Jessie Robertson reviews the twenty-second episode of Arrow season 6…
So, in our penultimate episode before the finale, things come together and start to fall apart. Diaz puts in motion his final plan: to just kill Queen and all his compatriots. He invades their homes, finds them wherever they are and sends his goons after them. The team all escape (sans Curtis’ new beau who gets seriously hurt) and regroup for the first time in a while this season. They send off their loved ones who can’t defend themselves (I guess to some random ARGUS safehouse) and instead of charging in, like most of the team wants, they formulate a plan. Anatoly turns out to be a mole in Diaz group (one of many) and gives Oliver vital info on Diaz’s whereabouts. Once the team team sneak attacks him for a change, Diaz escapes but not before injuring Curtis and escaping. They make a plan to copy the data file Diaz opted to save instead of killing Curtis but it all goes horribly wrong when he gets the jump on them this time.
Diaz continues to be flow up and down the charts of scary, comparable villain to stock maniac who doesn’t seem to have a clue for a man that has taken over a whole city. This week, it’s the latter. He feels like shouldn’t trust Anatoly but doesn’t follow through and pays for his mistakes. This is a man who overtook a whole criminal organization (and just about finishes the job this week.) Why does he buy Anatoly’s bullcrap? By the way, the Quadrant was a joke. It was supposed to be a this great villain syndicate; Diaz picks it apart in 2 weeks time. No Quentin or Laurel this week either; you would think they figured into all of this but Oliver does briefly say he can’t go after the Mayor; it’s too public. But, Laurel burned him; his performances do continue to engage me though.
There’s not a lot of character moments save Oliver and Felicity trying to navigate the vigilante lifestyle they’ve known that would become part of their marriage; I loved the moment Felicity asked Lyla for advice on dealing with it and she gave some good words, then ended “it helps to get divorced.” Oliver said something a few weeks ago about how he always hoped he would get his day to retire and enjoy his family; perhaps Felicity always thought that too. But, at this point, if Oliver can’t trust her, even though things have changed, he hasn’t learned very much about the nature of his wife. Where that leaves us for the finale? Things have definitely built up but haven’t felt like they climaxed at all so it’s anyone’s guess as to what will go down tonight.
Rating: 7/10
Jessie Robertson
