If you didn’t know that Ricardo “The Dragon” Diaz was a bad MF on Arrow, last week gave us an exposition dump in a Diaz-centric episode where we not only saw the return of the flashbacks, but also got to see him at his most ruthless. Diaz went from an orphan, to Cayden James’ supposed henchman, to really being the man behind the curtain, to gaining leverage on everyone in Star City and becoming the guy who runs everything in the city with ultimate power, to now being a member of The Quadrant: a criminal empire that spans across the whole country. Talk about starting from the bottom!
With so much time spent on Diaz last week, we get back to Oliver in his quest to “save the city” as he’s continuing his mission solo. He heads to Russia where he’s operating in a Season One gray zone, doing a job for the Bratva. He’s not going back to the dark side for no reason, he needs to make up for betraying them, and he also needs to get Anatoly back on his side. Him doing their dirty work was to convince them to forgive his former friend so that he can leave America and be allowed back into the criminal organization. Oliver returns back to the states where he meets up with Anatoly, telling him that his debt has been forgiven, and also that he needs to jump ship from Diaz’s fold as The Dragon will ultimately betray him in search of more power as he did Cayden James. While Anatoly entertains the idea, he had his own plans and uses a taser on Oliver, setting him up for Diaz. Looks like Anatoly is fine where he is at.
With Oliver impeached as mayor (thanks to Diaz’s mechanizations), Quentin is now the leader of the city. Diaz pays him a visit, revealing to him that his Earth-2 daughter’s counterpart was working with him all along, twisting the knife further as he was beginning to trust her. Diaz approaches Quentin with the proposal of signing a piece of property over to him. Laurel is a little on the fence with Diaz, having seen him burn a man alive in last week’s episode, she’s realizing that he’s a psychopath and her adoptive multiverse father would be killed if he didn’t comply, she pleads with him to sign the documents. Feeling betrayed, he tells her to leave him and not be home when he comes home.
Renee finally makes it home from the hospital and the Outsiders are once again whole. After Dinah and Curtis fill him in on Team Arrow officially disbanding, they decide to continue their mission to take down Diaz. They receive word that he’s trying to buy more drugs and decide to shut down his operation at a buy. At the same time, Diggle (working for ARGUS) is going to launch a raid at the same place. When they get there, there’s a firefight between Diaz’s gang and a rival as well. However, with The Quadrant’s backing, Diaz has superior firepower. The team is forced to evacuate with Diggle’s help. Renee however, is going through some extreme PTSD and is hesitant to get back into the fight 100%. Diggle, being a soldier understands completely. Renee isn’t worried about dying, he’s worried about leaving his daughter an orphan. Renee site their follow up raid while the team takes down a drug shipment in the Glades.
While in Anatoly’s custody, Oliver appeals to his sense of honor. Thinking that he’s not to far gone, he believes that Anatoly can help him take Diaz down. Anatoly doesn’t come all the way through, but when he turns Oliver over to Diaz, he convinces Diaz to have a fight out with Oliver for control of the city. Diaz agrees and states that whoever loses will have to leave Star City. The battle is brutal as the two give their all against each other. Oliver proves to be the victor as he’s about to take Diaz down and is choking him out. Just then, Diaz cheats by pulling out a knife and stabs Oliver. This causes Diaz to win, but Anatoly doesn’t look too pleased. Diaz then orders his police officers to arrest Oliver to stand trial for being the Green Arrow, reneging on his word which further troubles Anatoly. Denied bail, Oliver will now have to face his trial.
Next week: the trial of Oliver Queen commences.
