Aptly titled as “Stardust”, the recent episode of CW’s venerable DC Comics adaptation “Arrow” guest starred WWE wrestling superstar Cody Rhodes, who is more popularly known with his ring name Stardust.
The episode opened with Oliver chasing after a criminal who has some information with a new notorious drug called “Stardust” while his other team members were monitoring all the action in a screen. As expected, the “Arrow” kicked the criminal’s ass and gained some information about the drug.
It was then revealed that Oliver is still not confident with sending his team in the field fighting criminals. This displeased most Wild Dog who, by the name suggests, hates being in the sidelines. The team then received a tip of a breaking and entering crime to which Oliver responded immediately.
However, the call was just a ruse and Detective Malone was really the one who made the tip just to give the Arrow some intel regarding the killer of Mayor Queen’s anti-crime unit and his connecting with Tobias Church.
This episode also showed some struggles Oliver is facing as mayor of the city. The media has been aggressively pushing for Quentin Lance’s appointment as deputy mayor. His recent bout with alcohol has also been brought to forefront of media scrutiny. Thea Queen tried to help control the damage by approaching a member of the media but turned out it made matters worse.
Then Wild Dog and Evelyn Sharp, contrary to orders, went after the gang behind the Stardust drug. They then went up against the gang leader Derrick Sampson. The fight ended up with the gang leader falling into a vat of chemicals used to produce the Stardust drug. As all superhero storylines, falling in a drum of chemical would lead to one gaining super powers.
The unauthorized mission by the two renegade team Arrow members angered Oliver revealing that the District Attorney has already planned to use Sampson as witness and reveal the source of the chemicals. Then Oliver learned that Sampson is not dead and during their battle, he found out that Sampson no longer feels pain and has acquired super human strength.
Oliver was overpowered and decided to retreat. Convinced that he cannot defeat this new powered enemy alone, he then decided to assemble his team and stop Sampson once and for all. The defeat of Sampson was just inevitable. Oliver then brought his team members to the Arrow HQ and the episode ended with Lyla asking Oliver to help break John Diggle out of prison.
“Arrow” airs 8PM Wednesday on The CW.