As the “Suicide Squad” flailed about during the New 52 years, one of the places fans could consistently see a version of Task Force X in action was on Arrow. The task force was previously seen in several appearances on Smallville. Unlike the Superman prequel series Arrow would build entire episodes around a Task Force X mission, a benefit of the series broadcast television sized order (22-23 episodes.) Arrow would produce quartet of Squad centric episodes 2×16 “Suicide Squad,” 3×17 “Suicidal Tendencies,” and in the seventh season episodes 11 “Past Sins” and 17 “Brothers & Sisters.” While a lot happens both on the show and the world around it (a little movie called Suicide Squad came out) this trio of episodes share a surprising thematic consistency and often act as alternative lens for Arrow to explore the ethical questions about the use of violence and force.
In the aptly named “Suicide Squad” John Diggle is recruited by Amanda Waller to lead a mission to stop the sale of a nerve agent by Gholem Qadir and retrieve it. One of the formal elements of Arrow was the use of a flashback narrative that explored Oliver’s time in the five years prior to the beginning of the show. “Suicide Squad” is one of the rare episodes where the flashback narrative shifts away from Oliver Queen and onto John Diggle’s time serving in Afghanistan. During his time in Afghanistan Diggle is responsible for unwittingly saving Qadir’s life. In the present Qadir appears to be a philanthropist, Waller argues that is a cover for his real vocation a terrorist financier and arms dealer.
“Suicide Squad” places Diggle in the role generally associated with Rick Flagg as the team leader with military experience. Though Bronze Tiger is also on the team their version of the character bears little resemblance to the psychologically fraught team leader written by Ostrander and Yale. Unlike depictions of Rick Flagg, John Diggle immediately raises objections about the existence of Task Force X labeling them as mere murders and wondering if O.J. Simpson and Charles Manson were unavailable. This objection is countered by Lyla with the innumerable bodies Oliver Queen and Sara Lance have dropped. His objection isn’t based on their methods, he himself is technically a killer, but one of ideology. As both prisoners, assassins, and domestic terrorists the members of Task Force X lack a rationale justification to take this action for any reason other than themselves. Oliver has begun to cloak himself in a rhetoric of protecting the Starling City. Even though he spent the previous season using that same rationale to justify murdering roughly 10 people an episode. As a solider, Diggle killed people that were deemed enemies of the State. Diggle and Team Arrow work for and sacrifice for a belief greater than themselves. He offhandedly remarks that Floyd would never make such a sacrifice.
Arrow as a series consistently works through and up new rationales for existing as Oliver grows and matures over the span of the series. He goes from a cold-blooded vigilante to family man, meeting a variety enemies and allies who also work for their own reasons. That diversity of reason doesn’t mean Arrow falls into a chasm of ethical relativism. As Lyla points out everyone in that room is a killer by some degree. What Arrow recognizes is the necessity of a raison d’etre or ideology to at least justify their actions, at least to themselves.
Diggle’s offhand remark about Floyd is put to the test as he stays behind as part of a secret deal made with Waller. His gps tracker will act as the guide for the drone strike Waller has called in as cover for her mission. In return Floyd’s daughter Zoe will be taken care of. Ever the solider, Diggle can’t leave a man behind and rescues Floyd and ruining Waller’s deniability.
Floyd Lawton’s reasons to sacrifice himself were economic in nature, he wanted to care for his estranged daughter. The next time Arrow goes on a mission with the Suicide Squad his reasoning shifts and he gets a chance to really prove Diggle wrong.
Nothing says the perfect honeymoon like going on a mission with Task Force X. After their wedding ceremony Lyla and Diggle are called in to lead the Suicide Squad on a mission to rescue Senator Joseph Cray in Kasnia. As with the previous Squad based episodes the flashback threads are dedicated to exploring the life of Floyd Lawton after he returns from deployment.
Continued belowThe use of Joseph Cray is a nice nod to the Ostrander-Yale run of “Squad” where the Senator threatened to expose Task Force X if they didn’t help him win reelection. In “Suicidal Tendencies” it is revealed that Cray is staging his own kidnapping to make him appear better during an eventual run at the presidency. This episode lacks the novelty of the first episode and the attempt to humanize Floyd Lawton isn’t the most effective but makes sense within the episode itself. Audiences need to care about Floyd so that his sacrifice emotionally affects them.
The reasoning Floyd decides to prove Diggle wrong and make the ultimate sacrifice this time isn’t for money, it’s for the betterment of Diggle and Lyla for them to get to raise their daughter together. Someone needs to cover their exit and he’s in the perfect position, that position just happens to be filled with bombs set to explode. By securing their exit Floyd dies for something greater than himself – although technically speaking that’s what he was going to do in the previous episode.
The final appearances by Task Force X would occur during the seventh season of the show. Amanda Waller would be killed off during the fourth season, due to Suicide Squad(2016) imposed restrictions that led to the death of Floyd Lawton the previous season. It was a decision that did not make me very happy in the moment as Cynthia Addai Robinson is an excellent actress and my Spartacus fandom knows no bounds. Arrow, however, turned that loss into a strength by elevating Lyla Michaels to head of ARGUS. This opened fresh opportunities for the character and gave her a reason to exist on the show outside of being John Diggle’s wife. In the show Waller’s death was brought about due to the same questionable ethics that justified using the Suicide Squad. As her replacement Lyla would go on to disband the Squad off screen. Eventually John Diggle leave Team Arrow and take a job at ARGUS assisting Lyla.
During the seventh season a recurring plot would involve ARGUS, primarily Lyla and Diggle, investigating Dante and the Ninth Circle, a secretive international group of criminal financiers. After running into dead ends and sources mysteriously disappearing a desperate John Diggle slowly brings Task Force X back online as the Ghost Initiative with the approval of Lyla. In these last two episodes the writer’s room would explore the slow corruption of the shows ethical heart, Diggle, as he and his wife are enveloped by their institutional authority.
As with the “Suicide Squad” their depiction in Arrow was built on contemporary moment. The ethical disposition of Amanda Waller in Arrow mirrored some of the relative ethics found during the Bush presidency that justified the War on Terror and torture, with her willingness to do what was deemed “necessary” to achieve the end goal of protecting the “World” but understood as purely American interests. The elevation of Lyla Michales to the role of director could be seen as metaphor for the election of Barack Obama and the promise of institutional renewal. As with that presidency it is hard to stray true to one’s convictions with access to all that power and the ever present “Dante” level threat.
On the surface, “Past Sins” is your run of the mill Squad story with the Ghost Initiative activated to acquire a piece of intel that could help ARGUS locate Dante. Or so it seems after a malfunction in the administration of a sedative leads to Richard Dragon escaping and murdering Curtis Holt in an excellent act break. Once back from commercial Dragon makes a call and hears a familiar voice, Curtis Holt, where it is revealed that this sequence has been a virtual simulation meant to trick Dragon into unconsciously revealing the intelligence ARGUS needs.
The VR program was created by Curtis as an alternative to sending the Squad out on the mission with bombs in their neck. The end goal was achieved without the loss of life. With the intelligence gathered, Curtis believes now ARGUS can fully shut the Ghost Initiative down. Instead in a truly fascist turn, Diggle seeks to incorporate the VR program into the larger initiative to better control the Squad. Like in Italy under fascism, Diggle seeks to use State power on a biopolitical level and create better subjects that can than die for the motherland if they want to or not. Diggle’s corruption is a counterweight to the shows realization that an ideology is needed to justify the use of violence. While it is necessary that understanding veers close to the nihilisim expressed by Jeon Renoir in Rules of the Game that the “terrible thing is that everybody has their reasons.” A defeated Curtis Holt resigns his possession at ARGUS in protest, marking actor Echo Kellum’s exist from the show as a regular.
Continued belowIn “Brothers and Sisters” the Ghost Initiative go out on a mission to capture Dante where it is discovered that the Ninth Circle have also infiltrated ARGUS. The Ninth Circle than engineer the resignation of Lyla Michaels for reviving the Suicide Squad, which is stopped only by Diggle falling on that sword instead. Diggle’s resignation is framed as a career suicide that is justified in a similar way to Floyd Lawton’s sacrifice in “Suicidal Tendencies.” He is doing it to protect his family and give Lyla a chance to ferret out the Ninth Circle corruption. Despite the shows penchant for melodramatic displays there isn’t one moment of realization for Diggle, it builds throughout the episode. His career suicide doesn’t absolve Diggle of his ethical failings, but it allows him to recognize how far he has strayed since he left Team Arrow.
As a series Arrow was by its very nature concerned with the ethics of violence as it searched for the redemption and soul of Oliver Queen over the span of 8 seasons. That journey wasn’t a straight line of progress it bent and turned around at several points. The creative use of the Suicide Squad allowed the series to represent alternative scenarios outside the purely vigilante context of Team Arrow to explore what is the right or just action taken when violence is involved.
With these adaptions out of the way it’s time to return to the comics with one of the best runs of “Squad” and recent comics in general the maxi series “Suicide Squad: Bad Blood” written by Tom Taylor with art primarily by Bruno Redondo.
