Ricardo Diaz kicks off an all-out assault against Oliver Queen, Oliver’s allies and even Diaz’s own allies as he tries to take absolute power over Star City.
Previously, on ARROW…
What I love about ARROW is how over the top it can get as the show nears its season finale. After last week’s wacky courtroom shenanigans, the scene turns to violence this week. Ricardo Diaz tries to flex his muscles here to eliminate Oliver Queen and everyone who was ever an ally in Star City. The opening minutes of the show, where Diaz’s soldiers try to gun down everyone in various locations was reminiscent of the last scene of THE GODFATHER, if Michael Corleone was kind of incompetent.
Instead of eliminating the splintered Team Arrow, all Diaz managed to do was bring them all together, allowing them to move past the problems they’ve had all season. Oliver, though, is a little hesitant to engage directly, which is smart considering Diaz controls the police force, so he uses Anatoly to set Diaz up. Diaz senses that Anatoly is behind it all, but the Russian is savvy enough to turn suspicion toward Diaz’s new partners in the Quadrant.
That plan almost works – and the body count for Diaz’s men looks like it’s rising – until Mr. Terrific goes off-script and tries to take Diaz out himself as payback for Diaz hurting his boyfriend. Diaz gets the better of Curtis and escapes, but not before Curtis notices Diaz taking great care to keep from losing a necklace.
The necklace becomes the centerpiece of the episode, as the team determines that it contains some critical information about his operation in Star City. Why Diaz would keep a USB flash drive with detailed payoff information around my neck is beyond me, though. So the team puts themselves at risk to have Lyla go in to the Star City Police Station to hack the drive, which turns into a firefight the team barely gets out of.
Angry about the set-up, Diaz turns against the Quadrant when one of the members questions his sanity and sanctions an all-out attack on Oliver and his team. The Bunker gets torched and the Terrifics’ hideout, where Felicity is trying to decrypt the flash drive, gets gassed. Felicity refuses to leave, until Oliver convinces her, but Diaz confronts them. He would have put Oliver down, but the Green Arrow had a self-destruct button for the Terrific-Cave that knocks Diaz out.
It just doesn’t kill him, the way it probably would have to anyone else. Oliver goes for his last resort – he goes to FBI Special Agent Samanda Watson for help. In order to curry favor, he admits to her he’s the Green Arrow as the first of two requests Watson has. The second? We’ll have to wait for the season finale next week.