Plot
Still in prison, Oliver faces his greatest challenge yet as he forms an alliance with his former enemy, Brick, to get the information he needs on Diaz. Felicity is in similarly dire straits, as she tries to win the support of the woman who put Oliver behind bars. Meanwhile, Diggle and Lyla go overseas with Curtis to do a special mission for ARGUS in Zurich, with a surprising revelation at its heart.
Influences
The Jeff Lemire run on Green Arrow (concept of The Longbow Hunters) Supermax (David Goyer's unproduced "Green Arrow in prison" movie) and the novel The Count of Monte Cristo (parallels to Oliver's life, as it centers around a man who adopts a new identity to avenge himself on those responsible for ruining his former life before going on to take a series of actions that hurt innocent people as well as the guilty.)
Goofs
Locking a bunch of terrorists inside a lab full of infectious disease samples seems like an incredibly stupid plan, even by the standards of The FBI in The Arrowverse.
On that note, Agent Watson seems way too quick to switch sides and agree to Felicity's plan.
How did Brick make contact with The Demon is The Demon is confined to Level 2 of The Slab?
Diaz's story here about breaking every bone in his body after being blasted off the roof and into the river in the sixth season finale doesn't match up with the injuries (or lack thereof) he displayed during the final scene of that episode.
Performances
Michael Jai White has been largely wasted in his appearances as Ben "Bronze Tiger" Turner. This was largely due to the show-runners plans for developing a Suicide Squad for the Arrowverse being sidelined and them not being able to touch his character for five years. What we see here though, with Turner taking Oliver to task for judging him based only on the main times they fought five years ago, hints at the odd character from the comics and makes me wonder if we might get a more comics accurate Ben Turner this time.
I can't recall Emily Bett Rickards and Rick Gonzales having a lot of interactions in the past, but the have amazingly good chemistry in this episode.
Artistry
The fight scene between Oliver, Bronze Tiger and Brick's other men is a great one, which uses its camera angles to great effect to emphasize the claustrophobia of the setting.
The silent fight scene between Dinah and The Silencer somehow tops the one from last week.
Trivia
The Silencer is revealed to have the first name Honor. In the comics, The Silencer's name is
Honor Guest.
Brick says that the only way out of Level 2 is through the Morgue. In the comics, Slabside Penitentiary was nicknamed The Slab because the only way an inmate left it was "on a slab" (i.e. dead).
Technobabble
Someone (later revealed to be The Silencer) hacked into the CDC security protocols. Accessing that normally requires a Level 5 Security clearance. Felicity is able to hack into the CDC and says it was easy.
Curtis develops a nanotech-laced paint that allows him to turn a forged painting into a wi-fi point that can be used to hack nearby computers.
The name of the criminal bank Digg tries to infiltrate with Lyla - Schatten & Soehne - translates to "Shadow And Sons" in English.
Felicity determines that when The Silencer hacked the CDC, she only looked at the inventory records for Glutathione Hydrate - a bio compound that helps protect red blood cells against diseases like Ebola and Lassa Fever. The only place that it can be found is The CDC and a shipment was just sent to the CDC in Star City from Central City.
The Silencer has some kind of sonic disrupter that allows her to block Felicity's ability to hack the door locks in the CDC building.
Dialogue Triumphs
Felicity: My husband spent the last six years fighting for the people of this city, risking everything, and now he sits in prison, his life on the line, while this monster gets to walk free! That isn't justice.
Felicity: I back-traced The Silencer's hack.
Rene: Wait. We're calling her "The Silencer" now?
Felicity: It's better than "The Belt Lady"
Rene: Noted.
Stanley: First rule of prison - trust no one.
Bronze Tiger: Ah. The kid's right. Now, how did he manage to figure that out before you did?
Bronze Tiger: You and your team only saw me as one thing - the enemy. But now look at us. Both in prison. So I guess we're not that different after all.
Lyla: (To John) Sometimes you have to cross a line for the greater good. I would expect you to understand that.
Continuity
The opening scene of Oliver stabbing a guard takes place 12 hours after Felicity's meeting with Agent Watson.
Brick doesn't know where Diaz is but says an informant called The Demon does.
John and Lyla's babysitter is a woman named Ella.
John and Lyla's first honeymoon was in Hawaii.
Lyla makes reference to the events of 317 - her trip overseas with John, Deadshot and Cupid.
Felicity bugs the FBI to spy on Agent Watson. She learns that Agent Watson honestly is working to find Diaz, but her bosses keep shooting down her requests to investigate new leads as too circumstantial.
Rene is aware of what Felicity is planning. He's letting Felicity sleep on his couch. He says that he is all for getting Team Arrow back together.
Brick arranges for the cell doors to open that night. It is later revealed that, with the assistance of the guards, he is running a fight club in the mess hall and taking bets on the victors.
Stanley follows Oliver to his meeting with The Demon, saying he doesn't want to be alone with all the other inmates loose and no guards around.
Curtis, Lyla and John are sent on a mission to Zurich to get a copy of the private bank records of a bank that holds the valuables of a number of criminal organizations.
Felicity persuades Agent Watson and Dinah to work with her to set a trap for Diaz in the CDC.
Diaz is looking for a particular bio-compound at the CDC.
The meeting with The Demon turns out to be a trap and Bronze Tiger tries to ambush Oliver.
Lyla secretly made a copy of the data Curtis hacked.
Oliver and Bronze Tiger discuss their past encounters and Bronze Tiger's time in The Suicide Squad.
These include his saving Lyla Michaels' life (216), his theft of an earthquake generator (212) and his working for China White (202)
Lyla reveals that she stumbled onto something big but her superiors wouldn't let her investigate. The copy of the bank information was traded to a criminal for a lead. John is hurt that she didn't tell him, because they agreed to have no more secrets.
Brick is revealed to be running a fight club in the mess hall which some of the guards were aware of. When Oliver enters, he declares the next fight will be Derek Sampson vs. Green Arrow.
Brick says the is no way Oliver can get to the The Demon, because the Demon is confined to Level 2 of The Slab.
Oliver responds by stabbing several of the guards and surrendering. The episode ends with him being sent to Level 2.
Agent Watson is taken off the Diaz investigation and transferred to a desk job in Washington D.C.
Digg and Lyla agree to keep no more secrets between them.
Rene is revealed to have captured The Silencer, without Dinah or the FBI knowing.
The Silencer's real name is revealed to be Honor.
Diaz has used the bio-compound to give himself super-strength and durability.
Location
Slabside Maximum Security Prison
Zurich, Switzerland
The Bottom Line
A solidly acted episode, despite a less quippy script than usual. I do wish we had seen Agent Waston established as a more sympathetic character who honestly was trying to catch Diaz sooner. Of course now between her indifferent bosses and the news that Lyla's bosses are also hampering her efforts to investigate in-house corruption, I wonder how soon it will be before we learn that Diaz' connections go even higher than we realized.
Curiously, the episode does a lot of minor things to try and reconcile some of the bigger mistakes at the end of last season, such as Watson's attitude and seemingly indifference to trying to arrest Diaz until Oliver offered himself up as well and Diaz's comments on how he broke every bone in his body after being shot into the river by Black Siren. The problem is that while this is a realistic turn of events, it doesn't match up with the earlier episodes. Still, it was completely free of Black Siren, so it had that going for it.
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