Clark super-zips onto the scene. No need to hurry, dude. You've still got seven seconds left! He punches Deadshot in the face, sending him flying backwards into a fence. Cat is still standing there in the crosshairs, as the timer ticks down. She's going to stand there for the whole eight seconds like an idiot, isn't she? The gun fires. She squinches her eyes shut. The bullet leaves the barrel in slow motion, spinning to show Clark's name etched on one side. Clark runs and gets ahead of it. The bullet hits his shoulder and bounces off, making a hilarious sound reminiscent of a spitty wad of tobacky hitting a spittoon. He catches the smushed bullet in midair and then carefully places it in the center of Cat's bulletproof vest as he eases her to the ground. Cat slowly opens her eyes, surprised to see Clark. "Are you okay?" he asks. "I'm fine, thanks to my bulletproof vest," she says. She chirpily says she doesn't need a masked hero to save her. "I've got a real flesh-and-blood one right here," she says, giving Clark a rosy-cheeked smile. He looks bashful. She goes on: "People need to see someone's heart to believe in them," she says. "We need to be inspired people who stand out in the light, not people who shrink into the shadows." "We need a good ol' American hero, in red, white and blue," she says, then looks at Clark's outfit. "Or at least read and blue." As Clark thinks about this for a while, the focus shifts to the bullet hole in the shoulder of his jacket. Some blue glowing strands move over the skin where the wound would have been. The strands coalesce into the skull symbol and then disappear beneath the skin.

Africa. Ati the tea lady brings Carter a bowl of water. As he splashes some onto his face, some glowing strands -- this time yellow -- squiggle over his skin. The skull symbol again appears and then fades. Ati's heavily made-up eyes flash as she turns away.

Brewery of Torture. Still in his Green Arrow gear, Oliver now stands where he was tortured the week before. Chains and cuffs lie on the floor. His torturer walks up behind him. "Did you miss me?" he asks. He teases Oliver about the beating: "You made me work for it." "I'm glad it was good for you, too," Oliver says, turning to face him. His torturer raises a gun. Oh, what the hell. We all know he's Rick Flag, even if no one's said it yet. I'm calling him Flag from now on; "torturer" is just awkward. Flag says the public tide is turning against the vigilantes. That would have been nice to see on-screen before this episode. Oliver isn't interested in joining, he just wants to put bad guys in jail. "It's going to get tougher," Flag says, "the longer you and your little league of heroes stay half in, half out." Flag says the thing about his group is that everyone thinks they're dead. "We could use you," he says, lowering his gun. "But this is your one and only offer." Oliver RSVPs with an arrow. Flag just as quickly has his gun back up and fires. The bullet grazes Oliver's gauntlet. The skull symbol appears in a puff of smoke. Oliver proceeds to beat the living snot out of Flag. Flag falls to the ground. Oliver kicks him in the ribs. "Where's Chloe Sullivan?" he asks, punctuating each word with a kick. Flag rolls onto his back and tells Oliver it wasn't a kidnapping. "It was a trade," he says. Oliver crouches down beside him and punches him across the jaw. "Trade for what?" Oliver demands. "For you!" Flag shouts back. He chuckles and says Oliver would have been proud of her. "She didn't crack. She downed a cyanide pill just to save your life." Muscles twitch in Oliver's face and then he goes blank. He stands up, numb, and walks away.