“Damaged” is episode five of season one of Arrow.
In the previous episode, “An Innocent Man”, Detective Lance had, when Laurel mentioned that the man in the hood had turned up at Iron Heights not in a hood, had gone through the CCTV footage after Deadshot’s attack on the auction in “Lone Gunmen”, Lance saw Oliver retrieve a hood from a garbage bin after the shooting. Diggle, after talking to his sister-in-law, had decided to join Oliver on his crusade, in the hopes of stopping more deaths – including Oliver’s. At which point Detective Lance turned up and arrested Oliver on multiple charges, including aggravated assault, trespass and murder.
Walter had had Felicity Smoak look into some money that his wife said was used to fund a company belonging to a friend of hers. Felicity had discovered that the company didn’t exist, and that the money was used to buy a warehouse on the outskirts of Starling City. When Walter went to the warehouse, he found the Queen’s Gambit. Yachts that are lost with all hands rarely turn up in warehouses on land. Moira had gone and spoken to a man, Malcolm Merlyn – who is probably Tommy’s father – as the names being targeted but the Hood are the names on a list.
This episode opens on Purgatory. The man who rescued Oliver – who revealed he did speak English – is shooting wildlife. Oliver wants to hunt rather than collect the dead animals. So he has a go with the bow and arrow. He’s not that good. In fact, he’s useless. When Oliver is sent to find the arrow he shot, he is captured by the armed men in black seen at the end of “Lone Gunmen”. They are totally dressed in black with only their eyes showing.
Oliver is being taken into the precinct where Detective Lance starts questioning him as to whether he is the Hood. Oliver tells Lance that he has made a mistake, and that he’s not the vigilante. Then Oliver’s mother and Walter arrive and tell Lance that the interrogation is stopped until Oliver’s attorney arrives and accuse Lance of having a vendetta against their family. Oliver tells his mother that he wants Laurel to represent him. Moira goes and sees Laurel, and says that Oliver wants Laurel as his attorney, or no-one. Laurel, who thinks she knows Oliver, believes he can’t be a vigilante, but doesn’t seem to want to represent Oliver. Until she shows up in court and negotiates for Oliver to be under house arrest with an ankle bracelet.
Diggle comes to see Oliver, and clearly thinks he has a problem. Oliver, however, says that he knew about the CCTV camera, and that the cops would review the footage. It’s all part of the plan. As the vigilante appeared a few days after Oliver returned, he knew that people would eventually start to think the events were connected – because, well, they are – so he wanted to establish that he couldn’t be the vigilante.
Oliver tells Diggle that Leo Mueller, a German arms dealer suspected in the theft of a number of squad automatic weapons, has arrived in Starling City. Mueller is going to sells the SAWs to gangs, and giving actual machine guns to gangs will be bloody. Diggle wants to know just what Oliver can do, seeing as he’s under house arrest. Oliver wants Diggle to shadow Mueller for now. Diggle wants to know how he is supposed to track Mueller and Oliver tells him that billionaire vigilantes do love their toys (a Batman reference?). So he tells Diggle where his base is.
Oliver and Laurel meet with Lance and the DA. The latter is willing to offer a deal for Oliver – an insanity plea including an undetermined amount of time to be spent in a secure psychiatric facility. Oliver tells her no deal, because he isn’t crazy. Which Lance agrees with. Oliver offers to take a polygraph, even though such aren’t admissible in court. He wants to take it in front of Lance.
Moira’s relationship with Michael Merlyn does not seem to be that brilliant. He appears to be the dominant party in whatever relationship they have. Lance is still convinced that Oliver is the Hood, no matter what other evidence there might be. He is right, after all. Quite what the strange men in black are doing on Purgatory isn’t known. They don’t appear to be a standard military force, but they are well equipped and armed. And pretty vicious.