Laurel worries she may have a stalker that followed her from Earth 2. The Ghosts stage a jail break (or do they?!) and Oliver and Dinah face a very, very old enemy.

David Ramsey’s directorial debut is a light on its feet, action heavy character study that ties up a very longstanding plot thread in such a ridiculously tidy way I’m still grinning. Remember that Austin Powers gag about how no one thinks of the families of henchmen? Writers Onalee Hunter Hughes and Tonya Kong did!

The reveal that the villain this week is the son of the bodyguard Robert killed to save Oliver’s life back when the boat sank is flat out brilliant. It also delivers the second emotional gut punch to everyone’s favourite vigilante turned mayor turned cop. This is a man whose life was ruined so Oliver’s could be saved. Of course that’s going to haunt him. Of course he’s going to put himself in harm’s way to make up for it. Oliver’s redemption continues and the show continues to find new ways to wreck the precinct set at the same time as digging into its rich past. Everyone wins.

The B plot with Laurel’s stalker and the ‘or is it?!’ payoff is fun too but it’s the C plot where Ramsey gets to flex his action muscles. Brilliantly, he recognizes the one thing that directors who aren’t themselves martial artists often don’t: lock the damn camera off, let your stunt people work. The sequence is brutal, ugly and realistic and needs to be to see Curtis’ VR bait and switch. It’s the axle that would break under a lesser director. Here, with a total newbie, it’s one of the points the episode turns on.

Verdict: Fast, action packed, information heavy and confident as Hell this is another belting episode. Seven seasons in and Arrow looks fresher than it has in years. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart