Arrow Advance Review: A Matter of Trust Is Fun -- But That's About It

10/19/2016 04:24 pm EDT

Tonight's episode of Arrow, "A Matter of Trust," is an episode which focuses far more on character than story development.

With this season's biggest menaces Prometheus and Tobias Church both absent (though mentioned), the action in centered around villain of the week Derek Sampson (Cody Rhodes). Parts of the episode are fun, parts help the characters grow, and parts are moving. But when you put the parts together, you're left with something that might be good for some, but falls short of great.

As the title indicates, Oliver is having some trust issues with his new team, especially with Wild Dog. But when Wild Dog takes matters into his own hands, he ends up in over his head. So is up to Oliver to battle a strong and fearless villain and learn how to lead his new team.

While it is certainly entertaining to watch guest star Cody Rhodes fight, especially with Steven Amell considering their history, it's less fun to watch him act. The writing for him was kept as simple as possible, angry, loud, and thuggish without much under the surface. Even so, he sounds stilted and forced. If Sampson comes back to the show, it would be nice if he talked a bit less and kicked ass a lot more.

However, several other members of the cast more than make up for Rhodes' performance, starting with newcomer Carly Pope as reporter Susan Williams. In Pope's hands, Williams looks to be a fun new character, and particularly a thorn in Thea's side.

Joe Dinicol as Rory/Ragman is one for us to keep an eye on. Now an official member of the new Team Arrow, Rory is still getting to know everyone and figure out where he stands. He's the sort of actor who can do amazing things with only his face, and no words at all.

But the best performances of the night belong to OTA, Emily Bett Rickards and David Ramsey. We were promised that Felicity would not simply shake off sending the nuke to Havenrock last season, and now that Rory is a constant reminder, we finally get to see some of what she is dealing with. Hopefully her guilt will continued to be explored, because Rickards is handling it gracefully.

And even though his story is secondary, Ramsey's portrayal as John Diggle is the stand out of the show. Giving one of his strongest performances to date (and that is saying something), Ramsey lets us into Dig's heart and mind in ways we never have been before as he deals with the fallout from last week. Indeed, it's a shame his story was not the main one this week, the work Ramsey did, along with another familiar face giving a great performance, was worth of an entire episode instead of simply the B-story.

Once more of the season has aired, hopefully we'll see some of the growth shown in "A Matter of Trust" pay off. For now, it's a fun episode with some good fights and an interesting Diggle story. But it's not a whole lot more than that.

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