‘Arrow’ Season 5 Spoilers: Oliver Debuts His New Team In Episode 3 [RECAP]

Oliver finally had to accept some help in “Arrow” Season 5, episode 3. The Green Arrow is still training his vigilantes, which means he wanted to keep them sidelined. However, he was finally convinced to let them out into the field this week.

Oliver (Stephen Amell) is tracking information on a drug dealer, Derek Sampson (Cody Rhodes), who is pushing something called Stardust. Wild Dog/Rene (Rick Gonzalez) and Evelyn (Madison McLaughlin) go after the dealer themselves since Rene has a good idea of where the drug lab is. Evelyn is upset when she realizes that this isn’t just a recon mission without permission. It’s a full on attack.

Wild Dog fights Sampson, and he’s losing until Evelyn distracts the criminal. Rene takes his chance to toss the dealer over the railing and into some sort of vat that mysteriously changed colors.

Adrian Chase (Josh Segarra), the new district attorney, is the one who tells Oliver that Sampson was killed before the city could make a deal with criminal to reveal the supplier. He mentions that a vigilante in a hockey mask killed him. Oliver and Rene again end up in yelling match.

However, it seems they don’t need to be too concerned about Derek’s death. He wakes up during his autopsy. He says he can’t feel the mortician cutting into him and starts fighting his way out of the hospital. The Green Arrow tries to stop him but quickly realizes that Sampson is immune to pain.

Rene says he understands that he made the problem worse, but Oliver still doesn’t want to let his new recruits get involved. Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) tells the mayor that the mistakes of his recruits are partially on him. If he trusted Rene when he first offered to find the lab, they wouldn’t be in this situation. Oliver tells Rene that he was wrong and sort of apologizes.

They think Sampson is going to return to the original vat to make an army. If the drug dealer has backup, the Green Arrow needs help too.

While Oliver wrestles with Sampson, his team works to neutralize the vat and Sampson’s cronies. Oliver slices Sampson’s tendons, knowing that he won’t be able to move even if he can’t feel them. He reveals that Sampson’s team has been taken out by the vigilantes.

The group works well together to fight their enemies. Rory (Joe Dinicol) helps Curtis (Echo Kellum), who has a new black mask, and Evelyn grabs the piece of tech that Curtis dropped while fighting. Wild Dog does what he does best: punching bad guys. They blow up the place, making sure Sampson can’t use the vat to make any more immune-to-pain metahumans.

Mayoral Duties: While Oliver took responsibilities for his vigilante team members, he also realized that he had to take responsibility for those on his political team too.

Thea (Willa Holland) ignored Oliver’s order to leave Quentin (Paul Blackthorne) off his staff, and the press is having a field day with the news that an alcoholic who was fired from the SCPD is now Deputy Mayor. Ollie tells Thea to fix it.

Thea goes to the reporter and asks her to take back the story. She explains that Ollie doesn’t even realize she offered Quentin a job. The reporter promises to change the story. The reporter actually tells audiences that Oliver doesn’t know what he is doing and his little sister hired Quentin without his knowledge.

She tries to hand Oliver her letter of resignation, but he doesn’t let her. He goes to a press conference and says that he is responsible for his team. He announces that he has decided that Quentin is his deputy mayor.

The Diggle Situation: While Oliver owned his mistakes, Diggle (David Ramsey) tried to do the same in a mislead way. Diggle is in prison after the buyer for his army squad’s nuke didn’t show. He is being framed by his team, and he ends up in a cell with Deadshot (Michael Rowe).

The assassin asks about Andy, and Diggle admits that he killed his brother. “So all that hate that you poured into me for killing your brother, you should have poured into yourself,” Floyd says.

Dig doesn’t want to fight the false charges. He thinks he deserves this for killing Andy. Lyla (Audrey Marie Anderson) visits and says they’ll figure this out, and she tells her husband to stop worrying about Floyd since he’s been dead for years. Diggle realizes he was hallucinating Deadshot.

Still, Diggle is set in his decision. Lyla comes to Oliver at the end of the episode to ask him to break Diggle out of jail.

Elsewhere in this episode:

• Rory is on the team, and Felicity is still feeling guilty about Havenrock. Curtis tells her to fess up to Rory about what she did. At the end of the hour, the computer genius finally comes clean. With tears in her eyes, she apologizes and explains that she had to reduce the number of casualties. Rory just walks away.
• Billy Malone (Tyler Ritter) attracts the Green Arrow with a fake 911 call to tell Oliver that Prometheus is coming after the vigilante. Felicity’s ex doesn’t realize he is talking to Felicity’s new boyfriend.
• In the Russian flashbacks, Anatoly (David Nykl) brings Oliver to a grieving mother. Anatoly reveals that the Bratva killed her son’s murderer. He was one of the men the Bratva took out when Oliver rang the bell last week. However, Oliver questions what would’ve happened if he hadn’t rang the bell. Oliver’s trust is tested again when he allows the various members to slice his back with knives.
• Curtis wears a vintage leather jacket that says “fair play.” He talks about Mr. Terrific, a wrestler who used the phrase as his tagline. Looks like we know who is going to inspire his vigilante codename.

“Arrow” Season 5 airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EDT on The CW.