Spoilers ahead for tonight’s episode of Arrow, titled “Docket #11-19-41-73.”
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Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell) returned to Arrow tonight, and in spite of the implication made by Stephen Amell on Twitter, he did not do so in a flashback.
Instead, Tommy’s “return” took place in the modern day and, as many fans had guessed from promotional material, was an elaborate hoax perpetrated by Christopher Chance (Wil Traval), the master of disguise otherwise known as the Human Target.
The idea was that, with Oliver Queen (Amell) on trial for being the Green Arrow, “Tommy” could show up and claim the blame. He would consent to being arrested, and then members of Team Arrow would free him from custody before the corrupt Star City Police Department managed to get him to Iron Heights.
The plan went off beautifully, except that Ricardo Diaz managed to figure out Chance’s role in the sham. His intent was to reveal the deception, but he was betrayed by Black Siren and then Chance impersonated the corrupt judge, offering Oliver an out.
The world now, apparently, believes that Tommy Merlyn is alive, and is the Green Arrow. This is actually a somewhat elegant solution to Oliver’s secret identity problems in that Tommy is close to all of the same people Oliver is for the most part, so the fact that they have been frequent targets of Green Arrow’s enemies over the years raises fewer red flags.
Human Target, who appeared in an episode of season five and has been referenced at least one more time since, is a character from DC Comics whose schtick was that he was a bodyguard who would take on the appearance of the person he was protecting so that he would be the one potential killers were going after, rather than his charge.
As one might imagine, that skillset lends itself nicely to espionage, so the bodyguard idea has been bolstered by other, similar stories over the years that exploited the gimmick in a variety of ways.
A Human Target TV series starring Mark Valley (recently seen on The Flash) ran for two seasons in 2010 and 2011 on FOX. The series was a fan favorite but was based only very loosely on the DC Comics character, with the disguise element almost completely omitted. The series also featured Jackie Earle Haley, who had played Rorschach in Watchmen, appearing in his second DC Entertainment property.
Human Target was created in the ’70s by Len Wein (co-creator of Wolverine) and Carmine Infantino (co-creator of the Barry Allen Flash).
Traval is the third actor to portray Christopher Chance in live action. Prior to the 2010 series, musician Rick Springfield appeared in a short-lived 1992 Human Target series, which did indeed utilize the “master of disguise” element. With lo-fi special effects, it felt a bit like the body-jumping in Quantum Leap rather than a high-impact spy show set in the DC Universe.
Arrow airs on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, following episodes of Supernatural.
