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 6, Episode 2 - Tribute

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


Plot

As the FBI launches an investigation into the ties between Green Arrow and Star City's mayor, Ollie's former ally - Bratva Captain Anatoly Knyazev - returns to Star City with revenge on his mind. Does Anatoly have something to do with Oliver's identity being outed in the media? Or is another enemy responsible?


Influences

The Green Arrow comics of Judd Winick (Oliver tries to balance being mayor and a vigilante as various forces try to expose his identity and/or bring him down.) and Mike Grell's The Longbow Hunters (Oliver's talk with Rene is reminiscent of the "I won't make orphans" conversation he has with Dinah Lance in this story.)


Goofs

Oliver setting a Russian thug on fire using a stove top doesn't seem to fit with the team's non-lethal force policy.

Oliver says that he's never lied to his kid before. He seems to be forgetting that he lied to William about just being a friend of his mom during the few times they met and played before William was abducted by Damien Darhk.

Oliver asks John Diggle to replace him as Green Arrow because he can't afford to risk William's only parent. This still seems like a dick move on Oliver's part given that John Diggle is also a father with a young son, even if John Jr's mother is still alive.


Performances

Juliana Harkavy and David Ramsey do a great job playing off each other as Dinah confronts John about the secret he is keeping from the team.

If you had told me that the best scene of this episode would involve Oliver Queen and Rene Ramirez talking about fatherhood, I wouldn't have believed it. Yet Stephen Amell and Rick Gonzalez rock that moment.


Artistry

The top-down view of Oliver as he enters City Hall and faces the mob of reporters is a nice arty shot.

Intentionally awkward as it is, the lampshade-hanging dialogue between Felicity and Curtis as to just how the heck they are paying their bills is hilarious and a nice "take that" to the pedantic fans who like to know these details.

Good cinematography and fight choreography on Team Arrow's storming the Russian restaurant hideout.

There's a nice dramatic shot as Green Arrow and Spartan look over the entire shipyard they have one hour to search.


Trivia

The episode opens with the same introduction as in Season Five, with Oliver explaining that he is Mayor of Star City as well as The Green Arrow.

When holding a press conference to address the photos that show him in Green Arrow's costume, Oliver glibly remarks that they could have doctored Bruce Wayne's head onto that body and jokingly asks if Bruce Wayne left Gotham to come to Star City recently. Bruce Wayne, of course, is the secret identity of The Batman - probably the most famous billionaire playboy vigilante in all of comics. This is the first direct reference made to Bruce Wayne existing in The Arrowverse with a character talking about him directly. Previous props have suggested the existence of Bruce Wayne and Batman, such as a future newspaper from The Flash mentioning a Wayne Tech/Queen Inc. merger in 2024.

Quentin refers to Oliver having been caught "in flagrante de-Arrow." This is a paraphrase of the Latin phrase "in flagrante delicto" - literally, "in blazing offense".  Legally, it is used to refer to a criminal who has been caught in the act of committing a crime. An equivalent idiom in English would be "caught red-handed". The phrase is also referred to use to someone being caught in the middle of sexual activity, usually in an embarrassing fashion, such as being found to be cheating on a spouse or being discovered having sex in a public place.

Oliver says he can't leave town because of a meeting with a delegation from Markovia. In the comics, Markovia is located in Western Europe between France, Belgium and Luxembourg. It is home to the hero Geo-Force, who is its hereditary king.

The episode stinger features a new logo, which incorporates logos for all the members of Team Arrow. This includes a bird (Black Canary), an angry cartoon dog's face (Wild Dog), a stylized T (Mr. Terrific), an eye (Overwatch),  a Spartan-style helmet (Spartan) and an arrowhead (Arrow)

Tetrodotoxin is a real-world neurotoxin, mainly found in the liver and gonads of certain fish, amphibians, shellfish and octopi.


Technobabble

Channel 52 uses bar-codes to track internal traffic. The envelope containing the photo of an unmasked Green Arrow came from inside their offices. It was not mailed, delivered or otherwise sent.

Felicity created an image analysis algorithm. Curtis later recodes it to make it more efficient.

The photo of Oliver was taken digitally, printed on a standard ink-jet printer on stock paper.

Curtis is coding in SQL and Java, plus a little Swift, in his new job.

Tetrodotoxin is a neurotoxin that inhibits the firing of action potentials, preventing the nervous from carrying messages and muscles from flexing in response to nervous stimulation. The antidote begins working immediately, but an infected subject typically takes 72 hours to recover fully.

Felicity knows how to code in Python.

Oliver makes use of a trick arrow with a hypodermic needle on the tip to inject Tarkov with the antidote to the terodotoxin.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Oliver walks in through the front door of City Hall. A small army of reporters is waiting there.)
Oliver: Anything interesting on the news last night?
(The reporters begin to shout questions as Oliver makes his way to the top of the stairs.)
Oliver: (raising his voice) Please! If you want to know what I have to say, it would probably help if you could hear me.
(The reporters go silent. Oliver smiles.)
Oliver: Thank you. I'm going to tell you two things. Both of which you probably already know. First, and this is important...I am not The Green Arrow!
Female Reporter: If you're not The Green Arrow, then who is?!
Oliver: (raising his voice again) Number two! Photos can be doctored! They could have put Bruce Wayne's head on that body! (aside to Rene, who is standing to his left) Has Bruce Wayne left Gotham to hang out in Star City recently?  No! (tone growing more sarcastic) Now, if I was running around the city during the day and managing it as mayor while running around at night frightening criminals as a vigilante, that really would make me a superhero. But I'm not. I'm just the mayor. Thank you very much.
(Oliver turns away from the reporters, followed by Rene and Quentin.)
Quentin: You seem to be taking this in your stride.
Oliver: I've been here before with you.
Quentin: (sighs) Yeah, but I didn't have a photograph of you in flagrante de-Arrow.

(Felicity and Curtis are discussing how they are making ends meet since leaving Palmer Tech and how Curtis had been doing freelance coding in his spare time.)
Felicity: So you just had a secret job this whole time and you didn't tell anyone about it?!
Curtis: I thought we all had secret jobs?
Felicity: No!
Curtis: Except for John. Maybe. What does he do for money? That's something that's been perplexing me.
Felicity: He's - he's married to the Director of ARGUS.
Curtis: Oh yeah. That's right. She does make a lot of money. Heh.
(Felicity gives Curtis a death glare.)

Anatoly: Don't worry. We are not here for you. We have business with our Markovian cousins.
Oliver: These are legitimate businessmen.
Anatoly: I never said my business was not legitimate. Unless you know something maybe a mayor should not know?

William: You wouldn't understand...
Oliver: I do understand. I lost my mom. And I lost my dad. And I was a lot older than you are now, but I remember exactly how it feels. It's sad and it's scary and it's lonely. And I swear to God I will never let that happen to you.
William: It's not up to you.

(Oliver answers his phone. It is Anatoly.)
Anatoly: Hello, Oliver.
Oliver: Anatoly. Why are you doing this?
Anatoly: I need money. And from what I understand, your city recently came into possession of twenty million dollars.
Oliver: There are plenty of cities in Russia.
Anatoly: Hmm - true. Beautiful ones. But you see, I have been exiled. Apparently Bratva thinks I am too weak due to my friendship with you. So now, I show everyone. (harshly) I am not weak. And you and I? No longer friends. (mock friendly) I know sometimes you need persuasion to do right thing, so I help you (turns his camera phone to reveal his hostage) This nice man? Has paralysis of muscles. Soon, will have lung collapse and not be able to breathe. This happens in maybe... three hours?  Now, I have cure for his problems. Do you have cure for mine?

Rene: Lance told me about what happened at school. Kids are mean.
Oliver: He's not worried about bullies. He's worried about me. He thinks I'm going to make him an orphan.
Rene: Damn.
Oliver: I told him... I said, "That will not happen. I will always come back." (pause)  I've never lied to my kid before.
(There's a long pause as Rene seems to struggle of something to think to say.)
Rene: You know... I'm not exactly Father Of The Year, but... white lies are kind of an important parental tool. I remember telling Zoe that she came from a cloud. I really hope her mom set her straight on that one.
Oliver: So help me with this. How do I reconcile... that he's right? Because every time that I'm in the field, there's a chance I don't come back. And that he's alone. And now you're telling me that he's gonna have to lie to an FBI agent so he doesn't lose his father to prison?

(Green Arrow finds Anatoly standing behind a seated, comatose Tarkov.)
Anatoly: I ask for twenty million specifically because I knew you had it. You trade this man's life for new police station?
Green Arrow: Not exactly.
(Green Arrow draws an arrow and shoots Tarkov in the shoulder.)
Anatoly: I do not think you understand how this whole rescue thing works.
Green Arrow: No, I think I do.
(Tarkov suddenly gasps. Anatoly looks down and sees the needle-tip on the arrowhead.)
Anatoly: Some sort of antidote. Very clever.
Green Arrow: Now step away from him Anatoly. He's not part of this.
Anatoly: I made him part of this.
(A bullet suddenly flies through Tarkov's other shoulder. Anatoly reveals the gun he had trained on his back with his hidden hand.)
Anatoly: And I never got my money.
Green Arrow: What the hell has happened to you? Not even Gregor would have done that!
Anatoly: Yes, he would have. You never saw because you were too naive. You still are.
Green Arrow: We were friends.
Anatoly: Yes. But I see how you treat your friends.
Green Arrow: No, Anatoly. No. This is on you. You used to be an honorable man!
Anatoly: I -am- an honorable man. Did I have bomb planted in your son's school? Did I have him kidnapped? Tortured? No. Because even though we stand apart, I am still good man. I wonder... what would happen to William if he ran afoul of someone who is not good?
(Anatoly turns to leave. Green Arrow reaches up to draw an arrow.)
Green Arrow: Anatoly! Don't you move!
Anatoly: Don't bluff. We have been here before. We both know you will not kill me.
(Green Arrow stares at him... then slowly lowers his drawing hand.)
Green Arrow: Why did you leak that picture of me?
Anatoly: As Kapiushon? (shakes his head) I did not. I told you. I am honorable man.


Continuity

Quentin refers to his own efforts to prove that Oliver Queen was a vigilante in Season One and Season Three, back when he was a police officer.

Star City is being visited by a delegation from Markovia -a country which has been mentioned several times on the show and was visited by John Diggle and The Suicide Squad in 216.

Smandra Watson is the FBI agent in charge of the investigation into Oliver Queen's ties to Green Arrow.

Oliver refers to having been cleared of being a vigilante five years earlier in 105 . Agent Watson replies that he was cleared of being The Hood - not Green Arrow.

Oliver passed a polygraph test regarding his being a vigilante in 105.

Felicity refers to the events of 105 and John Diggle posing as The Hood to ruin the case against Oliver while he was under house arrest.

Curtis refers to Christopher Chance and the events of 505. It is explained that The Human Target is out of the country so he can't help them out at this moment.

568 people work at Channel 52's Star City office.

Felicity is still unemployed and has almost burned through all of her severance pay from Palmer Tech. She refers to her nightmare job from the start of Season 3 (working at Tech Village) and says she'd rather go to Iron Heights than back to working there.

Curtis has been paying the bills by doing freelance coding in his spare time. He did not take a dime from his husband after they got divorced.

John Diggle, we are told, is unemployed but that Lyla makes enough money as the Director of ARGUS to support them both.

Vortex Industries is a Markovian company who wish to build a factory in Star City. Oliver has offered them a subsidized lease which will bring 800 jobs, minimum, to Star City. Their CEO is named Alec Tarkov.

Curtis finds a way to trace cryptocurrency.

Oliver advises that the best way to deal with a gang of bullies is to go for the nose of the leader.

Once again, Spartan freezes up drawing a gun on someone.

Arrangements were made to say that Samantha Clayton died in a car accident. No body or wrecked car was provided. The only "proof" is an autopsy and an accident report - both likely faked by Felicity.

William is seen punching something covered with Flash logos. Oliver says that it was a gift from a very good friend - likely Barry Allen.

Dr. Schwartz - Team Arrow's secret Doctor - provides Dinah and John with a tetrodotoxin antidote.

John was caught by some shrapnel in the explosion we saw in the flashback of 601. He is on a prescription for pain-killers relating to his injuries. He reveals to Dinah that he has degenerative nerve damage which is why he's been hesitating when drawing his gun.

John freezes up a second time while Black Canary is being strangled.

Anatoly denies having sent out the picture of Oliver as Green Arrow.

Curtis' algorithm confirms the picture of Oliver as Green Arrow was doctored. This does not slow Smandra Watson's determination to continue her investigation.

Felicity asks Curtis to go into business with her. He agrees.

John agrees to tell Oliver about his nerve damage. He changes his mind after Oliver asks him to take over being The Green Arrow for him.


The Bottom Line

A surprisingly solid episode with great performances from the entire ensemble and a smart script that firms up the status quo before blowing it out of the water in the final moment.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 13 - Spectre Of The Gun

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



Plot

Tensions continue to build in The Bunker in the wake of Rory Regan's departure. Things get worse when an attack on Star City Hall reminds Rene Ramirez of the family he lost and why he became a vigilante. Meanwhile, Oliver works to identify the attacker and realizes that this may be a job for Mayor Oliver Queen to solve rather than The Green Arrow.


Influences

The comics of John Ostrander (particularly Batman: Seduction Of The Gun) and the Green Arrow comics of Elliot S! Maggin (particularly What Can One Man Do?). Oliver Queen dealing with the political and social ramifications of an act of injustice fit neatly into the oeuvre of both writers.


Goofs

After two hours of trying to find specific numbers matching the statistics quoted by various characters in this episode, I decided not to bother. It's a different universe so the statistics regarding the ineffectiveness of federal assault rifle bans or the odds of a black man dying of gun violence could be entirely different than in our reality. I apologize for those who came here looking for sources regarding this debate but you're probably better off checking a news site than a comic book and TV review blog for that sort of thing.


Performances

Much like how we didn't realize how much we missed Paul Blackthorne until last week's episode, this episode makes us remember how awesome Willa Holland is as Thea Queen in all her snarky glory.

Juliana Harkavy continues to impress as Dinah Drake. Her scene with Diggle here is a brief one but it's impressive how she and David Ramsey have built a strong relationship between the two on the basis of a few brief scenes over the last two episodes.

Stephen Amell rarely gets to show strength to Oliver Queen's character outside of his Green Arrow persona. (And yes, there IS a difference between the two.) This episode shows us something of the Oliver Queen from the comics in Amell's performance - the rebel with a cause imagined by Dennis O'Neil who tried to be a man of peace yet found himself utilizing violence more often than he liked.

While giving surprisingly little to do given all the subplots in this episode, the flashbacks to Wild Dog's past give the character some much needed development and Rick Gonzalez does a damn good job showing Rene Ramirez before tragedy changed him.


Artistry

The opening pre-logo scene, showing the shooter assembling his arsenal is well-shot and effectively blocked with quick fades to black and sinister music.

The sequence with the active shooter is shockingly grim and realistic, with none of the over-the-top elements that occasionally filter into the larger-than-life fights on this show. This one is all the more powerful for how sedately it is directed and shot.

The flashbacks to Rene's past seem to have a semi-sepia filter that put a subtle brown-red hue over the scenes. These scenes also seem to be more dimly lit - a stylistic choice that makes the scenes stand out all the more compared to the scenes set in the present.

The script for this episode is one of Marc Guggenheim's strongest. He doesn't suggest any easy answers while tackling a serious issue in the proud Green Arrow tradition and presents a wide range of viewpoints and arguments without taking any sides beyond the general idea that we must do something regardless of where we fall on the freedom vs. security spectrum.


Trivia

The episode opens with a warning that this episode was rated TV-14 LV for mature themes, language and violence, which may not be suitable for all audiences members. While most Arrow episodes are rated TV-14, this warning was presumably added due to the realism of the active shooter scene.

Coincidentally - given this episode's message regarding responsible gun ownership - it aired on the same day that the US Senate voted to repeal a law that made it illegal to sell guns to people with a history of mental illness.

This episode shares its title with an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. The plot of the Star Trek episode involved the members of a diplomatic away team being forced into a psychic illusion of Tombstone, Arizona pulled from Captain Kirk's mind.

This episode reveals that Adrian Chase is a married man with a wife named Doris. In the original Vigilante comics, Doris Chase was the name of Adrian Chase's wife, whose death (along with those of his children) spurred his taking on the identity of Vigilante.

Rene and Curtis quibble over the use of the terms "gun control" vs. "gun violence"  and "assault weapon" vs. "rifle". These are frequent points of terminology conflict in real world debates on the issues of guns and gun safety.

When describing the one apartment she liked that she looked at, Dinah mentions that it had a backyard garden. In the comics, Dinah Drake loved flowers and was a florist by trade.


Technobabble

The pistol that Rene carries for personal protection in his civilian identity is a 9 mm.

The gunman's primary weapon was an AR-15 firing 5.66 NATO rounds.


Dialogue Triumphs

Ollie: A lot to catch up on.
Thea: Yeah. Like you and Susan Williams?
(Ollie stops dead in his track, his expression suddenly dead humorless.)
Thea: People talk, Ollie. And uh, some people vomit a little.

(Rene moves to his bedroom closet and begins punching numbers into a digital gun safe.)
Laura: Woah. What do you think you're doing?
Rene: Stadium's in The Glades, babe. In like the worst part of the worst part of town.
(Laura scoffs.)
Rene: I brought it with me the last time I took Zoe-
Laura: So you're admitting you broke the rule?
Rene: Kinda what I do, babe.
Laura: The only reason I agreed to let you keep that thing in the house is because you said we needed it for home protection.
Rene: Right, but-
Laura:As in, stays in the home. Now, hurry up. You guys are going to be late.
Rene: I thought we were going as a family?
Laura:(sighs) I have a headache.
Rene: Oh yeah?
(Laura nods, as he looks at her suspiciously.)
Rene: You taking something stronger than aspirin for that headache?
Laura: You got something you want to say to me, Rene?
Rene: I guess I do. (pauses) Are you using again?
(Gunshots fire as we dissolve back to the present, where Rene is hiding behind a column, pistol in his hands.)

Thea: (To Rene) What were you doing with a gun in here?
Rene: Judging by how I tagged the guy? I've got to go with saving people's lives.

Curtis: This is military grade hardware!
John: AR-15 assault weapon. It fires 5.56 NATO rounds.
Curtis: It's an M16! It is -literally- the same gun as an M16!
Felicity: Seems like some of Tobias Church's ordanance got into the wrong hand... wronger hands.
Dinah: Not necessarily. It's an AR-15. It's available on the open market. (shrugs) In fact, it's the most popular gun in America.
Curtis: (sarcastically) The Land of The Free and Home of The Incredibly Stupid.
Felicity: We are not having this conversation, now or ever, guys.

Quentin: Listen, I've been police most of my adult life.  I should have been able to spot that guy 1000 yards out.
Rene: Don't go there man, alright? What happened wasn't your fault.
Quentin: I heard you got a few shots off.
Rene: Yeah and I would have put him down, too, if he wasn't wearing body armor.
Quentin: Listen - weren't you dishonorably discharged?
Rene: (deadpan) Not for my aim, hoss.
Quentin: My point is it's illegal for someone such as yourself to carry a firearm.
Rene: But it's pretty easy to buy one, though.
Quentin: (scoffs) Wow.

Curtis: I don't have any problem with your right to bear arms so long as it doesn't interfere with my right to - you know? - live!
Rene: Are you kidding me?! Look at what we do, man! Our whole life is violence!
Curtis: I'm not talking about what we do to protect the city! I'm talking about the fact that, as a black man, I am three times more likely to be killed by a gun than you!
Quentin: He's got a point, Rene.
Rene: Seriously?! You were a cop, man!
Quentin: Yeah. And cops would kinda like it if there were less people out there with guns.
Dinah: Not this cop. I mean, people have a right to protect themselves.

(Vigilante guns down the gangster Green Arrow was questioning.)
Green Arrow: (drawing an arrow) Don't. Move.
Vigilante: I'm doing you a favor! One less criminal on the streets!
Green Arrow: Cold-blooded murder! You're the criminal!
Vigilante: I'm you! The only difference between us is I use a more efficient weapon!

Councilwoman: Yes, I'm against any registry that gives the government the opportunity to keep tabs on specific sectors of the population.
Oliver: The DMV keeps a list of driver's licenses.
Councilwoman: It's not a constitutional right to drive a car, Mr. Mayor. You know, people such as yourself oppose limitations on things like abortion, freedom of speech. Why is the Second Amendment somehow less important in your eyes than the other nine in The Bill of Rights?
Oliver: Because people are dying, Councilwoman! Right here in this building! And there are limitations on abortion and freedom of speech. (pauses) Both my parents are dead. My friend Tommy was a... he was one of the 503 killed in The Undertaking. Laurel Lance was my friend. Nobody respects the rights of someone to protect themselves and the people that they care for more than me. But everything in life comes with limitations. Everything.
Councilwoman: Why are you telling me this?
Oliver: Because you and I are going to sit in this office until we figure out a reasonable set of limitations that respects everyone's rights.

Dinah: You know? Just forget it. It's so stupid.
John: Dinah, I work with Oliver Queen. Please try me.

Curtis: We used to talk about things as a society, you know? We'd debate and we would argue and we would still respect each other after.
Felicity: Yeah. Somewhere along the line that just became...
Curtis: Rude? Yeah. It became impolitic to talk politics.  I can't help but wondering that maybe that's why our country is the way it is today.

Rene: Guns save lives. Period.
Curtis: You just want to think that.
Rene: No, that's what I know. Because if I'd had my gun, my wife would still be alive.

Oliver: Don't do this.
Edlund: Get back!
Oliver: You had another chance to shoot me at City Hall. You didn't do it. Because you need me to enact the Star City Gun Registry. I mean, that's what all this is about, right? You want to punish the city because we failed to protect your family.
(Oliver is slowly moving forward as he speaks. The SWAT teams run into the hall and surround them but Oliver motions them back. One they've stopped, he continues moving.)
Oliver: Mr. Edlund... I - I checked. The man who killed your family? He accquired those guns illegally. There's nothing that we could have done. No - no - no registry would have helped us protect them.
Edlund: I know. I was supposed to protect them. Isn't that a man's job? To protect his family? Isn't that why we have guns?! My wife and daughters were innocent!
Oliver:  I can understand why you're angry-
Edlund: We're all angry! We're all so angry... all the time. So why shouldn't I use this?! Why shouldn't I kill everyone?! Put us all out of our damn misery?!
Oliver:  Mr. Edlund... that's not your call to make. Yeah, I mean, people are angry. And we're hurting. And we're lashing out. And I can understand that it feels like it's getting worse every day. But what you're doing is not the answer! The people that you hurt? The seven people that are dead? My friend... they were innocent too.
(Edlund starts to sob.)
Edlund:You're right.
(Edlund puts his pistol to his own head.)
Edlund:And I deserve to be punished.
Oliver:  Hey, Hey, Hey... Look, James. You've got to think about your wife and your daughters.
Edlund: (sobbing) I -AM- thinking about them!
Oliver:  I know that you want this pain to go away. And I know that you want to be with your family again. But if you want them to live on? It has to be through you. That's the only way.
(Edlund starts to sway erratically.)
Oliver:  James.  Give me the gun.  Please?
(Edlund hands Oliver the gun. Oliver steps out of the way as the SWAT team moves in, cuff Edlund and pull him away. Oliver is left alone in the hospital hallway, a gun in his hand.)


Continuity

Dinah can hold her own in a fight against John, when he is armed with escrima sticks and she has a bo staff.

Dinah's first undercover assignment as a cop was infiltrating a gang called The Pilgrims. It was here she learned how to use a bo staff.

As of this episode, Dinah is living inside the old HIVE base in Star City - the same place John lived during his time on the run.

Felicity tracks Claybourne's mistress (aka probably Prometheus' mother) to Illinois using information from The Pandora Cache.

Rene Ramirez is officially hired on as the Deputy Mayor's Assistant.

The gunman has a bag with a Forefather Repairs logo on it.

The first result of the gunman's attack is five dead and 24 wounded, with 8 of the wounded in critical condition. DA Adrian Chase is one of the wounded.

Rene's pistol is a 9 mm.

The gunman's primary weapon was an AR-15 - a commercially available semi-automatic rifle.

The gunman was skilled enough to avoid the security cameras until he had a mask on, has no prior record (or removed his fingerprints from the record) and apparently bought a workman's jumpsuit on-line so he could get into the building with a work bag unnoticed.

Rene' and his wife, Laura, grew up in The Glades together. Laura was a drug addict. We don't hear what Rene did in the past but Laura says he has no room to judge her for being an addict. He says that for all he's done he's never done drugs.

Two of the wounded in critical condition die on the operating table. We are told they were Kyle in commerce and Paula in accounting.

Ollie suspects there will be another attack because if this was meant to be a one-time thing, the attacker wouldn't have bothered concealing his identity or have fled the scene of the crime.

AR-15's are the weapon of choice for the Bertinelli crime family. Over 90% of their hits in the previous year used one.

There are no national gun registration databases in the DCTVU.

Felicity identifies the shooter as a 44 year old systems analyst with no prior criminal record named James Edlund. He was the married father of two daughters - 9 and 11 - until the Crosspoint Mall Shooting 16 months earlier, when his entire family was killed.

The death tally of The Crosspoint Mall Shooting was 18 dead, 12 injured with one of them living as a quadriplegic.

Edlund was a vocal proponent of a proposed local gun control ordinance called the SCGR - Star City Gun Registry. The previous city leadership stopped it from passing.

Rene lost his wife after her drug dealer took her hostage at gun point in their home. While he was able to retrieve his gun and shoot the drug dealer, his wife died after the drug dealer's gun hit the floor and went off. His daughter Zoe was then taken away from him and put into foster care, with Rene being denied any visitation rights due to his home being an "unsafe environment".

It is revealed that Rene was inspired to become a vigilante after seeing a news report about The Green Arrow killing Damien Darhk. He took the hockey mask and jersey that he wore to take his daughter to hockey games as his costume.

The Star City hockey franchise is The Dogs.

Curtis offers to have a lawyer friend help Rene get back custody of his daughter.

Dinah moves into a studio apartment with a garden in the backyard and applies to join the SCPD.

The City Council passes the Star City Firearms Freedom Act.


The Winick Factor

While the episode does offer a variety of viewpoints on the issue of gun safety and how to best go about ensuring it (i.e. government action vs. personal responsibility), it is somewhat problematic on paper that the character most openly in favor of strong gun regulations is a gay man (thus encouraging the stereotype that only "weak" people could support strict measures to curb gun violence) and that character who is the most vocal in being against gun regulations is a former military man with a criminal background and anger issues who is depicted as being irresponsible in how he handled his firearms (thus encouraging the belief that anyone against gun regulations is a criminal, a lunatic or an idiot.)


The Bottom Line

It's surprising that it took Arrow this long to do a political story. It's even more surprising that it was done so well and in a way that didn't offer easy solutions or was entirely one-sided. More like this, please!

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 12 - Bartva

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




Plot

When the corrupt general who tried to frame John Diggle for treason escapes custody with his men and the trigger to a nuclear bomb, Team Arrow isn't going to sit idly by. The trail leads to Russia where Oliver's old friend and Bratva brother Anatoly isn't quite ready to roll out the red carpet.

Thankfully, Quentin Lance is fresh out of rehab and ready to take over as acting mayor of Star City whole Oliver is away. Yet when he falters at the prospect of an interview with the aggressive Susan Williams, it may be Rene "Wild Dog" Ramirez who may save the day...

Five years earlier, Oliver begins his training with Talia Al Ghul.


Influences

The Green Arrow comics of Mike Grell.


Goofs

Dinah claims not to have much control of her sonic scream "beyond on and off", yet last week it was stated that her control and focus were far greater than Black Siren or Laurel. (Dinah is her own worst critic.)


Performances

You never realize how much you miss Paul Blackthorne as Quentin Lance on this show until he returns after having been gone for a few episodes. His interplay with Rick Gonzalez as Rene tries to help Quentin get ready for his interview works surprisingly well. The surprise has nothing to do with the acting itself (both actors are great) but more in how unexpected it is that these two characters would be interacting in the first place, much less bonding as they do.

Joe Dinicol hasn't always been given a lot to do as Rory Regan. This episode just about makes up for it, though, with Dinicol showing a determination not seen in Rory since his first appearance as he calls Felicity on her grey-hat hacking and his stopping Felicity from giving in to her guilt complex and trying to disarm a nuclear bomb on her own.


Artistry

The gunfight in the second segment of the episode is well shot and directed.

As far as exploding, flipping vehicle stunts go, the one involving the van Dinah hit's with her sonic scream is a great one.

The script for this episode is a solid one, with good parallels between the flashback story and the tale told in the present. The reoccurring themes of sacrifice and knowing when to cross a moral line to honor a greater good come up in all of the various subplots - nearly all of which are advanced a little bit in this episode.


Trivia

General Walker is said to have made contact with a group of Markovian seperatists. Markovia, in the DC Universe, is a fictional country located in Western Europe between France, Belgium and Luxembourg. It is home to the hero Geo-Force.

Curtis is revealed to have been studying the Russian language on the flight and picked up enough to know the Russian word for creepy off the top of his head. In the original comics, Mister Terrific was also a polyglot who knew several languages besides English fluently.


Technobabble

Curtis says that polyphonics doesn't begin to explain the physics of Dinah's sonic scream and how it works.


Dialogue Triumphs

(Oliver finishes fighting a group of drug dealers. As he walks away from the last one, Talia jumps off the roof and shoots an arrow at Oliver. He spins and grabs it just inches away from his face.)
Talia: (smiling with approval) You're beginning to understand now.
Oliver: Understand what?
Talia: That the man who embraces the dark is never without sight.

Diggle: Are you ready for this?
Dinah: When I signed on, I didn't think I'd be stopping a nuclear arms deal in a foreign country.
Diggle: (scoffs) Yeah. When I signed on, I didn't think I'd be dealing with aliens.
Dinah: Aliens?
Diggle: Yeah.

Anatoly: (holding his arms open) Oliver Queen!
Oliver: (holding his arms open) Anatoly!
(Anatoly suddenly reaches back and decks Oliver. Oliver looks up, stunned.)
Anatoly: (suddenly stern) You never should have come back to Russia.

Rory: What's the Russian word for creepy?
Curtis: Zhutko.
(Rory levels his gaze at Curtis.)
Curtis: (shrugs) I was studying on the plane.

(Oliver has a soldier chained up and blindfolded. He is holding two jumper-cables, hooked up to a car battery.)
Oliver: There are thousands - maybe millions of lives at stake. You don't want those deaths on your conscience.
Soldier: (laughing) My conscience? You've got to be kidding-
(Oliver sparks the jumper cables in front of the soldier's face. He feels the current and screams.)
Soldier: What's that?!
Oliver: This is your conscience!

Hideo Yamane: What do you want? Money? Drugs? I'll give you anything!
The Hood: There's nothing you have that I want.
Hideo Yamane: Why? Why are you doing this?
The Hood: Because you have failed Starling City.
(The Hood puts three arrows into the drug kingpin's chest.)

Dinah: This isn't the first time you've done something like this. Is it? I don't mean as The Green Arrow...
Oliver: You mean as a thug, right?
(Dinah nods.)
Oliver: No. It was... a part of my life that I thought I had moved past but... here we are.
Dinah: Right. (pauses) You know, the other guys said that when you get in one of your moods I should just let you be. But um, to be honest - brooding? Really gets on my nerves.
Oliver: They told you about me. Did they tell you about Prometheus?

Dinah: Yeah. They did. Why? Is this mood because you got pulled back into some Bratva drama?
Oliver: No, it... Dinah, I'm trying to move forward. But I'm back here. I'm in Russia. In the Bratva. And it just proves to me I can't seem to do that. 
(There is another long silence between them.)

Dinah: Prometheus got in your head. What was it? Some crap about infecting the people closest to you?
Oliver: Yeah! And tonight I watched John torture a man! And there's -something- going on with Felicity. There's...

Dinah: You affect the people in your life, Oliver. That's hardly a revelatory observation. Yeah, in fact, I think it's called living.
(Oliver snorts at that.)
Dinah: Prometheus has you so fixated on what's wrong with you that you've completely stopped seeing what's right.  You know  John and Felicity? They'll listen to you. Because you have more to offer (she takes his fist and raises it up) then just this.  Your past is a part of you. There's nothing you can do about that. You can't change it. It doesn't mean it has to be your anchor.

Rene: Look, I just came in here to tell you that Susan Williams' producer called to confirm that 10 A.M. tomorrow still works for the interview.
Quentin: When did you become my assistant?
Rene: When I answered the phone, I guess.

Quentin: My daughter, Laurel, is gone. And I've gotta figure out a way to live with that which doesn't involve booze. Or snapping at guys that are just trying to help. 

Diggle: Oliver, I still think it's a mistake not pushing this scumbag for the location of the sale.
Oliver: We don't have to. We're going to have it within the hour.
Felicity: What? How?
Oliver: Bratva.
Diggle: I thought Anatoly wasn't playing ball unless you did The Bratva's dirty work?
(Oliver just looks at Diggle.)
Diggle: ... which is where you took Dinah. Oliver, I thought you didn't want anything to do with The Bratva.
Oliver: I don't. But if it's a choice between me crossing the line or the two of you crossing one, that's a very easy choice.
Diggle: What did you do?
Oliver: It doesn't matter. Here's what does - I am who I am. Now, I'm trying to work past that. Maybe I do. Maybe I don't. But I cannot - I will not - have the two of you make the same mistakes.
Felicity: Oliver, you're the one who showed us that sometimes you have to get in the muck to make things right.
Oliver: Well, then Prometheus wins. Because he'll be right. I need the two of you to prove to him - and quite frankly, to prove to me - that he's not. I need the two of you to be better than me. Because you are.

(Oliver and Felicity run into the hangar where Ragman tried to contain the nuclear bomb blast. They see a pile of rags in the middle of the hangar.)
Oliver: Rory!
Felicity: Oh my God!
(The pile of rags moves. Rory looks up, dirty but otherwise fine.)
Rory: He always gets the credit.
Oliver: (astonished) Are you okay?
Rory: This means I get a promotion, right?


Continuity

Five years earlier, Oliver was capable of catching an arrow one-handed.

Star City's sister city is in Russia - as of 12 hours before Oliver had to fly to Russia.

While frequently seen in the flashbacks of Season Two and Season Five and referred to more than once in Season One, this episode marks Anatoly Knyazev's first apperance in the modern day since 206, when Oliver sought his help in rescuing Lyla Michaels from a Russian gulag.

Anatoly refers to the events of 216 and how Oliver's actions there destroyed any claim of Bratva membership he had. (Oliver refused to give a favor in exchange for a favor and Slade Wilson killed his Bratva contact in Starling City as a result of Oliver's request for help.)

Oliver says Anatoly still owes him for what happened with Gregor - the corrupt Bratva boss who tortured Oliver in the flashbacks of 510. Anatoly agrees to sit and meet with Oliver to discuss what he wants but refuses to help him without a favor in exchange.

Anatoly says that agreeing to sit with Oliver after what he did Alexi Leonov (the Bratva agent in Starling City that Oliver double-crossed) squares them.

Anatoly says that John Diggle is now his favorite American. Later, he changes his mind when he meets Dinah and discovers that she likes vodka and can hold it better than most men.

Hideo Yamane is one of the names on The List. He's a drug kingpin responsible for most of the designer drug trade in Starling City. Oliver says that he has failed Starling City before killing him - the first time Oliver has said some variant of "You have failed this city."

Oliver flashes back to the events of the flashbacks in 314 and how he killed Thea's drug dealer.

The Pandora Data Cache from 511 gives Felicity blackmail information on a Russian telecom network executive. She uses this to gain access to General Walker's phone network.

Dinah's codename on the Team Arrow coms is Backstop.

Oliver finally agrees to do some thug work for Anatoly in exchange for his learning the location of Gen. Walker's arms deal.

The Ragman suit is capable of containing the force of a nuclear bomb.

In the flashback, Oliver finds out that Anatoly was beaten to near death by Gregor's men. He tells Anatoly that they can kill him.

Oliver and Susan Williams have sex upon Oliver's return to Star City.

Susan grills Oliver for details on his tattoos but he says he's not ready to talk about it. There is some subtle implication that she already knows that are Bratva tattoos but was hoping to get a direct quote from Oliver about his past in Russia, which we know she already knows about from 505.

Rene reveals that Quentin changed his life when he was a kid. While working as a beat cop, Quentin caught a young Rene spraying gang tags on a building. Instead of hauling him in, Quentin told Rene that he could be something better than a petty thug. That talk apparently kept Rene out of the gangs and made him enlist. (It's possible, however, that Rene was making this story up to make Susan Williams go easy on Quentin.)

Rory leaves Star City, saying that the Ragman costume isn't working anymore since the bomb blast. He doesn't tell Felicity where he is going - only that he will return.

Felicity is contacted by Helix and told not to stop using Pandora as General Walker was just the beginning. Felicity says she doesn't plan to.

The episode ends with Susan Williams meeting with her contact, who confirms that all the people in the photo of Oliver from five years ago are part of The Bratva. He also shows her a photo of a figure the Russians called Luchnik - The Archer. The figure resembles The Hood a.k.a. Oliver Queen's vigilante identity in Season One. They both agree the odds of Green Arrow and Oliver Queen being in Russia at the same time are good... if they are the same man.



Location

Russia.


The Bottom Line

A solid episode that ironically moves all the subplots forward while looking back to the show's past and exploring the fallout of a questionable choice Oliver made back in Season 2 without suffering any apparent negative consequences. The ensemble performances are all solid and everything looks fantastic from a technical standpoint. The mid-season slump that usually effects most of the DC on CW shows seems to be skipping Arrow this year.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 5 - Human Target

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




Plot

When Wild Dog gives up Green Arrow's secret identity to Tobias Church, Oliver will seek the help of an old friend of John Diggle. Meanwhile, Felicity finds her secret life and her personal life intersecting when her new boyfriend joins the SCPD's special Anti-Crime Unit as Wild Dog and Digg work through their issues together.


Influences

The Green Arrow comics of Judd Winick, Kevin Smith's Quiver (Oliver's line about Tobias Church looking like he's seen a ghost) and Peter Milligan's The Human Target comics. 


Goofs

Team Arrow is once again all over the place on using lethal force. Yet Oliver doesn't kill Tobias Church, who knows his secret identity, when he killed one of Church's underlings earlier in the season when escaping Church's clutches.


Performances

The high point of the episode is the interactions between David Ramsey and Rick Gonzalez as John Diggle and Rene Ramirez - two former soldiers whose moral codes took them outside of the structure they swore to serve - bond over their mutual need for redemption.


Artistry

Good fight choreography throughout the fifth segment.


Trivia

Christopher Chance is the second hero to take the name The Human Target, though he is the better known of the two. He first appeared in Action Comics #419 (December 1972). A body-guard, detective, method-actor and master of disguise, Chance filled a unique niche, impersonating his clients to keep them out of harm's way. Chance appeared sporadically in various books, eventually earning a Vertigo mini-series in 1999 and a monthly comic which lasted for 21 issues. The final issue was published in 2005.

Despite his relative obscurity in the comics, this is the third time Christopher Chance has been depicted in a live-action TV series. The first came in 1992, when singer/actor Rick Springfield played him in a short-lived Human Target TV series on ABC. The second came in 2010, when Mark Valley played him a new Human Target TV series. This series lasted two seasons on Fox.

The original Human Target was a man named Fred Venable who appeared in Detective Comics #201 (November 1953). Vernable had a gift for impersonation and offered himself out as a body double to help people in need. Batman came to his aid after Venable's daughter was kidnapped to force him to aid a criminal gang. Ironically, Venable had to come to Batman's aid in the end by using his talents to impersonate Batman!

When confronting Tobias Church, Green Arrow says that he looks like he's seen a ghost. These were the first words Oliver Queen said in the classic Green Arrow story Quiver.

The four cities making up Tobias Church's criminal empire are Bludhaven, Hub City, Keystone City and Whiteholland.  In the DC Comics Universe, Bludhaven is the home turf of Nightwing. Hub City is the home turf of The Question. Keystone City is the sister city of Central City and home of the Jay Garrick Flash and the Wally West Flash. All of these cities have been mentioned in previous episodes of Arrow and The Flash.


Dialogue Triumphs

(A thug is caught by a snare arrow. He finds himself hanging from a fire escape, facing Artemis.)
Thug: Hey, you're a lot cuter than the green guy!
Artemis: Awww.  You're kinda cute too, in a "I feel sorry for you" kind of way. Where's Church?
Thug: Yeah? Who wants to know?
Green Arrow: (from behind Thug) The Green Guy!

(After Diggle walks into The Bunker.)
Ragman: Do people just walk into your secret base of operations?
Felicity and Curtis: Yes.

Diggle: You guys must be the new kids on the block?
Curtis: More like The Backstreet Boys.
(Nobody except Felicity laughs.)
Curtis: It was funny in my head.

Oliver: I'll be fine.
Felicity: Have you ever - (turns to John) Has he ever actually said that and it turn out to be true?

Anatoly: To survivors of Amazo. May we experience as much sorrow as drops of wine about to be left in glass.

(Team Arrow is watching Quentin's press conference on Oliver's death.)
Felicity: He never did say anything that nice about you when you were alive.
Oliver: Probably didn't deserve it.
(The elevator to the bunker opens. Out steps Oliver Queen in a suit full of bullet holes.)
"Oliver": Sorry about the suit.
("Oliver" pulls off his face to reveal that he is Christopher Chance.)
Chance: Ah. We haven't been properly introduced. Heads up.
(Chance throws his mask at Felicity, who fumbles with it, grossed out. Chance shakes hands with Oliver.)
Chance: Christopher Chance.
Oliver: John referred to you "The Human Target". 
Chance: Well, that works better as a job description than it does as a nickname.

(Anatoly notices an attractive blonde woman making eyes at Oliver.)
Anatoly: There is old saying in Russian. Okay - maybe not Russian, but it still works. "There's no problem beautiful woman cannot fix." Now go talk to her before I do.

Oliver: So thanks for doing this.
Chance: Being killed is basically my job.
Oliver:  But, uh - not just for taking the bullets. I heard that you got Kullens to cave.
Chance: Yeah. And scored you a very pretty girl's phone number.
Oliver: I - I heard that too.
Chance: No, but the truth is you did that.
Oliver: I was under the impression that I had been down here all day.
Chance: I don't just put on faces, Oliver. I become my target. And to do that, I've got to learn everything there is to know about them. More than they know about themselves. I've got to become them.
Oliver: (laughs) My apologies.
Chance: What for? Man, you've got a great life.You're the mayor.
(Oliver makes a face.)
Chance: But you'd still rather be The Hood than Oliver Queen.
Oliver: Oliver Queen... has - has never really been my better half.
Chance: Nobody moves forward in life when they're hiding behind a mask. Trust me. You know, it's why you're struggling as mayor? And it's probably why you won't call that girl.
Oliver: That's not the reason.
Chance: Listen, I'm the last person to give dating advice, but...Felicity moved on. You should too.
(Ollie shifts a little. Chance reads the gesture perfectly.)
Chance: You didn't know? Sorry....

(Oliver just climbed onto the balcony of Felicity's loft.)
Felicity: You do remember that this apartment has a front door, right?
Oliver: Well, front doors are more for people who haven't just faked their own death.

Diggle: When it comes to guilt and recrimination, the line forms behind me. I didn't think I was ready to face what I had done but I'm wearing this suit again because I think it's a path to redemption.
(Diggle holds up Wild Dog's mask.)
Diggle: And it could be for you too.


Continuity

The first scene of this episode occurs some 20 hours after Tobias Church started torturing Wild Dog.

Tobias Church is trying to take over Star City because of its harbors. He plans to start the largest drug-smuggling operation ever by consolidating the criminal underworlds of five cities.

Wild Dog breaks under torture and tells Tobias Church that Oliver Queen is The Green Arrow.

Prometheus tries to kill Tobias Church again. He lets him off with a second warning, saying there will not be a third.

Christopher Chance is an old colleague of John Diggle.

Tobias Church hires a "freak" (i.e. costumed mercenary) who is fast enough to catch arrows as a bodyguard. We never find out his name or backstory.

Oliver Queen (really Christopher Chance) gets Susan Williams to agree to hold off on hit-pieces for one month and gets her personal phone number. He also discovers the secret past of Councilman Kullens as a crony capitalist and his current connections to a real estate developer that would lose money on a rezoning deal he's helping to kill.

John Diggle makes reference to being tortured by his brother during the conflict with HIVE.

Wild Dog was dishonorably discharged from the Navy for beating a prisoner of war.

Christopher Chance tells Oliver that Felicity is dating Billy Malone and that Malone seemed to think Oliver already knew this.

The Brace is the local nickname for Halpin-Brace Airfield - a private airstrip outside of Pennytown.

Bludhaven, Hub City, Keystone and Whiteholland were the four other cities under Tobias Church's control.

Oliver tells Felicity that he is fine with her dating again.

Susan Williams has a source named Ian who gives her a picture of Oliver Queen in Russia, with the Bratva, five years earlier when he was supposed to be stranded on a deserted island. He also tells her of Christopher Chance's involvement in helping fake Oliver Queen's death. She apparently knows who Christopher Chance is.

Prometheus kills Tobias Church, just after Church tells him Oliver Queen is Green Arrow.

We find out in this episode that Oliver did not visit Taiana's family before he joined The Bratva.

Though Oliver didn't know it, he had an encounter with Christopher Chance five years earlier in Russia. Anatoly hired him to kill the underlings of another Bratva named Viktor before they could kill Oliver.


The Winick Factor

Artemis and Mr. Terrific get their asses kicked by Church's hired "freak". The only thing that saves them is Christopher Chance's arrival in disguise as a gang member.


The Bottom Line

Like many episodes of Season One and Two which seemed to be simple filler episodes meant to throw out throw-away references to an established DC Comics character, this one suddenly becomes significant in the final five minutes. The writing is strictly standard but the established ensemble manage to sell the material on pure charisma rooted in the audience's love of the characters. Not a great episode but an enjoyable one.