A mission takes Oliver, Felicity and the team to Russia, where they meet up with Anatoly, Oliver’s old friend; fresh out of rehab, Lance returns to the mayor’s office ready to get back to work.

Arrow gets further into the Russians as the enemy theme that’s going on with comic television shows in this episode that ties together the present storyline with flashbacks of the season.

At the center of the story is the General who framed Diggle who may or may not be selling a nuclear weapon to Russian bad guys. If the idea of a nuclear weapon sounds familiar, it is because it returns things to Felicity and her decision that led to the death and destruction of an entire town.

The episode is definitely a return to “street” bad guys. There’s no metas or folks to fight with special powers, this is about as basic as it comes and that’s something that was teased after last season. This one would be a bit more focused at “realistic” enemies in a way. The idea of loose nukes is still rather over the top and doesn’t quite feel like the Green Arrow to me, a character that I associate more with taking on corrupt cops and trying to help his own town. This is a step too much for me when it comes to that.

The good for the episode is that it has Felicity dealing with her decision and it also puts Diggle and Walker on a crash course ending that story in some ways. The trio gets a bit more like a trio again.

The episode also sets the team upon some further task with this one complete. The season has jumped around in focus in this way with the flashbacks really driving the big picture story unlike some previous seasons where they were used to fill in the gaps of Oliver’s past.

The episode also has the return of Lance, back from rehab and having to answer some tough questions as to where he’s been and what he did. It brings a more human touch to things and returns him to the fold, but not enough is given to the plotline to really feel like it is a plotline as opposed to a strange way to announce he needs to grow some more as a character. There’s opportunity here, but it feels like it’s just not being used.

The episode opens up some further stories. One we’ve seen before, Oliver’s identity, and a new thing dealing with Ragman. Hopefully, these are better than what we’ve seen, but this episode itself is only so-so.

Overall rating: 7.95