That wasn’t the only great Lance scene this week, though. This was a welcome development, especially when you consider how long it took for the main plot to kick in last season. It was also another great example of how fast Arrow is moving its plots along this season – we’ve gone from Oliver finding out about Lance and Darhk to Lance being back on side and working undercover in the space of two episodes. There was also a lovely moment where Oliver told Lance that he always tried to be the man Lance wanted him to be – Amell, to his credit, really sold that moment and it was genuinely moving. At the very least, it promptly addressed the lingering issue of Lance’s motivation for allying with Darhk, something that fans had written off as an unconvincing shock value plot twist in the early episodes. Given Lance’s history with alcohol abuse, this played nicely into what we know of the character – we particularly liked Oliver cutting him off when he attempted to explain that he was doing it for the safety of his daughter/the city. That was just one of several great scenes for Blackthorne this week, as he broke down and faced up to the reality of his alliance with Darhk, acknowledging that he made a bad decision in a moment of weakness and that it’s eating him up inside. Oliver essentially gave Lance the I’m-not-angry-just-disappointed speech, which was a bit rich, considering that Oliver was doing exactly the same thing last season, in terms of getting into bed with the enemy, and arguably worse, given that Lance hadn’t yet done the equivalent of kidnapping his best friend’s wife and child without telling them what he was up to. Oliver then faced the task of breaking the news to Captain Lance, although he undercut Lance’s predictably not-all-that-impressed reaction by revealing that he knew about Lance being in cahoots with Damien Darhk. How did they manage to get it all tricked out so quickly? Easy: “Cisco and STAR labs did it.” Oh. Then, we got another nice moment – hinted at last week – with Oliver revealing that their campaign HQ was also a front for the all-new, all-improved Arrow Cave, complete with costume display cases for everyone and – yes! – even the Salmon Ladder. The distinctly underwhelmed reactions from Diggle and Laurel were priceless, but at least Thea seemed excited. The episode opened with Oliver giving Team Arrow a tour of their new headquarters (Sebastian Blood’s campaign headquarters from Season 2 – a nice touch) and belatedly announcing his candidacy for Mayor after completely failing to even mention it last week.

As such, it offered some compelling emotional moments and, in true Arrow fashion, addressed a couple of lingering issues in satisfactory fashion, while still delivering the standard of superhero action we’ve come to expect. This week’s episode was all about Captain Lance, which essentially meant it was a welcome showcase for the great Paul Blackthorne.

A.t.o.m. scene arrow season 4 episode 5