Airing in the UK on Sky 1, new episodes every Thursday
Writers: Speed Weed and Wendy Mericle
Director: Gordon Verheul

Essential Plot Points:

• Olly is working at the unveiling of the new SCPD HQ when he’s arrested by Agent Watson for his crimes as Green Arrow.
• Despite the reluctance of pretty much his entire team and the SCPD he’s processed.
• Furious, Olly demands to see William and Watson, reluctantly, acquiesces.
• At work, Curtis fits Diggle with a modified prototype version of Felicity’s spinal chip in the hopes it will solve his nerve damage issues. The others arrive, fill Curtis and Diggle in and argue.
• Diggle brings them all in line; if the Green Arrow is in prison the criminals will think its open season.
• That can’t happen.That night Black Siren leads a raid to steal some nano thermite explosives. They get in and out unopposed. No alarms go off.
• Dinah visits Olly in the precinct and offers help him escape. He thanks her but turns her down; he has to do it the right way. She respects that and leaves him to it.
• At the cave, Curtis spots the raid, after its already happened. He and Diggle figure out who was responsible and why they weren’t alerted; Black Siren, working with Cayden James covering her tracks. They dial in Felicity who is on the way to Olly’s arraignment and she gets them on track; back trace James’ hack, find him that way.
• At the court, Olly finds out the DA has been given the case and will be trying him. Olly’s defense moves to strike the case but the DA responds that they have rock solid evidence.
• The Judge releases Olly on bail. Massively expensive bail. That Felicity insists on paying using her first angel investments.
• Curtis and Diggle get a hit on their hacker tracker. Siren is
  breaking into another firm, one that has a veritable banquet of possible accelerants for the explosives she stole previously.
• Diggle scrambles the team, minus Olly. They engage and Diggle collapses mid fight. He orders the
  others to finish the job and fights his way back to his feet.
• Team Arrow make it to the hall Siren is raiding but are pinned down. Siren takes what she wants and leaves.
• Felicity is filled in on what’s been going on with Diggle. She is not happy. And less happy when she figures out Siren stole even more explosives.
• At hospital Diggle is told he’s suffering withdrawal from the drugs he’s been on. Felicity calls and briefs Olly and Diggle; the two explosives combined will create a thermobaric bomb; a
  massive fireball that will create a pressure wave that cooks anything for 200 feet around it.
  Later, Felicity comforts Diggle as best she can and gets to work. She and Curtis butt heads over who runs their company and then get back to it; working on where James’ bomb will go off.

• Despite Diggle asking Felicity not to tell Olly what’s happened, she does. He comes to see John and the two grumpiest men in Star City bond as best they can; grumpily. Olly is disappointed. John Diggle could care less. He tells Olly his biggest mistake was putting Olly’s needs above his own. Olly tells him his biggest mistake was trusting Diggle to be the Green Arrow. Olly leaves and goes to talk to Thea. Alone and able to put his guard down, he pleads with his sister to wake up.
  Curtis and the others figure out where the bomb will go off; the stadium. Which will be crammed full of people. Olly arrives, apologizes to the team for what happened with Diggle and tells
  them he’ll shut the building.
• It doesn’t take. The promoter accuses Olly of trying to save his reputation. The show will go on.
• Dinah and Quentin bond over their recent familial horrors.
• Olly goes back to see Diggle, having thought about it. He apologizes, admitting he was way out of order. The two men chat and Diggle reveals his test results are back; the steroids he used caused the damage to spread to his back. The damage, thanks to the steroids, is permanent. If Diggle
  continues to work, he could be paralyzed.
• Olly is crushed. Diggle tells him about what the Dominators showed him; Diggle as Green Arrow. He thanks Olly for giving him what he never knew he wanted.
• The team are prepping to search the stadium but have no idea how they’ll operate without a field leader. Olly arrives and tells them he has a suggestion or two…
• They arrive at the Stadium as Felicity searches for archaeological weak points. Wild Dog triggers a fire alarm but the cops don’t let anyone out
• And they’ve locked the doors. They’re not cops…
• Panic hits the crowd and Wild Dog is pursued by the thugs. Olly, careful to stay out of sight, details Canary and Terrific to help him out and heads for the bomb, located by Felicity.
• The decoy bomb.
• With James waiting nearby because he wants to chat to Olly.
• James admits he wants revenge. Because despite never having met before, James blames Olly for the death of his son. Siren arrives, drops Olly and she and James escape.
• Later the team dig into it. They find a boy who has James listed as his father but no further details.
• And then Curtis shows them the footage that’s going viral. Of Team Arrow fighting ‘cops’. The day the Vigilante legislation vote happens. They’ve lost the vote.
• With no choice, Olly prepares a statement. He thanks the city’s vigilantes for their work and agrees to honor the legislation. Any vigilantes in Star City from now on will be punished to the full extent of the law. Agent Watson shows up, gloats and reminds Olly just how boxed in he is.
• At the hospital, William thanks Diggle for impersonating his dad and, almost,figures out Olly was at the stadium. When William leaves Olly tells Diggle that when he’s healed, he’ll be the real Green Arrow.
• And then the Doctor comes in. Thea’s awake. The family gather around her beside and Oliver tells everyone he’s never had more to be thankful for.

Review:

The two central threads of the episode both work really well; Diggle’s injuries and James’ plan. The way they wrap around the idea of Olly as mayor is really well done too, with the Green Arrow now far more of an idea than an individual. And an idea, as the reference to Roy makes clear, that has damaged the very people who embody it.

David Ramsey has been one of the MVPs on Arrow from the word go and this episode puts him front and centre. Diggle’s need to be there for the team, his pride and his willingness to learn from his mistakes are really well portrayed and Ramsey and Stephen Amell have the sort of chemistry that only people who’ve worked together for years can get. Better still, the traditional ‘Dig and Olly are mad at one another!’ Plot is resolved in half an episode and done so by both men acting like adults. Much like Iris and Barry’s new found calm over on The Flash it’s a massively welcome change.

James’ plan feels like a nice switch up too. Instead of endless ninja or magicians, this year the team are fighting someone who is far, far cleverer than them. The hints dropped this week give Michael Emerson a lot to play with too and the steel, and rage, he gives us a glimpse of is chilling. Emerson has been a vital part of two of the best casts in genre tv history and this episode suggests he’s going to add a third to that list by the end of the season. Plus the escalation on ‘fake cops! Fake bomb!’ Is GREAT as is the reveal on what his real plan is.

But weirdly, it’s the Star City edition of The West Wing that works best this week. Sydelle Noel’s Agent Watson is a perfect foil; technically in the right, untouchable legally and perhaps an eventual ally. But for now a major threat and one that’s pleasingly unresolved as the episode finishes.

Fast paced, action and character heavy and with a maturity that the show has earned through six seasons this is a great episode. Next up, alternate Earth Nazi supervillains!

The Good:

• David Ramsey, Sydelle Noel and Stephen Amell all stand out in a massively strong cast this week.
• James’ plan is wonderfully obtuse and esoteric. And he does still have that bomb…
• Rick Gonzalez is fantastic this week. And we listen to Billy Joel too, dude.
• Diggle’s combination of happiness and ‘so…awake now huh?’ Caution with Thea is a really nice touch. Once a bodyguard, always a bodyguard.

The Bad

• Honestly not much. William is settling in nicely, the plots are all bounding along. Maybe the fight scenes are a bit perfunctory this week? But honestly, that’s a reach.

And the Random:

• Speed Weed (yes, really) co-wrote this episode with Wendy Mericle. Speed has written for Political Animals, Law & Order: SVU, Haven and others. Speed is currently co-executive
  producer on Arrow and has been since 2017.
• Wendy Mericle is co-executive producer of Arrow and has written for the show on numerous occasions.
• Gordon Verheul has directed for Arrow and Andromeda and worked as a director of photography on Arrow, Fringe, Smallville and many more.

Best Lines

• You do see how that could have done wrong, yes?’’
• ‘That is SO not fair.’
• ‘You’re a genius, Curtis.’
  ‘I bet you say that to all the geniuses.’
• ‘I’m gonna work on an algorithm over there once I figure out what an algorithm is.’
• ‘I happen to like a wide variety of music!’

Review by Alasdair Stuart

Click here for more of our Arrowverse coverage