Arrow S06 E06: Promises Kept

This episode continues the presumed Deathstroke back door pilot, a character whose sudden popularity can thank the Justice League movie.  Of course one has to wonder if a pilot is really in the offing as the Suicide Squad movie also killed similar plans here on “Arrow” leading to the death of Deadshot and scrapping of more than a subtle cameo by Harley Quinn.  All that said, I can’t imagine anyone but Manu Bennett in the role of Deathstroke the Terminator.

Previously we had seen Deathstroke recruit Oliver Queen to help him rescue his son Joe from terrorists in Kasnia called the Jackals.  We were left with an intriguing cliffhanger when Joe turns out not to be the metahuman Jericho as in the comics but instead a chip off the treacherous block, one of, if not leading, the Jackals.  Father and son make nice while Oliver hides in the shadows.  Slade tries to send Oliver home, but we all know that ain't happening.

Meanwhile back in Star City, Team Arrow is up against a criminal known as the Dragon.  There’s a bit of trickery and playing fast and loose with the source material here.  Ricardo Diaz Sr., played by great heavy actor Kirk Acevedo, is not only the Dragon, but also the guy supplying John with his enhancement drugs.  Not only that he’s stealing tech for a 3-D printer to make designer drugs.  A good student of Oliver’s, John of course says nothing. 

There is another comics connection here with another Ricardo Diaz AKA Richard Dragon.  Co-created by Denny O’Neil in one of his long-lost novels, martial artist Richard Dragon was brought to DC Comics and utilized as first a super martial arts hero with his own comic, and then later, like Wildcat, as one of those heroes who trained other heroes.  Among his students in the comics are The Question, Black Canary, the Huntress, Batman, Robin, and Green Arrow.  In the New 52 however, the character has become a Green Arrow villain, son of the original Richard Dragon, and claiming to have killed that man after being trained by him. 

Our flashbacks are to the ASIS, the Australian Secret Intelligence Agency, where Joe and his father are training after Deathstroke is found off the Philippine coast after his season ending clash with Oliver a few years back, seven in show time.  We see Shado, or more accurately the mirakuru ghost of Shado, goading Slade into destroying Oliver Queen, in a nice connect-the-dots sequence filling in his backstory. 

As with last time, I am unimpressed by Deathstroke’s story, and if he does get a series, if it’s anything like this, Manu Bennett or not, I’ll probably watch it as I hate-watched “Marvel’s The Inhumans,” with one eye open and a finger on the Fast Forward button. 

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Next: Thanksgiving!