Arrow Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 15 - Training Day

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




Plot

With tensions high between the newly deputized Team Arrow and the Star City Police Department once charged with bringing them to justice, Oliver Queen hopes a training day for himself and his teammates will help bring people together. Unfortunately, things go wrong almost immediately and Dinah gets some life-altering news.

Meanwhile, in the future of Star City 2038, William and Mia - now aware of what they are to each other - continue their search for Felicity, but can they find a way to mesh street-smarts and tech-smarts to get what they need to play Felicity's latest message?


Influences

The 2001 film Training Day. (title, base idea of rookie cops first day at work going awry) and Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters (Dinah losing her powers after having her throat slit)



Goofs

Why didn't Mayor Pollard just scrap the whole Deputized Vigilante program immediately after Oliver threatened a CEO with an acid swirly? It was just the excuse she'd been waiting for and there's no reason for her no to have thrown the book at Oliver then and there apart from there still being half an hour of episode to pad out.

There's very little about Black Siren's attempt to blackmail Emiko that makes sense. First, how did she learn that Emiko is the new Green Arrow in the first place? Next, why on Earth does she think Oliver and Team Arrow would disapprove of Emiko killing Diaz enough for it to ruin their relationships, when she was helping Felicity to plot Diaz's murder just last week? Finally, there's no apparent purpose to said blackmail and no apparent reason Black Siren would need leverage over Emiko.

Oliver's attitude is all over the place in this episode. He starts off being determined to give the new SCPD partnership a chance. Then he gets sick of the bureaucracy after one batched raid. Then he's threatening to dunk crooked CEOs into acid vats. Then he's ready to break the law and go back to being an unlicensed vigilante even if he can't keep it up forever. Then he's willing to give the partnership thing a try again. And then by the end of the episode the team is back in their old base with their own costumes and gear and it hasn't mattered in the slightest because the mayor was finally embarrassed into striking down the anti-vigilante law.


Performances

Once again, Juliana Harkavy steals the show, giving a powerful performance as Dinah Drake faces an identity crisis. Denied her powers, she throws herself into her role as a police Captain and finds herself butting heads with her teammates as she struggles with her own sense of identity and self-worth. It's deep stuff and well-handled.


Trivia

The plot-point of Dinah losing her Canary Cry after having her throat slit is taken directly from the Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters mini-series, where Black Canary lost her powers after having her throat cut.


Technobabble

Autopsy results on the four Los Halcones gang members  revealed traces of an unidentified substance, which caused a chemical reaction with the blood that resulted in toxic epidermal necrolysis - i.e. their skin melting off.

Chlormethine is a cytotoxic agent derived from mustard gas. It's illegal to manufacture except for medicinal purposes, like chemotherapy.

Felicity is able to alter her security system algorithm to track DNA anywhere in Star City.


Dialogue Triumphs

(The SCPD rookies are being addressed by Sergeant Bingsley and Captain Dinah Drake.)
Sergeant Bingsley: Wearing the uniform of an SCPD officer is an honor. It isn't just a uniform. It's a symbol of the law, of justice, of transparency.
Dinah: Thank you, Sergeant Bingsley. Any questions?
(Rene raises his hand.)
Dinah: Rene?
Rene: He does know we have our own uniforms, right?

Oliver: Have I told you lately how smart you are?
Felicity: Well, I never get tired of hearing it.

Dinah: There is no more vigilante way, okay? There is only the SCPD way. It's my job to enforce it.
Rene: Look, I get it. You're the captain, but you're also the Black Canary. I thought that came first?
Dinah:  It doesn't.
Rene:  Since when?
Dinah:  Since I stuck my neck out to make this partnership work. Vigilantes cannot operate without SCPD sanction. The sooner all of us understand that, the better it's gonna be for all of us.
Rene: Everyone's got something at stake here, D.
Dinah:  But if this fails, I'm the one who loses my job. It's my ass on the line. I don't understand why this is so hard for all of you to understand.

Rene: I've know you a long time, D, and I've never seen you roll over the way you just did with Pollard.
Dinah: She's the mayor, Rene. And she can put an end to this whole operation anytime she wants.
Rene: That's not the point. You've been yelling at me, been yelling at Oliver, and pretty much acting weird ever since the weapons buy. So what's up, D? What's going on?
Dinah: At the weapons buy, I tried to use my cry, but something went wrong. It didn't work right. It It hurt like someone was scraping knives along the inside of my throat.
Rene: I'm sorry.
Dinah: Being captain is the only thing I have left. I can't be the symbol of being on both sides, both SCPD and vigilante, because I am I'm not the Black Canary. Not anymore.
Rene: That's a bunch of crap, and you know it. Your cry doesn't make you the Canary. Did you know that the pin you gave Zoe, she wears to school every day? You think she wears that pin because of your cry? No. She looks up to you because you're the person who will go above and beyond to do what is right no matter the personal consequences. That's who you are no matter what.
Dinah: Even if that's true, it doesn't matter anymore.
Rene: Of course it does. You say you can't be the symbol of being on both sides. That's exactly what you are.

Felicity (on tape): William and Mia... you know, this is the first time I've ever said your names together? 20 years and I avoid ever saying your names in the same sentence. It feels like the work of a paranoid, overprotective mother. I guess we really do turn into our parents. I'm rambling. Sorry. Not just for the rambling. For everything. But mostly for keeping the two of you apart. I'm not asking for your forgiveness but just know that your father and I did it to protect you. We did it because we love you. Now that you've found each other, I just have one request. Give these coordinates to the team: 47. 6119 North, 122. 3301 West. And then get the hell out of Star City. And whatever you do, don't come looking for me.
Mia: So we're ignoring her?
William: Definitely.


Continuity

Oliver, Felicity, John and Rene are all going through SCPD basic training to learn basic police procedure so they can all work as deputized vigilantes.

Los Halcones are the arch rival gang of the Blackout Gang - a new gang that showed up in Star City after Oliver Queen went to prison.

Four Los Halcones were found dead in a warehouse, killed by strange new bullets that melted their skin.

Black Siren is contacted at the DA's office by Bronze Tiger, who was last seen in 707.

Bronze Tiger tells Black Siren that Ricardo Diaz was killed but that the Slabside Penitentiary staff are trying to cover up just how it happened, saying he was shived. He says he can give Black Siren the truth in exchange for having his the work on his pardon stepped up.

When Black Siren says she is already working as fast as possible to get him released, Bronze Tiger agrees to trade his information in exchange for a chance to see his son without a window in between them.

During the raid on the Blackout Gang's weapons buy, the police overhear that Midas Medical made the bullets.

Felicity determines that the melting-bullets used by the Blackout Gang make use of chlormethine.

Midas Medical is one of four firms on Star City who make chlormethine.

Oliver scares a confession out of James Midas - the owner of Midas Medical. It is ruled inadmissible and Midas is released, getting a personal apology form Mayor Pollard on the way out of the police station.

Black Siren makes good on her deal and Bronze Tiger is allowed to see his son, whose first name is Connor, and whom he calls "my little Hawk." The suggestion here is that Connor will become Connor Hawke and be adopted by John Diggle in the future.

Bronze Tiger tells Black Siren that he was confined in solitary across from Diaz and saw the person who set him on fire was dressed like Green Arrow but wasn't Oliver Queen through his open meal slot.

Felicity fixed up the old Team Arrow bunker on the sly. She and Oliver decide they are going to operate outside the law again.

They ask Diggle to join them, but he urges them to give working with the police another chance.

Diggle finds out that Felicity is pregnant.

Dinah and Rene are brought to the bunker and agree to try and work with the police protocols, using their old costumes and gear. This time, they catch James Midas in the act without issues.

Thanks To Mayor Pollard's relationship with Midas, Dinah is able to get her to not only allow Team Arrow to be established as a special SCPD task force but gets permission for them to operate from the bunker.

The anti-vigilante law is also repealed.

John gives Felicity a bag of ginger candy chews, saying that Lyla swore by them during her own pregnancy.

Black Siren summons Emiko Queen to her office and says she knows that she killed Ricardo Diaz and is the new Green Arrow.

Emiko Queen, in turn, reveals that she knows Black Siren isn't the real Laurel Lance. She also says that Team Arrow wouldn't believe Black Siren if she tried to tell them about her.

Felicity says that if they have a boy she wants to name him Lucas.

Oliver says that if they have a daughter, they should name it Mia - short for Moira.

William finds a mini-cassette player in the black market, being sold by a man named Felix. He bargains Felix down to $500, only to have the player pick-pocketed by a young girl in Felix's employ.

When Mia learns of this, she threatens Felix, only for him to respond that he's bribed the local SCPD officers to come running if he needs help.

William is able to hack the SCPD comms and fake a Black Canary sighting. This distracts Felix's back-up long enough for Mia to smack him down and William to take what they need.

Felicity apologies to Mia and William for ruining their lives and gives them a set of coordinates to pass on to the vigilantes. She then tells them to get out of Star City and not to look for her.

The coordinates lead to somewhere inside The Glades. Both William and Mia agree to ignore Felicity's instruction to abandon her or Star City.


The Bottom Line

A disjointed and rushed piece of filler that exists only to restore the status quo of early Season 6 as quickly as possible. Team Arrow is back. Long live Team Arrow. At least until everything that is due to go south in the immediate future happens.

That being said, Dinah's subplot is well-handled and well-acted and the show handles her depowerment as well as could be hoped. Unfortunately, the rest of the episode seems to be a distraction from what should be a much bigger deal. Still, the good parts of the episode far outweigh the bad and it's rather enjoyable even if the character arcs make no sense at all.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 14 - Brothers & Sisters

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



Plot

After months of covertly pursuing the mystery man called Dante, Diggle and Lyla finally have a solid lead on the elusive terrorist. The new Ghost Initiative team is deployed to find him, much to the annoyance of Oliver and Felicity, who have learned of Digg's plans for Ricardo Diaz. Meanwhile, Oliver tries to bond with Emiko by helping her to investigate her mother's murder. And in the future of 2038, William Clayton is confronted with the news that he has a half-sister and tries to win her over so they can find the missing Felicity together.


Influences

The Green Arrow comics of Benjamin Percy (character of Dante, character drama between Oliver and Emiko)


Performances

Adrian Paul is a suitably powerful presence as Dante.


Trivia

The bullet which killed Emiko Queen's mother is said to be made of a rare promethium alloy. In the DC Universe, promethium is a rare metal which comes in two forms - depleted and volatile.

Depleted promethium was developed by Dayton Industries and is frequently used in alloys for defensive purposes. Cyborg's armor and cybernetic components are made of alloys of depleted promethium mixed with titanium and vanadium. At one time Roy Harper wore a bodysuit made of Kevlar and a mesh made of depleted promethium.

Volatile promethium can generate and absorb energy and act as a power source. Exposure to volatile promethium has triggered the metagene in some individuals. Deathstroke's armor, sword and staff are made - in whole or in part - of volatile promethium.

In the modern day DC Universe, promethium is one of the five heavy metals born of the Dark Multiverse, along with Nth Metal, Dionesium, Electrum, and Batmanium.

ARGUS discovers that Dante is having a meeting with Princess Noor Harjavti of Qurac. Diggle says he believes that the Princess is planning a revolution and may be asking Dante for help financing it. In the DC Comics universe, Noor Harjavti was a character introduced in the Captain Atom comics as the daughter of the dictator of Biayla and leader of her nation's Freedom Council.

The Arrowverse version of Princess Noor Harjavti seems to be based upon a version of the character introduced in the Young Justice animated series. In this reality, her father was the ruler of Qurac rather than Biayla.


Technobabble

The bullet which killed Emiko's mother was made of a rare promethium alloy used by a handful of black market weapons manufacturers and fired from a customized rifle.



Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: (To Emiko) I understand that my parents weren't exactly the best people, but if they taught me one thing, it's the value of family, which is what you and I are. So if someone's hurt you, you better believe they've hurt me, too.

Mia: If you're here to convince me to join your little merry band of heroes, save your breath.
William: Actually, I was just hoping that we could commiserate about how much our parents suck. I never had anyone to do that with before.
Mia: What do you have against our parents? Seems like you came out all right. You're super rich.
William: Well, let's see. Oliver, being my dad, got my mom killed. Then he and Felicity promised to stay in my life after my grandparents took custody, and then I never heard from them again. And my whole justification for it, you know, that it's hard for publicly recognized vigilantes to raise children, sort of went out the window when I found out they actually had another kid, which means that they just didn't want me.
(There's a long pause as Mia regards William.) 
Mia: Being the kid they wanted wasn't so great either.

Emiko: It's been hard for me not seeing you as him.
Oliver: Him being our father?
Emiko: I just assumed I shouldn't trust you. That's why I've been keeping so much distance between us.
Oliver: Then you give me a chance, and I, of course, immediately overstep.
Emiko: Pretty much.
Oliver: I've lost a lot in my life. People, you know? But with you, I lost time. So you gave me a chance, and I immediately saw it as an opportunity to get some of it back. But there was no excuse for the way that I behaved when I was coming aboard your mission. I'm sorry.
Emiko: I didn't realize Oliver Queen did apologies.
Oliver: Well, I mean, I didn't, but... I've grown a bit over the years.


Continuity

Felicity has a nightmare of Diaz chasing her through the woods which mirrors the nightmare Oliver had of Felicity and William being hunted by Diaz in 701.

Oliver has been trying to call William and has filled his mailbox with voice-mails.

Rene tells Oliver that Zoe froze him out of her life when he first lost custody of her.

Dinah is still in the hospital after being attacked by the Star City Slayer. She has tried checking herself out several times.

Rene tells Oliver about Emiko's mother being murdered.

Oliver approaches Emiko with the bullet used to kill mother.

John Diggle tells Oliver and Felicity about The Ghost Initiative program and Diaz's role in it.

Oliver says he trusts John to keep Diaz controlled. Felicity is less confident.

Felicity begins plotting with Black Siren to trigger the bomb in Diaz's head, but Black Siren tries to talk her out of it, saying it isn't worth the risk.

Black Siren guesses Felicity is pregnant, based on the fact that she's skipping the usual wine and coffee that accompanies their meetings and she is eating more chocolate than normal.

The Ghost Initiative is ambushed at their meeting with Virgil, who was apparently tipped off as to the meeting being an ARGUS operation.

ARGUS' analysis of Diaz' phone call to Virgil fails to detect any code phrases or suspicious words indicating he delivered a secret warning.

Virgil carried a replica of a Italian Florin circa 1300 which contained a heavily encrypted microchip.

Andrew Thornton is a black market weapons dealer who specializes in promethium-based custom weapons. Oliver thinks he is the one who made the gun that killed Emiko's mother.

Oliver is able to arrest Thornton, but Emiko intervenes and tries to question him despite Oliver having taken control of the raid on Thornton's latest arms deal.

Diggle finds fake diplomatic credentials for the Qurac Embassy on the microchip. This leads him to believe that Dante will be meaning with the Quraci princess.

Diggle recruits Oliver and Felicity to help with the operation to capture Dante.

Lyla and Diggle discover that the mole in ARGUS is Deputy Director Bell, who is meeting with Dante and the Quraci Princess.

Diaz attempts to blow the operation by warning Dante it is a set-up, as a means of paying off his debt.

Dante kills both Deputy Director Bell and the Princess. He is shown to be a skilled knife-fighter, both in throwing them and hand-to-hand combat.  He is able to knock Oliver Queen's arrows out of the air in mid-flight and can hold his own in a one-on-one battle.

Dante is able to escape after Diggle chooses to stop Diaz from escaping.

Felicity chooses not to kill Diaz, despite being given the chance.

Diaz is sent back to Slabside for violating the terms of his release.

The Ghost Initiative is shut-down for good.

Diggle chooses to take the blame for The Ghost Initiative being reactivated to save Lyla's career and to give them a chance to find out what higher-ups above them might be tied to Dante. He does this despite knowing it will end his career at ARGUS.

Oliver gives Emiko a copy of the police report for Andrew Thornton's interrogation. He apologizes for pulling rank regarding the investigation and they seem to reconcile.

Felicity tells Oliver that she is pregnant.\

Dante has a previous relationship with Emiko Queen and tells her that he is happy she's reconciled with her brother and that it is time for her to go home.

Diaz is attacked in his cell at Slabside, doused in flammable liquid sent through the sprinkler system and set on fire. The final scene of the episode suggests he is dead, as his screams go silent.

In 2038, Dinah Drake, William Clayton, Roy Harper and Zoe Ramirez had no idea that Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak had a daughter together, much less that she was Blackstar.

Connor Hawke reveals himself as John Diggle's adopted son.

Connor Hawke also reveals that his father knew about Mia Smoak's existence and asked him to keep an eye on her because of who her parents were. Mia thought Connor was ignorant of her parentage.

Mia Smoak says that her mother has faked her death and gone into hiding several times before and that Felicity is crazy paranoid.

Paul Loiseau is the sole witness to Felicity Smoak's death. He committed suicide about the same time William and Roy began searching for Felicity.

William says that neither Oliver nor Felicity ever contacted him after he moved in with his grandparents. He had assumed it was because they decided there was no place for a child in their lives... until he found out Mia Smoak existed. (We know this is a lie from a scene earlier in the episode where Oliver is seen trying to call William. Presumably his grandparents intercepted all of Oliver's calls and letters.)

Mia says that she never knew her father and all she knows about him comes from old news reports and Felicity's stories. She asks William if he really was a hero and Williams says he was.

Mia shows William another configuration of his Rubik's Cube - a cube in a cube in a cube. This reveals a secret compartment containing an analog micro-cassette from an old-fashioned answering machine.


Untelevised Adventures

The ARGUS raid to capture Virgil in Cairo takes place off-camera.


The Bottom Line

A halfway decent but rather odd episode. Despite the title, most of the plot deals with ARGUS and Dante. Yet most of the best scenes involve Mia and William in the future and the best dialogue is in the Emiko and Oliver scenes, which are mostly just them standing around and talking. The action scenes are competently executed, but hardly exciting as we've no reason to care about the characters involved. (Seriously, does ANYONE care about Cupid or China White at this point?)   I'd give it a higher rating for finally killing of Diaz, but I refuse to believe the show suddenly developed the good sense to kill him off with an appropriate and ironic death.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 12 - Emerald Archer

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




Plot

A documentary film crew begins following Oliver while making a short movie about the rise of vigilantism in Star City. As Oliver and the former Team Arrow members try to do their jobs as the camera crew get in their way, they have to contend with a new threat - a vigilante hunter - as Oliver also prepares for William's homecoming.


Influences

True Crime reality TV shows like COPS.


Goofs

It's unclear just how the immunity Team Arrow earned works in the face of the anti-vigilante law. Reference is made to the FBI making Rene's immunity from prosecution permanent. Is that just for him or is the FBI ignoring everything Team Arrow does from now on, leaving them to contend with the local laws?


Artistry

The use of shaky-cam during the action sequences where the camera crew is following Oliver is fantastic.

The five-way fight scene between Chimera and Ollie, Dinah, Curtis, John and Rene is fantastic.


Trivia

The episode title comes from the Green Arrow's alliterative nickname from the comics, much like how The Flash is known as The Scarlet Speedster.

This is the 150th episode of Arrow.

The episode opens with the WB Shield and the music that usually appears before a Warner Bros. film rather than a TV show.

Kelsey Grammar, perhaps best known for playing the role of Frasier Crane on Cheers and Frasier, is the narrator of the documentary sequences.

Sin's real name is revealed as Cindy Simone. This last name is doubtlessly a tribute to writer Gail Simone, who created the character of Sin for her run on Birds of Prey.

The clapper used by the documentary makers contains the names of M. Pedowitz and J.D. Davison. The former is a nod to Mark Pedowitz - the President of The CW. The later is a camera operator, who shot this episode as well as Arrow's pilot.

Chimera is revealed to be a man named Kevin Meltzer. This is likely a tribute to Green Arrow comics writers Kevin Smith and Brad Meltzer.

The name Chimera has been used by several DC Comics villains in the past, but none of them have any connection to the Arrowverse version of Chimera. One was a Batman villain who was a master of disguise. Eve "Nightshade" Eden used the name Chimera as an alias while going undercover in the terrorist supergroup called The Jihad in Suicide Squad. A later villain with teleporting powers later took on Eden's costume and alias to become a second Chimera. The name was also used by Sanjeet Bhatia - a reality-warping hero who was an ally of the Teen Titans. Checkmate Agent Adam Sharp used Chimera as a codename. King Chimera was the alias of a magic-wielding member of the Justice Society. Finally, in the reality of the New 52, Chimera was used as an alias by the Durlan Ra'ut L'lwer, who was another ally of the Teen Titans that possessed shape-shifting powers.

The final scene reveals that Darkstar's first name is Mia. This seems to suggest that her full name is Mia Dearden. In the comics, Mia Dearden was a teen prostitute, first appearing in Green Arrow #2,  after Green Arrow rescued her from being raped by a councilman. This inspired her to fight back against her pimp and led to her accepting Oliver Queen's offer of a job at the Star City Youth Center and a place to stay. She later became the second Speedy and the chief inspiration for the character of Thea Queen on Arrow.

Darkstar is accompanied in the final scene by a man she calls Connor. Connor is played by actor Joseph David-Jones, who played John Diggle Jr./Connor Hawke in the Legends of Tomorrow episode "Star City 2046". He seems to be recreating the role here. In the original Green Arrow comics, Connor Hawke was Oliver Queen's illegitimate son from an affair he had in college. His backstory largely inspired the character of William Clayton on Arrow.


Technobabble

Felicity created a virus that infects anything that tries to log in to the WiFi at her and Oliver's new apartment. William detects it after finding a firewall breech and a Bluetooth incursion.

Felicity is having trouble finding Emiko using surveillance and keyhole satellite technology.This leads Ollie to ask John if he can use ARGUS.

Felicity set up an encryption scheme so that Will could keep texting Zoe Ramirez while he was away.

Chimera's armor is military grade and Wayne Enterprise's design. It is powered by an exolithium power cell. Without that, whoever is wearing the armor can't even move. Unfortunately, the cell is electromagnetically shielded so it can't be hacked remotely.


Dialogue Triumphs

Quentin Lance: Well, I'm - I'm conflicted about this. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm a police officer. Duly sworn. I don't condone vigilantes of vigilantism. Once people start taking the law into their own hands, you're on the road to anarchy. But there's worse things out there than anarchy. And sometimes, as much as I hate to admit it... the police aren't enough to deal with it all.   

Sin: I knew them back in the day. Canary. The Arrow. The whole crew. Honestly, I don't know where I'd be right now without them. They helped me out of  a couple of pretty tight spots. I owe them a lot. But I- I saw the toll it took on them. Like, people like to debate about the legalities. But for the people wearing the masks - it's, it's not philosophical. It's real. And it takes everything from them.

(In a piece of video footage from seven years ago, John Diggle is asked about his boss being a superhero.)
John: No, look. You don't become successful in my line of work without becoming really good at sizing people up, Trust me. Oliver Queen is no one's hero.
(Cut To: John Diggle in the present day, in his ARGUS uniform. He is looking off-screen, having apparently just watched the same clip. For a moment, his stoic expression breaks and he looks embarrassed and has a nervous smile. He steels himself before speaking.)
John: Obviously this particular comment didn't age too well.

Oliver: What do you think you were doing out there?
Rene: Same thing you do. I'm doing good, by the way. Thank you for asking.
Oliver: I'm glad you're okay. I'm glad the FBI made your immunity permanent. But being a vigilante is illegal in Star City.
Rene: Well, that's easy for you to say. I mean, you have a cute, shiny new badge.
(Rene turns to Dinah.)
Rene: Thought about giving one to anyone else?
Dinah: First step would probably be not being so reckless.
Rene: You or me?
Dinah: Try to guess.

John: Oliver needs access to the Black Watch Satellites.
Curtis: Is he supposed to know about thiso? (To Oliver) You know about those?
(There is a long pause as if Oliver is debating saying the obvious. He finally does so.)
Oliver: (sarcastically) You've met my wife, right Curtis?
Curtis: Good point.

Wild Dog: Yeah, the mayor, the politicians - they might care about the city. But they don't seem to give a crap about the people in it. So are you really so surprised when people decide to do something about it?

(John is trying to convince Oliver to let him, Curtis and Rene help him in their costumed identities.)
John: We may not have been Team Arrow when you were in Slabside but we had each other's backs Just give us a chance, man, to have yours..
Oliver: You could go to prison. 
John: So? You did it for us. Which never really sat right with me. And the reason why is that it wasn't right, Oliver. We have fights, disagreements, recriminations, but it doesn't matter because we are a team. And nothing's going to change that.
Oliver: John, I made a lot of mistakes.
John: We all did. That's why they're called mistakes, Oliver. You learn from them. You move forward. We... we get better.
(John offers Oliver his hand. Oliver takes it and they shake.)

(Oliver is showing the film crew the ruins of The Bunker.)
Director: What happened here?
Oliver: Ricardo Diaz and his crew happened here. They couldn't stop us. We're coming back here. We'll rebuild. Gonna do it better this time.
(As Oliver says this, the view of the screen changes. Oliver near appears black and white and transluescent. We gradually pull back to see a hologram of Oliver being watched by Blackstar.)
Director: Sounds like you have regrets about how you did it before.
Oliver: Too many to name. A friend of mine recently told me that's why they're called mistakes. You learn from them. Move forward. Be better.
(Blackstar turns off the projector. A man walks up behind her. We see they are in Blackstar's office.)
Connor Hawke: Where did you get that?
Blackstar: I stole it.
Connor Hawke: Yeah, Mia. That much I figured. But wasn't this documentary banned? I thought every copy was destroyed years ago.
Blackstar: Not this one. It's total pro-vigilante garbage. But even garbage can be useful.
Connor Hawke: Useful for what? Break-ins? You know what? Actually, the less I know about that, the better.
Blackstar: Trust me, Connor. You are going to want to come with.


Continuity

The episode is presented as a real documentary in the world of Arrow, titled Emerald Archer: The Hood And The Rise of Vigilantism.

Quentin Lance's comments on vigilantes are presented from archival footage from 2014.

Thea Queen is interviewed about how her mother and brother, Tommy Merlyn, were killed by supervillains who were only brought to justice by vigilantes.

Ricardo Diaz, interviewed in prison, says that vigilantes are hypocrites and the only difference between them and him is that he's smart enough to only worry about himself.

Sara Lance is interviewed about her father's death and states her belief that people need to help people, whether they are wearing a mask or not.

The documentary recalls how Oliver was officially deputized and shows footage of his capturing Max in 708.

Sin, last seen in 312, is interviewed about how she knew all of Star City's vigilantes back in the day.

William has gotten taller since Ollie and Felicity last saw him. He says he has outgrown the nickname "kiddo."

M. Pedowitz has been making a documentary on vigilantes for years but couldn't get the funding to finish it until after Oliver Queen went public and became the world's first openly-operating superhero.

Oliver asks for William to be left out of the film.

The documentary shows footage of John Diggle being asked about Oliver being a vigilante from before he learned about Ollie's secret identity in 103. We then see the modern day John Diggle looking embarrassed about his past self saying there's no way Oliver Queen is a hero.

Dinah Drake is interviewed about Ollie's current job. She says she doesn't see him as being different than any other cop, even if he wears a different uniform and carries a different weapon.

Oliver freely admits that he never meant to wind up leading a team of heroes and he isn't sure he is a good leader.

Dinah brings Oliver in on two strange murders where the victims had their throats cut.

Dinah and Oliver respond to a report of shots being fired and possible vigilante activity. They find an unmasked Rene Ramirez in his Wild Dog costume. He tells them that the new Green Arrow was kidnapped.

The FBI apparently made Rene's immunity from being prosecuted on vigilante charges permanent. This does not, however, (as Oliver points out) protect him from local anti-vigilante laws.

Rene points out that crime went up after the vigilantes retired and Ollie went to prison but the crime in The Glades dropped after the new Green Arrow appeared.

Rene says the kidnapper was wearing an exo-suit that looked like it was of military design.

Mayor Pollard intends to hold a town hall meeting on vigilantism and force Oliver Queen to face the public and justify his job.

William is bitter about being sent to boarding school and not being allowed to come home for Christmas. He was the only kid at the school who had to stay there.

Oliver asks John to use ARGUS' Black Watch satellites to try and find Emiko.

Oliver tells John that the new Green Arrow is his sister.

Oliver has known about Emiko for a month. He apologizes for not telling John sooner but says they haven't exactly been running in the same circles for a while. Diggle says it has been almost a year but agrees. He is about to tell Oliver something (likely that he's recruited Diaz for the Suicide Squad) when Curtis enters.

ARGUS tracks the new Green Arrow to the abandoned Starling City Athletic Club.

Oliver keeps a digital lock-pick in a shoulder pouch in his costume.

The mask-hunter has the masks of Rory Regan (Ragman), Rene Ramirez (Wild Dog), Helena Bertinelli (Huntress) and Emiko Queen (Green Arrow II) in his lair.

Black Siren is interviewed. She says it's her opinion that vigilantes should not be allowed to operate because if they could do what they did lawfully, they wouldn't hide who they are.

Rory Regan's identity is publicly known. He says he stopped wearing a mask but didn't stop doing good. Rory was last seen in 512. Apparently Oliver has some means of contacting him, but he does not respond when Oliver tries to call him over the course of the episode.

Oliver also has some way of being able to contact The Huntress (last seen in 217) but he is not able to get a hold of her either.

Rene Ramirez's identity as Wild Dog is publicly known.

Curtis' identity as Mister Terrific is still secret.

Barry Allen is interviewed about Oliver. He says he had no idea Oliver was Green Arrow until he turned himself in.

Curtis gives the mask-hunter the name of Chimera.

Using security footage from the abandoned club, Curtis is able to track Chimera to an abandoned building at 101 Federal Street in Star City.

Oliver says that 101 Federal Street used to belong to Adam Hunt. Adam Hunt was the first person on his father's list whom Oliver went after in 101.

Dinah is able to rescue Emiko while Oliver fights Chimera.

Emiko says that Chimera is coming for Oliver.

Will goes to Rene and Zoe's apartment, nominally to help Zoe with her geography homework. 

Will says there's something wrong but he doesn't want to talk about it. Zoe says he can just hang out with her if he doesn't want to go home.

Zoe and Will promise never to fight when they can talk.

Zoe says that her father and Dinah only fight now.

Zoe calls Dinah Aunt Dinah.

Emiko escapes from her hospital room.

Emiko tells Rene that Oliver is her half-brother. She says she didn't tell Rene because she was afraid it would change their partnership. Rene asks why it would and confirms they are cool.

Oliver tells Dinah that Emiko is his half-sister.

Mayor Pollard thinks that Oliver and Dinah are making up Chimera to get him out of the town hall. Oliver refuses to appear as it will put people in jeopardy.

John tells Oliver he thinks they can safely use the town hall to lure Chimera out and that he has a plan to handle him safely.

Oliver says he can't risk John going to prison for breaking the anti-vigilante laws. John doesn't care, saying that Oliver risked prison for them and they need to return the favor.

Dinah uses her Canary Cry in front of Mayor Pollard to stop a wall from collapsing on a fleeing crowd.

Once Chimera is down, Mayor Pollard has Spartan, Wild Dog and Mr. Terrific arrested.

Chimera is revealed as a man named Kevin Meltzer. Recently released from Roth Psychiatric Hospital, he was apparently obsessed with superheroes ever since The Hood saved his life seven years earlier. He just collected their masks as a weird form of tribute.

Black Siren says she can decline to press charges against John, Curtis and Rene but the anti-vigilante laws will still stand.

Dinah tries to resign from her job.  Oliver also turns himself in, saying that if his team is going to jail, he should be with them.

Mayor Pollard refuses to do anything to try and strike down the anti-vigilante laws but does allow Black Siren not to press charges. She then arranges for Spartan, Mister Terrific and Wild Dog to be sworn in as special deputies in the same way Oliver Queen was.

William reveals that he was expelled from his private school. Felicity discovered he was lying about something after having made a fake mock-up of the school's website with fake mid-term results.

Oliver Queen takes the documentary crew to the remains of The Bunker. He declares his intent to rebuild it and make the team work better this time.

In the final scene of the episode, we see the documentary being watched by Blackstar from the flash-forwards in 708. She is addressed by the first name Mia.

A dark-skinned named Connor is working with Mia. This character seems to be Connor Hawke (aka John Diggle Jr.), who was seen acting as the new Green Arrow in Star City in the year 2046 in L106.

We are told the Emerald Archer documentary was banned as pro-vigilante propaganda years earlier and all the copies were thought to have been destroyed.

Mia and Connor find the rebuilt bunker, which seems to have been built into a literal cave.

Mia says that Star City's vigilantes got what was coming to them and that they were the death of Star City.


Untelevised Adventures

Apparently Ragman and Huntress fought Chimera at some point in the past and had their own masks taken as trophies.


The Bottom Line

A powerful anniversary episode that looks back at the past as it sets the stage for the show's future. While I wish we'd gotten more than a glimpse of certain things (i.e. what exactly happened to Sin, Ragman and Huntress) nearly everything here works perfectly. The one sour note is the reintroduction of William Clayton in the modern day, whose story is nowhere near as interesting as the show runners seem to think. Hopefully he'll be shipped off to another boarding school and never return to Star City in the future, as promised, in the near future.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 11 - Past Sins

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





Plot

A new villain threatens the city after Oliver is interviewed on television about his life as a hero and his father's sacrifice to save his life. Black Siren is confronted by a figure from her past who has seemingly somehow made his way into her life from Earth Two. And as John Diggle prepares to  reactivate The Ghost Initiative, Curtis tries to find a way to get to Dante that doesn't involve letting Ricardo Diaz out of prison.


Influences

Inception (the VR sequence when Curtis manipulates Diaz's dreams)


Goofs

While Black Siren may not be an alcoholic, her drinking in public when the woman she's impersonating was may not be a great idea. Particularly given that Laurel was fired from the DA's office once for drunk driving and trying to get the police to go easy on her because of her position/father.

You'd think Felicity would know better than to ask her out for drinks, come to that.

Black Siren being the most popular DA in the past decade sounds impressive until you remember that every DA in the show's history, save one, was a criminal or incompetent.

Why were there no police officers guarding the parking lot of the building where they rescued Nick Kannon? If there had been, Sam Hackett wouldn't have escaped.

It's unclear just how Felicity knows she has to stop Black Siren from killing Brett Collins. (Perhaps she had an alert set to her phone if Black Siren got within a certain distance of Brett Collins?)

How are the escaping Ghost Imitative recruits able to injure ARGUS agents in full body armor? (It's a clue that the scene we're watching isn't real.)

It doesn't make a lick of sense that the same people who rated "Laurel" as the best DA of the past decade are largely against Oliver Queen working as a Police Deputy. (Of course it doesn't make a lick of sense that Black Siren could become the DA in the current anti-vigilante city government either...)


Performances

There's something so gratifying about Echo Kellum's performance here and the barely restrained smugness as Curtis reveals how he owned Diaz with his plan.


Artistry

David Ramsey has a strong first outing as a director. The pacing of Diaz's escape is particularly well-handled and you honestly believe for a moment that they really did kill Curtis off.


Trivia

This episode was directed by David Ramsey - the actor who plays John Diggle.


Technobabble

All of the security cameras and overhead lights around Rich Kannon's car were shorted out before he was kidnapped. This suggests a planned power surge created by someone who knew how to manipulate the electrical grid.

Oliver uses a Net Arrow to catch Rich Kannon before he falls to his death.

Felicity has developed a program that can track genetic material. She uses this to find Black Siren before she kills Brett Collins.

There is a partial etching on the components found in Sam Hackett's apartment. They are reconstructed to determine that they belonged to Star City Electrical and were used to tag proprietary parts.

Sam Hackett's weapon, when plugged into the grid for SCPD HQ, makes everything in the building that can hold a current deadly thanks to the static generated by the electricity coursing through these walls right now.


Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: My goal has always been to serve this city. I understand that there are people who... they disagreed with my methods before. So I would like to assure the people of Star City I will no longer be hiding in the shadows and I promise to always be on the side of the law. I believe that trust can be built through transparency. And I'm going to prove it.

Curtis: It's like the Ghosts of Villains Past in here!

(Curtis continues to object to reviving The Ghost Initiative.)
Curtis: How can you be okay with that?
John: I'm not.
(Curtis just stares at him.)
John: I'm not. We are fighting evil that most people don't even know exists. And sometimes that means making very difficult decisions, Curtis. The bombs are just a fail-safe. That's all.
(John walks past Curtis to leave the room. Curtis turns around.)
Curtis: There has to be a better way.
(John stops and turns back around to face Curtis.)
John: I wish there were.
(As John leaves, Curtis looks thoughtful and moves to his computer.)

(Suddenly, as Diaz is making his escape, his car and the road around him pixelate and vanish. He is suddenly strapped in a chair at ARGUS HQ, with a smiling Curtis looking at him.)
Diaz: What the hell just happened?!
Curtis: Well, first I overrode the explosive program that ARGUS put inside your head with a little virtual reality simulation that started running about 20 minutes before you remember getting your sedative. Then.. I owned your ass.
Diaz: You're dead!
Curtis: No. See, that all happened in your head, too. By the way - harsh.
Diaz: (pulling at his restraints) Get me out of here.
Curtis: See, I don't think you're going to want to be getting out of here. Because if you were to do that, Dante would be waiting for you. And I think he's going to be really pissed when he finds out you gave us everything we need to get him.
(Curtis exits the room, not looking back as he speaks one more time.)
Curtis: ARGUS thanks you for your cooperation.

Oliver: I wore that mask for a reason. Now that I've taken it off, maybe the consequences are finally catching up with me.
Dinah: Well, you can't take responsibility for every choice some lunatic makes, you know?
Oliver: No. I have to take responsibility for this. Me being on the force puts your reputation at risk, and it's putting lives in danger.
Dinah: Cops face risks every day. That is the job. And you are not putting anyone's life in danger, not unless you stop fighting for them. You think you're gonna do one interview, and all of a sudden, your problems go away overnight?
Oliver: I think I have been so obsessed with proving to people I'm not my father that I didn't stop and look at all the ways that I am exactly like him. I should have come clean with Sam years ago.
Dinah: But you didn't, and you can't stop the past from haunting you. The only thing you have control over is what you do going forward.

Oliver: My father killed Dave Hackett. The people of Star City deserve the truth.
Rich Kannon: Why come forward now? Hackett has been apprehended. The threat is over.
Oliver: Because transparency is about more than just not wearing a mask. I've made mistakes. I'm sure that I will make mistakes again. But what I will not do is lie. That is my promise to you, the people of Star City.


Dialogue Disasters

Black Siren's entire monologue about her father's death being her fault because she threw a tantrum like a toddler over a cake when she was 13 years old.


Continuity

Oliver appears on the Rich Kannon show with Black Siren to talk about his desire to protect Star City openly as a deputy of the SCPD. She talks about her desire to live up to Quentin's standard as the new DA of Star City.

It is revealed that Oliver approached Emiko and asked what he could do to make things right. She said she wanted nothing to do with him and that the Queen Family destroy everything they touch.

China White last appeared in 514.

Kane Wolfman last appeared in 709.

Carrie "Cupid" Cutter last appeared in 514.

Until now, Curtis was not informed of the meaning of the Dante painting he discovered and how it tied in to Diggle's reactivating The Ghost Initiative to go after a figure called Dante.

According to Diggle, they tracked one of the people who knew how to contact Dante directly to a compound in Egypt. This lead came from Ricardo Diaz.

Lyla refers to the events of 703 and why they need to use the Ghost Initiative to go around the chain of command that oversees ARGUS to investigate Dante.

Curtis is asked to make sure the bomb tech isn't rejected by the bodies of the various recruits.

Black Siren claims that she is not an alcoholic, unlike the Laurel Lance of Earth One.

Felicity says she thinks Quentin would be proud of the person Black Siren has become.

According to a news broadcast, Black Siren is the most popular DA in Star City in the past ten years.

Black Siren is confronted by a man named Brett Collins whom she thinks knows her from Earth Two.

On Earth Two, Brett Collins was the drunk driver who killed Earth Two's Quentin Lance. He is also the first person Black Siren killed after she developed her powers.

Rich Kannon is abducted shortly after leaving his studio, electrocuted by someone whose presence causes power boxes nearby to short out.

A video of a tortured Rich Kannon is sent to Channel 52 news, in which he reads a statement that Oliver Queen is no hero and that people will die if he does not quit the police force.

Black Siren finds a printed note in her office which reads "I FOUND YOU. I CAN GET TO YOU ANYWHERE."

Black Siren makes reference to the events of 704 and how she agreed to help Felicity with torturing The Silencer, no questions asked. She asks Felicity for the same right, when asking for her help in determining no one from Earth Two is on Earth One.

Oliver says the kidnapper is an amateur based on the quality of the video and the execution of how he tortured Rich Kannon. He also uploaded his video to the news from the Wi-Fi of a public coffee shop in the southeastern part of The Glades, apparently unaware that could be traced.

Using satellite imaging, Oliver is able to find the windows seen in the video of Rich Kannon on an abandoned building in the Glades. It is here that he finds Rich Kannon and the kidnapper, who says that people who aren't named Queen have a right to live too.

Oliver recognizes the phrase "people without the last name Queen are human too" from the transcript of his conversations with Dr. Parker from 704. Felicity says those transcripts were censored when she sent them to the press but the DA's office had the full transcripts. This leads to the conclusion that someone hacked the DA's office computers.

When pondering who would be interested in those transcripts, Oliver suggests Felicity look up the name David Hackett - the full name of Robert Queen's personal bodyguard, whom he killed before killing himself in the flashbacks in the series pilot. This leads Oliver to conclude that the kidnapper might be Sam Hackett, David's son, who he met a few times when he was younger.

Sam Hackett has a lengthy rap-sheet, including multiple charges of drunk and disorderly conduct, drug possession and assault.

Black Siren finds another threat in her car. This one says "I'M COMING FOR YOU."

Black Siren confronts a drunken Brett Collins. The only thing that stops her from killing him is the intervention of Felicity Smoak. He pleads ignorance and asks what Earth Two is when Black Siren tells him he should have stayed on Earth Two.

Sam Hackett has a degree in electrical engineering.

Oliver tells Dinah about how his father killed David Hackett. 

When they search Sam Hackett's apartment, Oliver and Dinah find plans for a search trip to the North China Sea. It's then that Oliver realizes that Sam was still holding out hope his father was alive, like him, and that he should have told David the truth to give him closure years ago.

Dinah and Oliver also find plans for some kind of electrical weapon.

Curtis is able to trick Diaz into revealing how to contract Dante thanks to a virtual reality simulation that makes Diaz think he's escaping ARGUS HQ. He kills Curtis during the simulation.

Apparently 77% of Star City wants Oliver Queen fired from his job with the SCPD.

Oliver suggests firing him to stop Hackett from enacting his Plan B. Dinah refuses to consider this.

As a teenager, Black Siren pitched a fit when her father didn't bring her favorite cake for her birthday dinner. He was killed by Brett Collins after he went out to get it for her. Her last words to him were "I hate you."

Oliver guesses that Sam Hackett is using his father's name to find work as an electrician because of his record. His dad's social security number is traced to Star City Electrical - the company whose parts were being used to build some kind of electrical weapon.

Sam Hackett's weapon electrifies the SCPD building to that anything running on electricity and the walls will fatally shock anyone who touches them.

Dinah is able to escape by using a rubber mat as a shield while charging one of the doors and shooting the power box Hackett manipulated.

Oliver goes back on the Rich Kannon show. He tells about how his father killed Dave Hackett before committing suicide. He says he did this in the name of transparency and promises to never lie to the people of Star City again.

Diggle intends to keep the Ghost Initiative program going, saying they may need known criminals as boots on the ground to go after Dante. Curtis, in turn, says that he won't blindly follow orders anymore.

Felicity tells Black Siren that Cisco Ramon checked the records on Earth Two and that their version of Brett Collins died on his porch sometime after Black Siren tried to kill him.

Dinah says the Earth One version of Brett Collins is in lock-up on public intoxication charges. He has a history of stalking and anti-vigilante violence. With that, she thinks she can get him locked up for good given what Black Siren said about the threatening letters she got.

Emiko approaches Oliver after his second interview with Rick Kannon. She says she believes Oliver is different than their father and she is ready to think about talking to him.

When Dinah goes into her car, she finds a note like the ones Black Siren found in her office and car. This one reads


The Winick Factor

The grand reveal of Black Siren's reasons for becoming a villain are just plain idiotic, with a 13 year old girl acting like a 3 year old in regards to getting a cake at her birthday. Worst of all, Black Siren - a character nominally based on one of the strongest women in comic books - has her entire motivation distilled down to Daddy Issues, with nothing being said about her mother or her influence upon her daughter in all of this. Where was Dinah Lance on Earth Two?

To make matters worse, all of this is dismissed in the episode's ending. It turns out Black Siren didn't really kill the Brett Collins of Earth Two. It turns out the Brett Collins of Earth One is a drunken creep and an anti-vigilante activist with a history of stalking and drunken stupidity who had just been arrested, so Dinah can make sure the book is thrown at him, so it all ends happily and there's no reason for Black Siren to feel bad... except for the fact that she's still an unrepentant killer who tried murdering millions less than a year ago.


The Bottom Line

Largely hampered by the latest attempts to try and make Black Siren into a good guy, this episode is an otherwise inoffensive piece of filler. The villain of the week is forgettable. The highlight is Curtis' battle of wits with Diaz and that's largely successful due to Echo Kellum's performance and Ramsey's direction selling the possibility that they really did kill Curtis off. The Oliver/Dinah interaction is also good, but the whole is strictly average.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 10 - My Name Is Emiko Queen

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




Plot

With Oliver now officially hired on with the SCPD, he's ready to focus on helping the police to save the city and start repairing his troubled relationship with Felicity. But when Dinah puts him in charge of tracking down the new Green Arrow, things take a surprising turn. Meanwhile, Lyla and John are brought to task by the Deputy Director of ARGUS for their approaching Ricardo Diaz with a plea bargain.


Influences

The Green Arrow comics of Jeff Lemire (character of Emiko Queen) and Benjamin Percy (criminal financiers run by man called Dante a reference to The Ninth Circle)


Goofs

Why is Curtis willing to help Rene and Emiko?  Everything we've seen in previous episodes suggests he was glad to get vigilantism behind him and was scared of being arrested.


Performances

Sea Shimooka has an impressive first turn as Emiko Queen, immediately making her into a sympathetic protagonist.


Trivia

Two names on Emiko's list of people who were involved in her mother's death are shout-outs to characters from the Green Arrow comics. The first, Nicholas Kotero, was a serial killer who was the first villain Green Arrow fought in the post-Zero Hour timeline in Green Arrow Annual #7 in January 1995.  The second, Scott Notting, was a corrupt Seattle police officer, who led the villainous gang known as The Vice Squad in Green Arrow #12 in February 2017.

The name William Glenmorgan may ring a bell with some comic fans. It is the full name of Congo Bill - a DC comics Great White Hunter jungle comics hero in the Golden Age, who was revamped into the superhero Congorilla after William Glenmorgan was given a ring that allowed him to swap minds with The Great Golden Gorilla.

When Emiko confronts Glenmorgan about why she hunted him, he says he couldn't have killed her mother because he spent the last two years on an undercover mission in Santa Prisca. In the DC Universe, Santa Prisca is an island nation, home to an infamous prison where the Batman villain Bane was born.


Technobabble

William writes a targeted search algorithm that can use the Archer Program to search Star City for bombs.


Dialogue Triumphs

Emiko Queen: The world is not a fair place. Innocent people die while the guilty go free. The system is broken, filled with corruption, greed and apathy. The people who are supposed to protect us are failing us. Criminals continue to walk the streets because no one is willing to stop them. The world may not be fair, but everyone deserves justice and someone looking out for them.

(Dinah and Oliver enter the crime scene.)
Dinah: Game time, rookie! You ready?
Oliver: This isn't my first crime scene, Dinah.
Dinah: (beaming) No, but it's your first one as an SCPD Deputy, so try not to screw it up, huh?

Rene: Look, you're doing a lot of good out there. And you obviously care about The Glades. Let me help you.
Emiko: You have no idea what I care about.
Rene: If Oliver Queen knew anything, it's that you can't save the city alone.
Emiko: I'm not Oliver Queen.

Felicity: Some husbands bring their wives home flowers and mine brings me blood from a crime scene. And they say romance is dead.
(Felicity leans in and kisses Oliver.)

Emiko: People say that revenge corrupts the soul. That if you go down that path, you'll never come back. But sometimes embracing the darkness is the only way to get justice. My name is Emiko Queen. I will get justice for my mother. And no one will stand in my way.


Continuity

Emiko Queen has a list of evildoers, much like the one Oliver Queen had as The Hood.

Oliver is now officially a Deputy with the SCPD.

Emiko Queen has a contact named Marco with one of Star City's gangs, who gives her information on William Glenmorgan.

William Glenmorgan has been hired for a few sensitive jobs, along with the Bratva and Irish mobs. He's currently in Star City contracting with Talis Global Security.

According to Rene, Talis Global Security is a disreputable firm that recruits Navy SEALS, mercenaries and assassins for various covert jobs.

Emikio goes to Rene Ramirez after she is shot in the shoulder while escaping Talis Global Security.

According to Dinah, the new Green Arrow has been leaving felons on her doorstep almost every night for a while.

The trace of blood on the broken glass which Oliver finds is the first solid lead they've had as to the new Green Arrow's identity.

Rene is capable of stitching up a bullet wound on his own.

Lyla has spent three days trying to get Diaz to talk about Dante and his organization.

Lyla says that Dante paid off Ricardo Diaz's debt to The Longbow Hunters.

Felicity rigs up a DNA scanner on the door of her and Oliver's new apartment that tells her if who is entering the apartment matches her list of approved people.

Oliver says that Roy Harper is on another continent when Felicity asks if Roy might be the new Green Arrow.

Felicity runs a DNA test and determines that the new Green Arrow is a woman who shares some of Oliver Queen's DNA on his father's side and that it isn't Thea Queen.

Felicity determines theirs no records of Robert Queen having another daughter anywhere in the USA.

Felicity refers to the events of Elseworlds and Oliver fighting alongside Batwoman.

Robert Queen used an off-shore account to handle some of his more sensitive financial transactions. Felicity tracks a series of transactions to M&H Storage in Orchid Bay. The account is still active but, curiously, the account is registered in Moira Queen's name.

John Diggle offers to let Diaz go free if he can deliver Dante to ARGUS.

John proposes reactivating The Ghost Initiative - an ARGUS program employed expendable criminals for covert operations. It was originally shut down after the death of Amanda Waller in 411.

Emiko sends Rene Ramirez a message on an arrow, asking him to meet her at 23 Cedarhurst Avenue.

Oliver discovers a letter from his father to Walter Steele, in which he confesses loving a woman besides Moira and having a daughter with her. He asks Walter to take care of the daughter and do right by her.

Kazumi Adachi was the name of Emiko Queen's mother.

Oliver concludes that his mother found the letter and hid it from Walter after discovering Robert's second secret family.

Emiko lived with her mother in The Glades all her life. She says she and her mother were given a box by Robert Queen containing a quilt. They used the quilt to make a fort to play in when she was a girl.

Kazumi Adachi was killed by William Glenmorgan. Emiko determined this by tracking the specific make of bullets Glemnorgan used.

Rene recognizes the other names on Emiko's crime-board.  They include Jon Cortez from 704 and Jason Stent from 701. Respectively, they were the arsonist who tried to cover up Kazumi Adachi's murder by burning her apartment complex and Jason Stent was the arms dealer who sold the rifle that killed her.

Glenmorgan has a compound outside of Star City.

Rene asks Curtis to help him and Emiko with taking out the security system on Glemorgan' compound.

Glemorgan glaims to not be a gunman.

Glenmorgan claims he was set-up, having been in Santa Prisca for the last two years on a covert mission and that he just got back into the USA one month earlier.

Rene offers to help Emiko keep looking for her mother's killer.

Felicity encourages Oliver to reach out to Emiko and welcome her into his life.

Ricardo Diaz has a bomb and tracker implanted in the back of his head.

The episode ends with Oliver approaching Emiko at their father's grave.

In the future of 2038. Rene Ramirez is the mayor of The Glades (which is now a separate city from Star City) and credited as the man who single-handedly cleaned up that part of town.

Zoe Ramirez is her father's chief of staff and has been out sick for three days.

The Archer Program is a city-wide security system that keeps The Glades safe.

Rene says that The Archer Program fell into the wrong hands once and the city barely recovered.

Rene refuses to let The Archer Program be used to help stop the bombings in Star City.

Dinah is easily able to sneak up on Rene.

Dinah shows Rene the bombing plan they found in Felicity's lair.

Rene says that Felicity became a criminal, but is stunned by the news she is dead.

Rene, Dinah, Roy, Diggle, Oliver and Felicity were the six heroes who got The Mark of Four tattoo and reminds him of their promise to each other.

Rene threatens to have Dinah arrested if he sees her again. She in turn threatens him, saying that the last time they saw each other it didn't end well for him.

Dinah says she still believes Rene to be a good man, even if he has lost his way.

Rene is revealed to be working with a man who is a part of the bombing plot. Rene informs the man that The Canaries know about plot but says there might be another way to achieve their goal. The man dismisses this saying Star City is a cancer and the only way to deal with a cancer is to destroy it.

The man admits to knowing Felicity Smoak was killed and describes her as a liability to be dealt with.


Location

The Glades - 2038.


The Bottom Line

A surprisingly solid episode despite nothing about it standing out. The script is pretty basic and more concerned with introduction and information than sparkling dialogue or stunning twists. Then again, given how badly Arrow has flubbed its grand gestures in Season 7, this is a welcome change. It may not be the most memorable episode ever but it does a fine job of establishing the new status quo.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 8 - Unmasked

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




Plot

Oliver is freed from prison, but there's a growing friction between him and Felicity as he discovers how she's changed while he was behind bars. The murder of a philanthropist by a green arrow almost proves a welcome distraction, but the mayor is ill-pleased by Dinah's efforts to bring Oliver in as a consultant on the case and her refusal to assume that the new Green Arrow is involved. Meanwhile, John and Lyla continue to investigate the mystery of the Dante painting Curtis discovered and seek the aid of an unlikely ally.


Influences

The Green Arrow comics of Jeff Lemire (character of Emikio Queen) and Benjamin Percy (references to Ninth Circle and Dante.)


Goofs

The episode acts as if Sam Hutchinson's murder was an accident at first, before it is revealed that he and Clayton Ford were both targets.


Artistry

The action sequence of Oliver fighting through the club hallway is a great one.


Trivia

Though she is not named in the episode, the woman revealed as the new Green Arrow seems to be the Arrowerse version of  Emikio Queen. First appearing in Green Arrow #18 (May 2013), Emikio was the illegitimate daughter of Robert Queen and the assassin Shado. Kidnapped as an infant, she was raised by the assassin Kodomo, who taught her how to wield a bow and taught her to hate the Queen family as much as he did. Eventually Emiko learned the truth of her heritage, but still attempted to replace her brother as Green Arrow, eventually convincing him to take her on as an apprentice crime-fighter. In the comics, she currently uses the name of Red Arrow and is a member of the Teen Titans.

All we know about the new Green Arrow at this point is that she is highly skilled and that Robert Queen is her father. She is also surprised to see that Oliver Queen is far better in battle than she thought after seeing him up-close.

There are several characters who use the alias Blackstar in DC Comics, but none of them seem to be a direct parallel to the character introduced in this episode. One was a Supergirl villain, Blackstarr, who was a matter-manipulator and a Nazi. One was a spy who crossed paths with the Blackhawk Squadron. Blackstar was also the name of a crime boss who once fought The Seven Soldiers of Victory.It was also the name of a Firestorm villain who claimed to be a living black hole.

The Arrowverse version of Blackstar is a club owner and information broker in Star City 2038. She is a master martial artist, capable of defeating larger and stronger opponents in a cage fight.

Lyla lists several terrorist groups as being among those using the Dante painting as an identifier. Among them are Kobra, Basilisk and The Third World Liberation Army. All of these are actual terrorist groups from the DC Comics Universe.

Kobra is a religious, snake-themed terrorist cell, created by Jack Kirby, which first appeared in Kobra #1 (February 1976)

Basilisk was a terrorist group that made use of advanced technology and metahuman soldiers. They first appeared in Suicide Squad #8 (June 2012)

The Third World Liberation Army was a terrorist group in The Flash #1 (June 1987) who had the misfortune to hijack a plane on which Wally West was a passenger.

Lyla's pursuit of a financial organization run by someone called Dante who gives money to terrorist groups seems to be a reference to The Ninth Circle. First appearing in Green Arrow Rebirth #1 (August 2016), The Ninth Circle is a cabal of bankers, corporate executives and politicians dedicated to unfettered capitalism. The organization runs various illegal enterprises including money laundering for white collar criminals, funneling money to assassins and mercenaries and human trafficking.


Technobabble

Blackstar says Felicity asked her to find an electrical firing circuit and a couple of transmitters - components for a bomb.

Max Fuller's club has a sound system that he claims is the best outside of Europe. It is run by an AI that adjusts the acoustic environment based on capacity. He claims he paid for the whole thing with crypto currency he mined himself and all it cost him was the USB drive he stores it on.


Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: A lot of people are mad at me, Felicity. I lied to them. They have a right to be mad.
Felicity: Which is exactly why this event is so important. They want to publicly recognize you as a hero. And after all the lives you saved at Slabside, let them see you for who you really are. Without a mask.
Oliver: I mean, you're probably right-
Felicity: (smirking) Oh, I'm always right.
(Oliver just squeezes her hand and stands up, pulling her up with him.Oliver: You will always be the best part of me, for the rest of my life.
Felicity: (smiling) You remember!
Oliver: Of course I remember. Happy Anniversary.
Felicity: Happy Anniversary.
(The two kiss and quickly find themselves falling back onto their bed as we pan away.)

Rene: This event is messed up. Rich folk and politicians fronting like they actually care about prison reform. If everybody in here actually gave a crap, they'd use that money to help people in hard-up neighborhoods, who end up in the system because they don't have anything else.
(Dinah gives Rene the side-eye and smiles a bit.)
Rene: What?
Dinah: You ever think about running for office?
(Rene looks horrified at the thought.)

Oliver: I used to believe that justice was as simple as putting criminals behind bars. But then I spent some time in prison and I realized that the truth is nowhere near that black and white. The truth is that our institutions have a long way to go before we achieve true justice.

(Oliver is going through Dinah's notes on the new Green Arrow.)
Oliver: It says here the SCPD almost arrested him last month, but he had an accomplice?
Rene: Uh... yeah. That... that was me.
(Oliver gives Rene "the look".)
Rene: I, um... I didn't want Dinah to lock him up.
Oliver: (sarcastically) Well, I bet she really appreciated that.
Rene: She threw my ass in jail!
Oliver: I'm really sorry I missed that.

Max Fuller: You mind if I ask you a question? They sent you to prison for helping this city. Why the hell should you care about any of this?
Oliver: Old habits. I guess some people don't change that much after all.

Oliver: I've barely been gone 7 months, and you've aligned yourself with two of the most immoral people that we know?!
Felicity:  Oliver, you don't get to judge me.
Oliver: You just shot a man in our living room.
Felicity:  Something you've done a million times!
Oliver: Hey, this isn't you. You don't obsess over security. You certainly don't carry a gun.
Felicity: This is me, Oliver! Not because I was influenced by Laurel or Anatoly. This is me because of you! You were the one that decided all on your own that you were going to sacrifice yourself, leaving your son and your wife alone at home as sitting ducks for Diaz! And the best part about the whole thing is that you didn't even ask us about how we felt about it!
Oliver: I've already apologized for this. I don't know how many times you need me to apologize.
Felicity: What am I supposed to do with an apology, Oliver? I'm just supposed to move on? While you were gone, I had to figure out how to survive. And I am glad that I did because the old me? She was weak.
Oliver: How could you possibly think that? The old you was the person I fell in love with.
Felicity: Well... (pauses, speaking more firmly) she's gone. And she's not coming back.

(Rene suggests Ollie become Green Arrow again to bring in Max Fuller.)
Oliver: I can't risk being separated from my family, Rene. I can't do it.
Dinah: (thoughtful) I might know a way you can.
Oliver: Even if you did, Pollard would never stand for it.
Dinah: Pollard wanted me to restore the city's faith in this department, and that is never gonna happen if we keep treating our heroes like criminals. It's time the mayor realizes that.
Oliver: Dinah, I trust you. But you have to be sure.
Dinah: Half this city believes in the vigilante because they were hoping it was you. Now they don't have to hope anymore.
(There is a long pause as Oliver consider this.)
Oliver: Okay.

Oliver: If Star City wants to hate the Green Arrow... that's fine. They'll have to hate me too.

Felicity: I love you more than a human being should love another human being. I just don't know if what's best for me right now is the same thing as what's best for us.

(We see the woman from the opening scene who is the new Green Arrow by a tombstone.)
Woman: Hey, Dad. Turns out Oliver is more like you than I thought. More like me, too. But I'm not giving up. Not ever.
(We pull around to see that the tombstone the woman is speaking at belongs to Robert Queen.)

(A Caption Box reads Earth-90 as we see the aftermath of a war and numerous people in costumes lying on the ground, dead. Eventually we come to a figure in a somewhat familiar red suit crawling on the ground toward a large book that is glowing purple. A figure walks over and picks the book up before he can reach it.)
The Monitor: You failed.
(The figure in red pulls himself up to his knees. It is The Flash. Not the Flash we know, but definitely The Flash.)
The Flash: (gasping) Why are you doing this?
The Monitor: You did this to yourselves. And now... all of you will perish.
(The Monitor opens the book and light pours from it. As he does so, The Flash stands and runs toward the camera, as a familiar theme to older comic book TV show fans plays, as we zoom in on his chest symbol....) 


Continuity

The new Green Arrow is a woman.

Oliver has a PTSD flashback to being attacked in the shower in 701 when Felicity walks in on him showering.

Oliver's first public appearance since being released is a fundraiser for prison reform, where he is being honored for what he did to expose the corruption in Slabside.

Max Fuller is the owner of what most consider the nicest club in Star City. He appeared in 103, when he had his security beat up Oliver Queen and Tommy Merlyn because Oliver had slept with his wife.

Oliver's first meal after getting out of prison was a Double Double Big Belly Burger

Clayton Ford, a philanthropist who tries to help The Glades and financed a clinic there, was apparently the intended target of the assassination attempt at the prison reform fundraiser. Another man named Sam Hutchison was killed instead.

Mayor Pollard is quick to blame the killings on the new Green Arrow and orders Dinah to bring him in ASAP.

Rene says he thinks the new Green Arrow is innocent and not a killer.

Oliver asks if there is any law against him being brought in to help the police track the new Green Arrow as an official consultant.

Rene says the new Green Arrow is no rookie, being efficient, disciplined, precise and nearly as good with a bow as Oliver.

Rene tells Oliver about how he helped the new Green Arrow to evade capture in both 701 and 704.

Oliver notes that the arrows used by the new Green Arrow and the assassin were both hand-made and that the materials in the arrowheads seem to match. He says that someone copying the fletching and composition so precisely would be difficult, but not impossible.

Rene has a way to contact the new Green Arrow.

Lyla determined a link between the Dante painting from 705. It is used as an identifier among terrorist groups, who appear to be channeling funds through and receiving funds from a figure called Dante.

Lyla tracks five payments from Dante to a consulting firm named Rubrum, Silentium and Ursa. These are the Latin words for Red, Silence and Bear. She determines that this firm is tied to The Longbow Hunters.

Oliver, Dinah and Rene attempt to meet with the new Green Arrow, who uses a voice modulator to disguise her voice. She refuses to talk to them and runs for it when Oliver asks if they are a killer.

Ironically, this helps to prove the new Green Arrow is innocent, as there is another murder at the same time Ollie, Dinah and Rene are chasing the new Green Arrow.  This fact does not convince Mayor Pollard of the new Green Arrow's innocence, however.

The second victim of the copycat Green Arrow is Clayton Ford, who was apparently in the middle of leaving town when he was shot in the chest with a green arrow.

Oliver determines that Hutchinson and Ford were both part of the Scroll and Key Society at Yale. Playing a hunch, he decides to talk to Max Fuller (who was also part of the group) to ask if he might know who might be trying to kill them.

Fuller says he knew "Clay and Hutch" well enough to mourn them, but he hadn't been in touch with them recently. He claims to have heard rumors they both had business dealings with the Triads.

Felicity and Oliver are attacked in their apartment by a man in using a bow and arrows.

It is revealed that Felicity still has the gun that Anatoly gave her in 706.

The assassin who tried to kill Oliver and Felicity is identified as Frank Cassady aka The Mirror - a hired killer who specializes in mimicking the fighting styles and M.O. of other killers.

Oliver deduces that Fuller hired Cassady after finding out Cassady had a flash-drive full of crypto-currency on him. 

Felicity had already determined that Fuller had lied about his dealings with Ford and Hutchinson, and that both men had cut ties with Fuller because of his own shady dealings.

The Bunker is still in disrepair.

The FBI still has Oliver's last Green Arrow costume.

Diggle gives Ollie the Green Arrow costume that Ollie gave him in 623.

Oliver leaves the mask behind in The Bunker.

Dinah is able to work around the anti-vigilante law by officially employing Oliver as a consultant. Technically, Oliver isn't operating as a vigilante if he is working with the police officially. She also says the D.A. has already sided with them.

Mayor Pollard tells Oliver that this isn't over.

The only lead Diggle and Lyla have on tracking down Dante is Ricardo Diaz.

The new Green Arrow visits Robert Queen's grave and talks to him, addressing him as "Dad."

Max Fuller's club in Star City in 2018 is an underground fight club frequented by Darkstar in 2038.

Dinah makes reference to something called The Canary Network that gets her information.

Blackstar is revealed to be a blonde woman who runs the fight club and fights in it herself. She also acts as a broker who procures things for other people.

Blackstar knows Dinah is Black Canary and calls her out for pretending to be some kind of hero. She uses the word vigilante as a slur.

Blackstar says Dinah is part of the reason why Star City is a mess.

Blackstar claims to have only dealt with Felicity to sell her bomb parts.

William doesn't normally drink.

Ollie designed a symbol called The Mark of Four, which resembles an archery target struck by four arrows, two of which are crossed. Dinah has it as a tattoo on the inside of her upper right arm.

Oliver designed The Mark of Four to represent what he called the Four Pillars of Heroism- Courage, Compassion, Selflessness and Loyalty.

According to Dinah, the people Oliver trusted most got The Mark of Four as a tattoo as a reminder that if one of them was in trouble, the others would be there to help.

She tells William that the only reason Roy agreed to help him was because someone left The Mark Of Four on a message inside the hidden compartment of Ollie's bow.

Dinah says that William has Ollie's gift for looking beyond the evidence to see the bigger truth.

William thinks that Blackstar isn't telling them the whole story. This leads to him, Zoe and Dinah trying to break into her office later.

William, Dinah and Zoe find plans for the bomb designs and bombing of Star City in Blackstar's office that match those they found on Felicity's computer. They conclude that Blackstar is part of the plot, though they still don't know if she killed Felicity or if Felicity honestly was part of the conspiracy.

Dinah suggests the only place they can go to stop the bombing is The Glades and the only person who might have the power to stop it is Rene Ramirez.

Zoe and her father had some kind of falling out.

The final scene on Earth-90 was also shown at the end of .S408.



Location

Star City - 2038.
Earth-90


The Bottom Line

A definite step-up from last week, which sets up a new status quo for the second half of season 7. We have some idea of what to expect involving the new Green Arrow. Sadly, it looks like we've got more Longbow Hunters and Ricardo Diaz nonsense in the future. Thankfully, it looks like Team Arrow may be back in business in some capacity soon enough.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 7, Episode 7 - The Slabside Redemption

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




Plot

Faced with the realization that he helped frame an innocent man for murder, Oliver Queen is looking for a way to make amends to Ben Turner. Freedom is the last thought on his mind, until his friends and family arrange a plea-bargain to free Oliver in exchange for the captured Ricardo Diaz. Unfortunately, Diaz has his own mad plans and Oliver will be forced to make a choice that will forever change his life and the lives of everyone he cares for.


Influences

Supermax (David Goyer's unproduced "Green Arrow in prison" movie.), the Batman: Arkham Asylum video game (plot of a hero trapped in a prison with a number of villains, while his worst enemy taunts him over the public address system) and The Shawshank Redemption (title, plot involving a good man being sent to prison and his eventual escape)


Goofs

Oliver seems to shrug off the sedative Stanley gave him really quickly.

Slabside does not seem to have any kind of fire suppression system, in violation of numerous federal laws that not only require prisons have sprinkler systems but have specially designed sprinkler systems that cannot be tampered with.

The CGI fire effects are painfully obvious, particularly in the shot where Diaz says "I'm a lot stronger now."

John Diggle vanishes completely in the pull-away shot from the prison as Felicity and Oliver kiss.


Performances

Michael Jai White has a fantastic turn here as Ben Turner. Hopefully Oliver will be able to make good on his promise and we'll get to see him more in Season 7 as a special ARGUS agent.


Stephen Amell manages a perfect intensity as Oliver Queen in this episode, and you can see the change to the man he was in his eyes.


Artistry

Whatever else may be said about this episode, the fight scenes are all fantastic.


Trivia

Stanley's full name in this episode is conformed to be Stanley Dover. In the comics, Stanley Dover was the name of a serial killer and sorcerer who preyed on children, known as the Star City Slayer. He befriended an amnesiac Oliver Queen in the story Quiver, intending to use dark sorcery to place his soul inside Oliver's body. His plans were eventually stopped by The Monster - a friendly demon who had attached itself to Stanley Dover's grandson.


Technobabble.

Slabside Penitentiary is a Level 4 Super-Max Facility. It has 50 guards on duty at any time, each of them a trained professional.

When your femoral artery is cut, you have maybe six minutes before you bleed to death.

The Longbow Hunters left Diaz a device capable of blocking all the phone signals in and out of Slabside Penitentiary.

Diaz's device also allows him to trigger an electrical fire after pulling two wires out of the wall in the middle of the prison cafeteria and touching them together. This also shorts out the security system.


Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver Queen: I'm gonna speak to Lyla Michaels at ARGUS. And... I'll just... see if we can make some kind of deal. Okay?
Ben Turner: Yeah. I know how much promises are worth to people like you. Especially when you make them to people like me.
Oliver Queen: That's not true.
Ben Turner: Yeah? You think I'm a criminal. You said it yourself. And criminals belong behind bars. Isn't that right?
Oliver Queen: I think that years ago you saved Lyla's life. Now, I don't know if you can be that kind of hero again. But I think you deserve the chance to try.

Oliver Queen: Ricardo Diaz is here and he will not think twice about killing us all!
Brick: No. He won't think twice about killing you. You see, I just met him. He seems a reasonable chap.

(Ben Turner has just helped Oliver fight Brick and Derek Sampson)
Oliver Queen: Turner? How did you get out of your cell?
Ben Turner: How did you get out of yours?

(Oliver is trying to get Bronze Tiger to help him take on Diaz.)
Ben Turner: There's no "we." I saved your ass so you could get me a deal with ARGUS. Doesn't mean we're some kind of team.
Oliver Queen: Did you hear Diaz? He's killing hostages. You said I was wrong about you? You said you've changed?  Prove it.

Oliver Queen: Hey, maybe... maybe prison has changed me? Compromised my judgement of people?
Ben Turner: You sure that's a bad thing? (pauses) Look.... no offense, but the old Green Arrow? He wasn't the best. He saw the world in black and white. But now you? You know there's grey out there too. Maybe that makes you a better hero?

Ben Turner: I know it's bad for you, but do you really think you're going to stop Diaz with a can of soda?
Oliver Queen: We're about to find out.


Dialogue Disasters

Just about every moment of Kirk Acevedo's hammy performance.

Stanley's "I didn't have a choice" speech.

Diaz: I promised myself I'm never gonna die in prison and I'm gonna take you with me! (To make this worse, this line is said as he's standing in the middle of a prison cafeteria)


Continuity

Oliver is told to be ready to be escorted to Receiving and Releasing in six hours.

Ricardo Diaz paid off one of the guards taking him to Slabside to help him escape.

Stanley asks Oliver to get Laurel to help him with his appeal.

Oliver tells Stanley he knows he killed Dunbar and that he will see him face justice once he is out of prison.

Oliver tells Brick that he'll never see him again after that day, though Brick says Queen will be back in prison sooner or later.

Oliver tells Ben Turner that he is going to get him out of The Hole and try and get him released into something like the Suicide Squad program. He also makes reference to Ben Turner saving Lyla Michaels' life in 216.

Oliver finishes reading The Count of Monte Cristo and focuses upon the final words "Wait and Hope."

Diaz goes to visit Oliver in the visitor's area.

Diaz tells Oliver that he was told that Oliver was being released that day and couldn't let his last chance at payback get away.

Oliver kept the materials to create an explosive hidden in his shaving kit. He uses them to free himself from his cell.

Ben Turner escapes his cell as well and helps Oliver to save some of the guards.

Stanley drugs Oliver to try and get him to help him escape through the morgue.

Derek Sampson is set on fire when the cafeteria is set on fire.

Diaz rips up Oliver's picture of Felicity and William.

Oliver beats Diaz up, leaving him locked inside his cell.

Stanely's last name is confirmed to be Dover.

Stanley Dover kills Brick before making his escape through the morgue.

Ben Turner is Inmate 5545.

Oliver leaves his copy of The Count of Monte Cristo in Ben Turner's cell.

One of the guards thanks Ben Turner for saving his life.

John Diggle and Felicity Smoak are waiting for Oliver as he leaves prison.


Location

Slabside Penitentiary


The Winick Factor

Everything about Diaz's plan to attack Slabside Penitentiary requires a Winickian level of coincidence and plot convenience to work. From there only being one guard on the drive to the prison (who Diaz is able to convince to take a bribe on credit), to his being able to work his way into the visitors area without ID, to somehow managing to run into the only guards in Slabside whose response to people being where they shouldn't be is to ask them who they are instead of going straight for the taser.


The Bottom Line

A horribly uneven mess. The fight choreography is fantastic and Stephen Amell and Michael Jai White have great chemistry together, which makes their scenes together magic. By contrast, every moment Kirk Acevedo is allowed to make dramatic speeches with randomly emphasized words and dramatic pauses is like fingernails on the chalkboard of your soul and the CGI is horribly applied in certain key scenes. Still, the good outweighs the bad... barely... and promises a lot more good in the future.