Draw Back Your Bow

"Draw Back Your Bow" is the seventh episode of the third season of Arrow, and the fifty-third episode overall. It aired on November 19, 2014.

Synopsis
Oliver must stop an Arrow-obsessed serial killer, Carrie Cutter, who is convinced that The Arrow is her one true love and will stop at nothing to get his attention. Unfortunately, her way of getting his attention is to kill people. Meanwhile, Ray asks Felicity to be his date for a work dinner with important clients. Thea auditions new DJs for Verdant and meets Chase, a brash DJ with whom she immediately clashes.

Plot
Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle are seen driving through the streets as the Mirakuru enchanched soldiers wreak havoc. Oliver orders to stop the car and steps out. A henchman is seen holding a redhaired woman up by her throat. Oliver quickly shoots him and takes him out. He and Diggle jump back in the car and the woman is seen looking at the arrow.

Present day: Detective Lance and The Arrow have found Isaac Stanzler, who is killed and dressed up in a similair costume as The Arrow. Oliver recognizes it as an attempt to get his attention. detective Lance gives him the arrow that killed Isaac. Oliver notices it has a red spade like tip.

Felicity looks for Palmer and sees him working out barechested on the salmon ladder. Distracted by the situation she tries to remind him off the press conference he is supposed to attend. Palmer invites her to accompany him to a dinner for a business meeting. Felicity seems hesitant, however Palmer shows her that he bought a dress for her already.

Oliver and Diggle are investigating the killing of Isaac Stanzler. They quickly conclude it is not Sara's killer. Oliver gets annoyed that Felicity can not help them and is assisting Palmer. Palmer proudly presents that he renamed Queen consolidated and is now called Palmer Technologies. An angry Oliver breaks the tip of the arrow and finds a knot in it. They quickly recognize there is an address on it. The two break in the appartment and find it romantically decorated, with the walls covered with sketches and news articles about The Arrow. As they investigate, a woman is watching them from another building. On a huge shrine there are several pictures of Oliver, his arrows, and another spade like arrow. Oliver realizes the arrow point is actually a heart. They hear a ringtone and answer the cell phone laying on the table. The woman is excited that she sees Oliver again and asks if he has gotten her a present, referring to the slain Isaac Stazler. She tells him of her desire to be with him and fight and kill with him together. She then sends him a picture of a mob boss with a bomb vest. Oliver mentions he will find her. She taunts him and says that is the idea after which she leaves.

Thea is having an audition for which a DJ will perform in her club. A guy shows up and acts like the job is already his. Thea is not impressed and tells him to audition like everyone else. The guy says he does not do auditions and Thea tells him to go then.

In the Arrow Cave, Roy is still distracted by the knowledge that he killed a cop, mentioning he feels like a fraud while working as a vigilante. Oliver tries to comfort him with no success. Felicity finds the identity off the woman, she identifies her as Carrie Cutter, a former police officer and the first female SWAT member of Starling City. She manages to identify a bag off furtilizer in the background and the team finds out Carrie practices gardening at Sherwood Florist. Oliver obviously has problems with Felicity working with Palmer, as she mentions she will not be helping because of the dinner.

Oliver and Roy break into Sherwood Florist and Oliver tells Roy to look for the mob boss as he will deal with Carrie. The two split up and Roy gets startled as an arrow gets shot close to him. Turning Around he sees a smiling Carrie Cutter. Carrie easily beats him before he even has a chance to warn Oliver. Using his earpiece, she begins to taunt Oliver and tells him they should be together. Oliver manages to find them as Roy lays knocked out on the floor and she uses the mob boss as a hostage (making him stand on a chair with the bomb vest and a wire detonator around his neck) and begins to tell him she wants to be with The Arrow. As Oliver refuses, she kicks the chair away and and flees the scene while Oliver barely manages to save the mob boss by shooting the wire detonator.

Back at the Arrow Cave, Roy is angrily striking the wooden dummy. Oliver tries to calm him down after which Roy tells Oliver, he is disappointed with himself after Carrie easily beat him despite all his training and weaponry. Diggle studies Carrie's file and informs Oliver that Carrie had been obsessed with a co worker after which she received therapy and quit the police force. Diggle then goes to Felicity and informs her that Oliver is troubled by Felicity and Ray being together a lot. Felicity tells him that there is nothing between her and Palmer, however if there was, Oliver should be the one to talk about this not Diggle.

Oliver talks with the psychiatrist that treated Carrie. The psychiatrist tells him she diagnosed her with attachment disorder. This refers to a inability to form real lasting relationships. She pushes everyone away and fixates on one single person, that she feels mirrors her emotional state. She desires honesty and sincerity and can notice when people lie to her. She recommends Oliver therapy as well since he dresses up like Robin Hood and wears a mask.

Felicity comes to Ray wearing the dress and he is impressed with her appearance as he stumbles over his words to describe her. He gives her a diamond necklace of ten million to which she hesitantly agrees to wear.

Carrie visits a hacker who mentions she has not contacted him for a while. She mentions she was busy. He tries to flirt with her however she mentions she first want business. He shows her the algorithm he developed that has measured the reponse times of The Arrow to all the places he has been active. He has traced the base of The Arrow to the nightclub Verdant. Carrie sits on his lap and begins to kiss him after which she kills him by stabbing him with a arrow in the neck. Mentioning that she is already spoken for.

Captain Lance investigates the killing of the hacker and informs The Arrow about it. Arrow then talks with Diggle that he is troubled by Felicity who is moving on and is close with Palmer. He is mentioning he cannot be with her while being The Arrow.

Ray and Felicity talk with a possible business partner who is unwilling to make a deal with Palmer. Felicity gives an impressive speech with which she convinces them about Palmer, his skills as a business man, but also tells them he is a man with a vision who wants to do good.

Carrie enters Verdant during his grand re-opening and walks straight past Roy who talks with Thea about the DJ who is messing it up. Thea tells the DJ to move after which the guy from the audition shows up. He makes fun about the situation and agrees to help Thea for a big payment. Thea agrees and he takes over and makes the crowd dancing.

Diggle gets informed about the algorithm and warns Oliver that Carrie is possibly in Verdant. Oliver calls Carrie, who sits at the bar and gets served by Thea. She makes fun about him using a nightclub as his base after which she begins to make flirting remarks. Oliver tries to persuade her to meet him outside the nightclub in an attempt to get her away from Thea. She agrees but warns him she will kill everyone in the club if he does not show up.

Carrie makes him meet her at the place he saved her during the attack of Slade his army. She shows up and calls him her lover. He says he is not her lover. She mentions he will be soon after a night with her, she says she wants to be with him and calls him a hero. He tries to follow the advice of the psychiatrist and reason with her and convince her by telling her the truth that he cannot be with anyone. She says he is lying to her and angrily tries to shoot him.

He dodges her shot and disarms her with a shot of his own. She angrily attacks him and the two get in a fight. Despite that, she is unarmed he can barely hold his own against her. He uses his bow as a melee weapon and manages to knock her down. She kicks the lock of grate and they both fall down and land on the tracks. Felicity and Diggle are unable to see where they are as the signal gets lost. The two of them keep fighting. However Oliver lost his bow and Carrie clearly outmatches him now they are both unarmed. She quickly overpowers him and uses handcuffs to cuff him to the tracks.

Standing over him, she says she did not want this while Oliver tries to reason with her. However she prepares to die together as a train drives towards them. Oliver dislocates his own thumb and pulls her of the tracks just in time. She is shocked as she realizes he saved her again, seemingly thinking he did love her.

Oliver later ices his hand as he tells Diggle, Carrie is recruited by the Suicide Squad, Hoping that she might do some good instead of being in prison. Diggle explains Felicity heard what he said to Carrie and knows Carrie detected it as a lie. He mentions he has to tell her how he feels before it is too late.

Thea is seen counting the money made during the re-opening. The new DJ shows up and tells her he saved her ass. She offers him his money however he kisses her and says she can keep the money as a gift.

Ray visits Felicity in her office and thanks her for helping him with the deal. As he helps her remove the necklace the two share a kiss. Oliver who was coming to talk with Felicity sees it and angrily walks away. Ray apologizes to Felicity and says he meant to keep it platonic, he then walks away and leaves a confused Felicity behind.

Roy talks with an angry Oliver in the Arrow Cave, who tells the both of them need something. They then Visit Diggle, Lyla and Sara for dinner. Ray is seen checking out a design for a suit.

An Asian man is seen walking through an alley when he realizes he is being followed. He tells the man following him to back off. The man then kills him with a boomerang-like weapon.

Production
Preparation ran from September 8 until September 16, 2014. Filming ran from September 17 until September 26, 2014.

Behind the scenes

 * The bag of fertilizer in the photograph s labeled "NPP". This may be a reference to an earlier name for the DC Comics company, "National Periodical Publications".
 * For the opening sequence of the episode, the arrowhead is modified to one of Cupid's heart-shaped ones. The ending sequence is the same as it has been since the beginning of the season, however.
 * The title may well be taken from the lyrics of the 1961 Sam Cooke song "Cupid", which opens with the lines, "Cupid draw back your bow and let your arrow go Straight to my lover's heart for me, for me".
 * The Arrow and Arsenal find Cupid with a hostage at Sherwood Florist. In the comics Black Canary once owned a flower shop of the same name.
 * At the end of the episode, Diggle comments that the Squad found Carrie to be "even nuttier" than the woman who was previously on the team. This is an indirect reference to Harley Quinn.
 * The name of the psychiatric hospital Carrie was submitted to is called St. Walker's. In the comics, Saint Walker was a key member of the Blue Lantern Corps.
 * At the very end, it is revealed that Ray is building a mechanical suit codenamed the A.T.O.M. Exosuit, a direct reference to his comic book alter ego, The Atom.
 * Jill Teed who plays Dr. Avery Pressnall also portrayed Detective and later Captain Maggie Sawyer on Smallville in four episodes from 2003-2008.