Arrow Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 18 - Lost Canary

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

With Black Siren's true identity exposed, she's back to her wicked ways and teaming up with The Shadow Thief to loot Star City blind. Dinah Drake is more determined than ever to being the fugitive from Earth-Two to justice. Felicity Smoak, on the other hand, thinks it isn't too late to reach her, summoning Sara Lance to try and talk some sense into her sister's doppelganger. Yet when push comes to shove and Black Siren refuses to listen, can three non-powered heroes bring down two murderous criminals by themselves?



Influences

The Birds of Prey comics of Gail Simone.



Goofs

Black Siren's DNA and fingerprints were found all over the scene of Gustavo Hernandez's murder. Felicity says this is proof she can't be the killer because she's too smart to leave evidence. There has been little evidence in any of Black Siren's previous murders that she had any sense of subtlety.

It is completely unbelievable that Dinah would be willing to overlook the crimes that Black Siren was involved with (including multiple murders!) just because she was wrong about her killing the one gang leader she was framed for killing.

Though the point is rendered moot by Black Siren deciding to return to Earth 2 rather than continue impersonating Laurel, how exactly is Dinah supposed to convince the mayor, the rest of the DA's office and the SCPD that Black Siren was on a secret undercover mission to catch the Shadow Thief? Aren't their procedures in place for that sort of thing? Wouldn't Dinah know all about those procedures being an undercover cop?

For that matter, what about all the material (such as the photo of Black Siren with Ricardo Diaz) that was sent to the press last week that showed Black Siren associating with criminals before she became the District Attorney? How would that get explained away?

How exactly is Black Siren supposed to get back to Earth 2? After everything she did to try and kill Team Flash working with Zoom, I doubt Barry Allen or Cisco Ramon is going to be willing to help her bum a ride home.

It's a minor point, but I wish we'd have gotten a chance to see some interaction between Sara and Dinah. We never have gotten a chance to see Sara team up or just talk with the woman who adopted her sister's codename and that's always bothered me somewhat.


Performances

As always, Caity Lotz is a delight and the scene of Sara and Felicity catching up is wonderful. The chemistry between the original two ladies of Team Arrow is as strong as it was five years ago and one wonders what might have been had a proposed Birds of Prey spin-off starting the two actually happened.


Artistry

The set-design for Quentin Lance's grave-site is fantastic.


Trivia

In the title card for this episode, the arrowhead behind the title is replaced with the stylized Canary emblem used by Dinah Drake.

There have been three characters in DC Comics history who used the name Shadow Thief.

The first Shadow Thief was a career criminal named Carl Sands, who became obsessed with the idea of making his shadow work for him after he was caught while hiding after a robbery because the police saw his shadow. Allowed access to a prison laboratory, Sands made contact with an alien explorer named Thar Dan, who came from the dimension of Xarapion. Sands was able to save the alien's life and was rewarded with a piece of alien technology called the Dimensiometer which allowed Sands to transform himself into a living shadow. He would go on to become a reoccurring enemy of Hawkman. He would later gain a power upgrade after selling his soul to the Demon Neron, which allowed him to take control of the shadows of other people and reshape other shadows into whatever weapons he needed.

The second Shadow Thief  was a man named Carl Hammer, who only appeared in a single issue of the 1980s Vigilante series. This Shadow Thief employed a suit that made him invisible in darkness, but not intangible.

The third Shadow Thief was introduced as part of the New 52 Forever Evil storyline. This Shadow Thief was a former Mossad agent named Aviva Metula, who made use of an artifact called The Shadow Skin. Fearful of alien invaders coming after the Earth, she became an enemy of the New 52 version of Hawkman. The Shadow Skin granted her the powers of invisibility, intangibility, flight, teleportation and some limited shape-shifting power to reshape her limbs into weapons.

The Arrowverse version of the Shadow Thief is also a woman named Aviva Metula. She is also a former Mossad agent, but she is an ordinary cat-burglar whose costumes have special gauntlets that let her hack electronic safes and detect large quantities of cash.

It is confirmed that Felicity and Sara had a flirtation of sorts back in Season 2 and that Felicity is, at the very least, bi-curious. This is a nod to the comics where Black Canary and Oracle were hinted to have a friends-with-benefits relationship in several Birds Of Prey storylines..


Technobabble

According to Felicity, hydrogen cyanide is the go-to poison of the Ninth Circle.

Felicity modified Laurel's original collar into a wrist-mounted unit similar to what Sara Lance used as The Canary.


Dialogue Triumphs

Dinah: Look, I know she's your friend. And for a while I actually thought the two of us were doing good work together, too. But the truth is that Laurel is Black Siren. She is a ruthless murderer and we are all fooling ourselves thinking she is anything like the real Laurel Lance.
Felicity: We should be helping her! Not hunting her!
Dinah: Laurel is a criminal and we are going to bring her to justice. Something we should have done a long time ago.

(Kodiak is starring down Diggle when Oliver shoots in in the back with an arrow. He turns to Oliver and doesn't appear at all discomforted.)  Kodiak: You think an arrow can stop me?
(Kodiak starts to move to the exit and suddenly stumbles.)
Oliver: I think a tranq arrow will.
(Kodiak falls forward and passes out.)

(Future Dinah and Felicity are looking at a monitor showing all the fallen Canary "Nests") Felicity: It's not your fault.
Dinah: But it's my responsibility.

(Black Canary blocks Black Siren and Shadow Thief's exit from the diamond exchange vault.)
Black Canary: Don't do this, Laurel.
Black Siren: Oh, I thought you'd be happy? You were right about me all along. (mock sympathy) Awww.. and it's too bad you don't have your cry anymore.
(Black Canary steels herself, as the two killers move in. Suddenly there's an ear-splitting scream that brings all three women to the ground.)
(Cut to: White Canary, tapping the wrist-control of her Canary Cry device.)
White Canary: But I still have mine.

(Felicity continues to insist that Black Siren might have changed if she'd gotten more support.)
Dinah: Laurel did not become Black Siren because we were bad friends, Felicity! That is a choice she made on her own! It is not some inevitable consequence of something we did! Everything that has happened since she has been fired is on her!

(Felicity enters the bunker to find Sara working out on the salmon ladder.)
Felicity: Well!  I'm having deja vu in the best way possible.
Sara: Did Dinah read you the riot act?
Felicity: Nothing I can't handle.
Sara: You've come a long way form the I.T. girl secretly crushing on Oliver Queen.
Felicity: Apparently it wasn't that much of a secret. Everybody knew. Zero poker face. (coyly) And I always wondered, you know, were you flirting with me all those times you said I was cute?
Sara: (flirtatious) Why? Were you into it?
Felicity: Of course. It's you!
(The two laugh and hug.)
Felicity: I've missed you.
Sara: I've missed you too.

Sara: Even if there was a way back for "Laurel," she has to want it. You can't force redemption on people.

Dinah: Do you know why I started The Canaries? What it represents? This is more than some rebellion group. It's a support system. This is a way for women to know we always have each other's backs, no matter what happens. Whenever we need it most. Something I failed to do for a friend once. But ever since that happened with her, I made a promise to myself that I would never make that mistake again.  That's why we wear these.
(Dinah shows Mia the silver canary pin.)
Dinah: To honor that promise. And the bravery. And the sacrifice. Shared with these amazing women who, somehow, no matter how many times they get knocked down, they always find the strength to get back up and fight again.

Sara: Redemption isn't a destination. It's a journey. I wasted years running away from all the bad things that I had done because I didn't want to face that pain that I had caused. Because I didn't want to be that person. And then I realized the only way to stop being that person was to come home and own up to the things that I had done. And yeah - it was painful. And it took a really long time. But it was the only way to become someone else. Someone better than who I was.


Dialogue Disasters

(Having just survived the explosive booby-trap at Shadow Thief's lair.) Felicity: Laurel tried to kill us!

Felicity: What Laurel did is... unforgivable. (whining) But she's just on this path and she doesn't know how to get off of it!

Sara: Nobody's as good as the original Laurel Lance. Not even me.

Sara: We are pretty badass together.
Felicity: Yeah, like a... Birds of Justice.
Sara: ... something like that.


Continuity

Ricardo Diaz introduced Shadow Thief and Black Siren at some point in the past and they pulled a job together.

Either Black Siren shares the real Laurel Lance's love of french fries dipped in milkshakes or Felicity introduced her to the same snack during their previous meetings.

Archer is still in the middle of rebooting.

Felicity was able to track down the buyer of the rifle of that killed Emiko Queen's mother.

John and Oliver are going out of town to track down the buyer of the rifle.

Rene is busy with a school thing with Zoe.

Walter "Pinky" Santorini is a mob money launderer who runs his racket out of a dry cleaning business. He is the first victim of Black Siren and Shadow Thief's partnership.

The buyer of the gun is revealed to be Kodiak from the Longbow Hunters, last seen in 706.

Shadow Thief and Back Siren's second target is a vault containing $10 million in diamonds.

White Canary shows up at Felicity's request, armed with a modified version of her old sonic device.

Kodiak claims to have no idea who hired him but the method used to contact him and hire him (old coin with microchip containing directions to his gun and target) are those used by The Ninth Circle.

Sara makes use of the salmon ladder in The Bunker.

Felicity admits to being into it when Sara flirted with her five years earlier.

Felicity makes reference to Black Siren getting Oliver out of prison legally (706) and stopping her from killing Ricardo Diaz (714).

Shadow Thief and Black Siren leave a death trap for Felicity and Dinah in a fake hideout with faked heat signatures.

Black Siren turns on Shadow Thief after Felicity refuses to let her leave with the weapon they are stealing and demands Black Siren kill her and Black Canary and White Canary back her up.

Shadow Thief somehow escapes the explosion of the storage facility.

Laurel Lance's name is cleared and Dinah comes up with a story about her having been working undercover to explain her crimes committed after she was fired.

Black Siren decides to go back to Earth 2 and start trying to build a new life for herself there.

Sara leaves behind the sonic device for Dinah. Felicity says she thinks she can use it to restore Dinah's metahuman Canary Cry.

Black Siren says that she mastered the art of holding her liquor by sneaking drinks away from her sister when she was pregnant. This is the first confirmation we have that there is a Sara Lance (or a Lance sister of some kind) on Earth Two.

Felicity gives Black Siren Laurel Lance's old Black Canary costume.

Zoe and Mia are being chased by a Galaxy One agent wearing a mechanized helmet as the flashbacks open. This helmet was seen at the end of 716 and was referred to as the tool that will finally destroy Star City's vigilantes. It appears to give the wearer visual access to the Archer network as well as enhanced vision.

The Canaries call their safe houses "Nests".

The last secure Nest following Galaxy One's raids is Alpha Base.

According to Felicity, 10 Canaries are confirmed dead with 5 missing.

Zoe persuades Mia to go into hiding, but Mia wants to take the fight to Galaxy One.

Dinah tells Mia why she formed the Canaries as a support group because of her failure to help one friend in the past.

Mia is nearly killed by the helmeted Galaxy One agent but is saved by an older Black Siren.


Untelevised Adventures

Ricardo Diaz introduced Shadow Thief and Black Siren at some point in the past and they pulled a job together.

Black Siren was apparently fired from her job as District Attorney in between episodes.


The Winick Factor

Pretty much everything Black Siren has ever done is hand-waved for the sake of a happy ending.


The Bottom Line

Surprisingly mixed. Everything involving Black Siren's slate being cleaned is complete bullshit, and Dinah's character is completely subverted to justify everything in the end. On the other hand, everything involving Sara - even her scenes with Black Siren - are excellent, but that's largely down to Caity Lotz's performance rather than the writing and the proof of that is in the magical scene of Sara and Felicity catching up.

Still, I'm inclined to be generous because the writers wisely made sure that the entire Black Siren Redemption Story is dependent on Felicity to function, which I'm sure burns the Katie Cassidy fandom who have been gunning for her character since Episode 103. And Black Siren is finally out of the show, so hurrah for that.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 6 - Due Process

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Felicity continues her odd alliance with Black Siren, who tries to use the power of the District Attorney to get Oliver Queen a new trial. Meanwhile, a guard at Slabside is murdered and everyone is a suspect, but the focus of the official investigation falls on Oliver Queen's one friend in prison, Stanley.


Influences

Supermax (David Goyer's unproduced "Green Arrow in prison" movie)


Goofs

Black Siren says that the FBI failed to keep their end of Oliver Queen's plea-bargain since Ricardo Diaz is still at liberty. It was pointed out repeatedly by Agent Samandra Watson that Oliver's surrender was contingent on the FBI bringing down Diaz's empire - not capturing Diaz himself.

Apart from that, Black Siren's plan is just idiotic and seems to confuse an appeal with a dismissal. She asks for Oliver's conviction to be overturned for reasons that have nothing to do with his original trial and the fact that he helped to expose corruption inside the prison he was being held in and was beaten for his trouble, while troubling, has no relevance to whether or not he was guilty of the crimes for which he was convicted or whether he made a plea-bargain in bad faith.

Additional: Everyone seems to have forgotten that Laurel Lance was once Oliver Queen's long-term girlfriend and Black Canary before her apparent death. Both of those should have been reason enough for a judge to deny "Laurel" the right to represent Oliver Queen in court, due to the massive conflict of interest.


Performances

Emily Bett Rickards continues to slay as she showcases Felicity's sliding down the slippery slope of idealism.


Artistry

The action sequences with the silenced sound and muffled effects continue to impress.  In fact, the whole of the fifth-segment action sequence is well blocked and well directed.


Trivia

This episode introduces a former KGB associate of Anatoly's named Pytor Roslov. This was also the name of the head of the KGB in the graphic novel Superman: Red Son, who was that world's equivalent of Pete Ross - Clark Kent's best friend growing up on Earth Prime.


Technobabble

There is a color variation on the hologram map of The Glades Felicity sent William. He thinks that is where she wanted them to go.

Felicity uses a Cyrillic dictionary to attack the table of hashed password to hack Roslov's computers.

BETAB-500 is a top of the line aerial explosive that can cut through concrete like it was nothing. Diaz buys two of them. It is later revealed that this particular model of the BETAB-500 is a newer model that can be attached to a pipe, like a gas line.

The bombs are wired together in such a way that they must be deactivated simultaneously. Otherwise, the other bomb is triggered. Each linking device is protected by its own cryptokey.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Black Siren tells Oliver that she is handling his defense.)
Oliver: Felicity would have told me if she was working with you. And the only reason that you would ever help me - or anyone - is if there was something in it for you.
Black Siren: That's not true!
Oliver: Yes, it is. You're the reason that Diaz got away in the first place. Do you remember?
Black Siren: (bitterly) You know the Ollie that I knew? He had a hard time taking responsibility for his failures too.
Oliver: You know what's amazing? (pauses) You are nothing like her. So go ahead and pretend to be Laurel. My Laurel. For as long as you want. You never will be. Ever. (pauses) Stay away from my wife.
(Oliver slams the phone down and gets up, walking away.)

(Diggle is trying to figure out how ARGUS, The SCPD and Felicity's team all wound up at the same ambush.)
Black Siren: We planted a tracker on The Silencer's belt. Obviously Diaz must have found it and was using it as bait against us.
Dinah: (To Felicity) How did you manage that? You were nowhere near The Silencer at The CDC!
Curtis: That thing at the CDC was you guys?!
Rene: Uh - Felicity wasn't near her. I was. We snuck her out together.
Dinah: So you two captured The Silencer?!
Rene: But Felicity and Laurel were the ones that tortured her.
Black Siren: Actually, I convinced her not to. You're welcome.
Diggle: (To Felicity) So now you're working with Laurel?
Black Siren: I'm standing right here!
Dinah: To be fair, she did help shut down that illegal psychiatric program at Slabside.
Rene: (To Dinah) Wait. Hold on a second. You're gonna give me crap about working with the new Green Arrow and meanwhile you're siding with the Black Frickin' Siren?!
Black Siren: Again. Still here.
Felicity (To Rene): You're working with the new Green Arrow?!
Curtis: Guys! I think that the whole point of this is that maybe we could pick up our phones a little more, huh? Shoot a text. (suddenly annoyed) Yeah. I am totally talking about the fact that everyone forgot my birthday last week!
Felicity: (having lost all patience) Your party is next week! Act surprised! Okay. Now that all of our deep, dark secrets are out, do you think we could switch our focus back to the psycho who just tried to blow us up?!
Anatoly: (having been sitting quietly watching this argument unfold) Sounds like good idea.

(Anatoly has said he is not helping ARGUS and that he intends to go somewhere tropical.)
Felicity: I think it's really hard to travel when you're on Homeland Security's Most Wanted List.
Anatoly: Yes, but I am on no such -
(Comprehension dawns as he turns around to regard Felicity)
Anatoly: You are threatening me?
Felicity: Call it an enthusiastic suggestion.

Felicity: I am willing to do whatever it takes to end this!
Diggle: But then what?  Felicity, I've known you for a long time and you are a good person. But I've been to the front-lines and I know exactly what that does to people. I just hope that when this war is over... you still come out a hero.

Anatoly: Regret. Guilt. These are demons you choose to live with. A trade you make to get what you want. How bad do you want to kill Ricardo Diaz?
Felicity: More than anything.
Anatoly: Well then you embrace demons. No more half measures. When I work with Oliver in Russia - he was not villain. But he did what needed to be done. You remind me of him then.
Felicity: What would that Oliver have done in this situation?
Anatoly: He would have ended Diaz. And he wouldn't care about the cost.

Dinah: (To Black Siren) Did you even bother to listen to yourself in court? You spoke from your heart. Big surprise, by the way - you do have one.

(Black Siren has just told Oliver that they lost his appeal.)
Oliver: Must be difficult to win a case when you're not a real lawyer.

(Felicity sees Anatoly drinking from a flask outside the police station.)
Felicity: Vodka?
Anatoly: What, because I am Russian? That is stereotype!
(Anatoly looks at her before offering her the flask.)
Anatoly: But, da. Yes. Vodka. I only have a bit left.
(Felicity waves it away.)


Dialogue Disasters

Black Siren: I don't want your thanks. I didn't do this for you. I did this for me. And no, I am not your Laurel. I'm not the old Laurel. I'm me! Everyone has good and bad inside of them and you can't put people in one box or the other. Ever.


Continuity

Diaz tortures Anatoly, saying he isn't killing him until he uses him to destroy Oliver Queen.

Level 1 has new guards that conduct cell-checks every half hour. The inmates also get less yard time.

Stanley hasn't suffered too much, apart from Brick having it out for him since he was the only one Brick could get to after Oliver shut down Brick's fight club in 703.

Dunbar, the guard in Brick's employ, got a slap on the wrist for his part in running the fight club. Still, he has turned on Brick and started harassing him.

The entire Bratva was apparently killed, according to chatter on the dark web.

Diaz sets up a trap using The Silencer's belt and Felicity's tracker to try and take out Team Arrow, ARGUS and Dinah's SCPD team.

Officer Dunbar is killed and Stanley is blamed and sent to The Hole.

Pytor Roslov is a former KGB agent with ties to the Russian military and a former associate of Anatoly's. Anatoly says that Diaz contacted him about a weapon capable of destroying a city.

Anatoly agrees to help get information on what Diaz bought in exchange for safe passage to The Maldives.

Oliver finds the knife used to kill Dunbar hidden behind a loose tile in the prison shower.

Dinah goes to watch Black Siren's petition hearing.

The federal judge denies Black Siren's petition to appeal Oliver's case, though she does agree there needs to be an investigation of Slabside's treatment of its prisoners.

Bronze Tiger's prints are found on the knife that killed Dunbar.  He is thrown in The Hole, while proclaiming his innocence.

Dinah says that she didn't believe Black Siren's talk of changing until she heard hear speak about how hard it is to be a hero when nobody expects you to be one.

Dinah stops Black Siren from killing the judge who ruled against Ollie.

Felicity determines that Diaz is planning on using a gas plant to set all of Star City on fire by blowing up the gas lines and setting them on fire with the BETAB-500s.

The new Green Arrow joins the fight against Diaz at the gas plant, stopping him from triggering the bomb and knocking him out.

The Longbow Hunters escape, but Diaz is captured.

Black Siren tells Oliver that the appeal failed but that the judge ordered an investigation of Slabside.

Felicity makes good on her promise and gets Anatoly a fake passport with the name Jason Brown.

Anatoly gives Felicity his gun and advises her not to look back now that she's captured a dragon.

Felicity almost kills Diaz but is stopped by Black Siren.

Black Siren tells Felicity that she made a deal with The Feds - if Oliver agrees to help them with their case against Diaz, he can go free.

Stanley is released back into general population.

Oliver asks Stanley how he knew the weapon that killed Officer Dunbar was Bronze Tiger's knife when he was in The Hole when word got out that Dunbar was stabbed to death. This indicates that Stanley was the real killer.

William doesn't drink.

Felicity was murdered several weeks before William went to Lian Yu.

Felicity became a vigilante and started calling herself The Calculator. She cut ties from the rest of Star City's heroes. Dinah says that she was running in dangerous circles.

William and Zoe apparently knew each other pretty well before William left Star City. He calls her the girl who loves getting into trouble. She calls him the boy who has to know everything.

Roy says that the message he found in Oliver's bow in 702 that convinced him to come to Star City was something called The Mark of Four.

Roy says that he and Dinah should keep the Mark of Four secret from the rest of the team.

Dinah says nobody has seen William Clayton in years and they have no reason to trust him. Unlike Roy, Dinah doesn't think the fact that he is Oliver's son makes William trustworthy.

Felicity has a lock on her hideout that requires three bouncing balls be shot with arrows to deactivate the security system. This is a nod to how Oliver used to train in the Pilot episode.

The last file Felicity accessed were structural maps of key buildings in Star City, including city hall, the central library and the old Rockets arena. There are also semantics for explosives and the money to build them. This would result in destroying all of Star City that is not The Glades.

It is unclear if Felicity was part of the plan to blow up Star City and got cold feet or if she was trying to stop the plan and summoned help when she got in too deep.

Feliicty's last call was to someone called Blackstar.


Untelevised Adventures

Diaz is said to have killed all the Bratva off-camera.


The Bottom Line

A solid episode, that finally gets Team Arrow on the same page and shows what happens when our heroes actually work together and stop keeping secrets from one another. It has a few flaws, particularly in how it handles an appeal trial, but I'm willing to forgive this given the whole thing subtly shows what a crappy lawyer Black Siren is and how she has no interest in redemption or being a hero. Much as I loathe the character, I find her embracing her wickedness far more palatable than the wishy-washy "will-she-or-won't-she" redemption arc from last year.

Strangely enough, the flash-forwards this time fall kind of flat, with no real new information being revealed and a lot of mysteries (like this Mark of The Four) that don't give enough clues for the viewer to guess at their meaning. Still, not bad at all.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 5 - The Demon

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.




Plot

Having learned that Oliver is being hidden away, Felicity begins investigating Level 2 of The Slab, with a little help from Black Siren and Dinah Drake. Meanwhile, Digg asks Curtis to go undercover for an ARGUS mission, as Oliver finds The Demon on Level 2 of The Slab.


Influences

Supermax (David Goyer's unproduced "Green Arrow in prison" movie)


Goofs

How exactly is the PR nightmare at The Slab supposed to free Oliver? Oliver pled guilty to the charges against him and the corruption at the prison has no baring on his trial or sentence.


Performances

Lexa Doig and Stephen Amell both give power-house performances here and have tremendous chemistry together.


Artistry

Great action sequence in the hallway to the morgue as Talia and Ollie escape.


Trivia

Talia says that she was locked up in The Slab after a run in with an old foe in Gotham City. This is almost certainly a reference to Batman and proof that he exists on Earth One in the Arrowverse.


Technobabble

The RFID tracker that Felicity planted on The Silencer's belt is linked to her facial recognition program, which is run through every CCTV and traffic camera within five miles of The Silencer's location.

The case Curtis takes to the meeting with Byrd has a scanner

The shock bracelets Level 2 inmates are required to wear have anti-tampering alarms.


Dialogue Triumphs

Ollie: You expect me to help you? After all the pain and suffering that you inflicted on my family?!
Talia: What does it tell you that I would even ask for your help after what you've done to mine?

Talia: These people are criminals. The likes of which you've spent the last six years putting away. I'm surprised you want to help them.
Oliver: But you were the one who pushed me towards helping others. Towards fighting for justice! You had honor then! 
Talia: That was a long time ago.

Felicity: I thought that the worst thing that could happen was me losing my husband to prison. Well, what if I lose him permanently?

Dr. Parker: I suggest you hold very still 4587.
(Dr. Parker turns to his nurses, totally caught off-guard as Oliver grabs him by the throat and starts squeezing.)
Ollie: My name... is Oliver Queen!

(Oliver tells Talia his intent to stay behind in The Slab.)
Talia: If you stay, you will die.
Ollie: If I leave, I'm a fugitive forever. I won't do that to my family. (pauses) All those years ago, you were wrong. Giving the monster an identity didn't contain the darkness. It just gave it power. Separating into two selves? Hiding in the shadows? That was never the answer.
(The sounds of the guards banging on the doors gets louder. Talia takes the flash-drive.)
Talia: I will make sure your wife gets this. And that she knows that her husband is as stubborn as ever.


Continuity

Oliver is now ready for Phase 2 of being a Level 2 inmate. This involves being fitted with an electronic bracelet that administers electric shocks and being placed in the charge of a specific guard.

Oliver identifies the inmate who previously attacked him and told him his wife and son were dead as one of the inmates on Level 2.

Inmates on Level 2 are not allowed visitation.

ARGUS Deputy Director Bell is diabetic.

Malcolm Byrd is a black market arms dealer who specializes in chemical weapons.

Dr. Nyambi Somto is a biochemist who disappeared with a number of nerve agents banned by The Geneva Condition.

Curtis has 14 PhDs, including one in biochemical engineering.

Curtis can speak six languages. Two of them are English and French.

After the inmate who threatened him before shoves Oliver, he is taken away behind the blue door that most of the inmates seem afraid of.

Oliver is attacked in his cell at night. His attacker is Talia Al Ghul, last seen in 523.

Talia says that she was locked up in The Slab after an encounter with an old foe in Gotham.

Talia says she only survived Lian Yu thanks to a drug that Diaz developed and that she planned the attack on Oliver in exchange for his help.

Talia says there is a way to escape from Slabside but she needs Oliver's help. He refuses to give it.

Curtis is terrified of doing field work in the wake of Oliver going to jail.

Stanley tells Felicity that Oliver has been sent to Level 2 of The Slab.

Felicity determines that Level 2 is completely off the books.

The inmate who attacked Oliver is wheeled out of the other room with the blue door, apparently dead.

Talia says that the ones Dr. Parker kills are the lucky ones.

Felicity asks Dinah to go through the hard copies of the SCPD files to see if there were any complaints filed against Dr. Parker.

Felicity determined that Slabside does not have a psychiatric treatment program.

Curtis is able to bring down Byrd and his men with the help of his special brief-case and the hidden targeting drone inside of it.

Talia and Ollie stage a fight, resulting in them both being sent behind the blue door.

Dr. Parker was a defendant in three malpractices cases that were all settled out of court.

One of Dr. Parker's patients was a violent teenager named Robert Goodman. Dr. Parker promised his parents he could make their son docile. Instead, his treatment left Robert with sporadic bouts of amnesia. Eventually, he lost all sense of self completely.

Robert Goodman was one of nine similar cases leveled against Dr. Parker.

The Slab disposes of dead bodies on Level 2 through a dumbwaiter that leads to the water under the island. Talia uses this to escape.

Oliver refuses to escape from The Slab, saying that he won't live as a fugitive.

Talia delivers the flash drive of Dr. Parker's files to Felicity anonymously.

Oliver is sent back to Level 1 of The Slab, with Dr. Parker's program and Level 2 having been shut down after being exposed to the public.

Black Siren says they can use The Slab's current PR nightmare to overturn Oliver's conviction.

Talia kills Dr. Parker.

Curtis finds an encrypted image among Byrds files.  He determines that it is a painting by a 19th century French artist named Jean-Leon Gerome, titled Dante He Has Seen Hell.

Stanley tells Oliver that Felicity said she had a lead on Diaz and was close to getting him.

Felicity's tracker locates The Silencer in Moscow.

The episode ends as The Silencer arrives to find Diaz beating up Anatoly.


Location
Slabside Maximum Security Prison.
Moscow, Russia


The Bottom Line

Decent enough as a filler episode, if you ignore that it makes Oliver's trip to Level 2 largely pointless in the grand sceheme and that Dinah, Felicity and Black Siren really don't accomplish anything. The Curtis/Diggle storyline is amusing enough and its nice to see Curtis not being treated purely as comic relief for a change. Still, none of these stories are as engaging as the future flash-forwards or the mystery of the new Green Arrow.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 4 - Level 2

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 




Plot

As Oliver is transferred to Level 2 (the worst part of The Slab) and Felicity considers how to handle her prisoner - the Longbow Hunter she's dubbed The Silencer - both will find themselves tested as never before.

Meanwhile, an arsonist targets Rene's community center, injuring Zoe. The new Green Arrow saves her, but the new mayor is more concerned about him than the arsonist, ordering Dinah to focus on bringing the vigilante to justice.


Influences

The Green Arrow comics of Judd Winick (One Year Later and The Glades being sealed off from the rest of Star City), the Green Arrow comics of Benjamin Percy (the idea of a rich elite creating their own city within a city is taken from his Rise of Star City arc), The Silencer comics of Dan Abnett (character of The Silencer), Supermax (David Goyer's unproduced "Green Arrow in prison" movie) and the film and novel The Princess Bride (hero is strapped down and tortured by a device called The Machine).


Goofs

Felicity says that the assassin she captured calls herself The Silencer. In the last episode, it was said that was the name Felicity gave her.

 Black Siren's talk about going bad because she lost her father and her Ollie doesn't quite work. She should have still had a mother when her Quentin died and we have no idea if there was a Sara on Earth 2 or not. Point being - Black Siren should have had at least one other loved one to stop her from going over the edge, as far as we know.


Performances

This episode may be Rick Gonzalez's finest turn yet as Rene Ramirez. Who would have thought that Wild Dog would somehow wind up simultaneously being the voice of reason regarding not using torture because it makes you as evil as the villains you are trying to fight while still arguing in favor of vigilantism and breaking the law for the right reasons and having both nuanced arguments work? Not me, and Gonzalez nails Rene in his low key intensity as he tries to balance multiple hats in this episode.

Juliana Harkavy likewise pulls off a similar balancing act. Her frustration over the new Mayor's clear indifference to the string of arson crimes outside of it being a means to boosting her profile by going after the city's sole remaining vigilante is clear, but she's still throwing everything into trying to restore people's faith in the law and, in a way, trying to restore her own faith after so many years as a vigilante working outside the system. This adds a whole other level to her fight with Rene, which is also born of her own desires to avoid seeing her friends and herself thrown in jail. It's subtle yet complex and well played.


Trivia

Oliver reveals that the man his father killed on the life-raft to save Oliver's life was Robert Queen's bodyguard, Hackett. In Green Arrow: Year One, Hackett was the name of Oliver Queen's treacherous survival skills teacher and guide, who shared several adventures with Oliver before trying to leave him for dead in the South Seas. He was later revealed to be an employee of the drug lord China White, who had been using Oliver's bank accounts to launder drug money on the sly. Ironically, it was Hackett's teachings that enabled Oliver Queen to survive on the jungle island China White used as a base/poppy farm, giving him his first taste of heroism as he began to become The Green Arrow.

The Rubik's cube inside of Felicity's vault is also a holographic projector. In the original comics, technology based around Rubik's cubes were a favorite toy of The Calculator, whose Arrowverse equivalent is Felicity Smoak's father.

The movie showing at the Starling Palladium when Rene and Dinah show up looking for Jon Cortez and his crew is The Invincible Armor - a 1977 kung fu film famous for a line that seems an appropriate sentiment for Oliver Queen and most of Arrow's heroes - "I've made a vow not to kill, but it seems I must."

The canary emblem on the pin that Dinah gives Zoe is the Black Canary symbol used during the Gail Simone run of Birds of Prey.

The revelation that The Glades were sealed off from the rest of Star City and are now some kind of gated community for rich elites seems to borrow from two different storylines from the  Green Arrow comics. The first was One Year Later, in which a corrupt mayor of Star City had a wall built to separate The Glades from the rest of Star City following a super-villain attack that devastated the city, hoping to find private investors to gentrify the neighborhood. The second was The Rise of Star City, which was based around a fiendish banking group called The Ninth Circle turning Seattle into the first of their Star Cities - a municipality totally run by Randian capitalism, with no social services or public works save what privately-owned business were willing to invest in. The end result was a gated community in the middle of the city, with the working class forced out of the city and into the ghettos that sprung up on the outskirts of town.


Technobabble

Dinah determines Diaz isn't involved in the arson in The Glades because the attack on the community center used an accelerate that was used in a number of other suspected arson cases including one that occurred on the same day Diaz broke into the CDC.

The acceptance rate to MIT is 6.7%.

The children of the incarcerated are three times more likely to wind up in the justice system as the children of non-offenders.

The vault in Felicity's office in 2038 is based on a system Felicity was working on when he was a kid. All it takes to fix it is a simple recursive algorithm followed by "a Felicity special."

The Machine is a new form of electrical therapy that targets the areas of the brain that store memories tied to a person's greatest fears.


Dialogue Triumphs

Rene: Felicity, you don't know what you're saying. Torturing someone is a line you do not want to cross.When The Navy discharged me for what I did to a prisoner, I learned a lesson about the cost of my humanity. Because I still have nightmares of what I did. Even though it saved lives. So when Tobias Church tortured me for over 20 hours, itwas the universe paying me back. That's evil for evil!

Rene: I'm became a vigilante for her. Because I wanted her to be able to walk the streets and not get attacked, not have her purse stolen and not be offered drugs, because her mother died on these streets already. I just want a better life for her.
Dinah: I care about Zoe too. And I promise I will find out who set that fire. But you saw what happened at that town hall, Rene. These people have completely lost faith in law enforcement, because Diaz corrupted it! My job is to catch whoever did this and restore that faith. All I'm asking is that you have faith in me.

(Felicity walks into the DA's office.)
Felicity: Wow. So you are actually practicing law?
Black Siren: Why does everybody find that so hard to believe?
Felicity: Well, probably because you're not the real Laurel. Or a real lawyer. (beat) Trying saying that three times fast. What a tongue twister.
Black Siren: (testily) Okay. Listen. I am doing this for Quentin. So if you don't mind, I'd like to get back to work now.
Felicity: Yeah, I get it. I mean, prosecuting criminals must be a lot harder than being one.

(Zoe is trying to get Rene to leave her in her hospital room to save people at an apartment fire.)
Zoe: You taught me only punks forget about their community.
Rene: (smiling) Why you always got to listen to everything I say?

Oliver: Everything that I've done, I've- I've done for my son.
Dr. Parker: I don't doubt that. But it is my duty to point out uncomfortable truths, so that you can reform yourself so that you can become the man you want to be for your son. You created your vigilante persona so that you could avenge your father's wrongs. Isn't any part of you concerned that William will take your lead and become a murderer just like you?
(Oliver nods)
Dr. Parker: Then listen to me.That promise to your father was made when you were vulnerable and desperate. It tainted your mission from the start, affecting you and your son. It wasn't fair of your father to ask what he did of you. You must let go of the past! Only then can you spare your family from paying for your sins.
Oliver: (breathing heavily, speaking quietly and grinning) Go to Hell.
Dr. Parker: He's not responding. Prepare the machine.

Diggle: Dinah, you're under pressure. A lot of pressure. I get.that. Are you sure it's not something more?
(Dinah just looks at him evenly)
Diggle: You know what helps me? Spending time with JJ. Family, Dinah. That helps us through.
Dinah: John - Living in the shadows is when all the worst things happen. Oliver going to prison. Vince - first undercover, and then... (pauses) That's the real reason. Because as much as I believed in Team Arrow, I had to move on. I had to be a different kind of hero for this city.
Diggle: Yeah. You know, sometimes I wonder if there's any form of justice that's 100% on the level, even at ARGUS. I think sometimes you need vigilantes and law enforcement working together to get results. Quentin Lance - he did things by the book. But Dinah? Lance was willing to work with anyone who could hep him.
Dinah: This Green Arrow isn't Oliver. I can't risk everything for a stranger.
Diggle: A stranger with good intel.

Dinah: Look, right now the SCPD is on its own. We just - we can't get justice for The Glades. So I am willing to give working together a shot - if - you do it my way.
Rene: If? I've been trying to make this happen for weeks!

(Black Siren tries to talk Felicity out of torturing The Silencer with a rusty screwdriver.)
Black Siren: This isn't you.
Felicity: (cooly) This is the new me. This is the me who doesn't wait around to get murdered. And this is the me - this is the me who fights back!


Continuity

Oliver is kept in a cell, chained sitting-up, without food and water, in a cell with erratic lights and a continual high-pitched droning.

Dr. Jarrett Parker is the chief psychiatrist on Level 2 of The Slab.

The Silencer is kept in a hot boiler room with no food or water.

Rene advises against torturing The Silencer, citing his own experiences in the Navy, which got him dishonorably discharged.

Rene and Dinah attend a town hall meeting at Rene's community center.

The public in The Glades seem to be of the opinion the city was better off with the vigilantes, as the police are overwhelmed.

Police response time in The Glades is two hours.

Zoe is saved from the fire by the new Green Arrow.

The new mayor of Star City is a woman named Pollard. She immediately blames Green Arrow for the fire and orders the police to focus their inquiries in that direction.

Curtis buys Zoe a Beebo doll as a get-well present.

Oliver is able to keep track of the passage of time despite any frame of reference in his cell.

Oliver is injected with something to make him more agreeable to talking.

Oliver tells Dr. Parker about how his father killed his bodyguard, Hackett, and himself to save Oliver's life and how he asked Oliver to fix his mistakes, inspiring Oliver to become The Star City Vigilante.

Felicity approaches Black Siren about torturing The Silencer.

Zoe likes strawberries and cantaloupes.

The next fire is started at The Lofts - an low-income housing complex in The Glades.

The new Green Arrow tells Rene that the arsonist is a man named Jon Cortez.

The new Green Arrow does a flip as he escapes.

Rene blocks Dinah from being able to shoot the new Green Arrow.

Dinah arrests Rene for interfering in a police investigation.

Oliver is meditating while locked in his cell to avoid suffering as much from the efforts to break him.

Oliver tells Dr. Parker that a woman named Tatsu Yamashiro taught him how to meditate.

Rene uses his one phone call to contact Digg and ask him to look up Jon Cortez.

Diggle looks up Jon Cortez and finds that he's a merc arsonist with his own crew. He leaves Dinah a copy of ARGUS' file on him.

Cortez has been getting payments from Patbane Holdings - a shell company that has been buying up the burnt-up properties in The Glades.

Dinah agrees to work with Rene to catch Cortez.

Like, Rene, Black Siren also warns Felicity against trying to torture The Silencer.

Oliver hallucinates being on the life raft with William while locked in The Machine. He asks William to forget about him before killing himself.

Oliver says that William is the most important thing in the world to him.

The man behind Patbane Holdings is a real-estate investor named Marcus Fish.

Rene and Dinah figure out that Cortez's next target is The Starling Palladium - an old movie house on 8th Street.

Rene is recognized by Cortez's men, suggesting that his identity as Wild Dog is public knowledge even outside of his students and the people of The Glades.

The new Green Arrow helps Rene and Dinah catch Cortez and his men. Neither show any sign of recognizing who he is under the hood.

Dinah gives Zoe a pin shaped like the Black Canary emblem.

After going through The Machine, Oliver says that his name is Inmate 4587 instead of Oliver Queen.

Felicity plants an RFID chip in The Silencer's belt, enabling them to track her when she makes her escape.

Black Siren says that the Felicity Smoak of Earth 2 runs a criminal empire and is known for being ruthless.

Both Roy and William swore they'd never return to Star City.

Graffiti of an X-ed out Deathstroke mask is visible in the background at one point as Roy and William are walking through Star City. The graffiti also reads "The Glades Forgot Us."

The coordinates on the Queen Family hozen change, leading William and Roy to the ruins of Smoak Technologies and Felicity's office.

William asks outright why Felicity would be playing games with him instead of just contacting him outright.

William says Felicity was the one who influenced him to go into the tech field.

Roy says William is more forgiving than he is.

William finds a vault that can only be opened by completing a code that Felicity showed him once.

William and Roy meet with Dinah - who is a vigilante once again.

Dinah tells Roy he never should have come back to Star City, implying that he does return to Star City at some point between 2018 and 2038.

Dinah explains that Star City fell when The Glades rose. They built a wall around The Glades and sealed it off from the rest of Star City, not allowing anyone else to enter.

The SCPD are essentially a private army protecting The Glades from everything outside its borders.

The bag inside the vault contains a Rubik's Cube.

Dinah says Roy used to be much more patient in the past. This suggests that Roy got to know Dinah pretty well, as the two never interacted that we know of.

William says that making a pattern on a Rubik's cube is like running an algorithm. His favorite was "cube within a cube."

When William makes the pattern, the cube projects a holographic map of The Glades, showing secret passages in and out.

Zoe has become Dinah's protege and apparently the new Black Canary. She says she's part of a Vigilante Resistance - one of the few left fighting to save Star City.

Zoe says her dad wouldn't be caught dead in Star City, when asked about what happened to Wild Dog.

Dinah says that Felicity is dead.


Location

Slabside Maximum Security Prison.
Star City - 2038


The Bottom Line

A solid episode, despite Stephen Amell being largely wasted giving a "drunk" performance that doesn't hold the interest of his conflicted storyline from earlier episodes and Emily Bett Rickards barely being involved in things. The Dinah/Rene stuff is golden however and the future storyline is kicked into overdrive with some major reveals. Good stuff, all around.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 3 - Crossing Lines

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here. 




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.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 2 - The Longbow Hunters

For a summary of the episode guide layout & categories, click here.

Plot

When ARGUS' resources are denied her, Felicity seeks to find another way to go after Diaz. Unfortunately, Diaz's new allies - The Longbow Hunters - are coming into action in Star City and what remains of Team Arrow is in no shape to help her. Meanwhile, in The Slab, Oliver is forced to form an alliance with an old enemy to survive and find out what Diaz is planning.

In the future, William tells Roy Harper why he came to Lian Yu, leading them both to an even larger mystery.


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

Why the heck are The Longbow Hunters called The Longbow Hunters? None of them use a longbow and they aren't brought together to seek revenge on Green Arrow. (I'm not even touching the fact that Green Arrow doesn't use a longbow...)

Apart from being another convenient road-block in keeping anyone from doing anything to stop Diaz, there is no reason why ARGUS would not want to capture and arrest the man responsible for leading the group that stole their technology. ARGUS has been shown abducting criminals off the street without trial for a lot less than what Diaz pulled. Stealing a power source and attempting to steal an energy weapon should be more than enough to build a case for terrorism charges.

Why doesn't Dinah call in the cops when Black Siren goes into Diaz's base? Ignoring that it's what she should do as a cop who is trying to follow procedures now, it would be a wonderful opportunity to bust Black Siren violating the anti-vigilante laws.

Why don't Dinah and Black Siren chase after The Silencer when her field shorts out?


Performances

Again, Emily Bett Rickards slays with the power of her performance here.


Artistry

The silent fight scene between Silencer, Black Canary and Black Siren is well handled.



Trivia

The episode opens with an entirely new opening narration by Oliver Queen.

The Longbow Hunters were a villain group formed by Ricardo Diaz during Jeff Lemire's run on Green Arrow, made up of villains who had a grudge against Green Arrow. The line-up included Diaz himself, Brick, The Red Dart, Killer Moth and Count Vertigo.

In The Arrowverse, The Longbow Hunters are some legendary group that Diaz has made contact with. Anatoly has heard of them but thought they were just a myth. Oliver says that they are three assassins whom even The League of Assassins were afraid of. The last one reportedly died in The 1950s.

One of the Longbow Hunters is a woman called The Red Dart. The name of the Red Dart has been used by three different villains in DC Comics history.

The first Red Dart was a man named John "Midas" Mallory who pretended to be a hero like Green Arrow, while secretly working as a Deadshot-style assassin. He first appeared in World's Finest Comics #95.

The second Red Dart was a nameless man who appeared in one issue Grant Morrison's JLA (JLA #34), who claimed to have bought the gear and the name from John Mallory. His big claim to fame was stealing the Green Lantern ring off of an unconscious Kyle Rayner so that Prometheus could analyze it.

The third Red Dart was a nameless woman who was identified as one of Green Arrow's enemies during the Jeff Lemire run on Green Arrow in the New 52 series. She used trick darts similar to Green Arrow's trick arrows and was part of The Longbow Hunters. She first appeared in Green Arrow #31 (May 2014).

The Arrowverse version of The Red Dart seems to be based on the third Red Dart from the comics, being a woman who uses a dart gun as a weapon.

One of the Longbow Hunters is revealed as a man called Kodiak. In the original comics, Kodiak was the leader of The Shield Clan - one of the various families tied to ancient weapons who made up the group called The Outsiders. He first appeared in Green Arrow #26 (December 2013) and was the keeper of The Shield Totem, which granted immortality and ultimate wisdom to its keeper. He was recruited to kill Oliver Queen, as he searched for The Arrow Totem.

The Arrowverse version of Kodiak is a large man who fights with a heavy shield with sharpened-edges as a weapon. He is apparently easily bored and does not mind killing people messily compared to his more stealthy compatriots.

One of the Longbow Hunters is revealed as a woman called The Silencer. First appearing in The Silencer #1 (January 2018) The Silencer was a woman named Honor Guest who was once one of the most famous assassins in the world. After decades in the service of Talia Al Ghul, she was allowed to retire and start a normal life with an ordinary man. She was dragged back into her old life, however, and began a battle to save everything she had worked so hard to build. She had a unique metahuman power that allowed her to create a zone of total silence around her so no one could hear her approach or the noise of any conflict she started.

The Arrowverse version of The Silencer has the same power, though her abilities are technological in nature rather than the result of a metahuman power. She also does not share the motivations of her comic book counterpart. This would seem to be an alternate version of The Silencer who never renounces her violent past as an assassin in favor of a normal life.


Technobabble

Felicity creates a device she calls her Digi Murder Board - a tablet that analyzes all the data she has found on Diaz and seeks out additional intelligence, making predictions based on all of this data. Essentially, it is an electronic brain that thinks like Diaz. It is also tracking his known associates, like The Longbow Hunters.

Diaz acquired an Electronic Jammer that allowed him to bypass the security of even an ARGUS safe-house. Digg says this is because of Diaz's new friends.

The item stolen by The Longbow Hunters is Prototype B-24 - an experimental removable ultra high-density removable battery, Curtis says that one battery has the capability of powering an entire town and ARGUS was using them to help refugees.

The Longbow Hunters are armed with a high-tech shield, nano-powered darts and a sonic manipulator.

Curtis and Felicity are able to track The Longbow Hunters by finding an energy spike from where they tested the battery.

The T-Spheres do not have lock-picking capabilities.

ARGUS developed an adapter that calibrates the charge of the B-24 battery to power a directed energy weapon capable of flattening a whole city.

William spent over a billion dollars trying to develop affordable magnetic levitation.

Kodiak's shield is strong enough to deflect high-caliber rounds and sharp enough to cut an assault rifle in half.

The Silencer's force-field is capable of canceling out Black Siren and Black Canary's sonic screams at point-blank range, though the two of them together are able to overpower the field.



Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: My name was Oliver Queen. After six years of being a vigilante, the only way to achieve my goal and save my city was to confess to being The Green Arrow. Now my family and friends must carry on my mission without me. I am no longer a hero. I am Inmate 4587.

(Curtis is filling Felicity's wine glass.)
Felicity: A little more.
(Curtis keeps pouring.)
Felicity: Little more.
Curtis: Do you want me to put a straw in the bottle?

Dinah: (To Black Siren) You know, I don't really care if Diaz kills you. But I do care if he kills the DA.

Curtis: Please tell me you are not hacking ARGUS from inside ARGUS!
Felicity: (hissing) Of course not I'm not ARGUS from inside ARGUS! I'm hacking... INTERPOL from inside ARGUS.
Curtis: That's not much better and that will still get me fired!

(Digg tells Felicity that she has to accept that Oliver isn't coming back even if they catch Diaz.)
Felicity: I can't. And I won't! And I can't believe that you do. The old John would have done anything to bring down that monster and you're - you're here! And you wouldn't even take up the Green Arrow mantle - the only thing that Oliver asked you to do! You've moved on with your life. The last six years actually meant to something to me! So I am going to stop Diaz, whatever it takes. Even if I have to do it alone!

(Black Siren tells Dinah about her plan to kill Diaz herself.)
Dinah: You know, I knew you were faking it this whole time. Becoming the DA and all your BS talk about the rule of law? You know deep down you are still the same lying murderer who killed the man I loved!


Continuity

Oliver got two days in the hole for the fight he started in 701.

Ollie's attacker in the showers got sent to Level 2 of The Slab, which is worse than a death sentence.

Brick was behind hiring the inmates who attacked Oliver.

Dinah put Black Siren under direct police protection since Diaz is apparently on the move again.

Felicity says that she is monitoring Cyrus Broderick. He is the last surviving member of The Quadrant leadership not killed by Diaz.

The Longbow Hunters raid an ARGUS research facility, stealing something from vault 326.

Curtis says he is scared of ARGUS Deputy Director Bell.

Anatoly is acting as ARGUS' source regarding The Longbow Hunters. He confirms they are the ones who robbed ARGUS.

Felicity deduces on her own that The Longbow Hunters are involved, based on their weapons.

Deputy Director Bell reminds Digg that ARGUS isn't chartered for criminal investigations.

Black Siren keeps ditching the police detail assigned to her.

Black Siren takes her coffee with two sugars and no cream.

Brick says he might tell Oliver how to find Diaz if he gets rid of Officer Peter Yorke. He refuses to say why he wants him gone.

Oliver agrees, but says he will do it his way without killing Yorke.

Felicity, Rene and Curtis break into The Longbow Hunters' hideout at the same time as Diggle's ARGUS team.

ARGUS is aware of the FBI's deal with Team Arrow and is authorized to bring anyone who violates the anti-vigilante laws down.

Oliver learned enough hacking tricks from Felicity to use the prison library computer to access the personnel records of the prison's staff.

Officer Peter Yorke was born in 1978. Enlisted in the army at age 19 and served for 8 years, earning commendations before being injured in the line of duty. He became a guard at The Slab shortly thereafter and worked there for 12 years. He has a wife named Jenna and a son named Noah. He has never had any disciplinary problems or complaints filed against him.

John apparently refused to take up the Green Arrow mantle after 623.

Oliver is given a shank by Bronze Tiger.

Oliver tries to warn Officer Yorke to quit or transfer or something to get out of The Slab.

John admits that he refused to become Green Arrow because he saw how The Hood ruined Oliver's family and he couldn't do that to his wife and son. Instead, he chose to commit to his job at ARGUS as a way to honor his commitment to protecting Star City without putting a mask on.

Dinah tracks Black Siren to an abandoned building that Diaz bought right after joining The Quadrant.

John recovers the battery, but Diaz and The Longbow Hunters are allowed to escape as John delinks the train cars to make sure the battery can't be stolen back.

Felicity says that she understands why John did what he did and agrees he is doing good work to help people, but that she can't work with anyone whose primary goal isn't bringing down Diaz.

Black Siren apologizes to Dinah for killing Vinny and insists that she's changed.

Ollie frames Officer Yorke for stabbing him.

Felicity goes to FBI Agent Samandara Watson to ask for her help in bringing down Diaz.

Oliver and Felicity apparently abandoned William when he was a teenager.

William makes reference to having an ex-boyfriend.

Roy changes the subject when William asks why he is on Lian Yu.

Felicity implanted an electronic device that broadcast the coordinates of Lian Yu into The Queen Family Hozen. It began to beep three weeks before William arrived on Lian Yu.

Roy asks why Felicity would want William to come to Lian Yu.

William says he hasn't been to Lian Yu since his mother died.

Roy advises William not to look for answers in the past.

William is apparently a self-made tech-billionaire.

William recalls how he first met Roy when he was with his aunt Thea and they were going off somewhere together. (This happened in 616.)

Roy doesn't want to discuss the past, saying that he came to Lian Yu to forget all that.

The exact coordinates William was given lead to four graves Oliver told Roy about. These belong to Robert Queen, Yao Fei, Shado and Taiana

Roy found a fifth grave which contains Oliver's old chest full of gear from his time on Lian Yu and his bow.

William says he can't use a bow and arrow.

The bow contains a message, which Roy burns. Afterward, Roy says they have to go back to Star City.


Location

Slabside Maximum Security Prison.
Lian Yu - 2038


The Winick Factor

It is the height of plot convenience that The Silencer just happens to be the one at Diaz's base when the two women with sonic powers show up to storm it.


The Bottom Line

For an episode called The Longbow Hunters, they barely feature into the episode at all and we learn next to nothing about the long-awaited master-assassins that are supposed to be utterly unstoppable. Sadly, there's almost nothing to them, which is not surprising given that (with the exception of The Silencer) none of them have been particularly well developed in the comics.

Thankfully, while the episode is a disappointment when it comes to trying to make Diaz's actions make sense, the core cast manage to make the main storylines work perfectly. The Black Canary/Black Siren rivalry gets some much needed development, though there's little logic behind Dinah's decision to cover her arch-enemy as she's getting ready to break the law, instead of, oh, say, calling all the cops and exposing The DA as a hypocrite and a fraud.

Still, OTA steals the show, with Emily Bett delivering a powerhouse performance, Stephen Amell offering his most tormented performance yet as Oliver Queen and David Ramsey managing to make Digg's sudden about-face on becoming Green Arrow seem natural and logical... even though he was beating Oliver up over the right to become Green Arrow a scant few episodes ago.

The mystery of the future is stacking up nicely, even if we're left with more questions about the past than we are what happens next. All in all, it's a decent filler episode though it has more than a few obvious flaws. Still, it is not without its charms.