This week, Green Arrow gives the hit list a break as a family of brutal bank robbers hit town. Enter The Royal Flush Gang, looking a little more made-for-TV than their Justice League and Brave and the Bold cartoon appearances. It’s like the opening of The Dark Knight remade with a television budget.
Man on a mission as he is though, Ollie takes some convincing to lay off the list for a while. If anyone can do it, it’s Dig. During a sweaty workout session, Ollie’s trusty bodyguard slash sidekick suggests there’s more wrong with the city than just the names in his little black book. A little emotional blackmail and a seriously injured cop help to change the fledgling vigilante’s mind.
It emerges that his fight with the Flush Gang isn’t too off-mission, anyway. One of the gang, Derek Reston is a former employee of his father’s – a victim of redundancy. Rather than making with the arrows straight away, Ollie decides to have a word and attempt to reason with Reston and the gang. Giving it the smug rich guy act – comic book Oliver Queen (the best version: bearded, friends with Hal Jordan and pain in Hawkman’s ass) would have realised that was a condescending ‘rube’ move. He’s quickly rebuffed, and settles matters as his hooded alter ego. His battle with the Flush gang is fun, even if they look stupid with their hockey masks, riot shields and shotguns. I suppose it would have been a little dumb to see the Flushers in their proper comic book get-up – a little ’60s Batman, perhaps. Still, the show continues to throw the comic book references thick and fast – this week sees the addition of Coast City (home of one Hal Jordan) to Arrow’s map. Hopefully it’s only a matter of time before some of the inhabitants of those neighbouring cities start to show up in Starling City.
Back on the island, Flashback Ollie converses with his dead dad. Talking to dead people on a mysterious island? Careful now, Arrow, it’s only a matter of time before you’re travelling back in time, being attacked by smoke monsters and blowing yourself to smithereens on a submarine. There’s less going on in Legacies than last week’s episode, even if there is more Green Arrow action. The working-class Flush Gang are a nice break from sinister businessmen and assassins, and the relationship between Ollie and Dig seems to be progressing nicely. There is however, sadly no sign of John Barrowman or Colin Salmon in this episode, which is a shame.
A quieter episode than we’ve seen so far, Legacies culminates with Green Arrow taking his mother out for dinner. Even a superhero needs a night off.
