Arrow review – 3×07: ‘Draw Back Your Bow’

Cupid comes to town in a very special relationship-themed episode of Arrow.

Let’s bitch it out…

Valentine Day’s comes early as Carrie Cutter (Amy Gumenick) aka Cupid, the Arrow’s lovestruck new fan, cuts a swath through Starling. In truth she’s little more than a figurehead for the unrequited love between Oliver (Stephen Amell) and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) – arriving rather conveniently just as Felicity’s relationship with Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) starts to heat up.

As a character, Cupid is fairly straightforward. Felicity describes her as “crazy pants” at one point and our resident tech genius is more or less correct. Cutter is little more than a crazed fan who latches onto the Arrow after he saved her six months earlier during Slade Wilson’s reign of terror. Her main distinguishing trademark is that she’s former SWAT which allows her to hold her own in close quarters when she and Ollie finally meet up. Still, Cupid poses very little danger overall and by the end of the hour she’s been been put out to pasture as a member of Waller’s Suicide Squad.

Cupid is also a figure that helpfully symbolizes the theme of the episode. If anything this episode is less about the Arrow’s stalker than it is about Oliver coming to grips with the decision that he made in the season premiere to walk away from Felicity because he’s all dark and stormy. As Ray Palmer circles Felicity like a hungry shark, Oliver become jealous and possessive, which everyone – including Diggle (David Ramsey) and Felicity – immediately identifies for what it is.

In this way ‘Draw Back Your Bow’ is one of the series’ most straight forward episodes. It’s not exactly deep and depending on your appreciation of Gumenick’s acting it’s either fun or campy. It won’t go down as Arrow‘s best episode, but it does what it needs to do to keep Olicity fans ohhing and ahhhing over the will-they, won’t-they aspects of their relationship. And headed into the big cross-over event with The Flash, maybe that’s enough.

Other Observations:

• I really appreciated that Felicity refused to fall for Diggle’s guilt trip about going to dinner with Palmer. Damn right Oliver should speak with her if he has a problem with it. Frankly Diggle should know better.
• Kudos to the show for using Carrie’s heart-shaped arrow as the title card instead of Oliver’s regular arrow. That’s a fun image.
• Just like last week’s coda that introduced Cupid, ‘Draw Back Your Bow’ ends with an introduction of a boomerang villain played by Spartacus Nick Tarabay, thereby continuing Arrow‘s weird habit of hiring every actor from Starz’s now defunct New Zealand series.
• Of course Carrie Cutter drinks Cupid’s Kisses. Is this a writer’s cliche or the mark of an insane woman?
• How dumb are Oliver and company that the location of the Arrow cave can be triangulated by a simple statistical algorithm? Honestly folks, get it together.
• The Thea (Willa Holland) / DJ subplot is beyond stupid. Chase (Austin Butler) walks in, plugs in his iPod and everyone hits the dancefloor? What is this, High School Musical? (Side Note: Butler was actually in the Sharpay movie). This is a very awkward way to introduce a new love interest.
• Felicity delivers quite the speech about Ray Palmer’s virtues during the dinner with the mining execs. Where did that come from exactly? She’s barely interacted with him because she spends all of her time in the Arrow cave.
• Our final glimpse of Ray is a holographic image of a EXO suit he’s constructing. The question is whether it’s for the purposes Felicity espouses at dinner or if there is something more nefarious going on with the billionaire.
• Oh yeah, and Roy (Colton Haynes) isn’t okay. Big shocker there. Thankfully no one lets him off easily, although after last week’s “big reveal” I would have thought his mental health would have played a bigger part. Instead he’s sidelined for the majority of the episode.

Best Lines:

• Felicity (seeing Palmer on the Salmon Ladder): “Oh god, I have a type.”
• Felicity (palming the dress Palmer bought her): “There’s nothing platonic about couture.”
• Felicity (looking at the necklace Palmer got her): “Oh no, I don’t think I can wear that. I’m not even sure I should be looking at it.”

Your turn: did you enjoy Cupid? Are you hoping to see more of her in future ARGUS missions? Should Oliver apologize to Felicity for being jealous? Should Diggle apologize for guilt tripping her? Is Thea’s storyline beyond dumb? And what is Ray Palmer up to? Sound off below.

Arrow takes a break before returning for a two night extravaganza cross-over with The Flash. The fun begins Tuesday, Dec 2 at 8pm EST and continues Wednesday, Dec 3 at 8pm EST on The CW. Here’s a preview: