The Flash Episode Guide: Season 9, Episode 9 - It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want To

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

Plot

Barry's birthday party is ruined by the return of Bloodwork, who has plans beyond taking over the world involving Kid Flash and the multiverse. In order to save his friends and all reality, Barry Allen will have to turn to someone else... who has become something else.

Influences

Zero Hour (Bloodwork's plan to "fix" the Multiverse mirrors Parallax's mad plan.) and the previous annual The Flash/Arrow crossovers.


Goofs

Cecile says that Barry's first 30th birthday took place while the team was fighting Cicada all night. This is likely a reference to the events of 516. However, that episode took place on March 12, 2019 when Barry's birthday is March 14. (Possibly his party was planned for that night.)

This episode takes place on March 14, 2023. This means that it must occur before the last three episodes chronologically. However, that doesn't fit the timeline of the previous episodes, with Allegra telling Chester she loves him, which first occurred in 908 on April 5, 2023.

Bloodwork says he just escaped from prison, However, his escape came during the 2022 Earth-Prime comic series, meaning that he should have been on the run for at least two and a half months. 

Performances

Stephen Amell slips easily into the role of Oliver Queen one more time, but with a little more humor given the knowledge he has now as The Spectre.


Artistry

The special effects are fairly solid this time around.

Flash Facts

The title is a pun based on a lyric from the Lesley Gore song "It's My Party."

This episode continues the tradition of the annual Arrow/The Flash crossover taking place on the 9th episode of the season.

The episode features a special title card, in the middle of the episode.

This episode was directed by Danielle Panabaker, who plays Khione.

This episode marks the first time Barry's birthday party has been celebrated on-screen.

This is the first episode in which David Singh and Kristen Kramer have appeared together, despite Kramer serving directly under Chief Singh.

Barry makes reference to "the Hall" as a place to display Oliver Queen's bow. This seems to be a nod to the Hall of Justice which was established (without being named) at the end of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Chester exclaims "Holy Duane Jones!" when encountering the Bloodwork zombies. This is a nod to actor Duane Jones, who played the lead role of Ben in the original Night of the Living Dead.

Oliver tells Diggle that his brightest days are ahead of him. This is a nod to the Green Lantern oath.


Technobabble

Wally recommends a drink made of dried sendru and honey to help Iris fight morning sickness.

The necklace Chester made Allegra contains a facial transmogrifier.

To stop Bloodwork's powers from metastasizing inside a breach. a massive ultraviolet pulse is required.


Dialogue Triumphs

(After Wally refuses to work with Bloodwork.)
Bloodwork: I understand your hesitation. No one has ever really believed in you, have they? You have been cut down your entire life, forced to watch your mother suffer. It is a pain that I know all too well. My mother was diagnosed with HLH, and I couldn't save her either, Wally. I had to watch her die. And we have that in common. Then you understand what it is that I'm trying to do... That it's about more than just stopping death. It is about ending the suffering that we have both endured, that, together, we can create a Multiverse where no one has to watch their loved ones die...

Ollie Queen: Oh, Barry, Barry, Barry... what have you done this time?

(Wally hugs Ollie, who, for once, returns it.)
Ollie: Okay. Let go. Barry, let go.
Barry: Wait. If you're here, that means I'm really...
Ollie: You're dead. Otherwise, why would I let you hug me that long?

Barry: But when we fought the Red Death, she thought she escaped from her timeline into an alternate one -
Ollie: She is from Earth-4125. 

Barry: You're numbering them?
Ollie: I've had a bit of time on my hands...

Barry: I fight some random mad scientist. I get three extra years to live. You know everything now, right, Oliver? Tell me, how is it right I'm alive and they're dead? How's that fair?
Ollie: Life is a lot of things, Barry. Fair isn't on the list. 

Barry: I don't know what my life would have been like if I hadn't taken that train to Star City.
Ollie: You still would have been a hero.
Barry: Maybe. But you made me a better one.
Ollie: You made me a better man. 

(Ollie gets ready to leave the bar.)
Ollie: Okay, Mr. Allen, I think that I have done enough to upset the cosmic order for one night. Can you get this?
Barry: Are you kidding? You're a billionaire.
Ollie: Well, you... you can't take it with you. 


Continuity

As the episode opens, Team Flash is preparing a surprise birthday party for Barry Allen.

Cecile says that the first time Barry turned 30, the team was too busy fighting Cicada to celebrate.

Chester says that Barry is physically 30 years old, referring to his battle with Dr. Orloff in 816 and how it deaged Barry a few years.

Chester is in charge of the entertainment for the party, Allegra and Cecile took care of the decorations, and Khione is said to be out getting the cake.

The party attendees include Cecile, Chester, Allegra, Kristin Kramer, David Singh, Joe West, Wally West and John Diggle.

John Diggle appears for the first time since 818.

Wally West appears for the first time since 614.

Kristin Kramer and David Singh argue over who is the better Captain.

Diggle gives Barry Oliver Queen's bow, which ARGUS recovered from National City. Somehow, it wound up there after being presumed lost on Earth-38.

It has been three years since Oliver Queen died saving the multiverse.

Diggle makes reference to Caitlin's apparent death.

Barry tries to refuse it, but suggests maybe they could display the bow in "The Hall."

Chester makes Allegra a necklace that should hide her face whenever she is using her powers for their one-month anniversary. 

Wally is still studying with Bhikkhuni Amala in the Himalayas.

Wally tells Barry that after Iris told him about the Red Death, he began projecting his consciousness into the Speed Force to explore alternate timelines, hoping to find another version of himself who already found enlightenment whom he could learn from.

Wally says there's baggage he needs to get past, but doesn't talk about it more when Barry asks what his issue is.

Bloodwork was last seen in 617. However, his escape from ARGUS custody occurred during the Earth Prime crossover comic event.

Bloodwork is revealed to have put his blood into the champagne and cider for Barry's birthday toast.  Everyone except Chester (who doesn't drink), Iris (who shares Nora's healing factor) and Barry and Wally (whose powers protect them) are infected. 

Bloodwork reveals that his plan this time is to target Wally and break his mind through their connection then use his powers to travel the multiverse and spread his tainted blood around multiple Earths.

Bloodwork sees that the real reason Wally was exploring the alternate timelines was to try and find somewhere his ex-girlfriend, Jesse Quick, was still alive.

Chester flees to his lab and barricades himself inside.

Iris is able to lock herself inside the Time Vault, but is slowly losing control of herself.

Bloodwork gets Wally to kill Barry by vibrating his hand through his chest.

Barry wakes up in Purgatory (which looks like Lian Yu island) and is greeted by Oliver Queen.

Oliver Queen appears for the first time since A810.

Oliver confirms that he created Earth-Prime so that all his allies would have a single Earth to protect together. He also created the new Multiverse.

Red Death is confirmed to be from Earth-4125 rather than an alternate timeline.

Oliver explains that rather than traveling to alternate timelines, Wally has been traveling to parallel Earths in the new multiverse.

Khione saves Chester by freezing the water inside the bodies of Team Flash.

Khione says she felt a presence calling her, telling her she was needed back at STAR Labs, while she was waiting in line for the cake. This presence is later revealed to be Oliver Queen.

Oliver explains that he can only step in as The Spectre when the multiverse is endangered. This retroactively explains how he was able to help XS and Impulse fight Magog in the Earth Prime comic.

Oliver resurrects Barry and manifests, temporarily as Green Arrow one more time.

Khione is only able to safely thaw out John Diggle after removing Bloodwork's blood from his system.

John Diggle joins the fight against Bloodwork.

Barry is able to reach Wally and help him fight Bloodwork's control.

Oliver shoots an cosmic arrow into the breach, rewriting reality so that Bloodwork loses his powers. He also heals Bloodwork's HLH so he can live a long life in prison.

Barry and Team Flash learn that a new multiverse exists.

Ollie reveals that Khione's powers come from a connection to the natural world, which allowed her to expel Bloodwork's unnatural cells from the rest of the team.

Wally decides to stop exploring the multiverse and look for the answers he seeks within.

Ollie gets a chance to stay goodbye to John Diggle that he didn't during the Crisis.

Ollie confirms that he is keeping an eye on Felicity, Mia and William, but that part of the rules of his being The Spectre are that he can't make contact with his family. He was, however, able to bend the rules for Diggle since he was there at the crisis point.

Diggle confirms he is watching over Ollie's family too, telling him that William has started college and Mia can already climb a salmon ladder scaled to her height.

Oliver confirms that there are Flashes on the other Earths, but Barry is still his favorite.

Ollie and Barry have their traditional post-team-up drink before Ollie disappears.


Location

Purgatory
O'Shaughnessy's Bar in Keystone City

Untelevised Adventures

Oliver Queen has been defending reality as The Spectre ever since Crisis on Infinite Earths.

The Bottom Line

Easily the best episode of this short season so far. Ignoring the lore involving the larger Arrowverse setting and all the nods to past episodes, Bloodwork is allowed to be far smarter than any villain in recent memory. This was a flashback to better days, no pun intended, and it is a shame that more of Season 9 couldn't be like this.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 4 - Present Tense

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




Plot

Faced with a mysterious new Deathstroke, the original Team Arrow and their time-displaced proteges from the future must join forces.


Influences

The Shawshank Redemption (Curtis makes reference to it, as the team crawl through the sewers to stop Grant Wilson's bombs) and the Rebirth Deathstroke comic. (Mention of Buredunia.)


Goofs

The usual rules regarding paradox and changing your own past are handily ignored by Team Arrow 2040. (Presumably whoever brought them back in time is also preventing paradox from affecting them?)


Performances

Ben Lewis and Stephen Amell have great interplay as the older William and Oliver.


Trivia

While trying to determine the identity of the new Deathstroke, it is said that Slade Wilson is currently in Buredunia.  This is a fictional nation on the eastern side of the African continent in the DC Comics universe, which featured in the Deathstroke Rebirth comic series.

The new Deathstroke is eventually revealed to be Grant Wilson - Slade Wilson's eldest son. In a potential future shown on Legends of Tomorrow, Grant Wilson was responsible for exposing Oliver Queen's secret identity to the world and took over the Star City of 2046.

In the original comics, Grant Wilson was the first Ravager - an assassin who tried to follow in Deathstroke's footsteps. When his body was destroyed by the experimental treatments that HIVE developed in an effort to mimic the formula that made Slade Wilson into a super soldier, Wilson swore revenge on the Titans and promised to fulfill his son's contract on the superhero team.

At the end of the episode, Grant Wilson is sent to Blackgate in Gotham City. In the DC Comics Universe, Blackgate Penitentiary is the prison reserved for non-super-powered criminals in Gotham City.


Technobabble

The Deathstrokes send secret messages in an ink that only shows up on wet paper under a black light.

Grant Wilson sets up his bombs on a relay device that can be detonated remotely by a phone.

The relay device is revealed to be an intervalometer, pulsating in a consistently synchronized pattern. It has a transfer switch embedded into the mainframe. Disconnecting the red wire deactivates it.


Dialogue Triumphs

William: Dad, we all have the chance to get to know each other now.
Oliver: If your sister will let me.
William: Mia will come around. You know, she can be a little bit a little bit stubborn and hard to reach sometimes.
Oliver: (dryly) Shocker. Where'd she get that from?
William: (dryly) Mom, I guess.
(The two laugh.)

Mia: You know, I survived my whole life without you. I don't need you to play Dad now.
Oliver: Hey! I'm not playing Dad. I am simply telling you that it is not tactically wise to go out there by yourself...
Mia: Fine. I'll take Laurel.
Oliver: (clearing throat) ...when you are letting your decisions be driven by your emotions. Trust me! I've been there!
Mia: You don't get a say. You gave up that right when you left me and Mom alone in that cabin! How could you just abandon us?!
Oliver: Because I chose to keep you safe, and I chose right.
Mia: You just wanted to be a hero, so you put your mission above your family! Don't worry! You'll learn to live without me pretty easy. Just like I learned to live without you

Oliver: She's right. I chose to go with the Monitor. I abandoned her. I haven't earned a say.
William: Yeah, but that doesn't mean she doesn't want you to have one or or that you shouldn't, and I'm saying that from experience.
Oliver: You have kids in the future?
William: Oh, God, no. I mean, don't get me wrong. Kids are a miracle or whatever, but I was actually referring to when I left you to go live with grandma and grandpa.
Oliver: Yeah. That one's still pretty fresh for me.
William: Right. I mean I... I thought you hated my guts. I hated you for abandoning me.
Oliver: I tried.
William: True, but I wanted you to try harder, push a little more. I think that's all any child wants from their parents.
Oliver: I'm sorry.
William: It's okay. Dad, I am glad that you're in my life. Then and now. And Mia will be, too.


Continuity

It is revealed that John was teleported to Star City, along with Oliver and Team Arrow 2040.

Dinah and Rene learn that Felicity was pregnant and had a daughter named Mia. In the original 2040 timeline, they didn't meet Mia until she was an adult and didn't find out she was Felicity and Oliver's daughter until later.

Connor accidentally lets it slip that John Diggle adopts him, not knowing they had traveled back in time to before that happened.

William tells Oliver that he never saw him again after he left him to live with his grandparents and nobody is sure what happened to Ollie in the future. He just vanished and was presumed dead. He also says that he never saw Felicity again until recently in his time.

William tells Oliver that he became a tech magnate in the future.

William also tells Oliver that he's gay. Oliver says he already knew that.

Archroyal Capital CEO MacMillan Fairfield is the first victim of the new Deathstroke, who sews a bomb into his stomach, timing it to go off inside Starling General Hospital.

Dr. Eliza Schwartz, who frequently treated Team Arrow on the down-low, is killed in the bomb explosion.

Team Arrow determines the new Deathstroke is not Slade Wilson or Kane Wolfman.

Curtis Holt, last seen in 722, comes out of retirement to help fight the new Deathstroke.

Rene is currently running for a City Councilman position in Star City.

Oliver has a sample of cloth clipped by the antimatter wave that destroyed Earth-2. He asks for Curtis to analyze it and find a way to replicate the effect.

Connor accidentally mentions the Canaries to Dinah, describing them as an organization comparable to Knightwatch in his time. High praise indeed, considering he compared ARGUS to a kindergarten glass, relative to the power Knightwatch held in 2040.

According to Connor, "Star City's cancer is the rich" is JJ's favorite catch-phrase.

Team Arrow 2040 find the new Deathstroke in the building that becomes Galaxy One's corporate headquarters in 2040. They are shocked, however, to find the new Deathstroke is not John Diggle Jr., but Grant Wilson - Slade Wilson's older son.

Connor recalls that Grant Wilson founded the Deathstrokes and trained John Diggle Jr., who eventually took over the gang from him.

After Connor reveals to Diggle that his son becomes the leader of the Deathstrokes in the future, William comes clean about the rest of the bad news about the future they tried to keep hidden. Namely, that Zoe Ramirez is dead at John Diggle Jr's hand, that Star City 2040 is a terrible place run by crooked cops and politicians and that Rene Ramirez getting elected to City Council was the start of things going wrong.

The team figures out one big thing has already changed - in the original timeline, Grant Wilson's base was never blown up in 2019. Since that has changed his plans, that may mean the future can be changed and the Deathstrokes can be arrested before they become the cult heroes that inspired John Diggle Jr.

Zoe hates mint chocolate chip ice cream, saying it tastes like toothpaste.

Mia goes to investigate the hopsital bomb site with Black Siren.

Black Siren admits that she doesn't like Oliver and thinks he's a dick.

Black Siren makes reference to the events of 706 and how she talked Felicity out of killing Ricardo Diaz.

Connor and William are able to disarm the bomb.

Mia and Oliver are able to capture Grant Wilson.

Grant Wilson is sent to Blackgate Prison in Gotham City and it is said he'll be there for at least 20 years.

Connor and Diggle make peace.

Rene decides to continue his run for office, but focus on not letting the bad future he heard about happen.

Dinah and Black Siren discuss forming the Canaries a few years early.

Dinah resolves to keep training Zoe.

Curtis tells Oliver he figured out how to replicate the energy wave, but it will require tools he doesn't have, plutonium and be highly illegal. He does, however have a lead on a General who may have the tools they need. He currently lives in Russia.

Black Siren is approached by The Monitor, who says he can restore Earth-2 if she betrays Oliver Queen.


Untelevised Adventures

It is never revealed what Oliver and John were doing when they were teleported to Star City.


The Bottom Line

Better than it has any right to be, given that most of its drama is based around various characters being mad about things that haven't happened yet but which might happen, unless they decide to try and stop it from happening. The effects of this on the timeline are largely ignored and it's still unclear at the end if John Diggle Jr. might be redeemed and Zoe Ramirez might still be alive in the future. Still, there's a lot of good character moments (especially Oliver and William interacting) and the performances help salvage a very strange script.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 2 - Welcome To Hong Kong

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



Plot

Returned to Earth-1, Oliver finds himself back in Hong Kong with Diggle and Black Siren, who refuses to believe that Earth-2 is gone. As she runs off to try and find another way home, Oliver and Diggle focus on finding an abducted Doctor who is important to The Monitor's plans and cross paths with their old ally, Tatsu. Unfortunately, their old enemy China White is also back in Hong Kong and once again after the Alpha-Omega virus.


Influences

The flashback sequences of Arrow Season 3 and Crisis on Infinite Earths.


Goofs

Despite saying he doesn't really know anything about breach devices and only knowing the technology by reputation, David Chen has software on his computer that enables him to determine that Earth-2 is gone.

China White claims that she was released from custody because the American government feared a scandal if word got out that a federal agency was planting explosive bombs in the necks of convicts and forcing them to runs special ops missions for them. Wouldn't they have just killed all the Suicide Squad agents to cover their tracks rather than release them and hope they keep their mouths shut?

The Monitor chides Oliver for not blindly following orders, yet Oliver passed the Monitor's test in Elseworlds precisely because he challenged the Monitor's moral authority.

On the flip side, what makes Ollie think disobeying the Monitor by sneaking off to learn more about him is going to help matters?


Artistry

The fight scenes between the Triad and Ollie and Diggle are well-handled.



Trivia

This episode is the first to include a new opening introduction for Season 8.



Technobabble

Dr. Robert Wong is a renowned biophysicist and Nobel Prize winner, in the field of complex proteins and antibodies.



Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: (V/O) My name is Oliver Queen. For 7 years, I have fought with only one goal - to save my city. But now a new threat has emerged - a danger so severe it has forced me to leave my family in order to face it. And it won't be enough for me to just be the Green Arrow. To prevent the crisis that's coming, I am going to have to become someone else, I am going to have to become something else.

(Oliver awakens with a start from a nightmare of all his loved ones dying. He is in a strange bed in a strange room. The Monitor is in one corner.)
The Monitor: I warned you not to interfere.
Oliver: You didn't bring us here?
The Monitor: No. I discovered what had transpired on Earth-2, that you intervened to save Laurel Lance. I redirected you.
Oliver: What the hell happened back there?
The Monitor: A herald of what is to come. An entire world erased from existence.
Oliver: (confiused) Where's my mother? Where's... where's Tommy? Where's... where's Rene, where's Dinah?
The Monitor: They are no more.
Oliver: Did you hurt John and Laurel?
The Monitor: They are alive and nearby, but now you know that if we fail to stop the coming crisis, what you witnessed will occur on infinite Earths across the expanse of time.
Oliver: How did I fail? Your Dwarf Star particles are right there. (gesturing to a bag) 
The Monitor: You disobeyed my instructions to avoid entanglements on a parallel Earth. You confronted Tommy Merlyn. You altered the fate of Laurel Lance.
Oliver: I watched her die once. Okay? I wasn't prepared to do it again.
The Monitor: You are not a man accustomed to following orders. But the survival of the multiverse requires that you obey mine.

Oliver: I ignored the orders of a cosmic being, and as a result, I watched an entire world just disappear, so I'm just trying not to make the same mistake twice.
Diggle: Well, if this cosmic being wanted someone willing to watch the mass murder of innocent people, then he picked the wrong hero. Shouldn't blame yourself, man.
Oliver: (dryly) Well, what about my behavior over the past 7 years has given you the impression that I would?


Continuity

The Monitor says the he redirected Oliver, Diggle and Black Siren to Earth-1 after they entered a breach trying to escape Earth-2 without thinking of the destination.

The Monitor confirms that Earth-2 has been destroyed and blames it directly on Oliver's interfering with the affairs of that Earth instead of staying focused on the mission.

The Monitor instructs Oliver to find a man named Dr. Robert Wong. Again, he refuses to explain why he requires this.

Black Siren refuses to believe Earth-2 is gone. She takes the breach device and leaves to find someone local who can fix it.

The Internet cafe where Oliver tried to contact his family in 301 is revealed to be an ARGUS front. Diggle gets access to the backroom and a high-tech computer connected to the ARGUS intranet by telling the employee that Harbinger sends her regards.

Diggle calls Lyla into Hong Kong to keep an eye on Black Siren.

Dr. Wong has been missing for over a week. He was last seen at Wan Chai University, where he is a professor.

Tatsu Yamashiro (aka Katana) appears for the first time since 412.

Tatsu reveals that she left the Crescent Order after they demanded her death for giving the Lotus Cure to Nyssa Al Ghul. Since then, she has been a vigilante in Hong Kong.

The Cresent Order has knowledge of The Monitor and his true name, Mar Novu.

Tatsu recognizes the pins worn by the men in the last photo of Dr. Wong as the emblem of Hong Kong's secret police.

Black Siren met a hacker named David Chin through Cayden James several years earlier, who claimed to be able to get her back to Earth-2.

It is determined that Dr. Wong wasn't abducted but placed in protective custody, due to his working for the Chinese government to recreate the Alpha-Omega virus.

China White leads the Triad group that tries to kidnap Dr. Wong.  Both Oliver and Diggle thought she was in ARGUS custody. John says that as far as he knew, Lyla thought she was in their custody as well.

Black Siren learns that Earth-2 truly has been destroyed.

China White was last seen in 714, as part of John Diggle's new Suicide Squad.

Olive plans to use the virus as bait to draw China White and Dr. Wong out of hiding. Tatsu points out this was the same plan her husband attempted and it failed.

China White says the American government released her from custody because they feared a scandal if word got out about what ARGUS had been doing to force criminals to work for them.

Black Siren saves Katana from being killed by China White.

Dr. Wong is saved and the virus is secured.

Oliver gives Tatsu some of the same healing herbs she gave him after she saved his life in 310.

Oliver says he is going to Nanda Parbat in search of information on The Monitor.

Lyla is revealed to know the Monitor and to have been in communication with him for some time.

Connor says The Deathstrokes already took everything of value from Alberto Vasquez's private vaults, except for one flash drive that is completely fried.

William starts trying to fix the drive, as Zoe, Mia and Connor prepare to confront John Diggle Jr. by staking out the one black market where he can fence what he stole from Vasquez.

John Jr. agrees to have a friendly talk with Connor. This turns out to be a distraction and his plan was to leave the drive behind so William could fix it, so his people could then get the drive and the information on it.



Location

Hong Kong - Earth-1


The Fridge Factor

Tatsu is made out to be much less competent than she has been in the past as a sword fighter to give Black Siren a chance to save her and play the hero.


The Bottom Line

A lackluster episode that revives one of the weaker portions of Arrow's history and drags out the flash-forwards to ill-effect. There's nothing really bad about it, but there's a lot of characters it would have been better to see again than Tatsu, if only because her appearance in Hong Kong makes me wonder why a Japanese woman has made herself the protector of Hong Kong. Still, it could be worse.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 8, Episode 1 - Starling City

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




Plot

While trying to decipher the cryptic instructions given to him by The Monitor, Oliver finds himself back in Starling City on another Earth. Meanwhile, in the future of Star City 2040, Mia and William's team of vigilantes clash with an unexpected new foe.


Influences

Season 1 of Arrow and Crisis on Infinite Earths.


Goofs

Nothing is said about Robert Queen, who became The Hood of Earth-2 instead of Oliver Queen. Did Moira divorce him after his secret identity was exposed?  Was he sent to prison, like Roy Harper when he was fingered as The Hood in Arrow season 3? Was he killed and that revealed who he was? And why does everyone act like Adrian Chase's Hood is the first Hood on Earth 2? (Possibly Barry Allen's time-travel altered the timeline so both Robert and Oliver died on Earth 2 in the altered reality?)

Why does Earth-2 Simon Morrison use Adrian Chase as an alias when he's a good guy?

Where did Tommy Merlyn get trained to fight in Earth-2's reality?

Who was responsible for destroying the Queen's Gambit if Malcolm Merlyn honestly was a good guy on this Earth?

In a previous episode, Black Siren said that she knew Thea Queen quite well on her Earth and she was far less idealistic than the Thea Queen of Earth-1. Given the Earth-2 timeline, Thea would have been 12 when Black Siren moved to Central City to start a new life without her version of Oliver Queen. This makes it unlikely they would have kept in touch, particularly after Black Siren got her powers.

In this episode, Earth-2's Felicity Smoak is said to be running Smoak Technologies and is a huge success. Yet in an earlier episode, Black Siren said that Felicity Smoak of her Earth ran a criminal empire and was known for being ruthless. (The two aren't mutually exclusive, although now I really want to see Emily Bett Rickards as Earth 2's Wilson Fisk.)

How is Black Siren openly walking around when she was one of the most notorious criminals on Earth-2 five years ago and part of a regime that effectively ruled the world?

Why does Club Verdant - which Oliver started as a front to hide his first Arrowcave on Earth-1 - exist on Earth 2?


Performances

Stephen Amell does some great silent acting throughout the episode, reacting to various bits of bad news, nostalgia and looking at the picture of Felicity and Mia that is apparently the only possession he brought with him.

David Ramsey gets a bit of this too, during the scene where he is once again "The Black Driver."

Colin Donnel does a masterful job of playing a grief-stricken, driven to violence version of Tommy Merlyn.


Artistry

The direction and music do a great job of capturing the feeling of the first season of Arrow.


Trivia

At one point Adrian Chase calls Black Siren "Pretty Bird." This was Oliver Queen's pet name for Dinah Lance in the classic comics.

Reference is made to an incident in Pennytown. This is one of the districts of Star City in the DC Comics Universe.

Adrian Chase says that Bruce Wayne once told him that "if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." This is a direct quote from Sherlock Holmes in The Sign Of the Four.


Technobabble

Adrian Chase analyzes the metallurgy of the Dark Archer's arrows and Oliver Queen's arrows to prove they aren't the same.

Queen-Merlyn recently upgraded their facilities with 500 miles worth of high-capacity fiber optics married to an underground server farm.

Queen-Merlyn is research the possibility of using dwarf star matter as an alternative energy source.

William uses satellite imaging to determine that the Deathstrokes have assumed control of the old Galaxy One headquarters


Dialogue Triumphs

The Monitor: (opening narration) Among the many misconceptions humanity holds dear is the fallacy that all beings are created equal. In truth, there are those who are greater. They are called heroes. But even among heroes, there are different echelons. The highest belong to those known as the paragons. And they are the only hope of all creation.

Moira: I know the changes must be overwhelming, and you must feel like you're on a different planet or something.
Oliver: You could say that.

(Oliver walks into Queen-Merlyn's IT Department. He sees a blonde woman with a pony-tail from behind and can just make out her chewing on a black pen.)
Oliver: It's supposed to be red.
(The woman spins around in her chair. It is clearly not Felicity Smoak. Just some other blonde woman in glasses.)
Woman: Excuse me?
Oliver: Nothing. Sorry. I'm looking for Felicity Smoak.
Woman: (laugh) Like Felicity Smoak would slum it in IT, instead of running Smoak Tech!
Oliver: Oh. Good for her.

(Oliver and Diggle are in a car. Oliver in the back. Diggle driving.)
Oliver: So what do I call you?
Diggle: Diggle. Digg if you want.
(Oliver smiles at the familiarity. This is just like when they first met. We cut to the front seat and Diggle smiles faintly too as we hear Oliver tugging on the door handle only to find the child safety locks have been engaged, so he can't tuck and roll out of the car as he did when he lost Diggle before. It is apparent now that this Diggle saw the trick coming because he is, in fact, Earth-1 Diggle.)
Diggle: Sorry, Oliver. Fool me once...

Diggle: Oliver, has it occurred to you that whatever happens in this crisis happens because you push the people closest to you away?
Oliver: So you're in a forward area. Somebody throws a grenade right into the middle of your platoon. What do you do?
Diggle: I jump on it. I contain the blast.
Oliver: That's what I'm doing. I can't prevent whatever it is that's going to happen to me, but I will be damned if I'm going to put other people at risk.
Diggle: And I will be damned if I just let you go gently into that good night.

Tommy: So I've been thinking it over. And you really were on Lian Yu. Because if you had been here, you would've been protecting our sister. So the question is... why are you running around in The Hood's hood?
Oliver: Doesn't matter.
Tommy: Yes, it does! The Hood is running around this city, thinking that he's saving it, and nothing can save it. You don't understand the cancer that has taken over this city.
Oliver: (shocked by the realization) Oh, my God! This is the Undertaking. You stole the dwarf star particles because you want to destroy The Glades and get vengeance for Thea.
Tommy: How could you know that? And what happened to you on that island?
Oliver: What happened to you while I was on the island?
Tommy: While you were gone, this city has been rotting. It can't be saved!
Oliver: That's not true, Tommy. I have seen Starling City come back from darker moments than this. It can be redeemed. You can be redeemed.
Tommy: You don't understand what I've seen. You don't know how I found our sister. Every time I close my eyes, I see her body lying there, cold, on a dirty floor. So I swore that I would get vengeance on The Glades for what it did to Thea, and I am not going to let her down. Not again!
Oliver: That's not gonna make you feel better, Tommy.
Tommy: I don't care about feeling better. I just want The Glades to suffer.
Oliver: You're a better man than this.
Tommy: That was a different me. Good-bye, Oliver.


Continuity

The Monitor deposits Oliver on Lian Yu on Earth-2 in the year 2019, though this is not immediately apparent.

Oliver is able to summon a boat using the same signal fire trick he used in the Arrow pilot.

On Earth-2's Lian Yu, the Deathstroke mask with an arrow through the eye is replaced with a Batman or Batwoman mask.

On Earth-2, Moira Queen and Malcolm Merlyn are married in the year 2019 and have merged their companies.

On Earth-2, after Robert Queen was declared dead, Walter Steele hold his shares in Queen Consolidated and went elsewhere. On Earth-1, he took charge of the company and eventually married Moira Queen.

Earth-2's Tommy Merlyn is still alive and living at Queen Manor. He says he has been married and divorced twice in the 12 years since he last saw Oliver.

Earth-2's Thea Queen died of a Vertigo overdose on her 18th birthday. This is a dark take on the events of 111 on Earth-1, where Thea Queen took Vertigo at her 18th birthday party but only crashed her brand new car.

Oliver breaks into Queen Consolidated looking for dwarf star particles. He finds the security team dead, shot by arrows, the particles stolen and is encountered by The Hood of this reality - Adrian Chase.

The fight between Oliver and Adrian is broken up by Black Siren, who asks what Oliver is doing on her Earth. This is the first indication in the episode that we are on Earth-2.

Black Siren has created her own version of The Bunker on Earth-2. It has the same design as the Earth-1 bunker, but with purple lighting instead of green.

Since returning to Earth-2, Black Siren has partnered with Adrian Chase (aka The Hood). They are not lovers, she is quick to note.

Oliver hides the fact that he is from another Earth from Adrian.

The Monitor reminds Oliver that his task is to retrieve the dwarf star particles for reasons he will not explain - not to confront Malcolm Merlyn over his crimes. Oliver defends his actions, saying that he needs to solve the mystery of the stolen particles in order to get them.

Oliver goes looking for Felicity Smoak in the IT Department of Queen Merlyn, learning that on this Earth she is a famous tech magnate.

The Earth-2 version of Curtis Holt is the head of Queen-Merlyn's IT Department.

The Earth-2 version of Rene Ramirez is employed as the Queen/Merlyn bodyguard.

The Earth-2 version of Dinah Drake is a Detective Sergeant in the SCPD.

As on Earth-1, Moira hires John Diggle to act as Oliver's personal bodyguard/babysitter. It is later revealed that this is Earth-1's John Diggle, come to help Oliver.

Felicity told Diggle about The Monitor taking Oliver away. Somehow, Diggle was able to track Oliver to Earth-2 and got there using a dimensional breach device borrowed from Cisco Ramon.

It is Earth-2's Tommy Merlyn who initiates The Undertaking in 2019 rather than Malcolm Merlyn in 2013. His plan involves attacking The Glades using a doomsday device powered by dwarf star particles rather than an earthquake generator. His motivation is avenging the death of Thea Queen, whom he apparently knew was his half-sister in this reality. On Earth-1, Malcolm Merlyn was avenging the death of his wife.

Tommy chains Oliver up in the same location Malcolm Merlyn did in 123.

Earth-2 Rene and Dinah are working for Tommy Merlyn to bring about the Undertaking.They are nowhere near as well-trained as their Earth-1 counterparts and Oliver defeats them easily on his own.

When Adrian Chase asks how Oliver knows so much about what the Dark Archer is planning, Oliver says he's ten steps ahead of him. This is a nod to what Prometheus continually told him during Season 5 of Arrow.

The location where Thea died is 4587 Burke. Apparently the building there is the home to Star City's worst drug dealers.

Tommy quotes something that Thea once told him to Oliver - "The dead don't want anything." Earth-1 Thea said the same thing to Oliver in 102.

Oliver is able to talk Tommy out of activating the device and turning himself in.

Adrian Chase is able to dismantle the Undertaking device and agrees to give Oliver the dwarf star particles.

Chase deduces that Oliver is the Hood from another Earth on his own.

Chase apparently knew Bruce Wayne and quotes a staying Wayne told him, which is cribbed from Sherlock Holmes. This, coupled with the Batman mask on Lian Yu, suggests that Bruce Wayne may have been the Slade Wilson of Earth 2.

Oliver suggests Chase change his name to Green Arrow.

Oliver visits Tommy in the police station after he turns himself in. He also gives his mother a final hug, after lying that he will see her at home.

Black Siren arrives at the SCPD HQ just as walls of antimatter began to destroy everything.

Moira and Tommy are killed by the antimatter.

Oliver, Diggle and Black Siren jump through a breach just as the walls close in on them.

In the future of 2040, William Clayton is now expanding his company into Star City, under his alias. His company is Harris Consolidated.

Crime has risen 300% in The Glades since the wall came down, but is down across the board in Star City in general.

Mr. Vasquez is a figure of importance in the move to reintegrate The Glades and Star City. He credits the vigilantes with reducing crime in Star City as a whole.

The Deathstroke Gang, which is led by John Diggle Jr., abduct Vasquez. They take him to the old Galaxy One building.

William talks Mia into going along with Connor's plan to rescue Vasquez.

Vasequez gives the Deathstrokes a series of codes.

Mia insists that from now on the team is going to do things her way.


Location

Starling City - Earth 2


Untelevised Adventures

The fate of Robert Queen on Earth 2.

Everything involving how Black Siren got herself established in Starling City and Adrian Chase's background on Earth-2.


The Bottom Line

As a walk down memory lane and a tribute to the first season of Arrow, it is wonderful. As a set-up for the season, it's competently executed apart from some major continuity issues - most likely brought on by the series' need to include Katie Cassidy as Black Siren rather than setting this on an entirely different Earth. That being said, the final sequence in which Earth-2 is destroyed is chillingly effective and set the tone for the future episodes of The Flash depicting the same destruction.  The Crisis is coming and nothing will ever be the same again.

Unfortunately, this does take the piss out of the flash-forward sequences, because we know that timeline is safe, even ignoring the reports that filming has already begun on a Green Arrow and the Canaries spin-off combining the planned Star City 2040 spin-off and Katie Cassidy's proposed Birds of Prey series. Is it too much hope that we can get Ashley Scott in there as well if the universes merge into one?

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.

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

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




Plot

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


Influences

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


Goofs

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

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

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


Performances

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


Artistry

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


Trivia

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


Technobabble

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

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

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

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


Dialogue Triumphs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Dialogue Disasters

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


Continuity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dinah goes to watch Black Siren's petition hearing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Longbow Hunters escape, but Diaz is captured.

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

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

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

Felicity almost kills Diaz but is stopped by Black Siren.

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

Stanley is released back into general population.

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

William doesn't drink.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Feliicty's last call was to someone called Blackstar.


Untelevised Adventures

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


The Bottom Line

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

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

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

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




Plot

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


Influences

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


Goofs

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


Performances

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


Artistry

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


Trivia

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


Technobabble

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

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

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


Dialogue Triumphs

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

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

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

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

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


Continuity

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

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

Inmates on Level 2 are not allowed visitation.

ARGUS Deputy Director Bell is diabetic.

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

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

Curtis has 14 PhDs, including one in biochemical engineering.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Felicity determines that Level 2 is completely off the books.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Talia kills Dr. Parker.

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

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

Felicity's tracker locates The Silencer in Moscow.

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


Location
Slabside Maximum Security Prison.
Moscow, Russia


The Bottom Line

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