Jessie Robertson reviews the nineteenth episode of Arrow season 6…
This episode felt very much in the vein of a cable series where as we take a side episode off from the main tale to really delve deep into a single character’s journey, see their motivations and see their strengths and weaknesses on full display. This was that episode and it was a very much-needed and well time episode; it focused (mostly) solely on Diaz and it rounded out a character who’s felt at best, a one note type villain.
We start by seeing just a snippet into his life as a child; he was an orphan and was tortured by a bully named Jesse for this very fact; that torture, the burns, the harsh behavior, stuck with him as he embarks on creating his own criminal empire here. Star City was just a jumping off point for him; he intends to join a group called the Quadrant, located in Bludhaven, one of the very few times we’ve seen this city in b. But to do so, he has to run an errand for one of the crime lord’s sons who’s a smug SOB. Diaz does so, but gets double crossed (and presumably killed) even though he was wearing a vest. So, he tortures the son and finds out the Quadrant is actually meeting that night. Diaz sends the kid in with a bomb strapped to him, detonates it and uses his dark charm to will his way into the group, killing the crime lord himself to take his seat. All the while, Laurel is in tow as his heavy, and she does a lot of work this week.
I thought there was a lot of upside to this Laurel and what they could possibly do with her, but her as Diaz’ second was pretty weak; her personality is just null in this type of environment and I don’t buy her fighting skills. It feels like our second go-around on the Laurel character is falling flat as well. But, Diaz pulls some interesting things to his character; he’s patient, we know that. He fights this inner turmoil inside himself all the time; he calls the fear and anger “The Dragon” and he controls it; this is also a great spin on the origin of this character in the comics, as he’s Richard Dragon, martial arts master there. He also speaks very, very softly; I love this for his character as it pulls up that old adage that soft-spoken men are more dangerous because they aren’t screaming over everyone’s head to be heard; you have to pull in to hear them and that’s when they get you. This episode firmly pulls in the direction that there may be more life for Diaz than just the season long villain who dies in the finale.
We do get a very small bit where Felicity and Curtis have come back together to work on Helix and it comes out that Felicity is just a wreck not knowing where or what Oliver is doing; it’s good to see them together again as they have a lot of chemistry; and we get just one scene with Oliver reassuring Felicity he’ll always be fine. I mean, the show is named after him. Diaz final scene of killing off Jesse; the boy that tortured him so long feels narratively correct but watching it, it was a bit overcooked (get it?).
Rating: 8.5/10
Jessie Robertson
