Broken Dolls

"After all, everybody loves a pretty doll."

—Barton Mathis taunting Quentin Lance

"Broken Dolls"
Information
Season 2 » Episode 3
Episode number	26 of 170
Original airdate	October 23, 2013
Written by	Marc Guggenheim Keto Shimizu
Directed by	Glen Winter
Chronology
Preceded by	"Identity"
Followed by	"Crucible"

"Broken Dolls" is the third episode of the second season of Arrow, and the twenty-sixth episode overall. It aired on October 23, 2013.

Synopsis

Quentin learns a criminal named Barton Mathis, whom he put away years ago, broke out of prison during the quake and is back to torturing and murdering women. Felicity offers herself as bait so Arrow, John and Quentin can catch Barton, but the plan goes awry. Furious, Mathis kidnaps Laurel in retaliation and plans to murder her while Quentin watches powerless. Meanwhile, Thea and Oliver are stunned when Assistant District Attorney Adam Donner seeks the death penalty for Moira. Arrow asks Roy to help him find The Canary.

Cast

Main cast

• Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen/The Hood/The Arrow
• Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance
• David Ramsey as John Diggle
• Willa Holland as Thea Queen
• Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak
• Colton Haynes as Roy Harper
• Manu Bennett as Slade Wilson
• Susanna Thompson as Moira Queen
• Paul Blackthorne as Officer Quentin Lance

Guest starring

• Celina Jade as Shado
• Caity Lotz as The Canary
• Roger Cross as Detective Lucas Hilton
• Bex Taylor-Klaus as Cindy "Sin" Simone
• Michael Eklund as Barton Mathis/The Dollmaker
• Dylan Bruce as Assistant District Attorney Adam Donner
• Teryl Rothery as Jean Loring

Co-starring

• Keri Adams as Bethany Snow
• Stefan Arngrim as Fence
• Chantele Francis as Court Clerk
• David Franco as Judge Mandelbaum
• Owen Kwong as Dark Archer
• Ashley MacDonald as Redhead Girl
• Jinji Mitchell as Dead Girl
• Sal Sortino as Vendor
• Andy Thompson as Tony Daniel

Plot

Oliver is saved from the police by a female vigilante, who quickly vanishes into the night. He sets Roy to track her down, which he manages through the vigilante's connection to a girl named Sin. Officer Lance discovers that the serial killer Barton Mathis, whom he arrested years earlier, escaped from prison during the earthquake and is on the killing spree again.

Lance looks to Oliver's alter-ego vigilante for help when he is forced to stay away from the investigation. The pair break into a lab running tests on the evidence found at Mathis's crime scene and are able to discover the link between all of his victims.

Felicity goes undercover by buying Mermaiden, the lotion that all the victims had in common, from all of the stores that sold it in Starling. Quentin, Diggle, and Oliver keep an eye on Felicity as she does so. She is nabbed from an alleyway and Oliver throws an arrow at the guy, stopping him from running off with Felicity. When Quentin went after the guy, Oliver soon followed but cops arrived. Pike ordered Quentin arrested, but Laurel calls in favors to get it dropped.

Roy learns that the female is friends with Cindy, or Sin, and meets Sin. She runs off and Roy follows her to an old building. He is then hit with a lead pike. After he left the station, he comes across what looks like a hobo and instead with Mathis who abducted Quentin and Laurel. The news then announced that Mathis abducted Quentin and Laurel and plans to kill them both.

Once Roy is woken up, he is brought face to face with the female vigilante. She wacks him in the face for answers but he is confused. When his phone went off with a text, she picked up the phone and read the message. It was from Thea who said that Laurel was kidnapped and that she needed him. The female then left.

Barton begins to turn Laurel into a doll when Oliver saves Laurel and Quentin; However Barton escapes. The female vigilante shows up and fights Barton. Barton drops a load of pipes over her. Oliver stops him before he can kill her, however the female vigilante kills Mathis after Oliver captures him. Laurel admits her guilt to her father about Tommy's death.

During the pre-trial motions for Moira Queen, the assistant district attorney announces his plan to seek the death penalty for Moira's actions in the death of the citizens of the Glades.

Later, the female vigilante is tracked down by an agent of Ra's al Ghul; she kills him to avoid having to return to his organization.

In flashbacks to the island, Oliver and Slade rush to the aid of Shado who is being attacked. On the way to rescue Shado, Oliver is hit by the bombs being dropped from a ship nearby. He then wakes up to learn that he is imprisoned by unknown assailants on the boat, Amazo.

Production

Preparation ran from July 23 until July 31, 2013. Shooting ran from August 1 until August 13, 2013.

Gallery

Promos

Arrow 2x03 Promo "Broken Dolls" (HD)

Promo

Arrow 2x03 Extended Promo "Broken Dolls" (HD)

Extended Promo

Arrow 2x03 Sneak Peek "Broken Dolls" (HD)

Sneak Peek

Arrow 2x03 Broken Dolls - Sneak Peek 2

Trivia

• Quentin Lance's full name is revealed to be "Quentin Larry Lance". This is a reference to the comics counterpart of the character, who is named Larry Lance.
• There are references to The New 52, the DC Comics universe reboot.
  • Officer Lance's patrol number is "DC 52".
  • Barton Mathis' hotel room number.
  • Channel 52, which broadcasts the Lances' abduction.
• Ra's al Ghul is referenced in this episode. In the comics, Ra's al Ghul is the leader of the League of Assassins and an infamous Batman villain, and noted in Batman Begins for being one of the key people in Bruce Wayne's journey towards becoming the masked vigilante.
• Mathis hides in an abandoned facility of Metamorpho Chemical. In the DC comics, the character of Metamorpho, the Element Man, is a hero who has the ability to control all of the chemicals that make up the human body.
• The boat Oliver is imprisoned on is named Amazo. Amazo is the name of a supervillain in the DC Comics universe, an android possessing the powers of the entire Justice League, created by Professor Ivo.
  • Additionally, A.M.A.Z.O. appears in the 2018 crossover, Elseworlds.
• When Roy first meets Sin, she says, "Back off, Abercrombie". Roy's actor, Colton Haynes, used to model for Abercrombie & Fitch.
• Mathis' lawyer, Tony Daniel, is named after the comic book writer and artist of the same name, who was the creator of the Dollmaker.
• Moira's defense attorney is Jean Loring. In the comics, Jean is the girlfriend/wife/ex-wife of the superhero Ray Palmer/The Atom. In the original comics, she suffered a mental breakdown and killed Sue Dibny, the wife of another superhero, eventually becoming a villainous incarnation of Eclipso.
  • Ray Palmer would appear in Season 3, but is not affiliated with Jean in any way, instead being engaged to Anna Loring, who shares Jean's surname.
• The Canary is using an abandoned clock tower as her base. In the comics, Black Canary is a member of the Birds of Prey, who have also used a clock tower as their base of operations.
• This is the last episode where Oliver is referred to as "The Hood"; he uses the identity of "The Arrow" onwards until Season 4.
• Moira's case number ends in 4587. This would become Oliver's prisoner number in season six.

Goofs

• When looking over the skeleton on the island, Shado claims that she was pre-med in college back in China. Chinese colleges do not offer "pre-med"; a medical degree in China is a four-year Bachelors degree.
• Shado lifts the arm of a skeleton and the whole hand comes up. Once a body's tissue decays, the bones are no longer connected and separate if moved.