A brilliant episode of ARROW has the members of both teams working to save Star City from attacks coordinated by Cayden James. And Oliver gets some lessons on being a dad to William.

Previously, on ARROW

The attacks on Oliver Queen and Star City by Cayden James intensify this week, as the hack-attacks that start off the episode kill Police Chief Pike, a city councilman and patients at a hospital. As Oliver deals with all this in his capacity as mayor, he gets a visit from the hell-bent hacktivist, who tells Oliver that he wants $10 million a night wired into an off-shore account every night until he says to stop, which would bankrupt the city.

We finally get a reason for James’ attacks on Oliver, too – James believes Queen accidentally killed his son a year ago with a stray arrow. The problem with that theory we learn later? Oliver wasn’t in Star City the day that happened. That little bit of information will surely be important going forward.

The attacks continue, as James causes problems that endanger Oliver’s son, William, who’s on a field trip. The kid shows some of his dad’s leadership skills as he gets other kids off the bus, but he stays too long, and needs to be rescued by Green Arrow, leading to about a half an episode’s worth of brooding from father and son because Oliver lied to William about retiring from being a hero. Felicity, though, shows William his dad at work in a great scene, and things work themselves out.

Things do not work themselves out, though, with the former members of Team Arrow, now working on their own. While on a rescue mission, Dinah’s boyfriend, the Vigilante, reveals to Mr. Terrific that he’s undercover trying to take James down, and gives Terrific some intel that saves lives. Despite the friction that information causes, the team is still upset with Oliver about his distrust, which still makes Dinah, Curtis and Rene look like petulant brats. Dinah and Rene betrayed Oliver and kept secrets from him, too. Secrets that were far worse than what Oliver did. At least Oliver apologized. What a bunch of children.

In the end, Oliver decides to give James what he wants and orders Thea to wire the $10 million to the account in the hope that the city stays protected after James takes down all communications systems in the city. Since we’re at the halfway point of the season, it’s time to push Oliver down. And since a lot of the early years of ARROW were reminiscent of Christopher Nolan’s BATMAN BEGINS, the title of the episode could have a little bit of extra meaning toward this line: “Why do we fall? So we can learn how to get back up.”

I have a feeling that, from here on out, Oliver is going to learn how to get back up.

Show Notes

• When James shows up at Mayor Queen’s office, he calls himself Ben Gale, which was a throwback to Michael Emerson’s time on his own island prison on ABC’s LOST. Emerson played Ben Linus there, but in his earliest appearances, he was called Henry Gale. Nice reference there.

• After Terrific, Canary and Wild Dog return from their mission, Terrific suggests the new team name The Outsiders, another established team name in the DC Comics universe. In the comics, The Outsiders were a team led by Batman after he left the Justice League so he could take care of problems the League wouldn’t touch. The team also included Black Lightning and Katana, who have already made appearances on CW DC Comics shows.

Next week, things get explosive…