Episode 2.16 of ‘Arrow’ is set to air tonight, Wednesday March 19th, and will feature the formation of DC Comics’ villains-as-government-operatives team codenamed The Suicide Squad.  Amanda Waller (Cynthia Adai-Robinson) draws John Diggle (David Ramsey) into service with the volatile team and he… doesn’t seem to care for the idea.

Here is the official synopsis for the episode:

“Following Slade’s return and his promise to make good on his threat to destroy Oliver’s loved ones, Oliver focuses all his energy on preparing for battle with his former friend. Sarah tries to help but, fearing for her safety, Oliver pushes her away. Meanwhile, Diggle is recruited by Amanda Waller (guest star Cynthia Addai-Robinson) and A.R.G.U.S. to stop a warlord (guest star Lee Majdoub) he knew from his time in Afghanistan. Always the solider, Diggle agrees to help. However, he’s not prepared when Amanda introduces him to the rest of the team – Deadshot (guest star Michael Rowe), Bronze Tiger (guest star Michael Jai White) and Shrapnel (guest star Sean Maher), all criminals he and Arrow helped put away. Lyla (guest star Audrey Marie Anderson) defends the team and explains the world is a complicated place, but Diggle isn’t sure he agrees. When the mission takes a dangerous turn, Diggle is forced to make a difficult decision.”

Now check out this preview clip from the episode:

Vibe

That’s not the only ‘Arrow’ news for today!  In roughly a month, episode 2.19 entitled ‘The Man Under The Hood’ will air.  You may recall that episode 2.20 was supposed to showcase the return of Barry Allen and serve as the backdoor pilot for ‘The Flash’.  That plan was scrapped when The CW decided to up ‘The Flash”s budget and film it as a standalone pilot rather than an episode of ‘Arrow’.  However, with plans already underway to set up Barry’s return with some S.T.A.R. Labs technicians slated to pop up in episode 2.19, the producers are going forward with these plans, tweaking them to accommodate the changes in plans.

The episode will introduce Caitlin Snow a S.T.A.R. Labs bioengineering expert played by Danielle Panabaker and Cisco Ramon, a mechanical engineering genius played by Carlos Valdes.  Comic readers should recognize that Caitlin Snow eventually becomes the villain Killer Frost and that Cisco Ramon becomes the hero Vibe, whose vibrational abilities make him a match for The Flash.

Jesse Warren will direct the episode, based on a script by the trio behind ‘The Flash’ pilot, Geoff Johns, Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg.

Executive producer Marc Guggenheim explained, “This was something that really came about because obviously Barry is in a coma at the end of episode nine. That pretty much made it impossible for Barry to appear in episode 19, 20 — pick an episode of ‘Arrow’ — because he’s got to stay in a coma until October of next year… the idea of bringing in those characters really, really appealed to us because it allowed us to honor our original intention that we had at the beginning of the year, which was to do something Flash-related around episode 19 or 20.”

At this point, after so much news and fan speculation, it would be pretty lame if ‘The Flash’ wasn’t picked up as a series.  Are you looking forward to seeing this new super series on the fall lineup next season?

Sources: THR