So in true Diaz fashion, he beats the man until he gets the location, and learns, conveniently enough (as Laurel points out), that they are meeting that night and the three head off to meet the group. Along the way Diaz opens up to Laurel about his troubled youth and how his fear of the older boy in the orphanage never really went away, becoming a gnawing fear he could never rid himself of, even naming it “The Dragon” and using it to drive him all of his life. Laurel warns him that the man who brought her to “this Earth” was similar to Diaz, full of a blind hatred he could not control and says it ended up destroying him. Diaz assures her HE is in control, not the fear.
At the meeting, Diaz pushes his hostage inside with C4 tied to his chest and detonates the rich snob, announcing his entrance, and follows that up by attacking the main foyer with Laurel, taking out the first line of defense. They make it into the main chambers of the Quadrant meeting and are met by the dead man’s father who is outraged at Diaz’s presence and the fact that he killed his son. However, Diaz senses the other members are intrigued and reveals his offer of Star City to them that the man and his son never bothered to present. He says his only price is a seat at the table. When they tell him there are no empty seats, he kills his former hostage’s father and takes his seat as the rest of the Quadrant reminds him they are not savages who kill each other all the time, but still seem willing to hear him out. It looks like he has indeed joined the almighty Quadrant Gang (which stretches across the continent), and become a Crime Lord.
Meanwhile, Felicity has Curtis over to work on HELIX Dynamics work since she is no longer a part of the Quiver Crew (since the “team” is just Oliver now) and they make up (kind of), and get to work. Curtis senses Felicity is only working as hard as she is to keep her mind off of Oliver out in the streets. He brings it up to her, and after some badgering, she admits that since she can’t keep an eye on him anymore, she is terrified for him. A news story about an explosion during a Green Arrow fight has her more worried than ever. She races home to see if Oliver is ok and when she can’t find him tries to track him (which I don’t know why she doesn’t just track him anyway, regardless of whether or not she is on the team), and he appears, assuring her he is fine, and makes her the same promise he made William: that he will always come back. Felicity then reminds him that choice will not always be his own.
In the episode closing, Diaz hunts down his bully from his childhood, who does not even recognize his old prey. Diaz kidnaps the man and brings him to a rooftop where Laurel is waiting for him. She is annoyed that Diaz uses her real name in front of the man, as her working for Diaz is supposed to be a secret at the moment, which of course is our first hint that the man is not going to be walking away alive. Diaz reveals his identity to the man, and pulls out the remnants of his father’s picture from the flashback, explaining that he reached into the fire all those years ago to salvage what he could, burning and blistering his hand, which took weeks to heal, all while continuing to fear and be a servant to his tormentor. Diaz announces he is no one’s servant anymore, all while showering the man with lighter fluid, all of which makes Laurel decidedly nervous, especially since she already saw how violent and brutal Diaz could be while beating up and torturing the rich gangster earlier (none of which she looked particularly comfortable watching). As expected, and against Laurel’s wishes, Diaz sets the man on-fire and watches him burn, and despite his tragic origins and triumph over the Quadrant, Diaz cements himself as a true villain, and somewhat evil, and someone who definitely will need to be stopped. A lesson that hopefully Laurel herself is learning.
BOW-STRING THEORIES:
- Assuming that Diaz is in his 30-40s, the picture of his father looks really, really old. I don’t know if they did it just to make it seem more rustic or nostalgic, but the man had to have a more recent, color photo of himself out there to leave behind with his son…
- Crime Lord sounds a bit too much like Time Lord, which makes me laugh at the ridiculousness of the title.
- When will Laurel realize Diaz is a lunatic, and at what point has she killed too many people for us to ever believe she can really be brought back to the good side? I still feel like they want to redeem her, but damn, she’s done so much bad.
- After making that insane promise to Felicity, I am even more firmly in the camp that Oliver is going to “die” at the end of this season. Maybe this is why Roy will come back in Season 7? To take Oliver’s place temporarily until Oliver returns?
- Knowing how Diaz treats his prisoners/ victims, I’m wondering if Quentin will get captured again by the man, meaning that will be Laurel’s breaking point, watching Diaz torture the only person she seems to really care about, and that will force her to finally switch sides. Otherwise, I don’t see it happening.
Definitely a fun episode, lots of great action, I really liked the bit of doing the dragon symbol behind “Arrow” instead of the arrowhead. Besides that, I like it when the show experiments nowadays, especially since they have so little to lose by experimentation, and having an episode not focus on Oliver and company was actually kind of refreshing. It allowed Kirk Acevedo and Katie Cassidy to really shine in this episode. They’re nearing the end of the 6th season, ratings and fan love is not what it once was so why not have a little fun and shake up the system?
I’m looking forward to seeing how they deal with Diaz as the season comes to a close, and with catching up with the other characters next week since this week we only saw Curtis, Felicity and Oliver (briefly). See you back here then!
