Another Dragon taken down on an ARROWVERSE TV show! This battle had a lot more explosions, though. 

Previously on ARROW… 

Months after the FBI took Oliver Queen into custody in exchange for taking down Ricardo Diaz – which they never managed to do – the new Team Arrow finally gets the better of the Dragon. They had some help from Anatoly, who Diaz used as bait to try and blow up the good guys after he found the tracer Felicity put on The Silencer. 

It’s about time, too, because there’s absolutely no reason why one crime lord can evade capture by the police, the feds and a paramilitary group like ARGUS. But even here, it’s not a guarantee that Diaz goes down, the Dragon and the Longbow Hunters against Team Arrow and ARGUS. The only reason they manage to beat Diaz is with the help of the mysterious new Green Arrow. And taking down the Dragon is enough to start the turn the tide of Star City back towards favoring the presence of vigilantes. 

Together with this week’s SUPERGIRL, it’s the second dragon that’s been taken down in a couple of days. That’s pretty damned impressive. 

And with Diaz in custody, Felicity decides to take Anatoly’s advice about accepting her new hardened attitude by shooting Diaz in an interrogation room at SCPD. But before she can do it, Laurel stops her, because in her role as district attorney pretending to be this Earth’s Laurel, she cut a deal with the FBI for Oliver to help prosecute Diaz in exchange for Oliver’s freedom. 

Laurel spends the episode trying to get Oliver free, using the information she and Felicity received from Talia to get mercy from the court. Oliver isn’t too pleased with that, though, because he still doesn’t trust Faux-rel. The judge agrees that the actions at Slabside Prison need to be examined and monitored, but had no sympathy for Oliver. At least she got the FBI deal. 

Outside of chastising Laurel, Oliver spends the episode with his prison sidekick, Stanley, who gets tossed into solitary for killing a guard. But he claims he was framed and Oliver sets out to make things right, discovering one of Bronze Tiger’s knives. The Tiger gets sent away, Stanley comes back out and all’s well, right? Or did Stanley set everything into motion to get his own kind of revenge? Yeah, it’s the latter. 

After an episode without a focus on future William, Roy and the new Birds of Prey, we go back to whatever timeline they’re in to continue William’s scavenger hunt through Felicity’s things. What they discover is… not what we’d be used to from the Felicity we know. Before her death, Felicity had called herself the Calculator – like her father – and had dealings with someone named Blackstar, possibly to blow up all of Star City. I have no idea where this is going, but I am really intrigued. 

ARROW is really bringing the heat with this season and I am loving everything they are doing. They haven’t had a bad episode yet!