Arrow Episode Guide: Season 6, Episode 16 - The Thanatos Guild

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



Plot

Nyssa Al Ghul returns to Star City to warn Thea that a League of Assassins splinter group is coming to kill her. This new faction, The Thanatos Guild, also seeks a mysterious box that was created by Malcolm Merlyn. Meanwhile, Oliver comes to a realization about his life.


Influences

Raiders of the Lost Ark (the traps in Merlyn's hideout) The Benjamin Percy run on Green Arrow (evil group seeking to recruit or kill Oliver Queen's half sister) and the New 52 Batman books (heroes warring with League of Assassins splinter group)


Performances

Katrina Law is as amazing as always.

As far as final bows go, Willa Holland gives a good one. The only downside is there's no final moment with Quentin, who has been more of a daughter to him than anyone else the past two seasons.


Artistry

The fight sequences are well-choreographed, even by the usually high standards of this show.


Trivia

The Thanatos Guild is named for Thanatos, the Greek God of Death.

The plot of this episode borrows somewhat from the recent Batman comics, which have seen the heroes contending with Leviathan - a new secretive group of assassins that employs many former League of Assassins members, including Talia Al Ghul.

The plot also vaguely resembles a plot thread from the Green Arrow comics of Benjamin Percy. There, Emiko Queen was head-hunted by The Ninth Circle - a cabal of Satanic bankers with a long association with The Queen Family, who employed Emiko's mother Shado.

The ball-cap worn by Roy Harper in this episode has a distinctive crown-shape icon on the front. This resembles the ball-cap worn by Roy Harper as part of his Arsenal costume in the DC Comics Rebirth universe.


Technobabble

Spartan has thermal imaging scanners built into his new helmet.

Iodine Dixonium is a component that is magnetically attracted to the same type of steel Ra's Al Ghul used to encase relics.

The League of Assassins cipher is based on The Fibonacci Sequence - a mathematical pattern dating back to Pingala's Formula in 450 BC. The Fibonacci Sequence is that every number is the sum of the two starting numbers.

Felicity attempts to scan the map to create a 3-D voxel-based re-creation of the original parchment. This might reveal some hidden markers.

Felicity is able to locate a bomb by tracking the frequency root of the detonator.

The bomb has a collapsible circuit. Since it has a mercury switch, it cannot be frozen. It can be short-circuited with an electricity arrow.

Merlyn's map was made with nanolithography - printed with bacteria. When the enzymes in it are exposed to Thea's DNA, the map reveals itself. This is, according to Felicity, cutting edge science requiring an atomic force microscope to create.


Dialogue Triumphs

Nyssa: I would so relish slitting your throat, Athena.
Athena: One thing we have in common.
Nyssa: Except I've grown a taste for the contemporary...
(Nyssa holds up a detonator and grins.) 
Nyssa: Such as plastic explosives.

(Roy and Thea are driving away through the streets of Star City.)
Thea: I can't believe we're actually doing it.
Roy: Yeah. I can't believe it either.
Thea: (purring) Happily ever after.
Roy: Yeah. (hesitatingly) Ever after.
Thea: Okay. That wasn't so convincing.
Roy: Look, Thea - I'm thrilled. I just don't want to jinx it.
Thea: Okay. And since when do you believe in superstitions?
Roy: Well, ever since I met your brother, there's not a lot I don't believe in.
(Thea scoffs as suddenly one of their tires blows out.  We cut away to see Roy struggling to control the car as it spins out. Close-up on the front passenger tire, which has been shot by an arrow.)
Thea: Okay. Now I may believe it too.

Tigressa: Your father had much faith in you.
Thea: Yeah, well... with that new league he created running around, I can't say the same for him.
Tigressa: So you've met Athena. She's not the leader your father desired. You are.
Thea: Yeah, well, I'm sure death has cured him of his disappointment.

(Athena and her men are standing above a dropped Roy and Thea.)
Athena: Make your father proud! Come with us!
Thea: (weakly) Felicity? I know you were wondering...(suddenly stronger) it's from Raiders. (To Roy) Kiss the floor.
(Roy and Thea both lie flat as Thea hits the trigger panel next to her. The darts in the hallway go shooting into Athena and her soldiers. most of them dropping dead instantly.)

Oliver: Nyssa.
Nyssa: Husband.
Oliver: (forced chuckle) You've got to stop doing that. I... I do have a wife now and...uh... she doesn't like it.
Nyssa: But that's the fun of it.
Oliver: Thea may want you to stay. Doesn't mean you have to.
Nyssa: Her point about Felicity's utility was well taken.
Oliver: So was her point about wanting nothing to do with Malcolm.
Nyssa: It is her life and she must find her own truth.
Oliver: I think her truth is a new life. That she's earned.
Nyssa: She's earned your support for her actions. Whatever those may be.
Oliver: I can understand why she would be conflicted with Malcolm. He was her father. I am not conflicted. He was evil. And Thea should not be charged with writing his wrongs.
Nyssa: My father was also evil. And I've dedicated the rest of my life to righting his wrongs. From what I understand, you have done the same.
Oliver: But my father asked me to! With his dying wish, he asked me to!
Nyssa: Back on Lian Yu, Merlyn gave up his life for Thea. Just as your father did for you. I believe Thea owes him the same debt!
Oliver: Well, it is convenient for you to believe that. Because Thea gets you closer to what you want, so do not pretend that you are selflessly supporting her. And never, ever lecture me on what I owe my sister.

(Felicity explains the code for the League of Assassins' Puzzle Box and The Fibonacci Sequence)
Roy: Wow.
Felicity: Yeah.
Roy (To Nyssa) When you said ancient, you were not kidding.
Nyssa: I never kid.
Felicity: Except where my marriage is concerned, apparently.

(Felicity explains the horribly technical thing she is trying to do to an oblivious Nyssa. She is clearly reveling in Nyssa being unsure of something for the first time since she's ever known her.)
Nyssa: That sounds... complicated.
Felicity: It is. Very.
(Felicity turns back to her computer, still smiling.)
Felicity: So it would be really great to not be distracted. You know?
Nyssa: Very true. (pause) I'll stay here to make sure you remain uninterrupted. Sister-Wife.
Felicity: ... okay.

(Thea asks Oliver why he's still The Green Arrow when John wants to take the mantle from him.)
Oliver: I don't know. I - I - I gave it up because I wanted to be a better father. But... William accepts the idea that I'm The Green Arrow. Plus, I don't want to give it up. I don't know why.
Thea: I do. Because being The Green Arrow is what makes you feel complete. For some reason when you... you put that hood on, it enables you to become the best version of yourself.
Oliver: We're supposed to be talking about you.
Thea: Maybe we are. I don't know...  Maybe that's the reason why I can't seem to give this... life up. I... (sighs) I dunno maybe I'm hoping that maybe I'll get the same thing... and find the best version of myself. Whoever she is.

Felicity: Don't forget guys - we have a bomb situation.
Roy: There's always a bomb situation!

Thea: One more piece of advice?
Oliver: Sure.
Thea: If you're going to wear that hood, you shouldn't string John along anymore.
Oliver: I thought I was the one who gave the wise sibling advice?
Thea: Nope. That has never been the case.


Continuity

The opening flashback from Four Years Ago with Thea talking to Merlyn took place in 223.

Nyssa Al Ghul is confirmed to still be alive following the events of Lian Yu's destruction. The last mention of her was in 601, where Slade Wilson said he saw her heading towards the cages to see if Artemis had survived the bombing.

Thea and Roy are planning to run off together, though they don't know where just yet.

According to Thea, Oliver was afraid of the dark and couldn't sleep without a light on until he was 16. Ollie says he just had a problem with pitch blackness.

Oliver makes reference to the two times he shot Roy Harper with an arrow in 208 and 220.

According to Quentin, Black Siren is as messy as Laurel but is a better cook.

Dinah and Curtis are working on figuring out which cops in the SCPD are working for Diaz, but Quentin fears that other parts of the city government might be under his control as well.

Quentin confirms that the Star City District Attorney is still going forward with the case against Oliver Queen being Green Arrow, even without Roy Harper as a witness.

One of the dirty cops working for Diaz is named J. Hester. Dinah recognizes him by sight from the fight to rescue Roy in 615.  He is the tenth dirty cop Dinah has identififed.

Nick Anastas is an SCPD officer Curtis thinks is cute. He has no blackmail pressure points and hasn't had any odd deposits into his accounts that Curtis can track.

Curtis has been taking care of Zoe since 615. He cooks Macaroni and Cheese far too much for her liking.

Rene is supposed to be starting physical therapy soon.

The licene plate on Roy Harper's car is JJV-467.

The Thantos Guild was Malcolm Merlyn's attempt to reform The League of Assassins following Nyssa's disbanding them in 413. His second in command was a woman named Athena.

Athena was a rival of Nyssa's in The League of Assassins.

Merlyn found a map to something he wanted to unearth with Thea. The Thanatos Guild wrongly believe Thea to have the map or knowledge of where it is.

Merlyn had one female associate in Star City with whom he confided - Tigressa. She is an assassin with over 200 confirmed kills, including her own brother, whom she killed because he had matched her record. She claims to have rejected the path of The League of Assassins. 

Captain Hill takes over a drug-related homicide which Dinah is investigating. This tips Dinah off that something strange might be going on, beyond her suspicion there's no way there can be this many dirty cops in the SCPD without the Captain being dirty as well.

The map is contained within a puzzle box made with an ancient cipher used by The League of Assassins. It utilizes 18 characters from three different alphabets.

Curtis is able to bluff his way into a tour with Officer Nick Anastas when he catches him standing watch outside the evidence room while Dinah is breaking into it.

The League of Assassins cipher is based on The Fibonacci Sequence - a mathematical pattern dating back to Pingala's Formula in 450 BC. The Fibonacci Sequence is that every number is the sum of the two starting numbers.

The starting numbers are 10 and 13. 1013 was the year The League of Assassins was founded. It is also, according to Thea, Malcolm Merlyn's birthday (October 13).

Roy Harper was always good at math.

Felicity holds the map close to a fire, hoping there is invisible ink in much the same way as utilized in other League of Assassins documents, such as The List from 106.

Nyssa was 25 when she first used a computer.

Curtis determines that the drugs Hill took from Dinah at the crime scene were Vertigo - not something Diaz manufactures. This suggests that Hill is clean.

Athena is able to escape despite an apparently fatal wound dealt by Thea.

The map requires Thea's blood as an agent to make the invisible ink visible.

The map shows a series of ley lines spanning the globe. There are three points which have the same confluence of ley lines as Nanda Parbat, suggesting that Merlyn discovered the location of three more Lazarus Pits.

Curtis asks Nick Anastas out to dinner. He says yes.

Dinah determines there are no cases involving Vertigo being handled. This means that Diaz is now selling Vertigo and that Captain Hill is working with him.

Thea decides to go with Nyssa to destroy The Lazarus Pits. Roy decides to go with them.

Nyssa gives Oliver a dagger that symbolizes the cutting of marital bonds among The League Of Assassins members. This officially annuls their marriage.


Location

An unnamed castle run by The Thanatos Guild.


The Bottom Line

A marked improvement over most of the episodes of the second half of Season Six, but that's likely due to the fact that it has nothing to do with the on-going story of Season Six. Even the bits with Dinah and Curtis investigating the SCPD seem far removed from the on-going story since it doesn't involve them butting heads with the Original Team Arrow and there's no Black Siren getting in the way.

This episode is almost entirely devoted to giving Thea Queen a proper send off . It does the same for Roy Harper and Nyssa Al Ghul to a lesser degree, but this is honestly Willa Holland's swan song and she makes it clear just why she was so essential to this show's success. Of course the show hasn't given her much to do in recent episodes but at least she's been given a good send off with a chance of coming back later.

Unfortunately, the preview for next week indicates more stupid bickering and heroes fighting heroes while the villains get away with murder.  For this week, however, Arrow was good.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 6, Episode 15 - Doppelgänger

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




Plot

Thea comes out of retirement as Speedy to save Roy Harper, who is now in the clutches of Ricardo Diaz. Meanwhile, Black Siren reveals herself to the world, claiming to be the deceased Laurel Lance!


Influences

The Green Arrow comics of Judd Winick. (Insane plot twists, villains doing things just to mess with the heroes, the villains having convoluted plans that put them three steps ahead of the heroes at all times, and even when the heroes win, it doesn't gain them any ground.)


Goofs

Katie Cassidy's ham-fisted over-acting as Black Siren tries to play what she thinks Laurel was like is almost as painful as her previous under-acted attempts to play Laurel seriously.

Zoe says her babysitter left her two hours earlier when Curtis comes over to tell her that her dad is in the hospital. What the hell kind of babysitter abandons their charge?  (A very bad one, clearly.)

It's awfully convenient that the grate to the vent which Thea uses to access the hotel is not bolted down and seems to swing on a hinge!

The police officers in Diaz' employ say they can torture Roy without leaving a mark, yet Roy already has a bloody nose and clear bruises on his forehead.

Black Siren says that all she ever wanted was to go somewhere she wouldn't have to spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder. If that's the case, as was asked last week, why did she come back to Star City after withdrawing the money from the bank in Corto Maltese?

The episode goes out of its way to tell us that nothing has really changed and that Oliver is still in trouble legally, even though the DA's Office no longer has their star witness in the "Green Arrow is Oliver Queen" trial.

Granting that we don't know the full details of Diaz' plan, wouldn't revealing Roy Harper is alive to the press be just as damning to Oliver as trying to get Roy to testify against Oliver and a hell of a lot easier? Roy is supposed to be legally dead, after being publicly exposed and arrested for being The Arrow.


Performances

Willa Holland steals the show as Thea this time.

The only thing lending the Black Siren storyline any credibility at this point is Paul Blackthorne's gravitas.


Trivia

Roy says that he was living in St. Roche when the Star City police found him. St. Roche was the hometown of Hawkman during the James Robinson/Geoff Johns run on the book.


Technobabble

Brady v. Maryland is the court case which determined that Defense Attorneys have to be allowed to see all the evidence that a Prosecuting Attorney has against their client.

Oliver makes use of a Fireworks Arrow to distract the balcony guards so Thea can enter the hotel where Roy is being held captive.


Dialogue Triumphs

Black Siren: Look, this is a lot simpler than you're making it. You're going to protect me. And you're going to help protect me by going along with this story that (changes her tone to sound overly sweet) I'm the real Laurel Lance.
Oliver: Yeah? Why would we do that?
Black Siren: I don't know. Maybe because of all the reporters that are just in the next room? (stepping close to Oliver and playing with his tie.) You know it's only a matter of time before they ask me who The Green Arrow is again. (mockingly) What would you like me to tell them?

Quentin: Look, I know what you're doing here, all right? You're going after Laurel because of what happened to your friend. And I get that, okay? It's what I would do if someone I loved was dead.
Dinah: You mean, it's what you'd do with a criminal, Quentin. Which, by the way, is what she is.
Quentin: Yeah, well, you and I both know that. But, you know, she's turned herself into a beloved public figure. She's also said that she's got no compunctions about outing Oliver and... (sighs) ... I don't think she'll stop with him.
Dinah: (sarcastically) Oh, so you're doing this for my sake?
Quentin: No. For all of our sakes. I've been making progress with her, Dinah, ok? I'm not finished, but if she lives as my Laurel...
Dinah: She is not your Laurel! Your Laurel wouldn't have murdered Vince or anyone else. She did. And you are delusional if you think you can change her.

Oliver: John, he's in there because of me. He's been on the run for three years.
John: Oliver, that's his choice.
Oliver: (sighs) I know, but did I learn anything from it? Roy put on the hood. He sacrificed himself. For me. And I asked you to do the same thing. At the expense of your safety. And your family.
John: Difference was I wanted to put on the hood, Oliver. Listen, I've been good for the past two months. Good! But instead of giving me back the hood, you had Cisco make me a new suit.
Oliver: (ignoring John as he points to the guards he's been watching) There it is! A 15 second opening.  That is our window!
(Oliver turns around and walks off. Diggle shakes his head, looks to the guards, then follows after Oliver.)

Anatoly: Is it Laurel or Laurel these days? So confusing this Doppelgänger business, but you seem to figure it out.
Black Siren: Diaz killed Cayden.
Anatoly: He told me. (shrugs) No honor among thieves. Or crime lords, I guess. Oh well.
Black Siren: Diaz manipulated the both of us. Lied to the both of us. The whole time, he's had his own agenda. That doesn't bother you?
Anatoly: I'm not sentimental. I'm Russian. I am in this city for two reasons only. One is revenge. Against Oliver Queen. And two is money. I'm happy to work with whoever can get me either.
Black Siren: You're in this city because the Bratva cast you out.
Anatoly: Well, there's that too.

Roy: Is that my hood?  It looks good on you.
(Thea leans in and kisses Roy passionately. Suddenly she breaks the kiss.)
Thea: I'm - I'm sorry. If you're seeing someone -
Roy: I'm not. I didn't take your advice. No kids, no wife and I really, really hate minivans.

Thea: You know, there are times that I feel like my life completely fell apart when Roy left? From my blood lust to Malcolm to the coma... knowing he was out there? That he was okay? It made my life just a little bit easier. Ever since Mom died, I haven't known much if anything, other than the fact that I want to make sure he is safe and I will do whatever it takes to make sure that happens!


Continuity

Jean Loring - Oliver's lawyer - was last seen in 607. She informs Oliver that she thinks she can get the Green Arrow case dropped since the FBI's case depended on leveraging Rene, with information that was obtained illegally from Cayden James, which can't be collaborated now.

That chance is blown out of water when Black Siren speaks to the press, claiming to be Laurel Lance and to have been held captive and for the past two years by people working for Damian Darhk.

Oliver confirms that Laurel Lance was the Black Canary, saying that he was told by Green Arrow, again denying that he is Green Arrow to the press.

Black Siren says the money she stole from Cayden James has been stolen.

Black Siren says she has no idea who was responsible for killing Cayden James and his son, but notes that it couldn't have been her who did the second killing since James' son died while she was being held by ARGUS, who took her into custody in 510.

Black Siren says that there is a Thea Queen on Earth Two, only she isn't as "pathetically naive" (i.e. idealistic) as Earth One Thea. It's been established before that Robert Queen was Green Arrow on Earth Two and that Oliver Queen honestly did die at sea on Earth Two.

Star City can't afford to pay it's police officers as of this week.

Captain Hill suggests auctioning off seized assets to cover the city's bills, saying the police lock-up has $30 million dollars in property.

Dinah asks to be assigned to investigate "Laurel's" kidnapping.

Rene's nickname for Curtis, according to Zoe, is C-Dawg.

DA Armand reveals that Roy Harper has been called as a new witness against Oliver Queen in the court case that he is Green Arrow.

Roy Harper was last seen in 412, where he returned to Star City after being blackmailed into committing a series of burglaries by The Calculator.

Thea notes she wasn't able to locate Roy and she tried to do so, to send him an invitation to Felicity and Oliver's wedding in 609.

Quentin makes reference to his ex-wife, Dinah, and says that while he did not give her the details, he told her to hold off on making a visit to Star City to see "Laurel".

Dinah questions Dr. Schwarz, Team Arrow's physician, about "Laurel". Dr. Schwarz confirms that she performed the autopsy on the real Laurel Lance personally and saw her die, but says that in a world full of metahumans, she thinks almost anything is possible. She says they are conducting a DNA test to see if "Laurel" is real.

The cop assigned to watch "Laurel" in the hospital is in Diaz' employ. He takes Black Siren to see Diaz.

Anatoly is now working with Diaz.

Anatoly confirms that he has been cast out of the Bratva and is only working with Diaz so he can get revenge on Oliver and/or make money.

Roy makes reference to his last conversation with Thea, from 412, where she told him to find a wife, have kids, buy a minivan and live a good life.

Roy was hiding out in St. Roche when the Star City police found him.

Felicity determines that two of the cops torturing Roy were on duty when Cayden James died and that they, and several other cops, have gotten payments from a shell corporation in Corto Maltese. This same corporation was responsible for financing the development of the drug that treated John's nerve condition.

Oliver tasks Quentin and Dinah with figuring out how badly the SCPD has been compromised, though he suspects the corruption is far worse than it was than even a year ago.

Ricardo Diaz is using an abandon casino as one of his hideaways.

Diaz is personally fighting every man who wishes to be part of his gang, saying he wants to build a family rather than a gang.

It is revealed that Black Siren is now working with Diaz, integrating herself into Team Arrow as she tries to make an honest go of being their Laurel - Oliver does not trust her but agrees to give her the space to try.

Roy and Thea seem to have reconciled.

The episode ends with a woman in the garb of The League Of Assassins, watching Thea and Roy make out, messaging her master that she has found the Heir of Ra's Al Ghul.


The Winick Factor

Diaz's working with Cayden James doesn't make a lick of sense. Anatoly, whose always had something of a code of honor suddenly going bandit in the name of getting revenge on Oliver when he had lines he would not cross in the past doesn't make any sense. Dinah, the only person who seems to consistently remember that Black Siren is a multiple-murderer who didn't show any signs of wanting redemption until she became a target of her fellow criminals, is still painted as being a vengeful hose-beast. Oliver says he doesn't trust Black Siren at all, but agrees to back off of her if she makes an honest effort at pretending to be Laurel.


The Bottom Line

A step up from last week, but only in so far as the Thea and Roy romance redeems a lot. The plot is still as stupid as ever but there are individual moments of sanity - Dinah and Quentin agreeing to work to clean up the police department despite their mutual distrust, Oliver making it clear he does not trust Black Siren at all - that make it work. I suspect the fact that Rene isn't in the episode and Curtis is barely in it help matters as well.

We know Black Siren is playing somebody - quite likely everyone - and if there's any justice, Diaz will kill her before her sudden but inevitable betrayal since she betrayed Cayden James by stealing from him and he's allegedly smart enough to realize that fact.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 21 - Honor Thy Fathers

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




Plot

With Adrian Chase revealed as Prometheus, nearly every case he prosecuted as Star City's District Attorney has been overturned. This leads to a wave of violent criminals being released onto the streets, including Derek Sampson - the drug kingpin who feels no pain. As an already taxed Team Arrow tries to keep the peace, Oliver Queen has another mystery to ponder - a corpse sealed in concrete delivered to The Mayor's Office!


Influences

Hamlet (two sons come to blows trying to avenge their respective fathers)


Goofs

It beggars belief that Oliver Queen - who devoted his life to atoning for the sins of his father - never considered that those sins may have included his father having people killed until now.


Performances

The whole ensemble gels here but if I had to single out one performance, it would be Willa Holland's ability to convey emotion while staring at a computer screen without saying a word.


Artistry

The atmosphere of the Lian Yu sequences is good, with a slightly washed-out look to the color palette in the cinematography.


Trivia

The title of this episode is similar to that of the second episode of Season One - Honor Thy Father.


Technobabble

The concrete holding Henry Goodwin's corpse is a proprietary formula used by a specific construction company - Wellward Construction, which was a subsidiary of Queen Consolidated.

The DNA evidence under Henry Goodwin's fingernails indicate that his killer was Robert Queen.

The gas spectrometer in The Bunker detects soil with high levels of copper concentration on the concrete holding Henry Goodwin's body. Felicity compares this information to Queen Consolidated construction locations and soil samples from areas of the city rich in copper, leading her to a likely location for Henry Goodwin's entombment/murder.

The two chemicals Sampson steals - torinium and lydracide - are two of the three components needed to weaponize tuberculosis. The third chemical - Cyclotrizane - is highly unstable and banned from all domestic manufacturing.

Anatoly suggests that he and Oliver part ways by saying "ne dumay plokho obo mne". This is Russian for "do not think badly of me". Oliver suggests "Prochnost" (Strength) instead.

Curtis determines that the Cyclotrizane Sampson stole is more refined than the formula used by Justin Clayborne and could be used to create a biological agent 1000 times more powerful than the strain Justin Clayborne planned to use and it would not have a cure. To make matters worse, the formula is aerosolized, so it can be distributed however Chase wishes.

Cyclotrizane degrades pretty quickly, meaning it gives off traceable emissions.


Dialogue Triumphs

Quentin: The question is why would Chase send Oliver a fifteen-year-old body that neither of them are connected to?
Dinah: No idea. Then again, Chase -is- crazy.

Anatoly: Maybe drinking before flying not such good idea? Or not drink enough? I don't know.
Oliver: Weather's getting worse. Means we're close.
Anatoly: I'll pretend that is good thing.

(Anatoly and Oliver are struggling to carry a foot-locker on the rocky beach of Lian Yu.)
Anatoly: I cannot believe you convinced me to come back to this island.
Oliver: Yeah, well - fly home any time you want to, Anatoly.
Anatoly: Ha! So you have irony back in America, yes?

(John and Oliver are stuck in the deathtrap Prometheus set up in The Oliver Building)
John: Chase is going through a lot of trouble to prove a point. What's the hell is his point?!
Oliver: He framed my father for the same kind of murder.
John: It proves the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, huh? Well, you both might be killers, Oliver, but he's a psychopath. Don't lose sight of that.
Oliver: Well, you're assuming that we're getting out of this.
John: Yes I am!

Oliver: So we had to move off the Sampson stakeout?
Felicity: Yes, because John and you were reenacting the Paleo-version of my favorite scene from Witness.
(Oliver looks at Felicity confused.)
Curtis: Harrison Ford almost gets buried under the corn in the barn silo.
(Curtis and Felicity fist-bump.)
Dinah: Oh, right! And for those of us who haven't seen every movie ever, they mean it was a trap.
Curtis: Who hasn't seen Witness?

Oliver: The Hood, Anatoly, is an identity.
Anatoly: One you think channels monster inside you.
Oliver: And protects the people that are closest to me. I do it this way, my enemies will target The Hood - not the ones I care for.
Anatoly: You are many things, Oliver Queen. But until today I did not count naive as one of them. The people closest to you will always pay the most for your sins. You are paying for your father's. Who will pay for yours?

Oliver: Thea, I thought we agreed not to look at whatever's on that drive?!
Thea: Ollie, you have a habit of giving orders and just assuming that they are agreements.

(Oliver is rewatching the video his father left him, telling him to save their city.)
Felicity: Why are you re-watching it?
Oliver: I want to know how I missed it.
Felicity: Missed what?
Oliver: He's a murderer. I mean, he helped Merlyn start The Undertaking... I never deluded myself into thinking that he was a saint. But to take a man's life? Cover it up? It...it's like I didn't know him at all.
Felicity: Has it occurred to you that this is exactly what Chase wants?
Oliver: Mmm-hmm.
Felicity: Okay, the question was rhetorical. Of course it's occurred to you and of course this is what Chase wants.
Oliver: Chase wants to destroy the basis for everything we're doing here. And that crusade began with my father. Everything I've done - everything - has, in some way, been about honoring him.
Felicity: Your father inspired you to save this city. And you did. At this point, who cares why? You're not a killer. The people you care about are not suffering because of you. Their lives - my life, is better. Because you decided to become The Green Arrow. Well, whenever you decide to be The Green Arrow again.
Oliver: I know you're right I believe that you're right. But... every time I take a step forward, it feels like the past is pulling me back.
Felicity: Probably because you're letting it.
Oliver: ... yeah.
Felicity: Maybe it's time you stopped living for your father and start living for yourself? Just leave the past in the past.

Prometheus: How did you think you were going to beat me, Oliver? We were trained by the same teacher. Just one of the many things that we have in common. You know? Like our fathers being horrible men?
Green Arrow: I am not my father. I'm my own man!
Prometheus: Yeah. A man who's gonna die knowing that my father's legacy killed everyone in the city he loves so much!
Green Arrow: Your father's legacy. (scoffs) That's almost funny.
Prometheus: What are you talking about?
(Green Arrow smirks but says nothing,)
Prometheus (raising his sword): What are you talking about?! What's so funny about my father's legacy?!
Green Arrow: Goodwin's lawyer. He represented your father.
Prometheus: I knew that already!
Green Arrow: You don't know what your father asked him to do... Adrian... he was going to disown you. Not because you're illegitimate. Because you're insane. You're sick. And your father knew it. You spent all this time trying to honor the memory of a man who was ashamed of you. Now, my father wasn't perfect... but at least I know he never would have given up on me.
(Prometheus turns away, seemingly choking, holding back either tears or a scream. After a moment he falls silent, kneels down, and puts his sword on the ground before him as he lowers his head.)
Prometheus: Go ahead. Do it.
Green Arrow; No. I'm not going to kill you. But I am going to watch you face justice.
(Green Arrow launches one punch into the confused face of Adrian Chase, who is knocked out instantly.)


Continuity

36 violent felons are released on bail pending retrial, due to their cases being handled by Adrian Chase. One of these felons is Derek Sampson - the drug lord whose ability to feel pain was taken away after being exposed to too much of his own product in 503.

The corpse in the concrete is identified by his dental records as Henry Goodwin. He was a councilman for The Glades district of Starling City who disappeared in 2002.

Thea Queen returns to Star City. She denies having been with Roy Harper, saying she couldn't let him see her in her current "hot mess" state.

Oliver refers to Isabel Rochev - the treacherous executive who stole Queen Enterprises from him in Season 2.

Rene gets a court date to get expedited custody of his daughter, Zoe. He asks Quentin to come to hearing for moral support. Quentin agrees.

Felicity determines the most likely site of Henry Goodwin's death was Oliver Industries - a former holding company of Queen Consolidated. The company was named by Robert Queen in honor of his son. Oliver says his dad took him there when he was a kid. It had been abandoned for about one month, due to a gas leak.

Both Oliver and Diggle know Morse Code. So does either Dinah or Curtis.

The T-Sphers have lasers on them capable of cutting through a metal slab.

Two of the three chemicals stolen by Derek Sampson are used to weaponize tuberculosis. This was the heart of Justin Clayborne's plan, which Oliver Queen stopped as The Hood in the flashbacks of 509.

The last man to see Henry Goodwin alive was a lawyer named Darren Coffman. He was Goodwin's lawyer as well as the lawyer of Justin Clayborne.

Darren Coffman delivers a memory stick to Oliver Queen that was given to him by Adrian Chase. He knows about Simon Morrison's double life but refuses to speak about Justin Clayborne citing attorney/client privilege.

Fairbanks Chemicals are a military contractor in Star City who manufacture cyclotrizane.

The drive from Coffman contains the security footage from The Oliver Building on the night Henry Goodwin died. It shows Robert Queen struggling with Henry Goodwin (Goodwin pushes him first), before he falls off the catwalk and into a vat of wet concrete.

Felicity is able to trace the Cyclotrizane to The Robert Queen Applied Sciences Center.

Oliver dons The Green Arrow costume again as Team Arrow moves in on The Robert Queen Applied Sciences Center.

Oliver gives the video that Robert Queen made for Thea to her, leaving it up to her if she watches it or not. She ultimately does.

Rene misses his custody hearing.

Oliver Queen knows how to pilot a small plane.

Robert Queen loved vintage planes. He would take Oliver to ride in them all the time. Oliver numbers the last time they flew together among his last few happy memories before coming to Lian Yu.

When Anatoly and Oliver returned to Lian Yu, they found Slade Wilson'd Deathstroke mask washed up on the beach. Oliver used it and an arrow to make a totem of sorts on the beach.

The plan to fake Oliver being a castaway is for Anatoly to hire a fishing boat to sail near Lian Yu in two days time. Oliver will get their attention with a signal fire and then make his way back to Starling City.

Anatoly leaves Oliver a gift which he says he got from a friend who was in the KGB and a master of disguise. We don't see what it is, but it is apparently a wig and false beard that will make Oliver look like he really has been a castaway for five years, as Anatoly says nobody will believe there was a barber shop on the island.

The flashbacks end with Oliver being taken out with a tranquilizer dart, as he sees a still-alive Konstantin Kovar moving in on him.


The Bottom Line

A weakly written episode based around a terrible bit of logic that succeeds only because of how well the ensemble cast play off of one another.

Arrow Episode Guide: Season 5, Episode 14 - The Sin-Eater

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


Plot

When three of his enemies break out of prison together, Green Arrow is quick to move to recapture them. Unfortunately, the Anti-Crime Unit seems to be more interested in bringing Green Arrow in for the murder of Detective Malone. At the same time, Quentin Lance blames himself for the break-out, after learning that Eliza Warner - an ex-cop gone bad - is apparently out for his head due to the recently revealed truth about how he'd once worked with Damien Darhk. And Thea and Felicity work to discover just how Susan Williams found out Oliver Queen is Green Arrow and what her game is...

In the flashbacks, Oliver and Anatoly must escape from Gregor and Kovar's after an ambush is arranged at the hospital where Anatoly is being treated.


Influences

The Green Arrow comics of Judd Winick. (Oliver Queen tries to balance being mayor and a vigilante, everyone acts like idiots.)


Goofs

Even if China White and Cupid weren't their intended target, it's unlikely that the ACU wouldn't move to stop their escape in case they were accomplices of Green Arrow. Or, at the very least, there wouldn't be a perimeter outside to stop Green Arrow from escaping that would catch them.

By the same token, are the ACU (or the rest of the SCPD for that matter) really going to sit on their asses and ignore the escapees while waiting for Green Arrow to show up again?

Even if they did, isn't it remarkably stupid of Cupid, Warner and China White to bet on the cops not taking an interest in them?

Did the cops just gun down an unarmed China White?

The flashback cliff-hanger of Anatoly being held at gunpoint would be a lot more dramatic if we didn't know he's alive five years later.


Performances

Paul Blackthorne, as always, is a wonder as Quentin Lance.

Willa Holland, likewise, is fantastic as Thea.

Juliana Harkavy isn't given much to do as Dinah in this episode but she makes every moment she's on-screen count.


Artistry

The script does try to draw parallels between Oliver, Quentin and Thea all taking blame upon themselves for something that wasn't their fault - i.e. Sin-Eating.


Trivia

The episode title comes from a custom practiced in some cultures, which Anatoly explains in the flashback. A Sin-Eater is one who lives apart from the other people in a village and - when one of the villagers dies - consumes a ritual meal prepared from food left with the corpse of the deceased in order to eat their sins (which pass into the food) and allow the deceased to pass on free of guilt.

The name Sin-Eater has been used by a number of characters in comics history. The most famous is probably a trio of serial killers - all using the name - who appeared in the pages of Spider-Man and Venom. The name was also used by two different Ghost Rider villains.

Most recently the name was used by an enemy of The Phantom Stranger. This Sin Eater was accidentally created by The Phantom Stranger after he broke and scattered the soul of serial killer Phillip Stark across time and space. The soul fragments reassembled and became the twisted demon known as The Sin Eater.

Curtis' new jacket has white pieces which make it more closely resemble the Mister Terrific costume worn by Michael Holt in the pre-New 52 comics.

Oliver says that Prometheus' mother was from Opal City. In the original DC Comics Universe, Opal City was the hometown of the original Starman, Ted Knight and his two sons David (Starman VI) and Jack (VII).


Technobabble

Curtis and Felicity make a sniffer device, which pulls electronic data from any hard drive or devices close by. It works so effectively it pulls a petabyte (1 quadrillion bytes) of data in one go.

Chǔ Cáng is the Chinese phrase for depository or storage space.

Curtis rebuilds his costume, adding a Kevlar weave into the jacket.

The edgework on the Billy Malone's death-wounds was consistent with the arrows used by Green Arrow, according to a Medical Examiner's report.


Dialogue Triumphs

Oliver: Thanks for coming along. I know that being my body man isn't your job anymore.
John: Sure it is. Just a different suit, that's all.

Susan: Are you The Green Arrow?
Oliver: Yeah.
Susan: (stunned) Really?!
Oliver: No! (smiles and chuckles) I'm sorry. I thought you were doing a joking thing. So I did a joking thing back. Are you not?
Susan: I was working on a different story. And... uh, well some things came up that relate to you...
Oliver: And then you just immediately jumped to the most insane conclusion possible.
Susan: So that's a no? For the record?
Oliver: No. For the record.
Susan: Well, good. Because I think our relationship is complicated enough already just with you being mayor.

Green Arrow: Wild Dog and Mr. Terrific are staking out The Bertinellis. Dinah and Spartan have eyes on the Bratva.
Quentin: You know - you've got to get that new girl a code name.
Green Arrow: Well, when she's ready I was considering Black Canary. You all right with that?
(Quentin seems to consider that.)
Quentin: Well, so long as she does Laurel proud.

Quentin: I think that Warner is my mess to clean up.
Thea: And I'm assuming Oliver said that's not the case?
Quentin: What Oliver doesn't know is that the reason her rehabilitation was short-lived was because she caught my confessing to working with Damien Darhk on TV.
Thea: Oh wow.
Quentin: Yeah.
Thea: That is... an unbelievable load of crap, Quentin.
Quentin: What?
Thea: Liza Warner is a criminal. You didn't make her into one. You've got to stop taking responsibility for other people's sins.
Quentin: You know, I really like how wise you're getting lately?
Thea: That's just because I have committed my own sin today.

(Oliver is standing at his office window behind his desk, looking out on the city. Thea enters)
Thea: You asked to see me?
Oliver: (looking out the window) Did you know that Susan got fired today?
Thea: ... I didn't know she was going to get fired.
Oliver: (turning around) You should have come to me with this.
Thea: Listen, Ollie. I just wanted to discredit her-
Oliver: Thea! You should have come to me with this!
Thea: (coolly angry) And then what? We would have the same conversation we are having right now. I would have told you that she was going to out you as The Green Arrow...
Oliver: She wouldn't do that to me!
Thea: And then you would say that.
(Oliver sighs in annoyance.)
Thea: Look, Ollie. The only reason I didn't tell you was because I was trying to keep your hands clean. I know you care about her, so -
Oliver: (quietly) I do care about her. I also care that you destroyed her reputation. She's going to have a tough time finding a decent job. She's certainly not going to find a job in journalism.(suddenly shouting) You just blew up her life!
Thea: Honestly, I didn't mean for it to go this far...
Oliver: Yes, you did. You knew exactly what you were doing. And that's the part that I don't understand. Who does that to a person?

Quentin:What, you're just giving up now?
Oliver: Prometheus isn't giving me a choice.
Quentin: Neither did Slade Wilson. Or Damien Darhk. But with those guys you didn't just pick up your football and go home.
Oliver: This is different.
Quentin: How?
Oliver: Because what's happening now - it's not something that Prometheus did. It's something I did.
Quentin: You're talking about Malone, right? That was Prometheus.
Oliver: I fired the arrows.
Quentin: (pauses) Listen, earlier Thea was talking to me about not taking on other people's sins. What happened with Malone? That's on Prometheus. Not you.
Oliver: Well Quentin, that advice would mean a little bit more if it wasn't coming from Thea right now.
Quentin: Well, I don't know what that means. But I do know that if you're letting Prometheus, ACU or anyone else keep you from stopping Warner and her buddies, then justice isn't being served.

Quentin: So... Oliver tells me that you're the new Black Canary.
Dinah: Um. Not yet. I'm not ready to take your daughter's place. Sir.
Quentin: Laurel didn't want someone to take her place. She wanted someone to carry on in her place.

Thea: I'm really sorry, Ollie.  I know I screwed up but-
Oliver: - but you didn't make a mistake. You made a choice. And you reminded me of someone.
Thea: Who?
Oliver: Mom.
(Thea looks taken aback by this as Oliver moves to a chair.)
Oliver: She would have done something like this. Well... she would have done exactly this. She was a wonderful mother. But I think we both know that she didn't always make the best choices. Whatever's going to happen with Susan is... whatever's going to happen. Right now... right now, I'm really worried about my baby sister.


Continuity

Justin Claybourne's mistress is named Amanda Westfield. She claims that she has not seen her son since Justin Claybourne's funeral. She does not confirm or deny that her son is Prometheus but does refuse to give Oliver Queen his name.

Carrie Cutter (a.k.a. Cupid) last appeared in 416.

Liza Warner last appeared in 404.

Chien Na Wei (a.k.a. China White) last appeared, in the modern day, in 202. She appeared in the flashback scenes of several Season 3 episodes.

Dinah is sworn in as an SCPD cop.

The three escapees kill several of China White's former associates in the local Triad.

Felicity hacks Susan Williams' computer. Williams' password is 1234. She discovers all of Susan Williams' information that Oliver Queen is Green Arrow, but doesn't delete it since the information can just be retrieved again from whatever source she originally got it from.

Reference is made to Tobias' Church's deal with Amertek in 502 and the money he made off of it. This is what the escapees are searching for.

Liza Warner claims the reason she escaped was because she saw Quentin's testimony from the trial in 416 and decided that she might as well be selfish and look out for number one from now on.

The ACU discovers the cause of Billy Malone's death and that Green Arrow was meant to look responsible. This evidence turns out to be a second medical examiner's report, which determines the cause of death to have been arrows with edge work consistent with those used by The Green Arrow.

The letter with the ME report was postmarked from Opal City.

Amanda Westfield was originally from Opal City.

Susan Williams is fired from her reporter job after an anonymous tip is sent to her producers about how she's been plagiarizing stories for over two years. Evidence confirming this is found on her laptop.

Susan tells Oliver that she recognized his chest tattoo as that of a Bratva captain, had photos of him with Bratva members in Russia when he was supposedly shipwrecked and photos of a man who looks like Green Arrow in Russia at the same time. Of course having been totally discredited as a reporter, she can't go public with any of it.

Felicity admits to hacking Susan Williams computer and putting some files on it at based on Thea's instructions.

Thea tells Oliver that she did what she did because she felt Susan Williams was about to out him as The Green Arrow.

Oliver tells Captain Pike that DA Chase covered up the cause of Billy Malone's death, that Green Arrow was manipulated into killing Malone and that he knows this because he is in contact with The Green Arrow.

Felicity gives Dinah Laurel's old mask to wear into the field.

Rene is superstitious about disturbing a cemetery at night.

Captain Pike elects to move on the escapees rather than bring down Green Arrow and the other vigilantes. China White is apparently shot by the police. Cupid and Eliza Warner are taken alive.

The episode ends with Oliver and DA Chase watching a news report on information making it to the press on how the Mayor's office ordered a cover-up of Billy Malone's death.


Location

 A suburban house somewhere in Illinois.


The Winick Factor

It's a toss-up who is stupider in this episode - the cops who let a trio of escapees go in an effort to bring down the local superhero or the trio of escapees who gamble on the cops not being interested in them because they're after the local superhero. Hell, Oliver even points out how illogical it is to believe that Green Arrow has gone bad to the ACU Captain. And when Ollie is talking sense in an episode...


The Bottom Line

A typical mid-season filler episode, made tolerable only by some excellent performances and a script that cleverly parallels the shared hubris of three of the main cast. The villains of the week are wasted (which I never thought I'd say about Cupid of all people) as the main thrust of the episode is rightly on the continuing torment Prometheus is inflicting on Team Arrow and how everyone is being forced into darker and darker places in their support of Oliver Queen.

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 8 - Invasion!

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




Plot

Oliver Queen wakes up in a world where his parents are alive and well and Laurel Lance is his loving fiancee. It seems like the perfect life but something about it seems wrong somehow...

Meanwhile, Felicity and the rest of Team Arrow must deal with a new threat, with a litle help from The Flash and Supergirl.


Influences

Independence Day (Cisco, Curtis and Caitlin attempting to hack alien technology), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Curtis name drops the movie twice), Star Wars (Curtis refers to his translator device as The Threepio Processor in honor of the translator robot C3P-O), J.J. Abrams' Star Trek (universal translator technology, named-dropped by Cisco in describing The Dominator's ship), The Perchance To Dream episode of Batman: The Animated Series, Superman Annual #11 - "For The Man Who Has Everything", The JSA comics of Geoff Johns (Mister Terrific being an Atheist), The 1988 DC Comics crossover event Invasion and various Gardner Fox Crisis comics.


Goofs

There's a lot about the dream world that doesn't make sense. Why didn't the dream world give Diggle and Sara their perfect lives, like it did Oliver, Thea and - to a point - Ray? While John wasn't exactly unhappy as The Hood until Oliver showed up, it's hard to believe he wouldn't have Lyla or John Jr. in his life. Ditto Sara seemingly not having any role other than to revel in her sister's happiness.  Were The Dominators too cheap to generate each of the heroes their own perfect world? Was the confusion meant to prolong their time in the dream world as their minds were read? Why bother with hostile memories which threatened the reality of the dream world? And why bother having a portal out of the dream world in the first place?

When did Cisco get a piece of the Dominator's ship? (Possibly a scene that was cut for time?)

Why has Wild Dog's sudden hatred of super-powered people never come up regarding the guy wearing the magical costume made of rags who is on his team?

The villain of the week is beaten far too easy and serves no purpose other than to give Supergirl and The Flash a chance to show off.

Why does the dream world create ghosts of two people who haven't died - Felicity and Roy Harper - as Ollie is about to leave? (I know this was the only way they could give Roy Harper an appearance in the episode, but it doesn't make sense in the logic of the world.)

Cisco says that geographical coordinates don't have negative numbers. In fact, negative numbers are used to note areas south of the equator in latitude and west of the prime meridian in longitude.


Performances

Stephen Amell gives one of his best performances ever, trying to say good-bye to the parents he lost as he breaks away from a perfect world.  It gets even better later on, opposite Willa Holland, as she makes a convincing case for staying in the dream world and allowing themselves to be happy for once. It's a heartbreaking moment and a great performance for both actors.


Artistry

The editing team did a fantastic job of patching together the various clips for the flashback sequences.

The special effects for the Flash and Supergirl vs. Dr. Washington fight are top-notch.


Trivia

As the title suggests, the main inspiration for this four-part crossover event between all of the DCTVU shows was the 1988 crossover event Invasion!

Invasion! was based around the idea that an alliance of alien worlds - led by The Dominators - attacked Earth due to their concerns that Earth's growing metahuman population would become a threat to their planets.

The Dominators in the original comics had yellow skin, a red circle in the middle of their foreheads, claw-like fingernails and sharp fang-like teeth.

The DCTVU version of The Dominators resemble the comic-book counterpart for the most part, save that their skin is more grey than yellow. Also, they do not wear clothing, which the comic book Dominators did.

This episode was the 100th episode of Arrow.

This episode was the third part of a four-part crossover between all of The CW Network's DC Comics superhero shows.

The story for this episode greatly resembles the plot of Perchance To Dream - an episode of Batman: The Animated Series. In that episode, Bruce Wayne finds himself in a world where his parents are alive, Selina Kyle is his fiancee and he is no longer Batman, though he starts to have feelings that he was Batman after seeing Batman in the street. He eventually realizes he's in an illusion - one crafted by The Mad Hatter to give him a perfect life.

In this episode,Oliver Queen's parents are both alive and he is about to be married to Laurel Lance. He is no longer Green Arrow, but has visions of being Green Arrow after having an encounter with The Hood in the street. He eventually realizes he's an illusion - one crafted by The Dominators to keep him distracted.

There are a number of other common plot-beats between the two shows, including the search for an entrance to a hidden superhero hideout, an attempt to unmask one's own superhero alter ego and an incongruous building (a clock tower in Perchance To Dream, the Smoak Electronics building in Invasion!) leading to the way out of the dream world.

The story for this episode also resembles the classic Alan Moore Superman story For The Man Who Has Everything. In that comic, Superman falls prey to a parasitic plant called The Black Mercy that causes its host to hallucinate their perfect world as the plant feasts upon their body.  As in that story, any attempt to resist the reality created by The Black Mercy results in the dream world attacking the host or the host's loved ones appearing and begging them not to leave them.

Oliver name-drops the story, saying at one point that "he has everything."

For The Man Who Has Everything was adapted for the Supergirl TV series in S113 - For The Girl Who Has Everything.

In the comics, Oliver Queen had his own encounter with a Black Mercy plant in Green Lantern (Volume 4) #7 and #8. In that story, both Hal Jordan and Oliver Queen were attacked by a Black Mercy that primarily focused on Hal Jordan, creating a perfect world for Oliver Queen based on what Hal thought Ollie's perfect world would be like. Oliver Queen saw through the illusion and as able to break both of them free of the dream world. Something similar happens here, with John Diggle and Sara Lance both realizing there's something wrong with the supposedly perfect reality they are part of.

Curtis Holt expresses reservations about the idea of a divine plan that includes space monsters. This is a nod to the JSA comics where Mister Terrific was a staunch atheist despite working with colleagues who claimed to have powers granted by divine and magical sources.

In the dream world, Malcolm Merlyn says that Tommy Merlyn couldn't make it to the wedding because he's working triple-shifts in his new job as a doctor in Chicago. This is a nod to how actor Colin Donnell - who played Tommy Merlyn in the first season of Arrow - is now playing the role of Dr. Connor Rhodes on Chicago Med, Chicago P.D. and Chicago Fire and was unable to do a cameo in this episode due to his busy schedule.

Felicity tracks the location of Team Arrow to -3.127 Latitude, - 23.7987 Longitude. This indicates somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean... or above it.


Technobabble

The first attempt to hack the Dominator technology fails because the team tried to plug human technology into a Dominator power source. This caused a power overload, which requires them to find a regulator.

Van Horn industries developed a prototype regulator for NASA. It was perfected, but it was stolen by a Dr. Laura Washington - a scientist who has been augmenting her body with various stolen electronic implants. The implants give her enhanced strength, stamina and electricity-based powers.

The martial art Sara uses to fight Deathstroke in the dream world is Jeet Kune Do - a hybrid martial art heavily influenced by the martial arts philosophy of Bruce Lee.

Rory Regan identifies the "soup" created by Curtis' translator as Gamatria - a Kabbalistic method of interpreting the Hebrew scriptures by computing the numerical value of words, based on those of their constituent letters. In Hebrew, each letter has a numerical value. Gamatria is the calculation of the numerical equivalents of letters, words or phrases.

Felicity tracks the location of Team Arrow to -3.127 Latitude, - 23.7987 Longitude. This indicates somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Ray examines the technology The Dominators were using to keep them under and determined it used a neuromorphic interface similar to what he used to control the ATOM suit. This means The Dominators may have been probing their subconscious for intel while the shared hallucination kept their minds occupied. Ray further theorizes that the five of them (Sara, Diggle, Thea, Oliver and himself) were abducted because they were ordinary humans.

Gideon translates "Klic-Clac-To Nick-Lava Shack-too" to "We are nearing completion of the weapon."


Dialogue Triumphs

Curtis: I feel like Elliot in E.T. - "It's working! It's working!"
Cisco: Your tech guy quotes movie, huh?
Felicity: Yeah.
Cisco: Reeeeal original.

The Flash: What's your damage, man?
Wild Dog: My damage is that people like you two have the power of gods yet you think you can make the world a better place just by putting on a fancy costume.
Supergirl: No! We... we think we make the world a better place because, well... well, we do!

Ollie: These head games aren't over. They are going to push back against whatever we do.
John: Push back? Like how?
(Oliver looks to one side, where Deathstroke emerges from the bushes, twirling a sword.)
Ollie: Like that.

(Sara Lance catches Deathstrike's sword arm, disarms him and runs him through with his own sword. She then looks down in astonishment, holding the katana in a defensive kata whilst in her bridesmaid dress.)
Sara: How did I do that?

Thea: It's too bad Tommy couldn't make it, though.
Merlyn: Well, they've got him working triple shifts at the hospital these days. Besides, Chicago isn't exactly next door.
Thea: I can't believe he's a doctor now.
Merlyn: Well, he says the same thing about you, Miss Entrepreneur.
Thea: I don't think running Verdant makes me an entrepreneur.
Merlyn: No, but it makes you successful. Your father should be very proud of the woman you've grown into.

(Moira and Robert Queen try to talk Ollie into getting ready for the wedding.)
Moira: This is your life now.
(Oliver sighs and steadies himself.)
Oliver: No, it isn't.
(Oliver hugs Moira tightly.)
Moira: Oliver?
(Oliver moves to hug his father, fighting back the tears.)
Oliver: I'm so... I'm sorry.
(Oliver lets go of Robert and walks to where Thea and Sara are standing in one corner of the room.)
Oliver: Speedy...
Sara: She knows, Ollie. She knows and she doesn't want to go!
Thea: The better question is why would you want to?
Sara: Because none of this is real.
Thea: It's real enough, ok? (tearing up) It's - it's better than our real lives. In -in this life, Laurel is alive. My parents are alive...
Sara: But those are not your parents!
Thea: They remember the only lullaby that would actually work to put me to sleep. They remember every day of my life, okay? They even smell like them, Ollie!
Oliver: They're not them, Thea. I want them to be. But they're not. (To Sara) Where are John and Ray?
Sara: They're waiting outside.
Oliver: Give us a few minutes.
(Sara nods and heads for the exit.)
Oliver: We can't stay here, Speedy. No matter how much we want to, we can't.
Thea: Why not? What is waiting for us wherever we are right now? Nothing. Nothing but pain and suffering.
Oliver: Thea, we have responsibilities. We have people who count on us.
Thea: There's Flash and Supergirl and people with actual powers now. Whatever needs to be done, they can handle it. We - we finally have a chance to be happy. I mean, why - why can't you just for a second accept that maybe this is your reward for all the sacrifices you have made?
Oliver: I didn't make those sacrifices for a reward Thea. I did what I did because I thought it was right. And seeing all this... it has just... it has shown me that there is so much more to do. So please - I'm begging you to come with me because I cannot do it alone.
Thea: But... I can't lose them again. I can't lose my family.
(Oliver just stares at her but finally nods.)
Oliver: Okay. Okay. All right.
(Ollie hugs her)
Oliver: I want you to be well. I want you to be happy. I love you, Thea.
(Ollie lets go of her and leaves, leaving Thea alone.)



Dialogue Disasters

Wild Dog: Super powers are evil, man. And I don't want anything to do with them. Or with either of you.

Wild Dog: If super powers are a thing, it's good that there are guys like you to help the world.


Continuity

The episode opens with a scene of Oliver running through the woods on the Queen Manor estate. This mirrors the opening shot in the first episode, where Oliver was seen running through the forest on Lian Yu.

Rory tells the rest of Team Arrow that Felicity called him and told him that Oliver, Thea and Diggle had been abducted by aliens. This happened in F308.

When introduced to Rory Regan, Cisco says that makes him the second Rory he knows and the first one that isn't a douche. This is a reference to Mick Rory a.k.a. Heatwave.

Cisco uses his Vibe powers on one of Oliver's old broken bows to locate him. This gives him a vision of Oliver and company in some kind of statsis pod in some kind of alien environment.

Wild Dog has a hatred of metahumans. For some reason, it doesn't seem to apply to Ragman.

In the dream world, Thea gives Oliver a hozen as a gift before the wedding rehearsal dinner. This is the same arrowhead neclace that Oliver gave Thea in the first episode,

In the dream world, Robert Queen has just been elected mayor of Starling City and Oliver is supposed to take over Queen Consolidated when he takes office in two months.

In the dream world, Star City it is still called Starling City.

Oliver suggests Walter Steele take over as CEO instead of him. In the original universe, Walter Steele did take over Queen Consolidated after Robert Queen's death and married Moira Queen.

Oliver briefly has visions of his father's death and the sinking of The Queen's Gambit from the first episode,

Oliver briefly has a vision of Laurel as she appeared before she died in the hospital in 418.

In the dream world, Quentin Lance is still a Captain in the CCPD and he likes Oliver Queen.

Oliver briefly has visions of his establishing his first Arrow-cave and confronting Quentin for the first time as The Hood in the first episode,

Looking at a map of Starling City, Oliver briefly has visions of his campaign for Mayor of Star City during Season Four and the secret passageway to The Bunker in his campaign headquarters.

Sara Lance claims to only like girls. This may be a side-effect of The Flashpoint Reality because she had been bisexual during the first four seasons of Arrow and the first season of Legends of Tomorrow.

In the dream world, Ray Palmer is a business associate of Robert Queen, who is trying to put in a bid to take over Queen Consolidated. He is engaged to Felicity Smoak, though he has memories about his fiancee being a woman named Anna.

Both Sara Lance and Ray Palmer have visions of each other and their time together on The Waverider when they "meet for the first time" at the rehearsal dinner. The scenes of their visions include their first time riding on The Waverider together (L101), the two walking down a street in 1940s New York (L201) and a fight in the League of Assassin's headquarters (L109).

A Merlyn Global Group building is visible in the Starling City skyline.

While being strangled by The Hood, Oliver has visions of his meeting John Diggle (101), Diggle angrily driving after Ollie snuck off (102) agreeing to take him on as a partner (104), the two of them eating at Big Belly Burger together (103), John's wedding to Lyla Hall (317), the death of Andy Diggle (420) and John Diggle calling Oliver his brother (407).

Oliver also has visions of Felicity Smoak. The visions depict the first time he saw her (103), their first date (301), their first kiss (301), their first time making love (320), her near death at the hands of Damien Darhk's men (409) and their fake wedding (416).

In the dream world, John Diggle is The Hood and is working with Felicity Smoak out of The Bunker. He says he became The Arrow after returning from serving in the 105th Airborne out of Kandahar. He did things he wasn't proud of and came home to atone for his actions.

In the dream world, Andy Diggle is still alive and working in personal security.

While hugging Moira Queen, Thea has a vision of Moira's death from 220.

Diggle makes reference to a Russian lady downstairs when he intrudes on Oliver and Laurel. This is a reference to Rasia - a house-keeper in the Queen household staff, first seen in 101,who apparently did more to raise Oliver Queen than his mother did.

The creature that Diggle draws from one of his dream flashes is a Dominator.

Sara Lance knows Jeet Kune Do.

Sara Lance has a vision of the battle between The Flash and Green Arrow vs. The rest of The Legends and Team Arrow from F308. She also remembers Oliver, Thea, Diggle, Ray and herself being abducted by The Dominators.

In the dream world, Tommy Merlyn apparently moved to Chicago after getting his medical degree.

In the dream world, Thea is still running the night club Verdant.

Oliver has another vision from the first episode, after his father uses the phrase "that is not going to finish well".

The Smoak Technologies building was first seen in the Star City of 2046 in L106.

In escaping the Queen Estate, Ollie, Diggle, Sara, Thea and Ray must fight Merlyn, Deathstroke, Wintergreen, several of Eddie Fyer's mercenaries from Lian Yu and Damien Darhk.

Before leaving the dream world, Oliver has visions of various friends and family, who speak lines about who he really is and how much they meant to him. These include Moria Queen calling Oliver "her beautiful boy" and saying "she could not be more proud" (220), Felicity Smoak saying you honor the dead by fighting and that Oliver is not done fighting (222), Tommy Merlyn saying he was wrong to call Ollie a murderer and saying that he is a hero (123), Roy Harper telling Ollie that he saved his life and gave him purpose (212) and how this time they had to save him (319), Laurel saying that she knows who Oliver is in her bones - a person who doesn't give up (221) and Robert Queen telling Oliver that "It's your responsibility now."(101)

Nate Heywood picks up Sara, Ray, Thea, Diggle and Oliver in The Waverider. He was given their coordinates by Felicity.

Ray examine the technology The Dominators were using to keep them under and determined it used a neuromorphic interface similar to what he used to control the ATOM suit. This means The Dominators may have been probing their subconscious for intel while the shared hallucination kept their minds occupied. Ray further theorizes that the five of them (Sara, Diggle, Thea, Oliver and himself) were abducted because they were ordinary humans.

Gideon translates "Klic-Clac-To Nick-Lava Shack-too" to "We are nearing completion of the weapon." Gideon further determines that the Dominator ship is moving straight for Earth.


Location

A Dominator spaceship in orbit above the Earth.



Untelevised Adventures

Cisco somehow got a piece of alien technology off of the Dominator ship that crashed in Central City. This did not happen in F308.


The Winick Factor

The subplot with Wild Dog's hatred of people with super powers comes out of nowhere, doesn't make any sense given the presence of Ragman on the same team and is far too quickly resolved.


The Bottom Line

In looking back at Arrow's past, this 100th episode reminds us of many things best forgotten. For every novel touch (i.e. the wink and nod explanation as to Tommy Merlyn's absence referencing Colin Donnell's new gigs), there are glaring absences (i.e. no Manu Bennett as Deathstroke?) and a lot of plot holes regarding how the shared dream world works. Katie Cassidy still cannot convey any emotion but annoyance convincingly and fails to emote even when offered a script that requires her to do nothing but look sexy in a towel or look sad in a wedding dress.

Despite this, the dream sequence might have worked had the whole episode been focused on it, but the cuts back to reality and the crossover only serve to distract from the drama of Sara, Oliver and Thea having to pull themselves away from their loved ones. The subplot with Wild Dog suddenly hating people with powers only to change his mind after The Flash and Supergirl save him is nearly as lame as the villain of the week. Overall, this whole episode is a bit of a mess, made tolerable only by the excellent performances of the core ensemble in the dream sequence.