle goes to see if he can get any information out of Lyla, and Oliver tries to keep a lunch appointment with Laurel. The Arrow squad is dubious about Oliver making lunch dates with a woman he’s in love with, who also happens to be dating his best friend, but Oliver thinks he has it under control.

Diggle’s meeting with Lyla doesn’t go as he planned. She was easily able to find out that Deadshot murdered his brother, and can see through his thinly veiled motives for wanting to help capture an assassin. Lyla threatens to have Diggle arrested if he interferes. She is very upset that Diggle tried to use her, but that’s the way Oliver’s team rolls. They manipulate those closest to get what they want.

Oliver doesn’t have much better luck at Laurel’s. She has to postpone their lunch date, because she’s swamped at work. The Moore family shows up to prepare for their deposition against Edward Rasmus, a financial planner who wiped out their retirement savings and little Taylor’s college fund. Unfortunately, Rasmus doesn’t care for people who will testify against him, and orders a hitman to visit the Moores. Under the pretense of having papers for them to look at, the murderous Mr. Blank gains entry to the house and takes out Taylor’s parents. However, the noise scares Taylor, and he escapes out a window. Laurel offers to take temporary custody of the boy so he doesn’t have to wait with Child Services.

Diggle and Felicity are checking out the A.R.G.U.S. plan to lure Deadshot into a false meeting with a new employer and arrest him, but Oliver senses that this resolution won’t satisfy Diggle. “Do you want Lawton arrested?” Diggle admits that he doesn’t. “Then tomorrow we cross Floyd Lawton’s name off your list.” Here Oliver promises to murder someone, not out of justice, but as a favor to a buddy. Remember when Oliver was preaching morals to the Huntress, telling her she wasn’t allowed to kill her father out of vengeance because he had her fiancé murdered, but had to let the justice system handle him? Where is that sense of outrage now? Why doesn’t Oliver tell Diggle that he’s not allowed to kill Deadshot out of vengeance for killing Diggle’s brother, and has to let the justice system run its course? This kind of fluid morality is what keeps Oliver from making the leap from a vigilante to a true hero, and it doesn’t even appear that he knows he has a different set of standards for himself and everyone else.

Oliver also takes the time to introduce another problem they need to keep their eyes on: Edward Rasmus and keeping Taylor Moore alive. Luckily, Oliver makes this a priority, because the assassin poses as a policeman to get into Laurel’s apartment and finish the job. Laurel notices the killer’s fake badge because she’s a cop’s daughter, and brazenly boasts that “that’s not all he taught me,” while clumsily firing a shotgun at the killer. However, after bragging about her skill with a gun, she can’t load her next shell and is immediately at the mercy of someone who actually knows what he’s doing. Of course, Oliver is right outside in position to smash through a window and shoot the killer’s pistol out of his hand. He’s not such a good shot that he hits the bad guy in the body though, allowing the killer to escape out the window Oliver broke.

Detective Lance suggests putting Taylor, Laurel, and Tommy in protective custody, but Tommy has a better idea: let them stay at Oliver’s house. He’s got plenty of cameras and security guards, plus he’s a dangerous vigilante with a crush on his girlfriend, so that’s obviously the safest place for them to hide out.

Thea and Roy Harper are on a date grabbing some fast food, when Roy’s pocket starts making noise. The police radio he recently stole from the station is providing him some news on the whereabouts of the vigilante, so he jumps on his bike and heads straight into a police sting. Detective Lance realized who took the radio and sent out a dummy alert to trap Roy and get his radio back.

Diggle is heading to Lyla’s stakeout, expecting backup from Oliver. However, Felicity picks up news that Rasmus is running to China, forcing Oliver to choose between helping out Diggle or helping out Laurel. There’s no comparison here: Oliver chases down Rasmus, and forces him to confess to the police.

Meanwhile, Deadshot smells out the setup, and starts shooting Lyla’s agents. Diggle chases Deadshot into a stairwell, and loses their fistfight. He avoids being killed only because no one is paying Deadshot to do it. (Although he seemed to have no problem shooting up A.R.G.U.S. agents when he wasn’t being paid to…) Back in the arrowcave, Diggle informs Oliver that because of his new priorities, four agents died at the hands of an assassin. Oliver tries to defend his decision making by saying he did it to protect the boy, but Diggle’s not that naïve. He knows it was about helping Laurel, not the boy.

Rasmus’s hired killer poses as a lawyer to visit Rasmus in prison. Since Rasmus believes his illegally coerced confession would hold up in court, he tells the hitman to back off the kid. But Mr. Blank doesn’t see it that way. Instead, he needs to kill everyone who’s seen his face, including Taylor Moore and Rasmus himself. He grabs Rasmus by the wrist and applies some fake hold that will send an air bubble to his heart and kill him. After taking care of Rasmus, Mr. Blank heads to the Queen mansion for his final mission of the day. He takes out the lights and breaks in, but finds Oliver waiting for him. Without his bow, Oliver must resort to fisticuffs, and ultimately shoves a poker through Mr. Blank’s throat. When the police arrive, Oliver tells them it was one of the security guards that got the killer, even though the security guards are all dead.

Tommy confronts Oliver about his feelings for Laurel. Oliver thinks it doesn’t matter, because he can’t keep up being the vigilante and try to be with Laurel, so Tommy theoretically has nothing to worry about. Still, Tommy has trouble wrapping his head around the fact that if Laurel knew Oliver’s secret, she’d choose to be with Oliver over Tommy. Instead of dealing with these feelings, he decides to break up with Laurel. His lame excuse is that he’s not ready for a relationship and doesn’t want to hurt Laurel down the road. With his break from Oliver and Laurel, and his return to his father’s empire, Tommy is taking all the steps necessary for a villain turn. Perhaps next season he will learn what his father is up to, Oliver will kill Malcolm, and Tommy will then step into his father’s leather boots? Maybe it’s kind of like Smallville’s Lex Luthor arc crossed with the Harry/Norman Osborn arc from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies?

After being released from the police station, Roy tries to explain why he wants to find the vigilante. He feels like he owes the vigilante his life, and that they are connected in some way. He has a vague sense that this could be a way for him to make more of his life, which Thea is always nagging him to do. Thea can see how much this means to Roy, so she agrees to help him locate the vigilante.

For the second week in a row, one of Oliver’s friends walks out on him. Last week Tommy quit the nightclub. This week, after being abandoned for Laurel, Diggle decides the arrowcave lifestyle is not for him. Oliver wants to get back on the same page as Diggle, but Diggle says they aren’t even in the same book. Looks like now there’s room on the team for a red-hoodie-wearing sidekick!

Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8pm Eastern on CW. Home Invasion originally aired 4/24/13.